Following the Trump administration’s illegal attack on Venezuela, people’s movements and political figures throughout the world immediately mobilized in solidarity to reject the unilateral US military aggression. The mood of solidarity reached Southeast Asia and Australia, with public opposition and demonstrations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and elsewhere.
Nationwide emergency actions
Snap rallies in Australia were held on Sunday, January 4, in Melbourne and Sydney, with actions outside the US embassy in Canberra as well as in Brisbane and Hobart. The mobilizations were nationally coordinated by the new coalition Hands Off Venezuela, formed in October 2025 to organize emergency responses against the US military threats and airstrikes in the Caribbean.
Despite intimidation by the New South Wales (NSW) Police and an attempt to ban all public gatherings, up to 300 gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall in solidarity with the people of Venezuela. In Sydney, political economist Tim Anderson drew attention to the popular support for President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution.
Speaking about the people’s militia organized to defend their homeland from imperialist attack Anderson said, “there are many millions of poor people there, and they have guns, and they are not going to let the country be taken over so easily.”
Member of the branch executive of the Inner City Teachers Association (ICTA) of the NSW Teachers Federation, Dave Clarke, expressed solidarity with “the people of Venezuela during this horrific time of US invasion” and highlighted the long history of Australian teacher-union activism.
“Teachers are agents in the battle against material and moral erosion, against the scorching of human flesh and the searing of the human spirit,” Clarke told the rally. “We have work to do; building working-class power, becoming the masters of our own world, and ensuring our students grow up in a world free from war and imperial aggression”.
Several hundred protesters gathered on the steps of Flinders Street station in Melbourne on the same day with a lively march to Victorian parliament with chants of “the people united will never be defeated”, “hands off Venezuela” and placards demanding Albanese condemn the actions of the US and for the immediate release of the democratically-elected president of Venezuela.
Hands off Venezuela organizer Ria Evelyn emphasized to Peoples Dispatch, “the socialist government remains in power; the Bolivarian Revolution remains in process and millions of Venezuelan people are alert and united in the preparedness to defend their homeland and sovereignty.”
Red Spark‘s Max Lane addressed the Melbourne rally and urged attendees to get organized to build a sustained campaign against the Australian state and its imperialist policies and highlighted Trump’s claim that the US will take control of the Venezuelan government. “We hear this same refrain when Trump came up with his so-called ceasefire peace plan for Gaza: ‘we will run Gaza; we will run Venezuela’ … Behind it all is ‘we will run the world’, we should be clear about that,” Lane said.
“This is a period where the US wants to re-assert and maximize its control across the world. It actually needs to, because our civilization is decaying. Its economy is full of contradictions and more and more fragile. Without directly, in a colonial way, taking oil and other resources its economy will become more and more fragile. The US ruling class will become more and more desperate.”
In Perth, Western Australia (WA), the protest event was convened on the following day by Red Spark, in conjunction with the Communist Party of Australia and Socialist Alliance. Red Spark member Barry Healy told Peoples Dispatch that up to 200 occupied the forecourt of the building housing the US Consulate in the CBD.
There was a significant mainstream media presence. While being interviewed Healy said the demonstrators wanted “President Maduro of Venezuela to be returned to Venezuela immediately, and we want the Australian Government to take a strong stand about what’s going on.” “It’s absolutely outrageous that Australia should make milksop statements about what’s happening in Venezuela,” he continued.
WA Greens parliamentarian, Sophie McNeill also addressed the Perth rally. She argued that Australians “do not want to be complicit in the next illegal US aggression or genocidal campaign” and linked the struggle against US actions in Venezuela to stopping the AUKUS submarine deal here.
Lawan agresi militer imperialist US! Palayain si Maduro!
The Indonesian left and progressive movement also condemned the Trump regime’s actions with hundreds joining a Hands Off Venezuela action on January 6 outside the US Embassy in Jakarta. Organized by the Labour Movement with the People (Gerakan Buruh Bersama Rakyat, GEBRAK) – a coalition of trade unions, student groups, NGOs and other progressive organizations – the Jakarta demonstration called for solidarity with the people of Venezuela.
In a press release, GEBRAK called for “solidarity of the working class and people worldwide” to “delegitimize this US imperialist aggression.” GEBRAK also highlighted the connections of imperialist militarism and women’s oppression. “Equally important, as part of the working class and people’s movement, we assert that imperialism, war, and blockades have deepened the oppression of women.”
“The US stranglehold has long exacerbated issues regarding access to food and healthcare, increased the burden of unpaid care work, and heightened risks of sexual violence, reproductive health damage, and structural impoverishment”.
Prior to the demonstration, various groups in Indonesia called out the US attack and expressed solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution. The Militant Trade Union Federation in Indonesia (Federasi Serikat Buruh Militan, FSEBUMI) called on the international trade union movement to stand with Venezuela against imperialist aggression.
In a January 4 statement, the People’s Liberation Party (Partai Pembebasan Rakyat, PPR) said that Trump’s actions proved “that the US is the number one imperialist and number one terrorist.”
Reflecting on the history of US imperialist intervention in Indonesia, PPR’s statement noted “pretexts or fabricated reasons have always been used by imperialists to overthrow governments … we will never forget the pretext of ‘the assassination of a general’ as a narrative for the mass slaughter of communists and the ‘creeping coup’ against Sukarno in 1965”.
Immediately after the criminal attacks on Venezuela, left organizations in the Philippines also publicly opposed the Trump regime’s actions, with police dispersing a demonstration organized on January 5 by the Philippines-Bolivarian Venezuela Friendship Association, the New Patriotic Alliance (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, BAYAN), and other groups outside the US embassy in Manila.
In a statement, the Labor Party in the Philippines (Partido Manggagawa, PM) condemned the US military attacks and kidnapping of President Maduro as “the larger plot of the United States to invade Venezuela to effect regime change, run the country, and retake control of Venezuelan oil”.
“History has shown – again and again – that imperialist-led regime-change operations elsewhere do not bring democracy or prosperity. They bring war, displacement, austerity, union repression, and the plunder of public wealth,” the statement read.
The Socialist Party (Partido Sosyalista, PS) called out the shameless reference to supposed narcotics trafficking, recalling the use of “fabricated narcotic conspiracies” by former President Rodrigo Duterte to attack political opponents and “justify mass murder and detention”.
Other Philippines left organizations including KILUSAN para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KDP) and Alab Katipunan (AK) also released statements while in Malaysia a night of solidarity with Venezuela and against imperialist violence was organized by a coalition of civil society organizations and political parties to condemn the US military aggression against Venezuela.
“Remaining silent when facing tyranny is like blessing criminals. We call on all Malaysians from various walks of life who advocate peace and justice to join this protest action,” the coalition’s statement read.
Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM) Deputy Chairperson S. Arutchelvan declared, “if the world remains silent today, no sovereign nation will be safe tomorrow … Either we unite to oppose this attack, or we will once again face neo-colonial domination.” It is likely that further actions will be organized in Australia and other parts of Southeast Asia, such as Timor Leste and Thailand.
Mainstream responses and challenges for the left
A handful of mainstream political parties and individuals in the region also publicly opposed the American regime’s actions. In the Philippines, Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list lawmaker Leila de Lima criticized the attacks as violations of international law and the Australian Greens similarly highlighted the military aggression as a violation of international law (before baselessly describing it as providing “cover for a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan”).
People’s Justice and Prosperity Party (Partai Rakyat Adil Makmur, PRIMA) – part of the ruling coalition in Indonesia – issued a strong condemnation of the US attack and illegal kidnapping of President Maduro while perhaps the strongest statement from the political mainstream was by Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim.
One of the only leaders to call for President Maduro’s release, Ibrahim wrote on Twitter that, “it is for the people of Venezuela to determine their own political future. As history has shown, abrupt changes in leadership brought about through external force will bring more harm than good.”
For the left, the task is to sustain and deepen networks for anti-imperialist action in the region, building international pressure against counter-revolution in Venezuela. This will include countering the mass disinformation campaign launched for decades against the government of Venezuela.
The response to US attacks shows support for the Bolivarian Revolution remains among progressive movements in the region, despite world imperialism’s offensive. The existing opposition among broader sections of the population against US military aggression can shift the balance of forces as the organized left grows stronger.
Nick Dobrijevich is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist, translator and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.
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