Saturday morning, people in the United States woke up to the news that Trump had bombed Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, as well as sites in several other locations across the country. The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife had been taken into U.S. custody to stand trial in New York. In a press conference around 11:30 am Eastern Time (4:30 pm GMT), Trump announced “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

Even before the press conference, protests were quickly called in both major cities and smaller towns as the news broke — 105 protests in the United States registered with the ANSWER Coalition’s list for January 3 alone, with more scheduled for the following day.

Happening Now: Massive march in New York City protesting the U.S.’s imperialist war and illegal invasion of Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/glCjQ7u89P

— Power to the People ☭ (@ProudSocialist) January 3, 2026

Los Angeles out here in the rain demanding an end to US imperialist aggression in Venezuela! pic.twitter.com/ZjXLMZxZ2e

— promise li (@promise__li) January 3, 2026

ANSWER Coalition, which is affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), appears to have organized most of the protests in the United States, although many other leftist groups, labor unions, and independents participated in them.

Left Voice members and correspondents reported from protests in New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Toronto in Canada.

Left Voice member Tristan Taylor reports from Detroit where protesters turned out in freezing cold to oppose Trump’s attacks on Venezuela. We need to mobilize in direct solidarity with the working class and oppressed on Venezuela who have nothing to gain from U.S. intervention!

— Left Voice (@leftvoice.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T21:53:47.840Z

Our comrade reports from Toronto, Canada where protesters have joined the international mobilizations against U.S. attacks on Venezuela.Workers must unite across the Western Hemisphere and internationally, demanding Hands Off Venezuela! No New Monroe Doctrine！

— Left Voice (@leftvoice.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T22:28:16.774Z

In terms of labor movement participation, the AFL-CIO “condemned” Trump’s actions in Venezuela, echoing a post by the International Trade Union Confederation, and Chicago Teachers Union encouraged its members to attend the ANSWER Coalition protest in their city.

EMERGENCY PROTEST: NO WAR ON VENEZUELA. STOP THE BOMBINGS.

Join us in the streets to demand an end to U.S. aggression against Venezuela.

TODAY @ Federal Plaza – 5 PM pic.twitter.com/jjkLMAwFJv

— Chicago Teachers Union (@CTULocal1) January 3, 2026

The Professional Staff Congress, representing workers at the City University of New York, had passed a resolution two weeks ago denouncing U.S. military involvement in Venezuela, but has not so far made a new statement about the January 3 attacks.

From an anti-war protest at in Times Square, Left Voice writer and PSC CUNY member Olivia Wood calls on unions to denounce Trump’s war on Venezuela and mobilize their members in the streets to defeat these attacks.

— Left Voice (@leftvoice.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T21:20:59.372Z

"We want an end to forever wars –– we absolutely demand it!"

More than 1,000 demonstrators take the streets in Chicago to say that a war against Venezuela is not in our interests –– in fact, 70% of Americans REJECT it! Hands off Venezuela! pic.twitter.com/0U1JRKyIOW

— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) January 3, 2026

Considering Trump’s plans to “run” Venezuela for the time being and allow oil companies to plunder the country’s natural resources, this is only the beginning of the need to mobilize against this renewed and escalating era of U.S. imperialism in Venezuela. The January 3 protests were widespread, but relatively small — a truly powerful anti-war movement in the United States would unite the struggles against the genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, anti-immigration policies, and the still-developing nature of the situation in Venezuela in a powerful, coordinated repudiation of imperialism and militarization. It requires the coordinated and sustained actions of workers, young people, and the Left united against the U.S. war machine.

The post Protests Across the United States: No Blood for Oil, U.S. Out of Venezuela appeared first on Left Voice.

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[–] DaMummy@hexbear.net 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hey, look! They're holding pretty much the same sign that I was seeing in high school! This time though... I'm sure it'll work. Just gotta carry that sign for 20 years. That'll do it, I swear. Maybe we can have a South Park episode about it as well, with quotes like "Trump is a nay-zi"

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I went to one of the PSL organized protests and met several other people going out to one for the first time. A few of them expressed wanting to know more about the organizations that were present. If nothing else, they're valuable recruitment opportunities for further action.

Conversely, PSL and other partner orgs have had success getting people to cut ties with Israel affiliated businesses in the same area through protest.

Animal rights orgs have had similar successes.

[–] DaMummy@hexbear.net 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

America doesn't invade countries when it's economy is doing well. Nazi Germany invaded other countries because their economy was turned to shit after WW1. I know you mean well, but war is a racquet. It may be effective on animal rights issues, but weakening an empires economy is quite literally the reason they invade other countries and take their natural resources. Even Israel had massive protest about corruption for 14 months before October 7th.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't really follow what you're saying here in relation to before. It sounded like your first comment was saying that protests are useless, which in some sense is true in that they often don't have direct impacts on the thing being protested. I was just giving some recent counters to that.

[–] DaMummy@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They're useful in a personal sense, and you will make friends from them. But don't get your hopes up for anything else. Like I said, I saw the exact same signs. And I'm sure I would hear similar stories about people that were protesting Vietnam. It can lead to good friends, drug use, and some really good music. Only to later find out that the same war machine also runs the counter-revolution. So all I can say is, "Welcome my son, welcome to the machine"

[–] Kefla@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago

Protests can be effective when they are actually inconvenient to those in power, or when they are the alternative to a different and even more inconvenient tactic. If you're demanding, like, higher minimum wage or whatever and your buddies down the street are promising to burn down the local precinct if negotiations don't go in your favor, Porky sometimes will work with you.