184 Communes Currently in Formation in Venezuela

[The Vegan Marxist]

Merida, February 8th, 2010 (Venezuelanalysi​s.​com) – With 184 socialist communes in construction in Venezuela, yesterday, during his weekly TV show Alo Presidente, president Hugo Chavez emphasised the need for “production independent of the capitalist market” in these communes and in general, and also directed Caracas mayor Jorge Rodriguez to expropriate buildings in plaza Bolivar in order to rescue the city’s history.

Chavez highlighted the importance of the communal councils, neighbourhood based organisations of up to 400 families which aim to solve local problems and develop and implement local projects, saying they are the nucleus of the current “change process” in the country and are where “socialism will be constructed”.

A spokesperson for the Communal Council Colinas de la Dignidad (hills of dignity), Morelbis Aguiar, explained that a commune, which is made up of several communal councils, is local, community self-​government,​ “where we, the people, we are the ones who decide what our community wants and what the improvements are that we want to work on in our area.”

“It’s not the state that comes and decides; its us who decides which street we need, where to locate the university or high school… We decide what we’re going to do with the financing and resources that the revolutionary government gives us,” Aguiar continued.

The minister for communes, Erika Farias, said there are 184 communes in construction, 93 in rural areas, 65 in urban areas, and 26 mixed. According to the minister, the communes together have so far carried out 706 projects, involving an investment of over BsF 100 million (US$ 23 million).

During the television program, Chavez visited the commune Paraiso del Tuy via satellite link. Richardo Sanches, the minister for communes in Miranda, where the commune is located, explained that 32 communal councils had “united their efforts” to construct the commune, whose main projects are “social-​productive”.​ The commune has 62 “productive gardens” that grow their own vegetables and medicinal plants as a method of self-supply.

Members of the commune told ABN press, “The communes aren’t something you decree, they are born out of the needs of the people and the communal councils.” The commune incorporates 5,900 families.

In order to counteract the rise in prices in the capitalist market, Chavez encouraged communes to create new systems of distribution and consumption. He gave the example of the Socialist Arepa shop in Caracas that sells the popular Venezuelan food at about half of the normal price, and makes the arepas from corn meal that was precooked in “socialist centres”, and purchased at a non-profit price.

The National Assembly is currently working on the Law of Popular Power, which will give more strength to the councils. Dario Vivas, first vice-president of the National Assembly, explained that the law aims to outline the communes and the various other aspects of revolutionary social organisation. Currently, while there is a law of communal councils, there is no law that governs, defines or gives legal recognition to the communes.

“The topic of the communes is very important because we are already constructing popular power, and we’ll make the law that defines the communes from this experience,” Vivas said.

“While the communes keep growing, more ways of relating to each other and of producing as brothers, without exploiting each other, are unlocked,” Chavez said.

Rescuing the historic city centre

During the program Chavez also directed the mayor of the municipality of Libertador in Caracas, Jorge Rodriguez, to expropriate buildings around the main plaza, Plaza Bolivar, among them a range of jewellery businesses, in order to help with the transformation of the area into a historic centre.

“It’s not right that these buildings, with so much history, with so much legacy of our leaders, are used by businesses. They belong to all Venezuelans, it’s a historic area that we should rescue,” he said.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5123

[Rusty Shackleford]

it seems like every other thing i read about Venezuela is good or bad. overall though the good definitely outweighs the bad. this is exciting.

[The Vegan Marxist]

it seems like every other thing i read about Venezuela is good or bad. overall though the good definitely outweighs the bad. this is exciting.

True, but one has to understand that this process of bringing about Communism isn't easy at all, & will have some flaws as we go on, which I'm positive will lead to protests against it, etc. But once it starts taking shape, the once bad idea turns into a beautiful reality!

[RadioRaheem84]

I think that the scorched earth policy that business communities, in the third world, take on against democratic leaders has passed or has been put on the back burner for a later time. Chavez survived the 2001-2003 business strike. This is the period where everyone was wondering just what Chavez was up to and was called a dictator by both the left and the right. He also survived a coup and won a majority of the state oil firm. From there he was able to start his socialist reforms.

What we're seeing is the fruit of that labor and while not perfect should be supported by leftists worldwide.

[pranabjyoti]

I am curious to know how they are fighting with the industrial managemet and progress in research and development area.

[Tzadikim]

Not only should we support this move, we ought to emulate it to the best of our abilities.

[RadioRaheem84]

http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0207

5 Factories takes the viewer inside factories producing aluminum, paper, cocoa, tomato sauce, and cotton. These factories, many of which had been driven into bankruptcy by their former owners, have been transformed into cooperative partnerships between the workers and the state in co-management arrangements. In many cases, the Chávez government nationalized the companies and provided the workers with loans to purchase them in this co-managent arrangement with the government. According to these agreements, the state will increasingly rescind control as the debt is repaid. State officials explain that, while the state is involved in the process, the goal is not to create a Soviet-style system, where the state owns the means of production. Such a system, it is pointed out, is not socialism at all, but rather state-capitalism, an altogether different project from that being created in Venezuela.

Here is something else I found. Anyone have a copy of this documentary? I wrote a pretty long post in the opposing ideologies forum about how we're missing out on supporting a real deal revolution because of our well founded but dogmatic skepticism of the Chavez administration. Again its not perfect but what else is going on in the world that we can support?

[pranabjyoti]

http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0207
Here is something else I found. Anyone have a copy of this documentary? I wrote a pretty long post in the opposing ideologies forum about how we're missing out on supporting a real deal revolution because of our well founded but dogmatic skepticism of the Chavez administration. Again its not perfect but what else is going on in the world that we can support?

Certainly a very good step, but still it isn't clear how this industries will combat the problem of progress of science and technology.

[The Vegan Marxist]

The only thing I could find on the documentary was this website: http://www.azzellini.net/film.htm

[Ironwill]

Thats pretty cool. I'm not the biggest Chavez fan but I will say I think he is trying his best.

[pierrotlefou]

Thats pretty cool. I'm not the biggest Chavez fan but I will say I think he is trying his best.

Same but I think my knowledge on him is pretty limited. I would like to learn more about what he is doing over there.

[RadioRaheem84]

Venezuela analysis.com

Hands off Venezuela

Venezuela information office

[The Vegan Marxist]

I was just about to say that. Venezuela Analysis is one of the best sites to go to for truth in Venezuela.