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Communes

Jump-Starting A Commune: Voices From Monte Sinaí

April 28, 2022 Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Monte Sinaí Commune is a young organization working hard to foster communal production and strengthen non-market social relations. This commune’s territory reaches into both Anzoátegui and Miranda states, but has its epicenter in the small town of Santa Bárbara in the Guanape Valley. Various crops, including coffee, cocoa, black beans, diverse tubers, and avocado, all grow in this lush and varied region. Since the coffee trees here are old and low in yield, the commune has built a plant nursery to grow coffee seedlings to replace the old trees. The process of forming the Monte Sinaí Commune began about a year ago. Since then, we have been working very hard. As the saying goes, we are a diamond in the rough, but the beauty of the project is beginning to show. Our parliament meets every Wednesday no matter what. That is where we bring our ideas to the table, debate, and plan.

Self-Government In Times Of Blockade: Luisa Cáceres Commune

April 18, 2022 Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, Venezuela Analysis. , , ,
Eastern Venezuela is home to extensive petroleum extraction and processing operations which have their hub in the cities of Barcelona and Puerto la Cruz in Anzoátegui state. The Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi Commune, one of the most advanced communes in the country, grew up in the shadow of this multibillion-dollar business in one of Barcelona's working-class neighborhoods. This is a rapidly-growing commune – remarkable because of its success in an urban context – which focuses on recycling and waste disposal to maintain itself. In Part I of this two-part series, Luisa Caceres’ communards explain the challenges of building a commune in a country besieged by US imperialism.

Venezuela: Communard Union Holds Founding Congress, Elects Leadership

March 7, 2022 Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. , ,
Caracas ‒ Venezuelan communards gathered on March 3 and 4 to officially launch a national organization. More than 450 delegates were present in El Maizal Commune, Lara State, for the founding congress of the Communard Union. The collective aims to build a network of social organizations throughout the country. The delegates, representing 48 communes and 12 other social movements, approved the organization’s political program and internal statutes, which include a political structure and mechanisms for new organizations to join. The founding documents were collated by a provisional leadership following more than three years of meetings and grassroots work.

Seducing People With The Communal Model

February 13, 2022 Cira Pascual Marquina, Venezuela Analysis. , , ,
February 4 followed on the insurrectional footsteps of February 27 [1989, the Caracazo], a massive social explosion triggered by the absolute failure of the existing societal model. Three years later came Chávez’s military insurrection. Now, the element that was missing on the 27th was there on the 4th. Conversely, what was absent on the 4th was there on the 27th. The Caracazo mobilized the masses: tens of thousands of people went to the streets and expressed their dissent with the existing order. On the other hand, February 4th had a vanguard and a strategic objective, but the masses didn’t participate. The Bolivarian Revolution is the synthesis of those two moments: it brings vanguard and masses together.

The Communard Union, Chávez’s Ideas In Action

June 21, 2021 Cira Pascual Marquina, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Since 2019, several Venezuelan organizations that were weathering the storm of the crisis began to meet and sound each other out. In doing so, they were motivated by the need to survive in the face of the crisis, but they were also concerned with the [capitalist] restoration that was being imposed by some sectors of the government. Thus began a process of building a shared platform around a common program of struggle. The Communard Union initiative took shape when these organizations were reflecting on the commune as a strategic project. The final proposal came out of a meeting held at the Che Guevara Commune in Mérida State in December 2019, with the participation of several communes, including Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi from Anzoátegui, El Maizal from Lara-Portuguesa, 5 de Marzo from Caracas, Sectores Unidos from Lara, and Pancha Vásquez from Apure.

In Commune: The Che Guevara Commune (Part 1)

March 5, 2021 Katrina Kozarek, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Outside of Venezuela, communes are a little known aspect of the Bolivarian Revolution, yet the development of the communal state is integral to the vision of 21st century socialism laid out by former President Hugo Chavez. In this series, In Commune, Venezuelanalysis will explore different experiences of rural and urban communes to help better understand what these highly controversial bodies mean, how they have been put into practice, and what they could signify for the continuity of the Bolivarian Revolution in the current situation of political and economic imperialist aggression.

El Maizal Commune: 11 Years Building The Communal Horizon

March 11, 2020 By Katrina Kozarek, Venezuelanalysis.com , ,
On March 5, 2009, in the shade of a great Samán tree on the edge of unused farm lands rescued from a large landowner near the border of Lara and Portuguesa States, the people gathered with President Chávez and vowed to organize a commune which would collectively produce on those lands. Eleven years later, the El Maizal Commune has become a national and international reference for communal organization and production.

In Commune: Altos De Lídice

October 16, 2019 By Katrina Kozarek, Venezuelanalysis.com , ,
The Altos de Lídice Commune is an urban commune located in western Caracas. Formed less than two years ago, the commune emerged from the need to create collective grassroots solutions amidst a devastating economic crisis and US unilateral sanctions. Access to medicine, adequate medical attention and nutrition are all aspects of communal health which have deeply affected the quality of life of the inhabitants of Altos de Lídice and almost all Venezuelans in the midst of the current unilateral sanctions, and for this reason healthcare became the initial focal point of the Altos de Lídice Commune.

A Day In A Venezuelan Chavista Stronghold: Communal Resistance In Caracas

May 22, 2019 By Marco Teruggi, Venezuelanalysis.com , ,
Caracas a city made up of several cities. They oppose each other; sometimes they are afraid of each other. The east side bursts with news about Juan Guaido and the opposition. The west side is the territory of Chavista majorities, Miraflores Presidential Palace, the core of power. The division is about class but about names too: people in the east live in hills, while in the west they live in barrios. One of those barrios is the 23 de Enero neighborhood, which had a tradition of popular resistance even before Hugo Chavez came onto the scene and where several colectivos exist.

Venezuela’s Crisis: A View From The Communes

May 14, 2019 By Federico Fuentes, Venezuelanalysis.com ,
Within hours of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó calling for street mobilisations to back his attempted military coup against President Nicolás Maduro on April 30, Guaidó’s supporters had looted and set fire to the headquarters of the Indio Caricuao Commune in south-west Caracas. The building was used for local residents’ meetings and housed a commune-run textile enterprise, which funds projects in the community. Atenea Jiménez, from the National Network of Comuneros (commune activists) said: “Once again attacks on the communes by fascist sectors have begun.”

Six Achievements Of The Communes That We Must Defend And Develop

June 29, 2018 By Gerardo Rojas, Venezuelanalysis.com , , ,
After the May 20 elections, the Bolivarian Revolution is entering a new stage. Plenty of analysis has been written about the elections, and there are many demands that are waiting to be fulfilled in the context of Nicolás Maduro’s reelection. The dangers are evident: our enemies are advancing with a plan that is clear to everyone. However, the question remains: how is the government going to drive forward the strategic project of constructing socialism? For many, the road ahead means following Chávez’s path: commune or nothing. More than a slogan, this phrase captures the long road of 20 years of revolutionary experience, of achievements that are now threatened. As such, this phrase demands not only the political reorientation of the Revolution but also its advancement.

Building the Commune, Radical Democracy in Venezuela

January 1, 2017 Stan Smith, www.mltoday.com , , ,
By Stan Smith for MLToday. The grassroots struggle to build a new society, focusing on the cooperatives, the community councils, the communes, established to strengthen popular participatory democracy, is keeping the Chavista revolution alive. This communal movement began with the fight against neoliberalism’s anti-working class measures even before the Caracazo, the 1989 outburst against IMF imposed cuts resulting in the then government killing up to 2000 protesters. In Venezuela these struggles gave rise to popular local assemblies and neighborhood councils to meet community needs neglected by the government. In the Chavez era these became institutionalized as communal councils, participatory organizations for self-governance.

Venezuela Agricultural Communes Oppose Privatization Of Lands

February 9, 2016 Lucas Koerner, www.venezuelanalysis.com , , , , ,
By Lucas Koerner for Venezuela Analysis – After passing a motion by majority vote on Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly will launch an inquiry into the expropriations of privately owned land and enterprises spearheaded by the socialist government in past years. The country’s newly elected parliament, dominated by the right-wing opposition, has vowed to reverse the socialist government’s social and economic policies, which included the breakup of large private firms and landholdings deemed unproductive and their transfer to state, worker, or communal control.

Stephen Gaskin Dies At 79

July 5, 2014 Douglas Martin, www.nytimes.com , ,
Stephen Gaskin, a Marine combat veteran and hippie guru who in 1971 led around 300 followers in a caravan of psychedelically painted school buses from San Francisco to Tennessee to start the Farm, a commune that has outlived most of its countercultural counterparts while spreading good works from Guatemala to the South Bronx, died on Tuesday at his home on the commune, in Summertown, Tenn. He was 79. Leigh Kahan, a family spokesman, confirmed the death without giving a specific cause. By Mr. Gaskin’s account, the Farm sprang in part from spiritual revelations he had experienced while using LSD, the details of which he described to thousands of disciples, who gathered in halls around San Francisco to hear his meditations on Buddhism, Jesus and whatever else entered his mind. But to his followers, he ultimately offered more than spiritual guidance. In founding the Farm, they said, he gave concrete form to the human longing for togetherness coupled with individual expression that had energized the counterculture.
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