http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2544-building-socialism-from-below-the-role-of-the-communes-in-venezuelaThis is an excellent, longish, mildly to moderately difficult article by a teacher in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa and a teacher of politics at the University of Regina (Saskatchewan.)
It's about the development of grassroots
comunas (i.e., soviets or communes) in the urban
barrios and in the countryside of Venezuela under the Chávez regime, which has established a "Ministry of Popular Power for the
Comunas and Social Protection" to facilitate and encourage the development of the
comunas.
The article is interesting for a number of reasons, one being that it provides a practical example of the possibilities of creating grassroots centres of power through participatory democracy rather than representative democracy, another being that it draws attention to the tensions between grassroots participatory democracy and the structures of a bourgeois state, such as Venezuela, even under the leadership of "leftists" such as the Chávez administration. Because of the structure of the bourgeois state inherited from previous administrations, there is unavoidable tension between the appointees of the current federal administration (the mayors and governors) and the
comunas (soviets or communes) themselves. The article also deals with the potential for the future spread of jurisdiction of the soviets from the purely local to matters of national concern, essentially (as I understand this) through inter-soviet networking on a state, and then national, level.
It's a very encouraging article for those who might have bought into the MSM claptrap that socialism was dead. The article deals, although not in much detail, with the "fall" of the Soviet Union, which it associates with the failure of true participatory democracy in a state which had become "Soviet" in name only. Hopefully, the
comuna movement would avoid the so-called "pitfall" of Russian communism, i.e., the conundrum of absolute power in a "People's Republic."
The article takes the form of an interview with a young, but apparently quite experienced, former student activist now engaged full-time in the development of the movement. It's cautiously optimistic
The problems faced by the
comunas in building socialism from the bottom up are dealt with frankly but hopefully. The article is certainly not for anyone with the two-dimensional cartoon-like image of Venezuela (evil dictator, banana republic, captive nation) purveyed by the American MSM, but it's a realistic look at the problems of building true socialism in Latin America.