Venezuelan Women, Feminism, and People Power Building

The presence of women spearheading local struggles on the ground is not something that happens only in Venezuela, but it has also been a recurring topic in political theory and practice for a long time around the world. Women’s everyday experiences are a decisive factor: they are made responsible for the care labor, making community life a necessity so that this care work can be as collective as possible.

The consideration given to the needs of households, communities, and the many generations that require this care is fundamental for the organization. In Venezuela, women have demonstrated resilience and are at the forefront in the political struggle, from everyday life to broader collective processes.

Here are some organizing and mobilization experiences by Venezuelan women building a society centered around life, free from violence. The accounts we share here were gathered on April 18–21, during the Conference of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America—Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) and the National People’s Consultation ¡Proyectos del pueblo! held in more than 49,000 communal councils in 24 states across the country.

Women and Public Participation

Among the experiences of the Bolivarian revolution, we highlight the practices of people power. The communes are a form of social organization from the territories recognized by the Venezuelan government. Since the Organic Law of Communes was passed in 2010, more than 3,000 communes have been registered. Each commune has its own structure, including communal councils (subdivisions of the larger area of the commune for self-organizing purposes). All of them meet at the highest level of local deliberation: the citizens’ assembly, where they map demands, define priorities, and organize the community.

On April 21st, 2024, we attended a trailblazing process for the organization of people power: for the first time, people cast their ballots to decide which projects should be prioritized in their own communes. Each commune presented seven projects, and each citizen had the right to vote for one of them to be executed with federal funds.

How a project should be executed is also important. The funds are transferred to the account of each commune, which manages everything: they make the assessments and build the necessary structure, with their own labor power, and prioritizing materials produced in the commune, whether hiring people from the commune or often counting on collective voluntary efforts, based on each one’s needs and capacities.

Both the government and communards estimate that women make up 80 percent of the people who are engaged in the movement, building practical communal processes. This participation was evident at voting spaces and centers. Almost every time we were welcomed by women, local leaders who were connected to local demands and the local population. It is no coincidence that many of the projects were related to supplying drinking water, improving home structures and even communal offices, and building collective spaces, like auditoriums.

In the communes, women ensure the sustainability of life in the broadest sense. Through self-organization, they are currently working to hold the first national meeting of women communards. The meeting will be a fundamental milestone to promote those who are spearheading these processes, sustaining people power from the grassroots, and it will be a space where women will be able to formulate, together, the specific and different experiences they have while building what they have called communal feminism.

Transformative Experiences

Beyond the territory-specific realm, Venezuelan women are organizing in several fronts of struggle to ensure the sustainability of life. One of these experiences of community work is the Transformation, Women, Community (TRAMUCO) Cooperative Production Unit. The 45 women members of the collective, which was established in 2023, organize a community-based, participatory solid-waste management system in the parishes of Antímano, La Vega, Sucre, Altagracia, San Agustín, Coche, and Valle. The self-managed work these women conduct aims to repurpose glass, paper, and plastic, which are compacted and sold to the industrial sector or turned into new products that are traded and distributed in their communities.

During the implementation of the cooperative, an investigation was conducted in the territories to understand the systemic problems regarding each one’s solid-waste management. 

“These investigations involved local people and businesses. Then training and exchange sessions were held with women who work in the cooperative and the people from the communities,” TRAMUCO chair and resident of the La Vega parish Luz Daza explains. 

Luz says that the first challenge they faced was regarding incorporating the cooperative work: “Over time, we started to recognize ourselves as members of the organization, women who exchange their wisdom and are part of this family.”

Barbara Quintero is 21 years old and is one of the members of the cooperative. During the meeting on April 19th to create the statutes for the cooperative, she said “the cooperative is a space that dignifies the community with labor from a completely feminist management model.” 

She highlights the collective and individual development that a process like this entails by focusing on job training and the political education of women.

“Each woman eventually finds herself, getting involved and developing herself by learning about each one’s reality,” she says.

The cooperative TRAMUCO is one of the projects that is part of the feminist organization Tinta Violeta, a member of the World March of Women in the country. In an interview with the Ministry of People Power for Women and Gender Equality on May 2nd, the chair of the organization said the work of Venezuelan feminist organizations empowers the public policy project known as Great Venezuela Women Mission (Gran Misión Venezuela Mujer—GMVM). In addition to projects such as TRAMUCO, Tinta Violeta is also in charge of research and action for women’s rights and against sexist violence.

The March 5 Commune and the Weaving Women Collective

Around 5,000 people live in the Eternal Commander March 5 Socialist Commune. Investing in the communal organization of life, women from the seven communal councils that make up the administration of the commune are organized in the Women and Gender Equality Management Committee. Based on the idea of communal feminism, the women in the territory reflect on their everyday needs for the sustainability of life in their communities and work in projects to ensure rights, protection, and education on gender-based violence and reproductive health. “When we talk about women’s networks, we are talking about the fabric we weave every day, one by one, but which are intertwined with other people’s fabrics, with other people’s threads and yarns, no matter how many kilometers they have between them,” the collective wrote on social media.

The Ruta de Flores is one of the feminist communal policies developed in the 5 de Marzo Commune in Caracas, as well as in the Vencedores de Carorita communes in the State of Lara and in Las 5 Fortalezas de Cumanacoa in the State of Sucre. The three flowers—hibiscus, sunflowers, and bromeliads—serve as references for three lines of organization: women’s health care, combatting violence, and education and information. The work of the women in the Rota das Flores involves distributing contraceptive methods and expanding knowledge about sexuality and protection. The organization also promotes the development of communal feminism through regional meetings with women from the communities. Additionally, women who are victims of machista violence find a place to meet and a space for emergency shelter and care in the Casa Morada Comunal of the Coletiva Tejiéndonos Mujeres, which includes psychological support and other necessary actions to ensure the safety of women and children.

This set of grassroots initiatives that combine the struggle for sustainability of life from the local level to the construction of popular power in the management of public policies are examples of the feminist strength of Venezuelan women. Women collectively build alternatives from their communities, from the lives of their neighborhood companions, and from daily needs. The radical organization of these women ensures changes in society and life in the communes, not only for women but for everyone, demonstrating the power of communal feminism as a path toward building the world they want to live in.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Photos by Ana Priscila Alves and Bianca Pessoa.

Edited by Helena Zelic, translated from Portuguese by Aline Scátola.

Translation edited by Venezuelanalysis.

Source: Capire