communal councils

Some people try to classify this process here. It’s a useful exercise in terms of analysing what is going on, where it is going and which forces, classes and social groups really have the power and for whom this revolution is serving. Yet statements like ‘it’s a working class revolution’ or the Chavez government is totally ‘bourgeois’ or  ‘the PSUV is good’  or ‘bad’ do not work, because what is going on here is far more complex. It’s an un-won battle between a range of forces, many of which are confused and obscured by red t-shirts or sloganeering for one side or the other.

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We were pretty annoyed when we found out someone had occupied the land that we’ve been struggling for for over year.

It’s a piece of land that is within the area covered by our communal council and technically belongs to the mayoralty, but hasn’t been used for ages because it’s quite a long but skinny piece of land.

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It was Friday night, young guys and students were drinking beer outside the barrio entrance, next to the main road. We met one member of the Milagrosa barrio, and walked past the drinkers, up a steep path until we reached a blue house

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I went with M to the university dining area for dinner, where he used his student card and his mum's student card to get us both the free meal. Dinner that night was two bread rolls, a kind of porridge type soup (atol its called), an apple, jelly, cooked sweet plantain, cheese, and lettuce type salad. All uni students can eat lunch and dinner for free during week days at these dinning rooms.

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Thanks to J for suggesting we go to IMMFA (Merida Institute for Women and the Family) to see what the folks there are up to. Apparently they were pretty cool when they were first set up then there was a new ‘team' and they started to just focus on domestic violence, and now there's a new team again and some of the original team and they are getting more into the structural side of things, the active side of things.

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A week and a half has now passed since my visit to Fundo Comun and things have moved frustratingly slowly. To revoke the mandates of all those currently holding elected positions in the council and start again cleanly we need to call a Citizen's Assembly, yet for this assembly to be legally binding more than 20% of the population over 15 to attend.

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Creation? No, Re-activation

My neck aches as I stand, stooped under the sagging roof of the packed bus to Fundo Comun, the local branch of the Local Presidential Commission for Popular Power. It is two days after the head of our building, J, told us of the old Community Council in La Independencia and we need to find out what currently exists in the community to discover what work remains to be done. It is three o'clock, Tuesday.

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He is weary, but excitement kindles in his eyes as he starts to recount his last struggle to create a Community Council.

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