Features: Participation

[Part I] One Interview, Two Voices: A Look at Venezuela Today

By Juan Reardon, Maria Perez, and Edwin Chirinos Duque - Venezuelanalysis.com, Jun 30th 2011

A year and a half before Venezuela’s December 2012 presidential elections, the debate has already begun. As is often the case, both pro-Chavez and opposition forces are discussing their views amongst themselves, and not with each other. In an attempt to bring opposing Venezuelan voices together, two members of opposing political forces were asked a series of questions relating to political life, education, and the media, among other things. Here are their answers.

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Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism and the Difficult Journey from ‘Me’ to ‘Us’

By Franklin Rosales - Venezuelanalysis.com, May 25th 2011

The Venezuela of today is a nation mobilized in defense of a new ideal – a proposal for the future referred to simply as Socialismo del Siglo 21, or 21st Century Socialism. In this analysis, Rosales seeks to contextualize a few of the guiding principles being used by the Venezuelan people in their struggle to consolidate a socialist society, and takes a brief glimpse at the challenge faced by 21st Century Socialism in the fight against capital’s culture of consumption that remains quite present in the Venezuela of the Bolivarian Revolution.

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If Venezuela were Measured by the Majority

By Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec 30th 2010

What real democracy looks like: A communal council in Merida votes for its electoral commission in July 2010 (Tamara Pearson).

When Newsweek ranked Venezuela last out of 100 countries for “economic dynamism” it had a certain kind of economy and benchmarks in mind. Venezuela is constantly attacked and demonised by U.S based “studies”, “experts”, and “reports”, but what if its economy and political life were to be measured according to the benchmarks of the Venezuelan majority?

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Venezuela’s Reformed Communal Council Law: When Laws Aren’t Just for Lawyers and Power Is Public

By Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec 4th 2009

Lisbeida Rangel helping to paint a community noticeboard (Tamara Pearson)

We talked about it in the car, we talked about it with friends, we met in one member’s house and talked about it over tea, and we talked about it in moonlit darkness caused by blackouts before various meetings. Our communal council had a few concerns and many praises about the reform to the communal council law, which had just been approved in first discussion.

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Venezuelan Education Law: Socialist Indoctrination or Liberatory Education?

By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 21st 2009

Venezuelan opposition activists allege that the new Education Law is unconstitutional, anti-democratic, politicizes the classroom, threatens the family and religion, and will allow the state to take children away from their parents for indoctrination. Are they correct?

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Communal Councils in Venezuela: Can 200 Families Revolutionize Democracy?

By Josh Lerner - Z Magazine, Mar 6th 2007

What will become of the communal councils? As some critics warn, perhaps they will mainly become a tool for consolidating Chávez’s control. Or they might take on power of their own, but without transforming the rest of the Venezuelan government. Or maybe they will indeed create a national political system of participatory democracy.

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Venezuela’s Secret Grassroots Democracy

By Michael Fox – Venezuelanalysis.com, Nov 28th 2006

With all international eyes on the December 3rd Venezuelan presidential elections, a totally new and revolutionary experience of Venezuelan grassroots democracy has completely slipped below international radar.

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Venezuela’s Cooperative Revolution

By Betsy Bowman and Bob Stone - Dollars & Sense, Jul 29th 2006

Cooperatives are at the center of Venezuela’s new economic model. They have the potential to fulfill a number of the aims of the Bolivarian revolution, including combating unemployment, promoting durable economic development, competing peacefully with conventional capitalist firms, and advancing Chávez’s still-being-defined socialism.

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Power to the People: Communal Councils in Venezuela

By Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly, Apr 26th 2006

For Chavez, the only way to get rid of poverty was to give power to the people. On April 9, on Chavez’s weekly Alo Presidente TV program, the Bolivarian revolution took another important step forward with the enactment of a new law on communal councils.

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The New Cooperative Movement In Venezuela’s Bolivarian Process

By Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Dec 17th 2005

Spaces for small enterprises, especially cooperatives, have been opened by a great number of Venezuelan local governments, public institutions, and enterprises, including Venezuela’s oil company, PDVSA. The cooperative production model has increasingly come to define the development strategies of the “Bolivarian Revolution.”

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Venezuela's Path

By Michael Albert - ZNet, Nov 8th 2005

Venezuela looks to me like Uncle Sam's worst nightmare. I was humbled by Bolivarian ingenuity and steadfastness and by my own continued citizenship in the world's most rogue and brutal nation, against which I and other radicals have had such limited organizing success. Hopefully my country can follow Venezuela's lead rather than crushing its aspirations.

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Constructing Co-Management in Venezuela: Contradictions along the Path

By Michael A. Lebowitz - MR Zine, Oct 27th 2005

Worker management is a real alternative. If co-management succeeds in Venezuela, it will be an inspiration to workers everywhere. And, if co-management fails, it will strengthen the rule of capital; the message to workers will be that there is no alternative.

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Civil Society, Social Movements, and Participation in Venezuela's Fifth Republic

By Dawn Gable, Feb 9th 2004

Ever since the election of President Chavez, Venezuela's social movements have become more active than ever in the country's social and political life. This article explores some of the dimensions of and reasons for this involvement.

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