Popular Economy

Based on the analysis of the historic experience of what we call the Soviet mode of production – to differentiate it from the socialist mode of production theoretically formulated by Marx, Engels, and Lenin – we here analyze the experience of Venezuela, its process of recuperation of national sovereignty during the government of President Chávez since 1999 and the road traversed with the construction of the material and cultural bases of socialism since his reelection in December 2006 when the chief of state declared socialism as the path of development and the strategic objective to be obtained.

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The number of Communal Bank Terminals (Tbcom) throughout Venezuela will be increased to 200 by the end of the year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced this week.

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Juan Esteban Lopez is from Medellín, Colombia, and has been living in Venezuela for the past four years where he has helped coordinate the Network of Exchange Systems, which has been implementing local currencies in many different communities in Venezuela.

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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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This short video clip offers the first installment of the amazing story of “The Three R’s” Cooperative in the Venezuelan state of Yaracuy. Cooperative spokesperson, Fray Silvera shares with us how six campesino families came together and began their revolutionary journey towards food sovereignty.

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Three Venezuelan revolutionary socialist activists, Gonzalo Gómez, Stalin Pérez Borges, and Luis Primo, discuss their views on the contradictions and prospects of the Bolivarian process.

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Yesterday, President Hugo Chavez announced the creation of a new bank card that can be used to purchase food at controlled prices in new community run supermarkets called “Biceabastos,” and to maintain accounts in a new system of communal banks linked to state owned banks.

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Providing the Venezuelan population with good food at fair prices is the principle goal behind the inauguration of seven new socialist arepa restaurants in the country, confirmed Commerce Minister Richard Canan last Saturday.

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While President Hugo Chavez struggles to revive the battered bolivar, in a hillside slum overlooking his palace, die-hard supporters are talking about getting rid of the Venezuelan currency altogether.

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In 2007, ten organized communities in different Venezuelan states put into practice the idea of local solidarity-based interchange networks, called trueques (barter rings). Almost 2,000 people have joined these networks in order to establish a new communal relationship between production and consumption.

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