Professor Julia Buxton argues that the Bolivarian Revolution's weakness was its inability to institutionalize the radical popular energies it unleashed in a new order, a failing that has led to the present crisis.
By George Ciccariello-Maher – Roar Magazine , Mar 22nd 2016
In the face of surging right-wing counter-revolution and bureaucratic inaction on the part of the ruling socialist government, Venezuela's communes, George Ciccarielleo-Maher argues, are the only hope for radicalizing the country's seventeen year-long Bolivarian process.
By Manuel Suarez & Rachael Boothroyd Rojas- venezuelanalysis.com, Nov 20th 2015
VA's Rachael Boothroyd Rojas talks with activist Manuel Suarez of the Venezuelan collective Homo et Natura about the monumental Anti-Transgenic and Anti-Patent Seed Law currently in debate in the country’s National Assembly.
By Marco Teruggi – La Cultura Nuestra, Sep 10th 2015
The beer business in Venezuela was strategically designed so that that only three brewing companies could become part it, which with the passing of time became two: that of the Mendoza family– Polar– and that of the Cisneros–Regional/Zulia. But if the course of the revolutionary process has taught us something it is that nothing has been so well designed– by the dominant classes– that the organized people can’t transform it.
The author argues that the current foreign exchange control regime has failed to prevent transnational and domestic capital from taking its profits out of the country and that no government policy, no matter how conciliatory towards business, will attract investment in Venezuela as long as the Revolution continues. Only the expropriation of the bourgeois-controlled means of production– the "completion of the revolution"– will solve the present crisis.
Venezuelan writer Luis Britto Garcia discusses the massive impact Chinese investment has had on recent Latin American development, while calling for strict outlines to be drawn to protect Venezuelan sovereighnty in the midst of heightened negotiation.
Dada Maheshvarananda presents how cooperatives are a strong force of community empowerment that are transforming people's values from being self-centered to actively working for the common good in Venezuela.
By Cory Fischer-Hoffman/ Juan Manuel Mendoza/ venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 7th 2014
Juan Manuel Mendoza tells venezuelanalysis.com the significance of the Philosophical Summit of the Poor, held on Friday in Caracas. Mendoza explains who “the poor” are and what it is they want, in terms so universal they could be applied to any struggle since capitalism and democracy became all but synonymous. How to recreate the model, Mendoza asks, when even the word freedom implies slavery?
As socialist enterprises and workers cooperatives are dwindling in Venezuela, there is a new emphasis on the creation of Networks of Free and Associated Agricultural Producers (REPLA). In this article, the author offers critiques of the socialist enterprises and calls for localized production that emphasizes processing raw materials closest to where they originate. This perspective is offered based on organizing efforts with a REPLA in Barlovento, Venezuela.
By Arlene Eisen – Venezuelanalysis.com, Jun 5th 2014
Ten days ago, with at least one representative from each of Venezuela’s 23 states, some 100 childcare workers gathered for a vigil outside the National Assembly. They vowed they would stay until the government acted on their demands for a living wage, benefits and recognition as workers.
