The violent anti-government protests that shook Venezuela in February have once again thrust the issue of the pace of change into the broader debate over socialist transformation. Radical Chavistas, reflecting the zeal of the movement’s rank and file, call for a deepening of the “revolutionary process,” while moderate Chavistas favor concessions to avoid an escalation of the violence. The same dilemma confronted the socialist government of Salvador Allende in the early 1970s, but under different political circumstances.
Clodovaldo Hérnandez, Venezuelan writer and politician, talks about the criminalization of grassroots organizing, the right-wing strategy behind it, and goes on to explain why “the fate of the revolution rests in the communal councils” in an interview with newspaper Ciudad CCS, from March 10th, 2014.
In response to the violence instigated by the Venezuelan elite, the working classes of Venezuela took to the streets this week. They went out not with pistols or grenades, but with brooms and shovels to clean the burnt trash and remove the barricades that have restricted the free movement of thousands of citizens.
Though the debate around petrol prices proposed by the vice-president last week is only just getting started, Venezuelanalysis presents here a taste of the different perspectives already being argued.
By Tamara Pearson- Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec 9th 2013
Following a hard year for us, yesterday’s positive election result came as a relief. It is a hopeful result that gives a well deserved finger to the bitter, whinging opposition, and their private media buddies. However, the political significance of the result is also more complicated than that, and it is now time to focus our energy on really consolidating this revolution.
By Correo del Orinoco International, Nov 22nd 2013
Duilliam Virigay. National Spokesman of the Simon Bolivar National Communal Front (FNCSB), describes the interesting yet difficult challenges faced by Venezuela’s radical experiment with participatory democracy.
By Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Nov 19th 2013
The first national conference of commune members held on the weekend of 16 and 17 November was a demonstration of how the commune movement is slowly strengthening, and how it is these structures that are the antidote to many of Venezuela's ongoing problems of speculation, importation, bureaucracy, and corruption.
By Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide) / Christian Pereira, Oct 28th 2013
On Saturday 26 October in the Municipal Theatre of Valencia, Carabobo state, the founding congress of the new Federation of Automobile and Related Industry Workers was held.
By Sara C. Motta - New Left Project, Oct 19th 2013
In Venezuela mothers are at the heart of a reinvention of revolutionary politics. From the election of Chavez as president in 1998, women have been valued and recognised as political subjects.
By Tamara Pearson- Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 30th 2013
The PSUV recently announced its candidates for the December elections, overriding a primaries process of selection that had been underway when Chavez died. From under confidence and vulnerability, to a disorganised grassroots and a strong-ish opposition, VA examines what is behind such a move.
Reinaldo Iturriza, Venezuela’s minister for communes examines how the building of communes in Venezuela is going, why communes are important as alternatives to capitalism, and the conditions necessary for them to flourish in Venezuela.
By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim - UniLife Magazine, Aug 20th 2013
Twenty three year old Lisseth Pavon is a symbol of the passion of Venezuela’s youth. There is a climate where youth view themselves as political actors, and feel entitled to express their opinions in meaningful ways.
By Myriam Anzola, Tamara Pearson- Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 8th 2013
Participatory education based on empowering students through their active involvement in their community is an essential tool for fighting corruption in the long term.
Some days ago a meeting was held in Caracas to debate the relationships between movements and states, and how autonomy and popular power can build alternatives to development that is dependent on the extraction [of oil and minerals] model.
