Analysis: Social Movements

While the shortages and long-lines are creating serious inconveniences and undeniable burdens on most Venezuelans, beyond the frustration, the voices of grassroots Venezuelans are getting lost beneath negative predictions of macroeconomic collapse. In this oral history collage, members of the Venezuelan grassroots and popular movements speak for themselves about the roots of the economic war, their strategies in the face of it, and the solutions that they propose.

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Fuga was created just days after Chavez’s death, when Rodrigo met two other artists and kindred spirits among the millions waiting in line to pay their respects at the socialist leader’s wake in Caracas. It was a time of disbelief and heartache for the majority of Venezuelans- but many, like Rodrigo, hit the ground running, channeling grief into action.

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The private and mainstream media's coverage of the disappearance and likely murder of 43 Mexican students and the developing protest movement against such impunity has been sympathetic, if unanalytical. Yet, earlier this year the mainstream media gave no such sympathy to the 43 people who were killed during months of opposition violence in Venezuela.

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A warm ocean breeze rolled across the picturesque beach on Venezuela's Caribbean island of Margarita.

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If recent years have marked not the establishment of a socialist country but the appearance of the poor in the public life of the nation, then it is clear that some nostalgically wish that they would once again disappear, retreat into the shadows, or be compelled to withdraw.

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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?

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Artist and documentary filmmaker Dario Azzellini argues that millions of Venezuelans live their lives normally, solving problems through community organizing and government initiatives, while international media exaggerates the claims of middle class protestors that the nation is in the midst of a devastating crisis. According to Dario, the manifestations are hardly protests, but the waging of war.

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