In this lengthly article, the revolution proceeds by way of people's councils. A People's Democratic type revolution is underway. Capitalism is still the major relations, and Venezuela endures a lower organic composition in productive technology, i.e. No robotic technology creating a new class of idle proletarians. The working class is at odds with the bourgeoisie, and any "new class" symbiotic- relations- with -capitalism thesis goes bankrupt here, as the revolutionary climate refutes it. If the working class demands the social ownership of the major means of production, the revolution can proceed along the socialist path.
f580 http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2090-moving-beyond-representation-participatory-democracy-and-communal-councils-in-venezuela "......Communal councils do not replace mayorships but act as a parallel local governing system, where community members horizontally and directly participate in local decision-making. The most important part of the councils is that funds bypass regional and local governments, going directly to council projects. In 2007, only a year after the communal council law was passed, five billion dollars was funneled into councils directly from the national government without interference of local governments.12 This exemplifies the re-directing of state funding, taking money out of the hands of governors and mayors, placing into the hands of the people themselves. In 2007, 30% of money allotted for local governments went directly to communal councils, and the National Assembly has proposed to increase this number to 50%.13 On a structural level, the councils, or popular assemblies themselves are made up of 200-400 households in metropolitan districts, 20 households in rural districts, and 10 households in indigenous districts. In an effort to avoid hierarchy and domination, the Law of Communal Councils allocated all decision-making power to these all-inclusive popular assemblies. Anyone can attend assembly meetings, and all members above the age of 15 share equal decision- making power. Over 20% the eligible community residents must be present in order for decisions to be binding.14 The communal councils are organized into comités, or work groups around certain issues affecting the community like clean water, sanitation, housing, etc. Many of these comités actually pre-date the existence of communal councils, having previously been set up to democratize the work of the social misiones within communities. The communal council also incorporates a financial committee, the banco comunal, who manages the financial resources of the council. An oversight committee, the contraloria social, documents and legalizes all decisions made by the council and provides oversight to the financial committee to ensure that the money allocated follows the legal framework, avoiding corruption.15 Each comité has elected voceros and voceras, or spokespeople, expected to attend each meeting or assembly, and speak on behalf of the comité or, in the case of larger assemblies, the community's popular assembly. A vocero acts as a point-person for projects but they do not have extra decision-making power; all decisions are made in assembly form by popular vote. Voceros of a communal council meet periodically in assemblies with voceros from other councils in their sector. These larger popular assemblies, called comunas, give the opportunity for numerous councils to identify similar issues and do large-scale local and regional projects. Because a comuna contains several communal councils, together they have a greater capacity to keep local government systems in check and unify neighboring communities than a communal council itself.16 What does this look like in practice? We had a number of experiences during our stay in Venezuela related to communal councils and participatory democracy. We'd like to share some of these experiences in story form to help paint a better picture of what this system means and how it affects real people. These stories are from four different communities; Pueblo Nuevo, La Guajira, Palo Verde and La Paroquia San Juan....." [read full article] http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2090-moving-beyond-representation-participatory-democracy-and-communal-councils-in-venezuela _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
