Venezuelan communities take centre stage

[killbotfactory]

Source: BBC News

In classrooms, town halls and squares across Venezuela, people are coming together to talk about their communities.

These are the 26,000 communal councils that are becoming the new power base in Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez continues turning his country into a socialist republic.

If changes being proposed to the country's constitution are accepted, then it will be these councils that have more say in what happens in their local communities.

With promises of less bureaucracy in the way, ordinary citizens will, in theory, be able to apply directly to the president's commissions for funds and manage those funds themselves.

The scope of President Chavez's power worries some sectors in Venezuela, and there are plenty of people who oppose reforms which they say are forcing everyone into one way of doing things.

Nevertheless, one recent poll suggested Mr Chavez could count on 70% support if and when his proposed reforms are put to the vote.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6946013.stm

---

Less bureaucracy and more citizen empowerment. Classic dictator move.

[IndianaGreen]

1. What we have here is participatory democracy!

If we had something like that in America, it would gut the power and influence of the ruling class and corporations. It is little wonder then that our masters worry so much about what is going on in Venezuela and other countries in Lating America.

[Vidar]

2. Taking power from the rich plutocrats & giving it to the people--

no wonder the corrupt capitalists fear & loathe Chavez. The US has happily propped up dozens of right wing dictators, but a genuine revolutionary fighting for true democracy to which we only pay lip service. We can't have that! It might give people ideas.

[clixtox]

3. I wonder where all the "Hugo Chavez is a dictator" posters are?

Sleeping, I guess!

I am looking forward to read how those here on DU, who distrust/dislike/hate Chavez and disagree with the Venezuelan people, are going to spin this news.

Part of an insidious socialist plot to...

What?

[Peace Patriot]

4. Empowering minority black Venezuelans. Empowering the indigenous and

restoring their land rights. Encouraging all groups who have been historically excluded. Running elections that put the U.S. to shame for their transparency and fairness. Fighting with the oil corporations for a bigger share of Venezuela's oil (nationalized long before Chavez) for social programs to help Venezuela's vast poor population. Providing literacy programs for everyone and encouraging kids to stay in school. Providing schools and medical clinics in poor areas never before served by government. Putting changes to the Constitution to a vote of the public. Printing the Constitution on the grocery bags in state food stores! Respecting private property rights, because it is the law. Resisting leftist pressure to confiscate golf course/country club land in Caracas for low cost housing--a desperate need--because protection of private property rights is THE LAW. Encouraging widespread participation in government and politics, with numerous programs.

These are the actions of a "dictator"?

Some people--who buy into this lying sacks of shit Bush State Department DISINFORMATION--can't seem to grasp the difference between strong, bold leadership in the public interest--such as that of FDR (whom the rightwing ALSO called a "dictator")--and the weeny, chicken posturings and raw power grabs of a fraud like Bush, who really is a dictator. Dictators don't trust the people. Dictators don't get their power from the people. They rely on force, on thuggery, on lies, on cronyism. They cheat and steal and torture and kill and play-act at being the Big Man. But they are cowards, and they have no real power, other than the blunt force of violence and oppression.

Yeah, Chavez is a strong, bold leader. But what law has he broken? What democratic process has he violated? Who has he thrown in jail unfairly? Who has he thrown in jail without benefit of a trial, charges and evidence? Who has he oppressed? Who has he silenced? What tyrannical actions is he guilty of?

Nobody can say. Cuz, frankly, there is NO EVIDENCE that Chavez is a "dictator," and there is overwhelming evidence that he is not--and that, far from being a "dictator," he is a genuine representative of the people, genuinely respects the rule of law almost to a fault, and is a strong advocate of--and a fine example of--democracy in action. He is in fact very like FDR--is facing a similar crisis (vast poverty, directly caused by rightwing malfeasance and greed), and is addressing the crisis with New Deal-like boldness and fresh, creative ideas that empower THE PEOPLE.

I do sympathize with the poor buggers among us who really can't tell the difference--not the CIA and oil corporation operatives here who keep repeating this fascist "talking point" (that Chavez is "a dictator")--but those who are genuinely confused and misinformed. It is not easy to throw off the relentless, 24/7 fascist propaganda that we are subjected to. And, unlike the poor of South America--who simply ignore the lunatic corporate media--we often don't have the strong community ties, the grass roots organization and the word-of-mouth networks (other than the internet) to detach us from our boob tubes and their crazy, crap "news" and opinion. Also, the war profiteering corporate news monopolies here have established themselves as the umbilical cord between our often isolated, stranded, communityless citizens and our identity as a nation. The "news" IS the nation. So people get plugged into it, emotionally, and thus are more vulnerable to its brainwashing techniques than South Americans seem to be. And the South American poor have a lot fewer TVs, too. The corporate news pollution has less effect.

For those interested in what's really going on in South America, I recommend www.venezuelanalysis.com. It gives you the other side of the picture, the background articles, opinions and current news that Bush and the corporate "news" monopolies don't want you to know.

Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution, and Chavez himself, are having a profound impact on South American society and politics, that we really need to be informed about. Chavez is directly allied with the Bolivarian governments of Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina (and soon Paraguay), and with the leftist governments of Brazil, Uruguay, Nicaragua and (in a more limited way) Chile. This is a peaceful, positive, democratic, and truly remarkable revolution. The boldest initiatives (toward South American self-determination) are coming from the Bolivarians. Don't let yourself be an inadvertent tool of those who would kill, torture and oppress the people of South America, if they can get away with it AGAIN--as they did during the Reagan era. The Bushites, the fascists, the rich and greedy local elites, and global corporate predators have their sites set on the oil, gas, minerals, forests, fresh water and other rich resources of the Andes. They fog up your mind with lies. Get informed! It helps keep people safe, and promotes justice, when the American people are well-informed about something. It makes the fascists' evil plotting much more difficult.

[Judi Lynn]

6. You have an amazing ability to store so much information and draw on it in such logical,

illuminating ways. I know, by now, there are far, far more DU'ers than just me who WOULD NOT MISS reading one of them.

Appreciate your bringing out the things which are denied over and over, or simply ignored as they stand in the way of the great LIE. It takes a horrendous amount of reading, sifting, evaluating to keep on top of the news we are NOT getting from our corporate media, but should!

Glad to see you started out mentioning the fact that Venezuela has had nationalized oil a long time. It started in the 1970's, and was only briefly privatized by the corrupt President Carlos Andres Perez, who was impeached for embezzlement and for corruption, after instructing the military to shoot directly into crowds of protesting poor Venezuelans who came down from the hills to protest the fact he had raised their cost of mass transportation, etc., wildly beyond their ability to afford. They had lost the means for continued transportation to their jobs, and to buy groceries, etc.

The precise movement which is irreversable, began at that time the Venezulan President Perez slaughtered Venezulans in the streets, in the massacre which was named "El Caracazo," February 27, 1989. It was the absolute point of no return. After the bloodbath happened the people were definitely never going to allow it to happen again.

As Venezuelans say, in documentaries we've seen, Chavez is not the movement, and it will continue after he is no longer the President. They could not be clearer. He is assisting the progress they must have in order to meet basic desperately needed standards of daily life. Anyone with eyes to see, and a modest brain can determine he is helping them overcome ages of suppression and exploitation as quickly as possible, with the constant awareness he could not be as lucky the next time they attempt to kill him. He's come so far, so fast, and it was all needed by the vast majority of people in Venezuela.

I hope he beats the odds.

[mithnanthy]

10. Thank you so much...

and thanks to JudiLynn for keeping us so well informed. I'll spread the truth.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Isn't it great seeing the BBC veer away from the propaganda stories on Venezuela they've been

cranking out, time after time? This is tremendous!

DU'ers should make sure to check a post which relates to this subject, posted to another thread on a separate subject, by new DU'er Justinaforpeace at this link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2964041#2964725

Justinaforpeace has been in Venezuela for a few months, is an American by birth, and has just attended one of these community council meetings, called Consejos Comunales.

[Raoul]

7. I like the guy!

I've been reading about Hugo and from everything I've learned I find the guy is genuine and fascinating. He even has a call in talk show on tv down there where people can call up and ask him anything. When I read that he offered aid to the Katrina victims and was denied by our state dept. I was astounded!

When he was at the UN and said the devil (bush) was there and he still smelled the sulfur, I died laughing so hard!

[Warren Stupidity]

8. K&R

Oh and the 'beeb' is up to its usual subtle crap: "President Hugo Chavez continues turning his country into a socialist republic".

1) the venezuelan people are creating this transformation through a democratic process under the leadership of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Party.

2) they are creating a democratic socialist republic with a mixed economy. The use of the term 'socialist republic' is deliberately intended to evoke memories of the hideous stalinist nightmares of eastern europe.

"The scope of President Chavez's power worries some sectors in Venezuela" and yet the beeb neglects to mention which sectors those might be.

The last half of the article is focused on one of the "plenty of people who oppose reforms". Without any particular substantiation Mayor Leopold Lopez of Chacao, a Caracas municipality, complains that the local councils must all be absolutely loyal to Chavez or they got no funding. Mr. Lopez does get around as he is quoted again in this article here on the same subject: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2038

So there is a valid concern that community councils can develop into either true participatory grassroots democratic institutions or they can be used as tools to enforce a hierarchical one party rule. The concern that the latter course is a possibility is a valid one and is expressed by many critics of the government. However there appears to be little evidence to support claims that these councils are just tools to enforce and consolidate Chavez's reign, and lots of evidence to support the view that they are instead grassroots democratic institutions that are transforming Venezuelan society.

Here, for example, is a description of the organization these councils:

"Based on 200 to 400 families in urban areas, or 20 in rural areas, the principal decision making body of a communal council is the citizens’ assembly. All members of the community above the age of 15 can participate in these assemblies, which have the power to elect and revoke community spokespeople to the communal council, as well as put forward projects and a development plan for the community.

The citizens’ assembly is also required to set up a financial management unit, a unit of social control to monitor and watch over the work of the communal council, as well as a variety of work committees, each with its respective spokesperson. The aim is to draw upon voluntary work by community members, along with promoting cooperatives, in order to carry out the projects, relying on the skills and resources of the community rather than private companies or state bureaucracies."
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1715

The issue is addressed again here:

How do you deal with disagreements?

In the western city of Mérida, a government official introduces the Communal Councils Law at a public assembly with all the enthusiasm of a game show host. The audience, a sea of pro-Chávez red, erupts in cheers. A few onlookers slouch silently on the side. Back in Caracas, in the poor pro-Chávez neighborhood 23 de Enero, a new communal council is holding its inaugural elections. The giant concrete edifice that houses the council’s population is plastered with signs urging people to vote. Before the elections, a candidate admits that the council’s priority is already set: to fix the building’s broken elevators. Soon afterwards, the council applies for funds for the elevators.

In both of these cases, there is little room for disagreement. In Mérida the communal councils are assumed to be pro-Chávez. In 23 de Enero the council decision is pre-determined, prior to public assemblies. Not surprisingly, critics complain that the councils impose a pro-Chávez vision and suppress dissent. This is not always the case, of course. Some councils have formed in anti-Chávez neighborhoods and decisions are often altered in public assemblies. Nevertheless, the councils face a serious challenge of disagreement: how to deal with genuinely different interests and opinions.

The government has already presented one partial solution to this challenge: form participatory bodies so small and exclusive that they experience few major disagreements. Since the councils usually contain only a couple hundred families within a few blocks, their members tend to be socio-economically, demographically, and politically similar. Since residents decide the boundaries of their own councils, they can self-select like-minded groups.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1975

My opinion is that this is a very interesting experiment in participatory grassroots democracy, that the issues and concerns expressed by Mayor Lopez are valid, but also that there is a geniune awareness of and attention to the problems of politicization and corruption, that the Bolivarian Movement really is trying to create a democratic socialist society. Those here who insist on viewing what is going on in Venezuela only in terms of the personality of Hugo Chavez and his role in the government are missing the big picture of what is actually going on. Certainly the whole thing could devolve into yet another dreary leftwing military dictatorship. That however is not the current path Venezuela is on. The revolution is in the neighborhoods and villages across the country and it is grassroots democracy at its best.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Excellent point! Even those of us who try to be well-informed get caught up

sometimes trying to counter this vicious Bush State Dept. campaign against ONE MAN, who is ONE of a number of strong Bolivarian leaders in the Andes region, and who is ONE MAN--the president and chosen leader--among millions in his country who are committed to the Bolivarian Revolution, and who created it.

The Bushite anti-Chavez campaign can blind you in many ways--not just as to its lies about Chavez, but to the awesome revolution that has put him and other leftists (majorityists) in power in South America.

I often try to counter this deliberate misperception that is fostered by the fascist/corporate press (that it's "all about Hugo Chavez"). Truly, he is a colorful and magnetic leader, but the focus on him is such an easy disinformation technique. And very clearly these disinformationists don't want the American people to know about the grass roots revolution without which Chavez would still be a Lt. Colonel in the army. The seminal moment was the 2002 attempted violent military coup by the rich buggers (with the Bush Junta's support). They kidnapped Chavez and suspended the Constitution, the National Assembly and the courts. If they had succeeded, we really would have seen a dictatorship in Venezuela, and a very, very bad one. (I have to laugh at the supporters of corporate news monopoly RCTV, who claimed that Chavez de-licensing them was anti-free speech. Can you imagine what the state of "free speech" would be in Venezuela right now, if that coup had succeeded? Jeez.) Tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured into the streets, demanded restoration of Constitutional government and return of their kidnapped president, and defeated this vile coup attempt essentially by their sheer numbers. (--an event that is chronicled in the Irish filmmakers' documentary, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.")

Chavez owes his power to the Venezuelan people! They put him in power. They kept him in power. And he is well aware of this, it seems to me. He acts at THEIR leave. He is president BECAUSE of them.

And the same is true of the Bolivarian electoral wins in Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina. It couldn't be clearer that this is a grass roots movement and a genuine democracy movement, and that the vast poor South American majority is finally coming into rightful power as a political force. Decades of struggle, by millions of people, have gone into this. Community organizers, union leaders, peasant farmer groups, excluded groups of all kinds, election monitoring groups, builders of democratic institutions, environmentalists, human rights activists, teachers, artists, professionals, democrats in the military (there are some), and a whole lot of individual courage--often against brutal oppression--and creativity, intelligence and vision, among a whole lot of people.

The Bushite/corporate media anti-Chavez campaign is designed to blind us to the fabulous SUCCESS of democracy in South America, so we won't get any such ideas up here in the north--that people can get together, and throw out the fascists, and elect good leaders, and create the government they want and need.

[killbotfactory]

13. Excellent post

There are valid concerns raised by the opposition, but they seem to be unfounded or exaggerated like usual. I think it mostly comes down to the empowerment of the poor, who are a majority, and have very VERY different political values than the opposition.

[eridani]

14. Socialism for the 21st century

The trouble with the 19th and 20th century varieties is that proponents though they knew everything. Progressives in general, I think, have learned to be more tentative about what we think we know. When somebody asks Chomsky how he thinks human societies ought to be run, he says he doesn't know--just try different things out and see what works to empower people.

[slipslidingaway]

9. K&R nt

[KaptBunnyPants]

12. I hope Venezuela is given the chance to try this.

Since you can't call any non-nuclear country secure these days, I still think either a direct or proxy attack on Venezuela is likely. But if they can successfully combine the benevolent sense of purpose from socialism with a decentralized, locally controlled approach, that would be revolutionary.