Chavez "communes" stoke Venezuela democracy debate

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66E7E420100715

But for many of the commune inhabitants, the apartments, built with a primary school, a state MERCAL grocery and a soon-to-be opened high school, represent a huge improvement on their previous slum accommodation in hilltop shanties.

"We like it, of course ... this benefits all the people," said Ines Herrera, who works as a cleaner at the primary school. "There is a bit of apathy, but that's normal".

"No one here is shouting about Marx or Lenin," said Ramirez.

The radical change which Chavez and others want to see is that state resources are used to benefit the ordinary people, who to now have been condemned, as this quote remarks, to hilltop shanties and worse. The attempt to use anti communist rhetoric is predictable in the interests of the multi national corporations and their right wing backers to whom South American natural resources, starting historically with silver and gold, have been a continuing source of wealth in which there is no reciprocity, only a history of slavery and oppression.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66E7E420100715

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5425

Hey wings, I've been carrying the torch for you, threatening guillotines etc, but I am getting tired. I need your tireless and cutting wit.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Hey wings, I've been carrying the torch for you, threatening guillotines etc, but I am getting tired. I need your tireless and cutting wit.

Keep up the good work. I've got your back.



Cutting wit? Is that a guillotine joke? 😉

Originally posted by rwingett
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5425

Terrific link. Here are some highlights. When debating what is wrong in the USA, there is room for hope that Latin American influence will bring this kind of political awareness and participatory democracy to the fore.

"in the rural areas they have conserved many elements of what is “ours”, from our ancestors, the indigenous communities, the afro-Venezuelan communities. These values are still there. For this reason it is easier in the rural areas than in the urban areas." Precisely - it is an awakening of non European, non Capitalist, non individualistic values that have been repressed for too long.


"when you go to the communities, the majority of those who are participating are women, and the majority of people who are studying in the missions are women. Historically in Venezuela and in Latin America, the societies have been very sexist and it has often been difficult for women to even leave the house. Before Chávez came to office, women’s participation was really rare. Women from the Left—from the vanguard—have always participated in social and political life. But now it is more widespread. I think that in the higher levels of the process, there are a number of valuable women doing incredible things." Women in the developed world are still considered irrelevant or marginal. The gains of feminism are actually very vulnerable.


"Another fundamental thing that has changed is that before 1998, there was no political debate in the barrios. I was part of a small vanguard that was resisting this, trying to raise political debate in the university. In the 1980s, it was only the students who would mobilize, come out on the streets. But now people are talking about politics everywhere, on the bus and in the bars. It is rare that two people having beers are not talking about politics." Right on. Shamefully inadequate political understanding is displayed on this and other forums.