“Commune or Nothing!”: Chavez, the Communes, and the Future

In this month, let us take a moment to remember about the real contemporary alternatives, such as the Bolivarian Revolution. Led by the Commandante Chavez and his comrade’s campaigns in Venezuelan society, the country began to transform from a neo-colonized nation prostrating its marginalized peoples and land to the Global Hegemony of the West, into a nation of communities and socialist development. Although there are several achievements made by the hegemony of Chavez and the comrades, the highest expression of these advancements made by the communitarian campaigns of the Venezuelan comrades are the seen in the less talked about project, the Communes.

Detailed by the Venanalysis, in their article, the Communes are described as a “"superior form with the potential to transform Venezuela's capitalist society into a socialist one. Communes are self-governed spaces formed by communities with a shared history and territory. Their foundational cornerstones are substantive democracy, self-managed production, and social property.”

It’s history began in “2005, when  Chavez declares the Bolivarian revolution's socialist horizon by stating "Capitalism must be transcended through socialism"

In 2006, “The communal council bill becomes law. Councils are the basic units that will eventually join to form communes.”

Followed up in 2009, where Chavez “develops a full strategy for advancing toward socialism: the commune. He describes five battlefronts: moral (social duty, revolutionary ethics), social (equality, human rights), political (self-government), economic (social property) and territorial (popular legislation over spaces and resources).”

“Hundreds of thousands committed to socialism and with the objective of building sovereign production from below begin to set up communes across the country” in the same year.

By 2010, Chavez's Organic Law of the Commune and the Law of Communal Economy is passed by the National Assembly.”

It culminates in 2012, when Chavez himself begins to uplfit the campaign project with his famous slogan, "Commune or nothing!", insisting that the communes have become a priority to advancing socialism and defeating the capitalist world outlook and economy.

To clarify, “A commune territory is home to thousands of families distributed in several communal councils. Together they build new social relations. Communal councils have spokespeople that take part in the commune's Paria lament, which debates and approves projects. However, the commune's highest governing body is the assembly where all communards participating with equal voice and vote to decide on fundamental issues.”

“The commune's means of production (factories, land, etc.) are democratically run by the communards and the surplus is reinvested in social initiatives such as the Acquistion of medicine, food distribution, education, housing, etc.”

Some prominent examples are the following”

Communes - EL Maizal, LARA and Portuguesa states, founded in 2009 is Venezuela's most renowned rural commune got decisive early push from Chavez himself. Its hard-working communards grow corn, beans, raise cattle and pigs, and run several food processing plants.

El Panel - Feb. 23 , Caracas. Founded in 2006, before Chavez began to promote the project. Venezulea's most emblematic urban commune was founded by the ALexis Vive Patriotic Force. Committed to building autonomous self-government, the organization runs a textile factory, a fish farm, a pig farm, a recycling plant, and a radio station.

Cinco Fortalezas - Cumancoa, Sucre state. Founded in 2014. This combative woman led sugarcane growing commune was consolidated after a group of campesinas and campesinos seized the land historically owned by the man who had exploited their families.

The list goes on, but the point this campaign project needs to be recognize and studied by contemporary political actors, we mustg forget the myth of the past and look at the miracles in the present, while the communes themselves are not perfect, the project is worthy of solidarity and love. Long Live the Communes !