Atilio A. Boron The coronavirus has unleashed a torrent of reflections and analyses that have as a common denominator the intention to outline the (diffuse) contours of the kind of society and economy that will re-emerge once the scourge has been controlled. There are plenty of reasons to enter into that kind of speculation, which…
Category: SOCIALISM
Pandemic and Socialism
Prabhat Patnaik A COVID-19 hospital in Wuhan that was built in less than 10 days. It is said that in a crisis everybody becomes a socialist; free markets take a back seat, to the benefit of the working people. During the Second World War for instance, when universal rationing was introduced in Britain, the average…
Black America, Endless War and the Evil Genius of Russiagate
Glen Ford The Democrats — who are now the most aggressive war party – have succeeded in linking Donald Trump to Russia, and then lumping all critics of U.S. war-making with Russia and, thereby, with Trump. “For all of Black history on this continent, Black people have been supremely skeptical of the motives of the…
Quarantine (VII): The Restless Neoliberal Dream
Reinaldo Iturriza López Neoliberalism from below In a very schematic way, I would say that the contribution of Veronica Gago in her extraordinary work La razón neoliberal, involves: the recovery of the concepts of governmentality and biopolitics (Foucault) as a starting point for thinking about the question of neoliberalism; the problematization of the concept of…
Quarantine (VI): On the Socialist Art of Governance
Reinaldo Iturriza López To Govern Socially When, in June 2010 (1), I first made use of the concept of governmentality, I did so in order to pose a question that seemed crucial and urgent at the time: what does it mean to govern socially? At that time I identified at least three situations: On the…
Democratize the Land, Empower the People: A Conversation with Zuleima Vergel
Cira Pascual Marquina and Zuleima Vergel Zuleima Vergel is the international relations liaison of the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ). In this interview, she walks us through the current situation in rural Venezuela and examines the formation of the National Productive Alliance, a CRBZ initiative that seeks to respond to the crisis while democratizing…
Strike at the Helm at Seven: Lessons and Challenges for Venezuela
Ricardo Vas A conference dedicated to the seventh anniversary of former President Hugo Chávez’s last public address, known as “Strike at the Helm” (Golpe de Timón) was held in Caracas last Saturday, October 19. The event was organised by the Encuentro de Lucha Popular platform, which looks to bring together grassroots movements throughout the country,…
Chavez, Our Collective Construction: A Conversation with Carlos Carles
Cira Pascual Marquina and Carlos Carles Carlos Carles is one of the key figures in Comunidades Al Mando/Proyecto Nuestra America (Communities Leading/Latin America Project), a combative, multidisciplinary organization that was founded, according to Carles’ poetic interpretation, some 527 years ago. Comunidades Al Mando operates in diverse spheres, from productive projects (running bakeries, chocolate workshops, and…
Hugo Chávez’s Coup de Timón: Beyond the Famous “Comuna o Nada”
Today is the seventh anniversary of that memorable council of ministers led by Commander Chavez, which became known as the Coup de Timón. The electoral victory of October 7, 2012, in which Chávez had defeated Capriles Radonsky by more than a million votes, was still fresh. The country was full of hope, of joy. We…
Socialist Feminism and the Communal State
Blanca Eekhout and María Fernanda Barreto Blanca Eekhout is the Minister of People’s Power for the Communes and Social Movements of Venezuela and a woman linked to revolutionary militancy long before President Hugo Chávez came to power, whose team she was part of. Eekhout has been a member of parliament, leader of the United Socialist…
Social Reproduction: A Theoretical Framework with Organizing Potential
Hannah Dickinson Bioretention Gardens in Detroit. Source: University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. The following article first appeared in Breaking the Chains magazine, which you can purchase here. Cooking meals, accessing healthcare, doing the laundry, caring for children and the elderly, and taking out the trash are daily activities. We rarely think of…
Venezuela’s Altos de Lídice Commune
“We need to transcend to the communal government…to the structures of communal power, popular power, self-government, communal auditing, and general self-management.” Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías Álo Presidente Teórico N. 1 June 11, 2009 The Altos de Lídice Commune is an urban commune located in western Caracas. Formed less than two years ago, the commune emerged…
