Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below

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In Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below Dario Azzellini offers an account of the Bolivarian Revolution from below with extensive empirical examples and original voices from movements, communal councils, communes and workers. ‎Contents......Page 5 ‎Acknowledgements......Page 9 ‎Abbreviations......Page 10 ‎Chapter 1. Introduction......Page 13 ‎1. Venezuela’s Specific Path......Page 16 ‎2. The Dilemma of the State......Page 18 ‎3. Two-Track Construction......Page 21 ‎4. Local Self-Government, Communal Councils (CCs), and Communes......Page 23 ‎5. Cooperatives, Co-Management, Self-Management, and Workers’ Control......Page 24 ‎6. The Revolution without Chávez......Page 27 ‎1. Updating the Concept of Class......Page 30 ‎1.1. Theoretical Notes on Class and Multitude......Page 32 ‎1.2. Class Composition and Breadth in Venezuela......Page 37 ‎2. Socio-Territorial Segregation and Class Formation......Page 43 ‎3. From Taking Power to Process: Constituent Power and Popular Power......Page 45 ‎3.1. Crisis as a Motor of History: Constituent Power vs. Constituted Power......Page 47 ‎3.2. The Popular Constituent Process......Page 53 ‎3.3. The Simultaneity of Foci: Resistance, Insurrection and Constituent Power......Page 60 ‎3.4. Popular Power: The Knowledge of Resistance......Page 61 ‎Chapter 3. Movements and Alternative Construction in Venezuela......Page 64 ‎1. Social Movements or Popular Movements?......Page 69 ‎2. The Historical Current for Change and the Ruptures of the Continuum......Page 74 ‎3. The New Framework of Action......Page 78 ‎4. Popular Actors and Autonomous Construction......Page 82 ‎4.1. The Bolívar and Zamora Revolutionary Current......Page 83 ‎4.2. The Settlers’ Movement......Page 85 ‎4.3. National Network of Communards......Page 88 ‎Chapter 4. The Communal Councils: Local Self-Administration and Social Transformation......Page 93 ‎1. The Origins of the CCs and Their Antecedents in Local Participation......Page 96 ‎1.1. Participatory Budgeting......Page 97 ‎1.2. The Failed CLPP Initiative......Page 98 ‎1.3. Metropolitan Council for Planning Public Policies (CMPPP)......Page 101 ‎1.4. The Municipal Constituent......Page 102 ‎1.5. The Local Work Cabinets in Caracas......Page 104 ‎2. The Communal Councils......Page 105 ‎2.1. The Genesis of the CCs......Page 108 ‎2.2. Makeup and Structure......Page 110 ‎2.3. Rigid Law and Flexible Praxis......Page 112 ‎2.4. Financing and Financial Administration......Page 114 ‎2.5. Projects......Page 117 ‎2.6. Decentralisation or Centralisation......Page 119 ‎2.7. Development, Situation, and Contradictions......Page 120 ‎2.8. Relationship between CCs and Institutions......Page 124 ‎2.9. CCs and Popular Movements......Page 129 ‎2.10. Relations between CCs and Communities......Page 131 ‎2.11. The Appropriation of CCs by Communities and the Question of the State......Page 134 ‎3. The CCs as a Means of Participation in the Barrios of Caracas......Page 136 ‎3.1. The ‘Emiliano Hernández’ Communal Council, Magallanes de Catia, Caracas......Page 138 ‎3.2. The CC as a Body of Self-Administration......Page 140 ‎3.3. Participation as a Process of Development and of Social Recognition......Page 145 ‎3.4. New Social Relations and Community Transformation......Page 149 ‎3.5. Participation as a Process of Democratisation and of Building Collectivity......Page 150 ‎3.6. The CC ‘Unidos por el Chapulún’, Parroquia Nuestra Sra. del Rosario, Baruta......Page 157 ‎3.7. CCs in Caracas: Conclusions......Page 160 ‎3.8. Participation......Page 161 ‎3.9. Relationship between Communities and Institutions......Page 164 ‎Chapter 5. New Collective Business Paradigms......Page 169 ‎1. Cooperatives......Page 174 ‎1.1. Roots of Cooperativism in Venezuela......Page 175 ‎1.2. Governmental Policies of Support for Cooperatives......Page 176 ‎1.3. Limitations of State Support for Cooperatives......Page 177 ‎1.4. Internal Organisation of Cooperatives......Page 179 ‎1.5. The Problematisation of Cooperativism......Page 181 ‎2.1. Private Enterprise and Co-Management......Page 184 ‎2.2. Co-Management in State Businesses......Page 185 ‎2.3. Social Production Companies......Page 188 ‎Chapter 6. Workers’ Control, Workers’ Councils, and Class Struggle......Page 190 ‎1. Recuperated Companies and Nationalisation......Page 193 ‎2. Workers’ Control and Workers’ Councils......Page 200 ‎2.1. The Movement for Workers’ Control......Page 203 ‎2.2. The Socialist Workers’ Councils......Page 207 ‎2.3. The CVG and the 2009–19 Socialist Guayana Plan......Page 211 ‎3. Workers’ Control: The Example of Inveval......Page 214 ‎3.1. From the Struggle for Pay to the Struggle for the Factory......Page 215 ‎3.2. The Workers Abandon the Cooperative and Form a Council......Page 217 ‎4. Alcasa: Class Struggle for Productive Transformation against Bureaucracy and Corruption......Page 220 ‎4.1. Revolutionary Co-Management......Page 221 ‎4.2. The Victory of Bureaucracy and Corruption......Page 224 ‎4.3. Workers’ Control Returns......Page 226 ‎4.4. The Organisational Structure of the New Alcasa......Page 228 ‎4.5. Worker Inventiveness Workshops......Page 232 ‎4.6. The Alcasa Initiatives and the Institutional Embargo......Page 233 ‎4.7. The Attack on Workers’ Control and the Negation of the Socialist Guayana Plan......Page 235 ‎5. New Struggles for Workers’ Control......Page 239 ‎6. Approaching the Issue of New Worker Subjectivities in the Context of Participation and Class Struggle......Page 244 ‎6.1. Horizontality in the Factory and Change Throughout Society......Page 249 ‎6.2. The New Collective Self......Page 253 ‎Chapter 7. Communes, Production, and the Communal State......Page 255 ‎1.1. Origin and Form......Page 256 ‎1.2. Communes and Constituted Power......Page 260 ‎2. Companies of Communal Social Property and the Construction of a Communal Economy......Page 264 ‎3. Communal State: State or Non-State?......Page 270 ‎Chapter 8. Local and Worker Self-Management, Two-Track Construction, and Class Struggle: A Preliminary Assessment......Page 275 ‎1. The Bolivarian Process and Class Struggle......Page 279 ‎2. Communal Councils, Communes, and Communal State......Page 280 ‎3. Property Models, the Administration of the Means of Production, and Class Struggle......Page 283 ‎4. Nationalisation, Workers’ Control, and the Socialist Workers’ Councils......Page 286 ‎5. The Relation of Constituent and Constituted Power to Class Struggle......Page 291 ‎Macro Actors (Labour and Production)......Page 293 ‎Inveval, Valve Factory, Carrizal, Miranda......Page 294 ‎Macro Actors (Communal Councils)......Page 295 ‎Communal Council ‘Emiliano Hernández’, Magallanes de Catia, Caracas......Page 296 ‎Communes......Page 297 ‎References......Page 298 ‎Index......Page 313