The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy

The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy

The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy [The Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, which has deep roots in 23 de Enero barrio (an area in a town that is inhabited by poor people) in Caracas (capital of Venezuela), began planning a commune years before Chavez even proposed the communal path toward socialism. Yet, when…

New Wings for Socialism

New Wings for Socialism

New Wings for Socialism Seventeen years ago, in 1990, I began an essay with a poem of Bertolt Brecht.  It was a poem about a man in Europe in the Middle Ages who put on “things that looked like wings,” climbed to the roof of a church, and tried to fly.  He crashed, and the…

Building Productive Workers’ Army in Venezuela

Building Productive Workers’ Army in Venezuela

Building Productive Workers’ Army in Venezuela A conversation with Sergio Requena of the Productive Workers’ Army . Born in 1974 in Puerto Ordaz, in the industrial heartland of Venezuela, Sergio Requena is a worker at CVG Carbonorca (state-owned plant producing anodes, a component needed to process aluminum). He is a key player in the formation…