Social missions and revolutionary neighborhoods
By
Dante Strobino
Caracas, Venezuela
Published Sep 3, 2005 7:50 PM
Members of social
movements from all over the world recently convened in Caracas, Venezuela, for
the World Festival of Youth and Students. Here we witnessed this country’s
revolutionary socialist process, and can now bring our observations and insight
back home to continue the struggle for the liberation of the international
working class and oppressed peoples.
The revolution in Venezuela is on the
move, with missions and social programs developing mechanisms to promote full
participation by the masses of people.
The neighborhoods are being
organized, with women’s leadership. A direct democracy responsible to the
needs of the people is being created.
There are currently 11 social
“misiones” being implemented throughout the country. One
revolutionary program has brought doctors, mostly Cuban, to indigenous and Black
people, children, women and the elderly who had previously never been given this
level of medical attention. The program incorporates social security, free
medical care, sports and education.
On Aug. 20-21 President Hugo Chavez
traveled to Cuba to attend the ceremonies for the first graduating class of
several thousand Cuban-trained Venezuelan doctors.
Mission Robinson
promises thousands of previously uneducated people, young and old, an education
through the high-school level. Subjects are determined based on the
community’s needs, for example sex-education courses. When we asked
Matilde Coromoto—whom everyone calls Mrs. Robinson because of her vital
role in the mission—about the sex-education classes, she told us that
there is an entire class dedicated to this subject throughout elementary and
middle school. That’s quite unlike the one-year courses given in the
United States that often only teach abstinence.
Mission Sucre carries this
education fur ther, taking higher education to all corners of the country. Here
in the capital city of Caracas, a Bolivarian University was esta blished to
defend the revolution. The Bolivarian University’s classes, which charge
no tuition fees, are based on
“municipalization.”
Municipalization allows students hands -on
practice in the community, to more deeply develop their skills, rather limiting
them to the theoretical, classroom-oriented education models the United States
inherited from France and Russia.
Since these missions were implemented,
illiteracy has been virtually eradicated. Unemployment has plummeted. Houses are
being built for the working poor, giving people both houses and jobs in the
public construction industry.
Another mission, Plan Mercal, promises to
keep the people fed by providing stores with half-priced and free food. This
plan has also brought “Casas de Ali men taciones” to the
neighborhoods that need them most.
These facilities cook and serve
hundreds of free meals every day. Often these same facilities are used for
collectivized child care. While the parents work, their kids hang out and get
fed.
One neighborhood—23 de Enero, named for the date in 1958 when
the territory was liberated from the reactionary rule of the president at the
time, Marcos Perez Jimenez—has been fight ing for years to maintain its
autonomy. In the late 1950s, Jimenez himself recognized the terrible living
conditions, including “chozas” or huts made of wood and tin. He had
entire neighborhoods rebuilt with more stable housing made of concrete and then
the people threw him out of power, a real example of how capitalist
infrastructure can be reappropriated.
The original organizing in 23 de
Enero was based on principles of eliminating crimes such as theft, drugs and
violence. The people did this by becoming intimate and open with all family and
community members. This openness and familiarity laid the basis for social
cohesion and solidarity.
Recently 23 de Enero has been able to
demilitarize slightly because its grassroots style of organizing is being
recognized and emulated by other neighborhoods. They now can take off their
masks and live in a beautiful, safe, free space.
The walls are covered in
murals commemorating their revolutionary teachers such as Jose Marti, Che
Guevara, Simon Bolivar and others such as Nestor who died in 1996 in armed
struggle defending the neighborhood. On the perimeter is a big mural of a bombed
plane, which condemns the terrorism of the United States and specifically that
of Wash ington-backed anti-Cuba terrorist Luis Posada Carilles.
In
neighborhood Caricuao, we were told about the newly emerging structure of
bottom-up decision making. The neighborhoods are organized so that they come
together to form “parroquias” that consist of 250-400 households.
Within these parroquias they establish issue-oriented committees. For instance
there are committees on water, health, food, transportation, education, and so
on.
Each parroquia has different committees based on its needs. If the
mayor and the reigning government do not give them facilities or resources they
need for some project, such as new roads or buses; then the committee can take
out a loan from the national bank to carry out the needed improvements. The
loans are given with no interest during the first two years and only 1 percent
interest the following years.
If these parroquias decide on something
collectively that should be defended, they themselves have the power to create
enforceable laws. This is truly bottom-up grassroots participatory
democracy.
Throughout Venezuela there are countless liberated and truly
inspirational neighborhoods where class consciousness, women’s power,
equality and sense of unity provide evidence that a better world is possible.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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