Dual power in the Venezuelan revolution

Monthly Review

Volumn 59, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 42-56

  Ciccariello Maher, George ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34848900434     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-059-04-2007-08_4     Document Type: Review

References (24)

1. This and subsequent references are drawn from V. I. Lenin, "The Dual Power," Pravda, n. 28 (April 9, 1917), http://www.marx.org.
2. Of course, Lenin also speaks of the class content of the Soviets, but this is not a criterion of any dual power per se. Rather, it explains the Soviets' antagonistic relation to the bourgeois Provisional Government. It is a basic premise of my argument that dual power can be constituted in geographical - and not necessarily class-terms (although class is never absent, and often explains why certain sectors oppose the existing state). For an insightful discussion of Zapatista dual power which turns the concept explicitly toward autonomous municipalities, see Christopher Day, "Dual Power in the Selva Lacandon," in R. San Filippo, ed., A New World in Our Hearts (Oakland: AK Press, 2003), 17-31.
3. República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Asamblea Nacional, "Ley de los Consejos Comunales" (April 7, 2006).
4. "Consejos comunales han sido una experiencia exitosa," Últimas Noticias (April 7, 2007).
5. El Nacional, January 12, 2007.
6. Antonio Negri, Insurgencies, trans. M. Boscagli (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 268-292.
7. Here, Lenin appears as the high point in thinking about constituent power in the Western tradition. See also Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution, trans. C. Boudin (New York: Monthly Review, 2005), 41, where Chavez recalls reading Negri while in prison following the failed 1992 coup.
8. Despite being derived in some sense from Negri's philosophy, in what follows I will be more interested in how the concept of constituent power is used in Venezuela than what it means for Negri. In fact, once placed in its context, the Venezuelan understanding of constituent power is arguably closer to Enrique Dussel's formulation of potentia against potestas, which resists exaggerating the opposition between these two terms, instead emphasizing the need to work toward a disalienation of institutional structures and representation. See his 20 tesis de la política (Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 2006)
9. forthcoming in English as 20 Theses on Politics, trans. G. CiccarielloMaher.
10. Asociación Bolivariana de Noticias, "Ejecutivo asignará más de Bs. 590 millardos para consejos comunales" (February 15, 2007).
11. For Dussel, revocable mandates are the key to the radical nature of the Venezuelan Revolution. See Articles 6, 70, and 72 of the Bolivarian Constitution, as well as Dussel, 20 tesis, 147-49. Later this year, some 208 elected officials-from state governors to municipal mayors-could be subject to recall, depending on the capacity of their opponents to collect the requisite number signatures.
12. "No más de 6 millones para altos funcionarios," Panorama Digital January 12, 2007).
13. Últimas Noticias (April 17, 2007).
14. Hugo Chávez Frías, ¡Aló Presidente! no. 216 (March 20, 2005).
15. In this sense, I disagree with Christopher Day's conclusions in his discussion of Zapatista dual power ("Dual Power in the Selva Lacandon"). While Day can be credited with emphasizing the tensions that emerge when military strategy is at issue, he seems to welcome the monopoly of violence too readily.
16. Asociación Bolivariana de Noticias, "Consejos comunales se incorporarán a comités de Seguridad y Defensa" (February 28, 2007).
17. Interview on José Vicente Hoy (March 4, 2007).
18. For a similar if less assertive argument, see Steve Ellner, "Las estrategias 'desde arriba' y 'desde abajo' del movimiento de Hugo Chávez," Cuadernos del CENDES 23, no. 62 (May-August 2006), 73-93.
19. This and subsequent quotations drawn from Movimiento Revolucionario Tupamaro, "Manifiesto del Movimiento Revolucionario Tupamaro al Pueblo en General," July 19, 2003.
20. Roland Denis, "Revolución vs. Gobierno (III): De la Izquierda Social a la Izquierda Política," Proyecto Nuestramérica- Movimiento B de Abril (August 11, 2006).
21. Mónica Bergos, "Es necesario ir más allá de la vigente Constitución bolivariana," Periódico Diagonal 42 (November 23-December 4, 2007). Denis claims that his eventual removal from the ministry was the result of a powerful reaction by conservative sectors of the Venezuelan state and Chavista movement.
22. Eleazar Diaz Rangel, "José Vicente Rangel: 'Chavéz es el antipoder,'" Últimas Noticias (February 11, 2007), 40-41.
23. José Vicente Rangel, "Contrapoder," Últimas Noticias (April 16, 2007), 26.
24. See for example the recent "debate on power," including thinkers such as John Holloway, Hilary Wainwright, Tariq Ali, and Phil Hearse, http://marxsite.com.