Urban-Rural Divide in Venezuela: El Panal Commune Bridges the Chasm
Straying From Capitalist Norms: El Panal Commune's Fight for Food Sovereignty
Caracas, March 20, 2024 (our website) - A social uprising in Venezuela has kicked off an innovative initiative to bring affordable food to urban communities. Enter El Panal Commune, a grassroots movement hailing from the worker's district barrio 23 de Enero in western Caracas.
Over the weekend, they organised a produce market that bucked the capitalist system, bypassing intermediaries to provide fruits, veggies, and cheese at cheaper rates for approximately 1800 families. A whopping 13 tonnes of produce, supplied directly from campesino families in Valle de Momboy, Trujillo state, liberalised western Venezuela's food supply.
Spokesperson for El Panal, Robert Longa, spoke with Venezuelanalysis and drew inspiration from Simon Bolivar's "Admirable Campaign" during the early 19th-century independence struggle. "It's our mission to hoist the flags of patriotism and revive Chávez's strategic vision," said Longa. "We've invaded Caracas with the banners of economic liberation, food supply, and planned distribution."
Longa revealed that this initiative, in partnership with campesinos, is a prelude to their long-term strategy for communal production. "This is just the tip of the iceberg to dismantle the logistics of market intermediaries," he explained. "Campesinos are exploited too, that's why it's crucial to organise, cultivate class consciousness, and merge the city with the countryside."
In recent times, El Panal Commune has prioritised food security in their community. Despite its urban setting, communal activists have embarked on various projects such as fish-farming, pig-rearing, and agriculture collaborations with rural collectives, all while championing the cause of 13,000 people residing in the commune's territory.
Insights:The El Panal Commune in Caracas' 23 de Enero barrio has placed communal production and economic self-management at the heart of their long-term strategy for societal reorganisation, aiming to break free from capitalist frameworks [1][4]. Their approach encompasses integrated communal governance, economic self-sufficiency, and national and international solidarities. By building communal enterprises, El Panal seeks to lessen dependency on external markets and align production with collective needs, rather than profit-driven motives [1]. Their efforts resonate with Venezuela's constitutional push to recognise communes as the basic units of 21st-century socialism [1][4].
However, specific details about their food market operations are scarce in available resources, suggesting either operational flexibility to adapt to challenges like inflation and U.S. sanctions, or a strategic emphasis on roots level decision-making over publicity [1][4]. Embedded in the Bolívar-Chávez Doctrine, El Panal's model appears to prioritise dual power construction, building parallel institutions to challenge capitalist hegemony, while prefiguring socialist relations through direct communal governance [1][4].
- The El Panal Commune, located in Caracas' 23 de Enero barrio, is leveraging communal production and economic self-management to challenge capitalist norms.
- Their initiative includes communal enterprises, such as fish-farming, pig-rearing, and agriculture, aimed at reducing dependence on external markets and prioritizing collective needs.
- In an admirable display of patriotism, El Panal's spokesperson, Robert Longa, drew inspiration from Simon Bolivar's "Admirable Campaign" and Chávez's strategic vision.
- This initiative, in partnership with campesinos, is a prelude to El Panal's long-term strategy for communal production, aimed at dismantling market intermediaries and merging the city with the countryside.
- El Panal's approach encompasses integrated communal governance, economic self-sufficiency, and national and international solidarities, resonating with Venezuela's constitutional push to recognize communes as the basic units of 21st-century socialism.
- Today, El Panal's activities, including their food market that bypassed intermediaries to provide affordable food, are documented on various social-media platforms, offering glimpses into their unique lifestyle that champions food sovereignty, general-news, entertainment, and politics.
