Jorge Arreaza, Minister of People’s Power for Communes and Social Protection, said during the launch of the national deployment for public consultation towards the transformation of the laws of People’s Power, that said revision of the regulations, which he highlighted as profoundly revolutionary, must ensure that the laws whose content is under debate “and those that arise, and the system of laws of the Popular Power… the others of the Venezuelan legal system… result in a substantially more democratic legal system that promotes community self-management… self-government ».
The minister assured that there has been a good debate regarding the revision of the laws and assured that “there are laws that are very general that are declarations of principle, there are others that are very complex… others contradict each other… there are laws that contemplate the transfers and the annual plans” so that they reach the People’s Power “but we have not carried them out… perhaps there has been a lack of will, circumstances have also conspired against it,” he said.
He also pointed out the financing laws and said that although Banco Bicentenario supports the communes, this is not the case with the rest of the system “how our community members stop to obtain financing, a loan… how many procedures, references, guarantees are requested », he questioned and pointed out as neuralgic points «the economic management model, the property issue; which is the great issue of socialism after all» and asked «how can the value of work in a company of social production be measured today; of social property, in this historical moment».
Institutional Resistance
Minister Arreaza urged to elucidate how to break the institutional resistance that hinders the application of the laws in favor of Popular Power, and indicated that the sector vice president of Planning, Ricardo Menéndez “has proposals on how to gradually incorporate Popular Power so that it is a priority and facilitate access to the benefit of the laws for communal production and the development of the communes.
Arreaza referred to the example of a community textile enterprise in Antímano, Caracas, with a large capacity for the production of school uniforms for students, not only from their sector but from other locations, for whom an advance of resources was needed “to to be able to put the sewing and cutting machines in good condition” and explained that the financing “due to the blockade (financial and diplomatic against Venezuela from the US and its allies) and the cuts was very difficult to obtain… they finally gave us a report,” He said and referred that this situation contrasted with the ability of private companies to finance their production, to the detriment of the communal economy.
“How difficult it is to give financing to these compañeras, these compañeros (producers of the communal economy) so that they can bear the initial weight (of their ventures) and with capital get ahead,” said the minister.
Laws applied and transformed in praxis
The head of Communes indicated that any law can be transformed only from praxis, and not from the ministerial offices, “the comuneros have to say what have been the obstacles that the law has presented, the barriers that the law has could break” and emphasized knowing how from the People’s Power “they have resolved things in a different way than what the law says, because legally it cannot be… and they have turned it around,” he said.
He urged the creation of regulations emulating the actions taken by those who have solved the knots that the laws have “based on experiences that have come forward.”
“You have to make a map of the relationship of laws,” he pointed out and recalled that the deputy Julio Chávez, from the most recent constituent process, invited to create a code of laws of the People’s Power, and invited to add that solution to the popular consultation .
He also pointed out that there is a form of virtual participation so that all community members and any of the citizens who live in the territory of a commune can participate in the transformation process from any corner of the country, without the need to go to the debates in person. .
Arreaza assured President Nicolás Maduro that “we must listen to them (who give life to the communal economy) in the first place, because only they can give us the formulas to advance definitively in socialism in the territorial that is the great contribution of Commander Chávez and that you (President Maduro) are carrying forward and continuing in this historic moment for humanity.”
