How Marx Understood Communes and Anti-Colonial Dimensions

This is a free preview of the episode "Venezuela Pt. 2: Socialist Communes and Anti-Imperialism w/ Chris Gilbert." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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In Part 2 of our ongoing series on Venezuela, Chris Gilbert joins us to discuss Venezuela's socialist communes from a Marxist, anti-imperialist perspective. Chris Gilbert is a professor at Venezuela's Bolivarian University and a writer based in Caracas. Grounded in a Marxist perspective, his research includes communes, socialist strategy, social reproduction theory, and imperialism. He's the author of Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and its Socialist Project and Venezuela, the Present as Struggle: Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution with Cira Pascual Marquina. He's also a co-host of the Marxist educational podcast and television program Escuela de Cuadros.

In this episode, we open with a discussion on the socialist commune itself and what Marx had to say about communes as they relate to socialism before we examine the Venezuelan commune movement, distinguishing it from the hippy communes of popular culture and also from more anarchist-inspired communes like the Zapatista Autonomous Regions in Chiapas or the communes of Rojava. We discuss the way the Bolivarian revolution unfolded from the early 1990s to the present and the role that communes have played in laying the foundations for anti-imperialism and socialism. In the second half of the conversation we take a look at current events, taking stock of the Trump administration's escalation of aggression and tackling the narrative of Venezuela as a narco-state, the Trump administration's obsession with Tren de Aragua, and more.  

Further resources:

• Chris Gilbert's website and books
• "Socialist Communes and Anti-Imperialism: The Marxist Approach," by Chris Gilbert
• A Special Issue on Communes in Socialist Construction, by Chris Gilbertand Cira Pascual Marquina
• The staggering death toll of Western sanctions, Jason Hickel
• Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government, by Gregory Wilpert 
•  Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, by Geo Maher

Related episodes:

• Listen to our ongoing series on Venezuela
• Listen to our ongoing series on China
• Listen to our onging series on the Alliance of Sahel States
• Marx's Capital Vol. 1 w/ David Smith
• Marx's Capital Vol. 2 w/ Richard Wolff and Shahram Azhar
• [UNLOCKED] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh
• Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill
• Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations, by Vijay Prashad
• Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero

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