Commune or Nothing!

by Chris Gilbert (2023)

8/10

I have been fascinated by Venezuela’s experiment in socialism and both this book and Gilbert/Pascual’s recent Venezuela, the Present as Struggle are indispensable to understanding what is really going on there. Upon finishing this I wish the two books had been combined into one volume, as the theoretical exploration of this one greatly complements the ethnographic interview approach of the former.

There are two main criticisms I have of this book but neither is a dealbreaker:

1) I would have appreciated a more detailed economic analysis of how the depicted communes function. How are inputs acquired and how are outputs distributed? What does the balance sheet look like and what is the rate of expansion for these communes to add capacity and function to the community’s benefit? I understand Gilbert’s focus is more on political analysis, but in the spirit of educating the rest of us I really would have liked to see the inner workings and a sustainability analysis.

2) Gilbert does a decent job of discussing the struggles and drawbacks of the communal approach as implemented in Venezuela, but for a truly well-rounded analysis I would have liked to hear what the movement’s critics have to say. Certainly there are some intelligent people in Venezuela who do not believe the communal approach is correct, or are skeptical that they are accomplishing anything. I would like to hear those perspectives as well, not because I myself am skeptical but because I want to believe in the movement even more strongly than I currently do. I guess what I’m saying is this book falls a little short where self-criticism is concerned.

I personally am convinced that Venezuelans are on the right track, although I am very fearful that their less radical government will end up destroying the movement. I also see this as a fascinating combination of Leninism, Maoism and Guevarism, and quite possibly the logical evolution of all Marxism in the 21st century (Istvan Meszaros certainly thought so). Here you have a vanguard party (Lenin) with an appeal to the peasantry (Mao), but also with a growing emphasis on Che’s communes, and the main obstacle seems to be that the vanguard party is not sufficiently delegating productive authority to the communes.

Overall these two books should be considered mandatory reading by all leftists (who are frequently criticized for not having a concrete vision of how society should work). Venezuelans are conducting the premiere real-time experiment in reshaping society, and any good leftist should be desperate for as many data points as possible to evaluate their progress.