London launch event for George Ciccariello-Maher’s Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela
Thursday 2nd March 18:30 at London
Waterstones Gower Street
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The Pink Tide of leftist governments that have swept across Latin America have become increasingly crisis prone in the past year. None have encapsulated this in the Western imagination as much as Venezuela. But, what is really going on in the country? Join George Ciccariello-Maher, author of Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, in conversation with Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, reader in law at Birkbeck, University of London.
In Building the Commune, George Ciccariello-Maher travels through the experiments in radical democracy that sprung up over the past few decades and helped catapult Chavez into power. In Venezuela, poor barrio residents arose in a mass rebellion against neoliberalism, ushering in a government that institutionalized the communes already forming organically. Assessing the projects’ successes and failures, Building the Commune provides lessons and inspiration for the radical movements of today.
Tickets are £6 (£4 Concessions) and can redeemed against the purchase of the book on the night. For any further information please call the store on 0207 636 1577
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Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela
by George Ciccariello-Maher
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2337-building-the-commune
Since 2011, a wave of popular uprisings has swept the globe, taking shape in the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, 15M in Spain, and the anti-austerity protests in Greece. The demands have been varied, but have expressed a consistent commitment to the ideals of radical democracy.
Similar experiments began appearing across Latin America twenty-five years ago, just as the left fell into decline in Europe. In Venezuela, poor barrio residents arose in a mass rebellion against neoliberalism, ushering in a government that institutionalized the communes already forming organically. In Building the Commune, George Ciccariello-Maher travels through these radical experiments, speaking to a broad range of community members, workers, students and government officials. Assessing the projects’ successes and failures, Building the Commune provides lessons and inspiration for the radical movements of today.
