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Translated from the Spanish version published at Comunes.
Ian Curr, Ed., 15 Jan 2024.
[Translator’s note: A new organisation has been launched by various revolutionary trade union and community activists amid the fallout of Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election. Named La Corriente de lxs Comunes, often shortened to Corriente Comunes or simply Comunes, the literal translation is The Current of the Common People. But the name is a play on words in several senses. Comunes can be a plural of common (común), as in common people, or refer to the commons. Corriente translates to current, which can refer to a stream or a political tendency. Moreover, the phrase “común y corriente” is used in a similar way to “common and everyday”, as in “common and everyday people”. In the translation of the article and political document below, the words comunes and corriente have in some places been left in Spanish to take note of this double meaning.]
Translated from the Spanish version published at Comunes.
A new left-wing political organisation was announced at a media conference at the Central University of Venezuela on December 9, with spokespeople for the group calling on the country to organise to confront the government’s repressive authoritarianism, neoliberal economic policies and attacks on working people’s rights. According to Comunes, the people are sick and tired of the government’s privileges and abuses, as well as its attacks on human rights enshrined in the constitution.
At the same time, they said the right-wing opposition only offers false promises while supporting economic sanctions and soliciting foreign intervention in Venezuelans’ affairs. According to Comunes, both the government and right-wing opposition represent the interests of elites and stand against the genuine interests of common and everyday (común y corriente) working people. They say Comunes seeks to restore democracy and respect for the human rights contained in the constitution, through people’s self-activity and by uniting struggles.
Community activist and Comunes spokesperson Thaís Rodriguez said: “We are constructing a strategy from below. We know the fundamental problems we face as a nation and what our key theoretical, practical and organisational challenges are.”
Comunes spokespeople called on people to regain hope and confidence. Trade union leader Eduardo Sánchez said: “We believe that the immediate task we face is to resist authoritarianism, defend democratic spaces, recuperate confidence in our own strength, take to the streets once again, and initiate and promote popular struggles for just wages, respect for human rights, for social justice, to restore popular sovereignty and defend the constitution.”
Sanchez added that the Venezuelan people have the right to dream and struggle for a better country, “a country that our children can return to. One in which our grandparents do not suffer on starvation pensions. One in which workers receive the wages they deserve for their labour. A country for the people, not for the corrupt or rich.”
Asked about the results of the July 28 presidential elections and who they recognised as the winner, human rights campaigner and Comunes spokesperson Antonio Plessmann said the government has neither published the results nor carried out the audits required by law, causing a great deal of doubt over the legitimacy of the process. He said the results announced [by the National Electoral Council] do not reflect what the people saw and felt on the street. Therefore, Comunes believes that while Nicolás Maduro will de facto be the next president of Venezuela, he will not be viewed as a legitimate president among the Venezuelan people.