FIJI: Municipal Councils - Door to Participatory Democracy

Municipal councils – door to participatory democracy

5-Dec-2008
Source: http://fijidailypost.com/editorial.php?date=20081205

MUNICIPAL councils have lately come under the close scrutiny of the government. Apart from a state-sponsored review, the councils have been regularly advised by the government to clean up their halls and initiate changes.

Municipal councils are aptly categorised as ‘local government’. They operate much like a national government and with similar rules and procedures as practised by a parliament.

So, councils behave like a mini-government, responsible for their own specific municipalities of local area of jurisdiction.

Women’s rights advocate and coordinator of femLINPACIFIC, Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls says municipal councils “provide a critical entry point” for local participatory-based decision-making and “a tangible entry point for women’s involvement in politics.”

She is spot on. Councils do offer at the local community level a door to participatory democracy and politics, both for municipal citizens and leaders who regularly vie for councillorship.

These local governments also offer aspiring politicians the ideal training ground and experience for participation in the larger, ex-local, arena of politics.

In fact, in many countries including Fiji, local government representatives have gone on to become successful politicians at the national level.

The Local Government Review initiative should consider improve this gate to national politics and representative democracy.

It would be good to encourage more youths and women into local government. Municipal councils need to be refreshed with these groups.

Our municipal councils are always dominated by older men. Some have spent umpteen years holding on to power. They appear not interested in relinquishing their positions to a younger generation or stepping aside to ease the congestion in the corridors of power.

No disrespect to our aging leaders, but the world is changing so fast and we need to catch up. It’s time to pass on the baton of leadership to a younger and dynamic generation that would be better in-tuned to the demands of the 21st century.

Moreover, local government provides opportunity for people to participate in the democratic process.

Eligible voters in municipal elections are better tuned to democratic representation through the experience of regularly voting for their local area politicians.

An interim cabinet decision this week will see a pause in the democratic process in local government. The term of all municipals councils will cease on January 31, 2009 to allow an earlier cabinet decision to extend the Local Government Review initiative.

The interim government will then appoint transitional municipal councils and administrators which will see the adoption of the recommendations of the review.

This is good initiative, all in the name of improving local governance and ensuring that the interests of all stakeholders are met.

It would be ideal if the transitional councils and administrators are appointed through the consensus of all these stakeholders. Even if the interim government is reluctant to do this, it should at least be transparent about the appointment process they will undertake.

Hopefully, the interim government and the review committee consider the significance of local government being a breeding ground for participatory democracy and politics.

VENEZUELA: Direct Democracy - The Case of the Consejos Comunales

Venezuelan Direct Democracy – The case of the Consejos Comunales

November 21st 2008, by Michael Albert and Adam Gill - ZNet
Source: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3967

In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez created a movement named the consejos comunales (communal councils) aimed at creating more responsive local governance by handing local budgetary and legislative power to the councils. This movement was seen by Chavez as one of the most important of the five motors of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution' in that they should influence policy from the grassroots upwards. Great interest in the councils was evident between 2004 and 2007 in that thousands formed quickly and $5 Billion was given to them during this period. Communal banks are a pre-requisite to receiving funds from the government so as to avoid clientalistic relationships of dependency.

Local councils have the power to vote on issues directly affecting their community and have used this to make significant changes. Major improvements have included building social housing and repairing roads. The local councils are formed with 200-400 families with members aged 15 and above and have an executive council and representatives of groups within the community.

I asked Michael Albert if he might be able to offer his opinion on this movement in Venezuela.

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What do you feel the role of the Communal Councils is strategically and politically?

Well, I believe they are partly intended, in the present, to push forward the whole revolutionary process by increasing current participation, raising consciousness, etc.

But I also believe that for a great many folks in Venezuela, both inside and outside the government, the councils are the evolving infrastructure of a new polity. The idea is that people should govern their own lives, and in that context local councils are the proposed vehicle for doing it. As such, they are intended to become an alternative to rather than just being an adjunct to local governments of mayors and governors and the like.

Would you say the councils have created social change or more that their energies are being pulled in other directions?

I don't feel very equipped to answer this question, and I am not entirely sure, in any case, what you mean by "other directions." I can judge only from a very great difference and based on talks with only a limited number of people what the councils are up to.

My impression, and it is tentative, is that the councils are a vast and evolving experiment and project, by no means final in form and by no means fully up to speed, but coming along, though many problems still exist. First, for example, there is a population which - like our population in the U.S - has almost zero experience prior to this experiment with serious democracy much less participatory self management. So the councils and their members are learning in practice, and for many people that has ups and downs. But second, and less benign, there are obstacles as well having to do not only with past habits or current doubts, but also with real opposition, as in local governing and corporate elites not wanting this experiment to work.

Venezuela seems to me to be uniquely seeking a gigantic revolution in structures and relations - not just economically but also politically, socially, culturally - all non violently and even without much confrontation, none provoked by the agents of change. That is historically ambitious, to say the least.

So in one corner you have corporate media continuing, and corporate ownership in many realms, and governors and mayors and whatnot from the prior history of the country, all also still in place, nearly all still hoping to resurrect that prior history. In the other corner you have the Bolivarian activists, and Chavez, and a large proportion of the non elite population, instead trying to escape that past into something fundamentally new.

Venezuala is, in other words, a daily economic, political, social, and cultural cauldron of experiment and opposition - and thus a site of intense struggle. Or that is how I see Venezuela, at any rate, and in that context the local communal councils are partly a tool of the struggle but are also partly seeds of a new future being built in the present.

Should Communal Councils be free of political party influence?

This depends, I think, on what you mean by party influence. So, for example, it wouldn't make sense to say there should be no party influence. Imagine a council with people in it, of course. Some people are in one party, some people are in another party. The parties they are in influence those people's desires (and vice versa). The people then bring their desires to the councils, so through their members the parties influence the councils as well. That much is fine, in my view. It would make no sense to say that shouldn't occur.

So, for example, there are councils in communities that are very Bolivarian, and they have views and aims quite like those of the Bolivarian revolution. There are other councils in communities that are opposed to Bolivarian projects, and those councils reflect those opposition views. The parties are in part carriers of the views and the people form parties, in turn, influence the councils.

On the other hand, I think you might mean should parties as entities be able to themselves direct or otherwise impact councils, other than by the fact of their members indirectly doing so. Here I think the answer is no, they should not be able to do that.

Your question is a bit like asking, in the U.S., should local government (just imagine, for the sake of the discussion, that it was actually grassroots and participatory) be in any way at all subject to instruction or control by political parties (other than being impacted by the local members of the community who happen to be in parties)? Well, of course it shouldn't, and ditto for Venezuela. A party should impact councils simply by impacting the population that composes the councils, but not by some sort of collective or structural authority.

Do you think that party influence and political movements still operate as clients of central governments?

I am not sure I understand this question. In Venezuela, at present, the Bolivarian revolution is very much a manifestation of the ideas and will of President Chavez. We might prefer that the movement had bubbled up, instead, from the population, and that Chavez was merely one among many carriers of their intentions - but that isn't the case. In fact, Chavez is constantly trying to impact what the population thinks and wants, not just to hear from it. The government is not only administering Venezuela, as it is seeking to use state power as a tool to build social involvement and activism. It is very unusual, of course.

So in that context, the recently created revolutionary party Chavez is in is certainly affected greatly by him, as are the social movements whose members typically consider him a repository of valuable ideas and plans, as is the government. Again, this is arguably not an optimal picture, and it is certainly an unusual one - a president seeking to build movements that will replace authorities, including the old government structures, including himself - at least that's the current agenda - throughout the country - but that is what is happening, or so it seems to me, from my admittedly limited contact.

Can the Communal Councils in your opinion, become the only form of local government in Venezuela? What obstacles do you perceive to be happening now and possibly in the future?

I certainly think that is possible, and that that is the goal, not just conceivable, at least in many people's minds, including in the relevant political ministries. I sat in offices and heard them explain their hopes for these councils becoming the seat of governing power throughout the country, describing the 50,000 councils that were needed - with about 30,000 currently formed - and describing the gains in confidence and methods also needed within the councils, and explaining that yes, these would be above majors and governors and even the President. So, yes, having them be the primary locus of government power is the aim. Might that aim be swept aside as a goal? Sure, it might. But it also might come true as a reality.

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VENEZUELA: The Struggle Continues

The following article dicusses some of the stumbling blocks in the process of bringing participatory democracy to Venezuela, while recognizing that the country is slowly advancing the transition of power and control of resources to the people. - Editor








Sounds of Venezuela: Part 8
Grass Roots Democracy

by Ron Ridenour / October 25th, 2008
Source: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/sounds-of-venezuela-part-8/

Participatory democracy: people actively organizing in the communities and attending meetings where local issues are discussed and solutions are proposed and voted on—is a major element of the Bolivarian Revolution. By August 2007, 2.2 million citizens were organized in 25,000 community councils (CC). In February 2008, community councils, their elected spokespersons and municipal officials and advisors engaged in lively meetings to evaluate progress and lay a course for the future. These meetings were followed by gatherings of two of the three largest and most important political parties backing this process: the new PSUV and Venezuela’s oldest, the Communist Party (PCV). I attended some of these events.

In Las Mercedes district, where I lived, nearly 100 members of five CCs gathered at a local hall. A large majority were women, mostly 40 years old and over. They met to consolidate their social organizing and take a position on a structural change proposal. Direct participation had allowed each CC to take individual directions but this was leading to a bit of chaos: differences in how to use resources, what programs took priority, which CC should house the local bank that distributes the funds allocated for community councils. Most of these funds come from the federal government, some from municipalities. These authorities were proposing that the structure be changed to accommodate a bit of centralization and control, which could lead to greater effectiveness.

I was surprised and impressed with how people openly complained about the failure of the municipal government to disseminate adequate information and provide basic training for community leadership and organizers, and about how people’s admiration for Chavez did not hinder several in objecting to the new proposal. A few rose in opposition to the mancomunidades proposal, which would bring several CCs inside an umbrella body that would work with authorities from “above” the individual CCs, as some viewed this.

“There is nothing in the law under which community councils operate that mandates such a direction,” said one opponent. “On the contrary, it speaks of direct power, and resources going directly to each council. Some of the municipal advisors are saying things here that is not the law, nor what Chavez has said.”

Another man spoke sharply from the podium:

“We lack training. We lack information from our local leaders. Some do not know how to manage administratively, either our projects or the moneys allocated. Too many of us are still driven by egoism. We have to learn how to motivate our councils, the spokespersons and our neighbors.”

The issue of where the bank administering CC funds should be located led to a hefty debate. The majority wished to move it from the CC where it was, because that council was not active and there was suspicion that the funds were not well utilized. Representatives from one council said the money they should have received was not forthcoming.

Solutions to these matters would be decided upon at another round of meetings and after street debate.

That evening I attended a local PSUV meeting. The main topic was the current round of CC meetings and the issue of mancomunidades. The general attitude among these one dozen members, mostly over 45 years old, was that “a small group tried to sabotage the assembly”, as the chairman characterized the protest. Not all were caught up in heavy-handed terminology and limited condemnations, and some saw the need to struggle internally to solve significant problems not being addressed by their local government. Among those was the lack of caring and adequate medical treatment at the hospital, which was raised by a retired doctor who volunteers at the local hospital.

After the meeting, five of us went to a café to imbibe in national brews. They asked my opinion on a variety of issues, and what did I see as the number one problem within the revolutionary process. I hesitated to render conclusions after such a short time observing, but they insisted. My spontaneous answer was: the lack of follow through.

Everyone agreed. Example after example plopped onto the wobbly table. I presented one and asked their opinion about the cause. I recalled what a young taxi driver had told me. As a supporter of the Chavez government, Gabriel had applied to take a Francisco Miranda course in Cuba. The idea behind this mission is to create a civilian cadre, which would form a military reserve for defense. The volunteers were often sent to Cuba to acquire a political understanding of revolution and some discipline. So far about 3000 had participated. My driver told me that when he returned from three months “enjoying the generous hospitality of Cubans, not the least the women”, there was nothing to incorporate into, there was no follow up at home. What little he considered he had learned in the brother nation he had forgotten with disuse. Gabriel was so disgruntled he said he would not vote for Rosa León again, albeit mayors have nothing to do with this mission.

Yes, that was all too familiar, the PSUV activists replied. “Lack of infrastructure; most people look after self-interests; some generals don’t want an independent militia; too much talk-not enough action.”

I encountered the same problem with the voceros. At the weekly meeting for all spokespersons of the more than 100 CCs, 17 showed up. They spoke about problems in advancing some projects, about too many activists meeting late or abstaining, problems balancing family, a job and volunteer work. One of the agenda items was an invitation for me to hold a lecture-seminar about communication, how to better reach people in the neighborhoods.

Many spoke enthusiastically about the need for learning. I could also offer advice about a newsletter soon to be launched. Agreement was reached on a day session with lunch and a date set. I prepared for this important initiative. I heard nothing in the week to come. The day before the event, I phoned the municipality’s paid coordinator of the voceros. Oh, he said evenly, no one arranged anything. He did not understand my disappointment and dismay of the frivolous manner of unfulfilling decisions.

Why is making a revolution so difficult?

Ah, imagine your neighbor Sarah. She gets her news from the national and international corporate media. She does what pleases her. If she doesn’t see the fun in doing something she doesn’t do anything. Yeah, we know a lot like her. It might even ring a bell inside. So, what does it take to have Sarah change into a person who wants to cooperate with many others, taking her time, using her energy to create something new, something great for everybody, if everybody works at it? Just what are the tools we need—mental and spiritual as well as physical and emotional ones—and how do we develop them? That is not so easy to conceive let alone practice and transform society in a few years, right?

Already, through the energy generated by the mass behind the committed leadership, wonders have been created. Alongside those I’ve portrayed earlier in these writings, is an essential and historical one. Vicente Vallenilla, the Venezuelan ambassador to Denmark, told me before I departed for his homeland:

“We say that what is happening now is real sovereignty, and for the first time in our history. We are taking our natural resources into our own hands. We are transforming from the sole objective of profit-making for a few to greater distribution of the wealth, commonly created, replacing the raw materialism of today with a more spiritual life tomorrow, one of sovereignty and independence, of wholeness in fellowship and, thus, happiness.”

GHANA: Non-Partisan Committee to Promote Participatory Democracy

Two articles about a newly formed local non-partisan oversight council in Ghana which has as a stated aim the promotion of participatory democracy. - Editor

APRM oversight committee inaugurated in Nkoranza

Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/regional/artikel.php?ID=151048

Donkro Nkwanta (B/A) Oct. 3 GNA - Mr Paul Baffoe-Ansah, Chairman of the Oversight Committee of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Governing Council in Nkoranza South District in Brong Ahafo has noted that the under-development of many African countries was due to the slave trade that took away energetic and reproductive youth to work in foreign lands. He called on African leaders to unite to enable them to come out with better ideas, policies and measures that would enhance the development of their countries. Mr Baffoe-Ansah, who is the Secretary of Nkoranza South branch of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), was addressing chiefs and people of Donkro Nkwanta at the inauguration of the oversight committee in the district. Other executives of the committee are the Reverend Emmanuel Osei, Vice Chairman, Miss Agartha Osei, Secretary and Mr Kwame Osei, Financial Secretary.

The rest are Miss Margaret Ankomah Mansah, Nana Amah Pokuaa, Mr Kwadwo Ansah, Miss Grace Baffoe and Mr Daniel Ohene Djan. Mr Baffoe-Ansah expressed regret about how coups d'etats and poor leadership had rendered some African countries unstable and advised Ghanaians not to allow partisan politics to divide the nation and stall its development. He explained that the APRM was a non-partisan body formed in the various communities to assist in promoting participatory democracy among the people so they could participate in the decision-making process. The District Chairman urged the Ghanaian leadership to let the welfare of the people and the country's development be a priority and to initiate policies that would help improve the living standards of the people.

Mr Baffoe-Ansah called for effective collaboration among political parties, traditional and religious authorities in organizing the people to contribute their quota towards national development. Mr Yaw Effah-Manu, District Director of National Commission for Civic Education, appealed to the nation's leadership to ensure that poverty, diseases and hunger were eradicated so the people could live comfortably. He urged the people to support the committee to achieve its target of promoting democracy in the country. Farmers at the forum appealed to the government to construct feeder roads to help them to convey their produce to marketing centres.

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KINTAMPO SOUTH:
MMDA’s cautioned

Source: http://www.ghanadistricts.com/news/?read=14961&PHPSESSID=7802d91b2e127ac7ccf221177d8418eb

The Chairman of the Governing Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Reverend Professor S.K. Adjepong, has cautioned Municipal and District assemblies against interfering in the activities of oversight committees of the council since they do not belong to any political party.

He was speaking at the inauguration of oversight committees for Kintampo North, Kintampo South and Nkoranza North districts at Kintampo.

“The committees are independent bodies challenged with the responsibility to find from the people their views about the governance of the nation, as stakeholders in national development”, he said.

The Rev Professor Adjepong explained that the APRM was aimed at monitoring and tracking the programmes of some African governments who are expected to give account of their stewardship to their people at a given period to enhance participatory democracy.

He urged members of the oversight committees to be good role models but to guard against partisan politicking, be loyal and submissive to win the support of the people.

A member of the governing council, Professor S.K.B. Asante, commended the committee members for offering to take up the voluntary but Herculean task to serve the state, saying they were establishing legacies as responsible citizens.

GNA

[2008-05-12 02:24:38]

NIGERIA: Government Employees Protest Cutbacks to Participatory Democracy

A couple of articles about recent protests and strikes by the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees against the central government's appointing civil servants from government ministries to replace local governing councils and the resulting setback to the opportunities for participatory democracy that the local councils represented. - Editor





NULGE protests planned scrapping of LGs

• Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008
Source: http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=07/29/2008&qrTitle=NULGE%20protests%20planned%20scrapping%20of%20LGs&qrColumn=FRONT%20PAGE

The Rivers State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has indicated its willingness to participate in the national protest march which comes up in Abuja on August 7.

The protest, which is at the instance of the national office of NULGE, is to protest the alleged plan to scrap the local government system in the country.

Briefing the press in Port Harcourt, the state President of the union, Apostle Godwin Tumini Diri said that NULGE in Rivers State would join its counterparts in other parts of the country to condemn the call from some quarters to abolish the local government system which provides opportunity for participatory democracy, social mobilisation and social services.

The state NULGE boss said that since the nation’s democracy cannot survive in the absence of a viable and sustainable local government, scrapping it will bring more problems to the country.

“The union is rather asking the various responsible organs of government in the country to guarantee the existence and continuity of the local government system in the proposed constitutional amendment, he said “

According to him, some of the ways of doing this is by increasing council allocation from the present 20 per cent to 30 per cent, invalidate the state joint allocation accounts while Local Government Service Commission should be included in the Constitution.

Also, the concept of uniformity in the political system of local government should be institutionalized,
Apostle Diri said, adding that NULGE believes in the use of peaceful approach in sorting out its differences.

Our recourse to this civilised approach is strengthened when we realised that majority of Nigerians, including most of those providing leadership at the state levels are supportive of sustainability of the local government system, he said.
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NULGE resumes strike in Imo

Source: http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/nugl2282008.html

The Nigeria Union of local government Employees (NULGE) in Imo state, resumed its suspended strike, accusing the state government of failing to meet its demand.

The union had asked the state government to withdraw the 27 civil servants it posted to local governments as Directors of Administration and General Services.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that most of the councils visited were deserted and that the few staff around sat in clusters, discussing the strike.

It would be recalled that the state government on July 25, appointed 27 state civil servants to replace the local government directors.

The measure was vehemently opposed by NULGE, which said it amounted to interference in the running of the councils.

The union on Aug. 7 issued a 14-day ultimatum to the state government to rescind the decision.

Government, NAN learnt, did not respond to the union's demand.

Chief Linus Nwajere, the union's President in the state, told newsmen in Owerri that the strike would not be called off until government cancelled the postings.

He also said the state government erred by transferring civil servants to local governments.

He said NULGE viewed the postings as an attempt to destroy the careers of local government workers. 'The time to say no is now.

All council workers at the local government service commission and local government staff pensions board should stay at home for now,'' he said.

Nwajere said that the government invited the union on Aug. 2 for a meeting, where a truce was brokered.

The NULGE chief said the State's Deputy Governor, Dr Ada Okwuonu, led the government delegation.

He said that the decisions reached at the meeting included the suspension of the first strike and the cancellation of the postings.

He said while the union suspended the strike, government failed to recall the civil servants it appointed as directors in the local governments.

Nwajere however, commended the state government for directing the Auditor General for Local Governments to audit the accounts of the councils from May, 2007.

He said that audit reports would let the people to know the actual amount each council had received from the federation account, including the oil windfall.

``This will make the audit exercise more meaningful to Imo people,'' he said.

VIETNAM: People's Councils for Direct Democracy

Pilot project aims to offer direct voting that’s free from favouritism

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01COM270808
(27-08-2008)

Deputy National Assembly Chairman Uong Chu Luu spoke with the Vietnam News Agency about a project that would allow citizens to vote directly for representatives at communal level People’s Committees.

Why didn’t we speak before about letting people vote for those positions when the Law on the Organisation of the People’s Committee and People’s Council was first developed?

This is indeed a reform in the local administration. In fact, relevant agencies have discussed this before, but at that time we were highlighting a representative democracy [involving the selection of Government officials by the people being represented] in which a collective decision was thought the best solution. Now we are implementing administrative reforms which focus on the responsibilities, positions and roles of chairmen of People’s Committees at the commune level, and so we decided to run a pilot project.

The Government has assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to develop the pilot project. Do you think this will be better than the previous method, where the position was elected by the communal People’s Council and approved by a higher level?

I think the new way is completely reasonable because the organisation of the People’s Committee and People’s Council as well as direct democracy [a political system where the citizens actively participate in decision-making] and representative democracy have been discussed at many meetings. Now we have decided to pilot the system for several years, and then we shall review the system’s effectiveness before issuing a law.

Many big clans are living in communes and wards. Do you this will lead to conflict when the head of a People’s Committee also represents a big clan?

This is also a big concern. The pilot project will try to avoid favouritism in some localities where the majority belong to a single clan and vote for their clan member without considering the common good.

What should we do to avoid formalism?

Letting people directly vote for their head will help them express their desires. Based on the requirements for the position, people will be able to use their ballot to select an appropriate representative.

Who will give final approval for the position in place of the former People’s Council?

The project will provide guidance. It is based on the realities of these localities. — VNS

NIGERIA: Local Government Councils Need More Autonomy

The following examines the functionality of local council governance in Nigeria. In order to enhance the effectiveness of participatory democracy, these local councils must cease to be dominated and squelched by the higher levels of government, state and federal. The grassroots must be recognized as a meaningful and powerful third tier of government, - Editor

Local Govt As Beacon Of Sustainable Democracy

Source: http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=31822&osCsid=6a39659307e3289180456a047c9ea35f

How is the local government administration fairing under the present system of governance? What are its problems and possible prospects? These and many more are analysed by our correspondent, ABU DOOSHIMA, in this piece. Her verdict is, joint account kills the local governments

The relevance of local government councils to sustainable development at the grassroots level was the inevitable conclusion during the 1976 local government reforms. It accorded the local governments a status of the third tier of government vis-a-vis the federal and state governments. This recognition is influenced by the strategic position of the local governments in the sense that it hosts a number of wards which allows mass mobilisation for national goals to be attained very fast.

The local government as a third tier has been the closest arm of government to the people. Therefore, its responsibility to address the basic needs of the people through the promotion of socio-economic programmes amplifies democratic governance via participatory democracy. For example, the electoral agency or body, delineates local governments into wards and constituencies in which the will to test power starts. This is why politicians must register first at their wards before becoming relevant at the local, state and possibly federal level. From wards, even federal legislator say a senator could be called home the moment the mandatory number of signatories recalling him or her home is achieved.

However, the current domineering influence of the state governments over the local governments has adversely affected the desired development expected at the grassroot. The performance of local councils chairmen in rendering dividends of democracy to the masses has been mellowed therefore, impairing good governance at the grassroot level.

The inter-dependence of the local government on state, can be likened to parasitism, a mode of feeding where by the organism depends on its host until it destroys it. The incessant complaints of non performance of council chairmen by the masses, is largely as a result of councils inter-dependence on state.

You would largely agree with me on the fact that there is no fair electoral process in our local governments that would guarantee a level playing ground for all actors. This has been reflected in the anomalities that surround accompanied the local governments election.

It was annoying when I realised that some policians who won the local government election as council chairmen were actually not qualified and were not the choices of the people. But were imposed on the people by the state government to enable it achieve its looting ambition.

How can there be meaninful development, when those in office, lack the charistma for leadership, the local governments have been dominated with, purposeless, visionless, and passionless leaders who got into power because of their association with the state government. How do we expect a blend man to lead the way anyway?

Most at times this position is given as gift to a ‘thug’ who has fought tooth and nail for the governor during the gubernatorial election.

In a bid to show appreciation, this local government chairmen pay total alegiance to the state governors even when it is detrimental to the growth and development of their councils. This has been succinctly captured within a time-worm proverb which says “he whou pays the piper, dictates the tune.”

It is in this regard that political scientist consistently insist that the interdependence of states and the local governments should be complementary. Therefore, the total independence of the local government should be paramount if sustainable development must be achieved in the country.

I am of the view that, the success of the state government in manipulating electiosn at the local level is largely due to its economic power. The joint account system has undully empowered the state government placing her at an advantaged position in managing the available resources of the local governments.

When projects that would guarantee development is initiated by local government chairmen, such initiative is delayed because of the process it has to undergo before execution. It is pathetic to disclose that often times bribe some state government officials for their projects to be approved. Its even worse when the chairman is from an opposition party.

It is pertinent to note that even when these projects are approved, the fund for its execution is delayed by the state government. The state governors, have now seen the local government as an outlet to enrich themselves.

This however makes the local government chairmen adamant to new initiative that would translate to the growth of the local government area.

It is worthy we know that the low sense of nationalism witnessed in our country today is largely attributed to the neglect of governments in meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the demoracy. It is this lack of sense of belonging that has made Nigerians adamant to government policies. They have developed a lackadasical attitude towards their leaders.

It is no doubt that if local governments are allowed to run their affairs as opposed the practice of joint account system it would quarant*** development at the grassroot level.

This is because each local council, knows its own peculiar problems and needs and would design measures for solutions, thereby rendering dividend of democracy to the people interms of social infrastructure.

Decentralisation to locally elected governments which should serve as a means to improving incentives of public provider for service delivery to the poor masses has declined in achieving its purpose due to state government interference.

I would sincerely advocate for council independence as it serve as only alternative to liberating the councils from its exploiters.

If the local governments is left to run its affair, I may suggest that they should be consolidated. The 774 councils we have Nigeria may pull their resources together and invest in some profitable venture such as refinaries and manufacturing plants whose dividend will help sustain them as a joint property. y and large, these business vitality could lead to political fraternity, because local governments would be existing as a formidable block.

This in turn, will encourage participatory democracy therefore boosting development at the grassroot. The dreams and aspirations can be translated into reality therefore, giving the masses a sense of belonging.

The electoral agency must guarantee the survival of these councils and the judiciary must help to consolidate the independence of the councils by holding various states government officials accountable to the people.

Venezuela: Community Councils vs. Bureaucracy

The following piece gives an interesting assessment of the basics behind the communal councils in Venezuela and how they are creating a grassroots based system of government while at the same time providing channels by which the bureaucracy that has traditionally stifled that participatory democracy can be bypassed and rendered harmless to the process of strengthening the people's power. - Editor




Reconfiguring Democracy: Venezuela's New Communal Councils Confront Bureaucracy

From
Issue 381 - December 2007-January 2008

Source: http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/reconfiguring-democracy-venezuelas-new-communal-councils-confront-bureaucracy

Authors: Kendra Fehrer Ponniah

Kendra Fehrer Ponniah is is a Ph.D. student in Development and Anthropology at Brown University, in Providence, RI. This article is based on research she conducted in January and December of 2006 and June of 2007, interviewing communal council members from seven communities near Barquisemeto, Venezuela.

Pro- Chávez demonstrators, September 5, 2006. Photo: Cesar Aponte

In mid-2006, several months before the presidential elections, the Venezuelan government headed by left-leaning President Hugo Chávez passed a new law. The law was called the Law on Communal Councils, and it was a cornerstone of the new political strategy to deepen democratic participation in Venezuela. As of June 2007, there were 20,000 registered communal councils across the country, plus tens of thousands more in formation. Televised speeches from the floor of the national assembly referenced the communal councils as the pivotal means of social change in Venezuela. On the tall walls of the subway stations in Caracas, gigantic red murals proclaimed the communal councils as an engine of Venezuela's transition to 21^st century socialism.

From Representative to Participatory Democracy

The communal councils are essentially neighborhood assemblies with political and fiscal powers. As described in the law, they function as neighborhood planning councils, responsible for decisions regarding infrastructure and planning-for example, where to set up the new multi-purpose sports court or what sorts of services to request for disabled youth within the community. In addition, the councils can initiate their own projects with funds obtained from the federal, state, and municipal governments and they are expected to bring together under one umbrella representatives from various community groups.

A typical communal council is made up of about 20 people, elected by a community of no more than 400 families. The geographic basis of the communal council allows members to know each other, precipitating an accountability that most representative politics fail to achieve, and furthermore ensuring that political and economic decisions made by the council are embedded in the social framework of the community.

The communal councils diverge from the typical representative democracy in one other significant way. All decisions made by the communal council can be reversed by popular vote. The vote, taken in assembly (at which 20% of all persons over 15 in the community must be present), is binding.

Community members seem to sense that this emergent form of local government is profoundly different from the previous form, in which political participation occurred once a year at the voting booth. A sentence heard over and over among community organizers is that the communal councils are transforming Venezuela into a "participatory" democracy, rather than a "representative" democracy. The communal councils provide a structure for direct democratic participation.

The potential impact of communal councils to transform the Venezuelan social and political fabric is no doubt exciting. However, like all processes of change, this one is not without challenges.

Confronting Bureaucracy

The situation faced by La Tamaca*, a neighborhood outside the city of Barquisimeto is emblematic of the challenges many community organizations face. The residents had pooled their recourses to construct a wall that would separate their community from the uninhabited land behind their homes. Together they had raised over $30,000 Bs. (10,000 USD) to complete half the wall. Once the community established a communal council, they applied for funds from the municipal government to complete the construction. The municipal government granted those funds, nearly twice what the community itself had raised, to complete the second half of the project.

The catch was, despite strong objections from the community, that the municipal government declared that it would now manage the project.

Instead of hiring workers and contractors from within the community, the municipal government hired its own contractors and suppliers. Five months later, the funds had run out, and the remaining half of the wall was only partway done.

Even with the many pro-poor initiatives over the last decade of Chávez's administration, communities are still fighting for a voice. The efforts of many, like La Tamaca, are being frustrated by the "politics as usual" attitude of many municipal and state governments. In the words of one community member: "We have a lot of public officials who are reactionaries dressed up as revolutionaries. They are more interested in their jobs than in this [revolutionary] process."

One of the purposes of the communal councils, according to a high ranking government official, is precisely to address this problem. By creating a direct link to the president and federal ministries, the communal council structure allows organized communities to bypass, or at least challenge, the clientelistic bureaucracy of municipal and state governments. Under the new law, communal councils can apply for funds directly from the Ministry of Participation and Social Development. However, some critics argue that this structure creates the danger of too much national control over grass-roots community structures.

City Council or Social Movement?

At their best, the communal councils can be used as political leverage to represent community interests at odds with the local government institutions. "Hidrolara [the public water company] is defunct," proclaimed Ismila, a community organizer in a working class neighborhood to the east of Barquisimeto. For the previous two days raw sewage had been backlogging into the streets along ten blocks of the neighborhood, including the block in front of the community health clinic. Despite numerous calls to the engineer appointed to their area, the engineer had been delaying his arrival. After he missed the appointed time for the second day in a row, five members of the communal council decided they needed to take more immediate action. They called four more colleagues from the council and caught a ride into the city center, where the Hidrolara offices were located.

At the office, they demanded to speak to the person in charge of emergency maintenance. Two hours later they left with an engineer to remedy the problem. Ismila said: "We learned today that Hidrolara is useless as an institution, it does not work for the communities. These officials think they know everything and don't listen to the community until there's a problem."

Some state and municipal institutions in Venezuela serve particular political interests, rather than the public good. When the public institutions do not fulfill their ascribed duties, the communal councils like that in Ismila's neighborhood can apply pressure. Although the council itself did not have jurisdiction over the water system, through their recognition as a communal council they have the political resources to apply political pressure to ensure the democratic distribution of water.

Not all communal councils are as politically astute as Ismila's, but a surprising number are. The community members who participate in the communal council possess a wide range of political experience, from complete novices to seasoned community organizers. Commonly, a communal council will contain five or six long-term organizers who see the communal council as simply the newest framework for emancipatory politics. It is often these more experienced organizers who are instrumental in forming the communal council.

In the case of Ismila's community, the communal council formed out of the Health Committee. The Health Committee was established several years ago, when the community was told that they were eligible to receive a Cuban doctor in the community. "There are lots of rumors that the doctors are there to hurt people, they don't have proper training, etc. We had to educate the community that this wasn't true. Thankfully, the doctor we got was very good and little by little, people stopped being afraid and came. When we heard about the communal councils law, we knew we had to get involved. Now the Health Committee is a working group of the communal council." The communal councils serve the powerful political function of coalescing a variety of community efforts.

Does Pluralism Include the Anti-Democratic?

Contrary to the perception by many of Chávez's critics, the communal councils are not composed exclusively of flag-waving Chávez supporters. In the town of El Cují, communal council member Mirabel identifies as the opposition. During the last elections, she transformed her home into a "hot corner," a common opposition protest tactic, which involves blasting anti-Chávez music onto the street and blaring sirens every 15 minutes to signify that Venezuelan democracy "is under attack." Why does she participate in the communal councils? "To keep an eye on the Chavistas," she responds, "to make sure they're not mishandling funds."

Opposition to President Chávez is located mainly, but not exclusively, in the small, active, and largely unencumbered middle and upper classes. Although some communal councils have been formed in elite neighborhoods, these do not represent the majority. The majority of communal councils are in poor and working class neighborhoods.

Still, even within poor communities, a minority do tend to identify as opposition, often because of enduring affiliation with the previously dominant parties. So, not infrequently, a communal council will have several staunch opposition members.

Despite the highly charged political rhetoric around the communal councils as a key element of the Bolivarian Process, within the actual meetings of the councils party-politics are seldom discussed. More often, topics of discussion deal with urgent community needs. Instead of playing a divisive role in the community, the communal councils appear, in some cases, to be fulfilling a reconciliatory role. Through regular interaction in meetings, often accompanied by socializing outside formal gatherings, the communal councils are becoming a space for breaking down political barriers.

Although pluralism is a central tenet of a democratic society, when some of those diverse constituents are actively anti-democratic the situation becomes a bit more complex.

While the minority opposition represents its position as one of advocating for democratic rights, the democracy for which the opposition advocates is essentially a liberal democracy, bent on the protection of private property and individual rights. It is precisely this form of democracy that has prevailed in Venezuela historically, and which the current government is trying to transform. The model proposed by the opposition conflicts with Venezuela's emergent radicalized democracy, which seeks to expand collective rights and responsibilities. For example, the constitutional reforms rejected in a referendum on December 2, 2007 included language to create three new types of collective property.

Why do political frameworks matter to the communal council? Although opposition and pro- Chávez residents can agree on addressing urgent community needs, the types of solutions offered to neighborhood problems could be vastly different. A liberal democratic model is not incompatible with the neoliberal framework that dominated the country for the last decades. Under this model, a communal council could offer micro-credit for individual businesses, without precipitating any shift in consciousness towards new notions of collective responsibility and social development.

One project I observed did just that. An organizer from another council explained, "The communal council gave out loans for everything, to start a phone stand, to buy motorcycles to use for ëmoto-taxis', to start hair salons… there was a lot of individual profit, but not a lot of community benefit." In contrast, a reconfigured democratic model would value not only the material benefits to the individual, but how the collective would benefit, both materially and in terms of participation.

The communal councils do not have an easy task. They face the challenge of maintaining political pluralism, challenging entrenched political and economic interests, and responding to the demands of a population whose basic needs have been ignored for decades. As one long-time activist said with both optimism and concern, "The communal councils are our primary hope for the long-term success of the revolution. They have the potential to change the very fabric of this country."

From Issue 381 - December 2007-January 2008

People's Power in Venezuela: Communal Councils Advance in Libertador

As always we keep a close eye on the building of participatory democracy in Venezuela. The article below gives an account of the progress made in the municipality of Libertador, some of the challenges faced by communal councils, and the national policies regarding participatory democracy. Following the article, find a link to an audio clip of a program that covers the Venezuela Solidarity Symposium that took place in Washington DC in April. Activists and Venezuelan leaders united at the conference and shared important information and analysis of the Bolivarian Revolution, US-Venezuelan relations, and most importantly, participatory democracy on the streets and in the workplace. If time is limited, skip the first 10 minutes of the program. - Editor

People's Power in Venezuela

by John Riddell
January 10, 2008

Source: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=14695

"If we want to talk of socialism," says Argenis Loreto, "we must first resolve the people's most urgent needs: water in their homes, accessible health care, easy access to housing."

In the Venezuelan municipality of Libertador (state of Carabobo), of which Argenis is mayor, "we have 90% poverty. Ending that is our first task. I am convinced that the existing state cannot do this." It's essential that "the majority of the people become part of the decision-making process."

But when Argenis was elected in 2000, the second year of the Bolivarian government headed by president Hugo Chávez, he found that "the people did not possess the tools needed for their participation."

That insight led Chávez and the Bolivarian government to initiate the formation of neighbourhood councils across the country—councils that they view as the embryo of a new people's state.

Suzanne Weiss and I spent two days in Libertador, one of the first municipalities where such councils were formed, talking to Argenis and dozens of others. This report is based on what we saw; it also draws on Marta Harnecker's outstanding study of the Libertador experience.*

A devastated community

With 200,000 residents, Libertador sprawls across a mainly rural territory the size of Metro Toronto (20 km. x 30 km.). Most of its employed population works in nearby Valencia, the country's heartland of privately owned industry. Jouncing over its ruined roads in the back of a pickup, we saw a district that had been devastated not by natural catastrophe but by a social calamity— decades of systematic neglect.

"Before we had many problems," recalls Félix Hernández, member of a community government. "The roads were super-awful. The electricity worked one or two days and then shut off. Health service was chaotic. Water service was complete chaos."

Appealing to city hall was a waste of time. "It was horrendous," says another council member, Virginia Diaz. "We'd go with petitions and explain. They'd visit and approve the project." But nothing would happen. "When we went back to the office, they'd never heard of us, didn't know anything…. As useful as tits on a bull."

The result was public apathy, says municipal social activist Fidel Hernández—like Argenis, a published poet. "The people had let itself be convinced that it could not govern. There was a deliberate policy for this … that's why we had 1½ million who were illiterate."

Tools for people's power

Of peasant origins, Argenis Loreto finished only six years of schooling before starting his working life in factories, industrial management, farming, and again in factories. He joined a revolutionary group at age 17, took part in the Bolivarian movement's unsuccessful coup in 1992 and became mayor after two decades of underground activity.

Convinced that only the poor and disenfranchised could reconstruct his municipality—and his nation—he sought to bridge the gulf between them and the instruments of government. Argenis and his colleagues set out to do this by extending governmental structures to the community level and by delegating power to community governments. Such a shift was authorized by a decentralization clause (Article 184) in the Bolivarian constitution adopted in 1999.

Progress was slow at first. The right-wing coup and bosses' strike of 2002-2003 delayed restructuring. The Libertador plan ran into strong opposition from some Bolivarian national legislators, who accused Argenis of "creating illegal associations."

Finally, in 2006, the community structure was in place: 35 "social territories," which united residents that shared similar problems, a common project, and a sense of belonging to a common environment. They ranged in size from 1,000 to 15,000 residents. Each territory elected a government through assemblies of its residents, usually choosing between competing slates of candidates. All community government work is voluntary—no salaries are paid—but relevant expenses are reimbursed.

In one of the social territories, skeptical residents declined to name a council. In another, a centre of Libertador's small middle class, the opposition slate was elected. "Many right-wing oppositionists join in community council activity," says Argenis. "They feel they cannot stand aside from the social programs and local projects that the councils carry out…. The opposition's role in local government has helped ease political tensions here."

The people's power structure has two tiers. Each social territory or commune includes smaller and more homogenous communities, each of which has its own communal council. The size of component communities is determined by social geography: urban councils typically unite 200-400 families; rural councils, 20-50 families. The smallest social territory by population (Mont Vernont), is composed of dispersed mountain hamlets: it therefore includes the largest number of communities. In Libertador, there are 204 such communal councils.

Participatory budget

Each communal council and social territory holds assemblies to choose and prioritize its ten most needed projects for the coming year. The municipal planning council then evaluates the top three proposals from each territory—more than three, if finances permit. A value of 1 to 9 is assigned to each of a number of criteria: number of residents, number who will benefit, cost, how long the request has been pending, the number of previous projects in this community, etc.

This ranking creates a proposed project list that is presented to an assembly in each territory, which can change its priorities and request reconsideration—if for example a favored project turned out to be impossibly expensive.

Once the project list is decided, the required funds are allocated to the community bodies, which handle administration, buy materials, and engage workers or contractors, giving preference to cooperatives. Community networking and know-how helps keep costs down, and any savings stay in the community for other purposes. Argenis estimates that $1 million a year is saved simply by eliminating private profits.

"For example, a flood control project was approved with a budget of 184 million bolivars [about $90,000]," says Fidel Hernández. "But in fact the community councils did it for 47 million and had lots left over for fixing roads.

"In another case, the local council got a price of 80 million to bring electricity to a district. But in fact they managed to do three districts for that price.

"Last year the community councils spent 84% of the municipal budget [for projects]," Fidel notes.

Accomplishments

Popular control has steered funding toward small, plain, and inexpensive projects densely spread through local neighborhoods. Urgent human needs have taken priority over infrastructure requirements like road upgrades.

Argenis highlights the 74 primary-care health centres built by neighborhood councils, which at first sometimes even manufactured the bricks. "We had only nine centres before," he says. In addition, Libertador boasts four Integral Diagnostic Centres—small hospitals—"the pride of our community," according to Felix Hernández.. Another community government member, Aixa Silvera, calls the Cuban doctors working in these centres "the most spectacular thing we have in the communities.

Indeed, Libertador led the way in Venezuela by arranging for Cuban doctors to work in the communities, before this became a national program.

Argenis says that community governments are building 48 primary schools this year—mostly one-room structures serving a neighborhood. There are also now three university campuses in Libertador—part of a national program to "municipalize higher education."

"As for sports, there are now only two or three communities that do not have a minimal installation" which means a playing field.

The citizens of Libertador are also trying to establish cultural centres in each social territory, usually an "open-air amphitheatre." Eight cultural centres are now under construction In some cases resident assemblies gave building a cultural centre priority over fixing the road or installing street lighting. "You can't have a revolution without beauty," Fidel Hernández says.

The obvious progress is confirmed by two surveys that were taken at the beginning of the community government program and again in May 2007. The first survey showed that the most urgently felt needs were for health care and educational facilities. In the second, no one cited health care as a concern, and almost no one mentioned education. Moreover, "we now have hardly any kids on the streets," says Argenis, "and the problem of homelessness is almost solved."

The Housing Bottleneck

According to official estimates, Venezuela has a shortage of 2.7 million homes, while another 1.3 million dwellings are inadequate home-made shacks. In 2006, 200,000 homes were built—a positive achievement, but far less than what is needed.

Argenis believes that community councils, who feel this urgent need acutely, are best suited to build houses. Sometimes they "build 10, 12, even 15 houses with the money provided for seven," he says.

"But we desperately need raw materials. Our economy was destroyed, and now we don't have the capacity to make the cement blocks, the paint, the ceramic toilets. We're working with Iran, China, and Brazil to meet these needs."

And Venezuela is building six factories to produce plastic building materials—"we have oil, after all," says Argenis. This project, called Petrocasa, will supply materials for 15,000 new houses a year. One of these factories, is close by, in the state of Carabobo.

National expansion

In 2006 Hugo Chávez endorsed the establishment of communal councils as a priority across Venezuela. In January 2007, he declared them institutions of "people's power," an embryo of a new people's state. An enabling law was passed in April, and there are now more than 10,000 councils across the country.

While vindicating the innovative program in Libertador, this expansion also caused the municipality many headaches. The national government intended the councils to be free of the deadening hand of the traditional state bureaucracy. Among other things, word went out that mayors should not get involved with these people's organizations. This directive might be appropriate in the nearby industrial city of Valencia, ruled by the opposition, but in Libertador it was totally at odds with reality.

Unfortunately, the Carabobo state government, led by critics of Argenis's initiatives, seized on this opening to create problems for Libertador's government. Utilizing its own statewide network of paid social activists, it promoted the notion that communal councils don't need to work with Libertador's larger social territories or with the city government.

"That caused a terrible process of fragmentation and division between the two levels of popular power," says Argenis.

Much effort has gone into knitting the two levels of people's government back together, Argenis says. "When they work together they're unbeatable."

People's power was an element of the constitution reform narrowly defeated in the December 2, 2007, referendum. The communal councils are still authorized under Article 184 of the constitution and the April 2006 legislation, and there is no legal barrier to expanding the structures beyond this framework. However, the referendum setback may encourage the councils' critics.

Bureaucratic obstruction

The community government bodies in Libertador aren't perfect. Among the occasional abuses noted by Argenis:

· Only one community is represented in a social territory council.
· One slate takes all the leadership positions.
· Elected officers take decisions on their own without convening the residents' assembly.
· The assembly functions poorly because of lack of interest.

These can be viewed as growing pains. As community government officer Omaira Carvallo comments, "When people see what is accomplished, it will break through their apathy."

More troubling is the conduct of other branches of government, such as the problems with Carabobo State. Among the many stories of this sort that Argenis tells, the pig manure episode is enough to illustrate what people's power is up against.

The city government makes special efforts to help Libertador's many farmers, a number of whom raise pigs. Some time ago the Ministry of the Environment banned hog-raising in the municipality because of concerns for water quality, but did not enforce the regulation. Libertador tried to help farmers solve the water problem on their own, by providing septic tanks for environmentally safe treatment of pig manure. The manure's polluting gas discharge was captured and burned for cooking. "This is a miracle," says Argenis. "It cuts out the smell and uses the gas!"

But the ministry intervened and nixed the project, which they said broke their rule against raising pigs. The bureaucratic method could not be better demonstrated: only the formal regulation counted; the real-life problem of manure pollution was of no interest.

What explanations do the ministry provide? "None whatsoever," says Argenis. "Just as we always say: this bureaucracy is eating us alive… We can't change things with this type of state."

Even among inherited municipal officials, "the apathy is barbaric. We have to establish a new conception of a staffer," Argenis says. "I'd like to dissolve the municipal administration … and create a confederation of community governments."

Reflections

At first glance, Venezuela's people's power can seem to be just a formal structure—municipal government on a street level. This is misleading. The councils have appeared and made gains only as part of an immense popular movement on a national level: the Bolivarian revolution.

This revolution was born in the mass mobilizations against the U.S.-backed oligarchy's attempts to overthrow the country's elected government—by a military coup in 2002, by an economic shutdown in 2003, and by an anti-Chavez referendum in 2004. All were defeated by the initiatives of masses of working people.

In Libertador, Argenis recalls, the embryonic community governments acted as defense committees, struggling to ensure that food, cooking gas, and gasoline reached the people. "That was just so wonderful," he says. "Quickly we had a network of more than 200 Bolivarian shops," distributing necessities and helping defend the revolution. Such national struggles were the true birth of people's power.

Venezuela's success at forging constructive ties with other non-imperialist states has also played a role, not just through Cuba's contribution to health services, but above all in building alliances to help fend off, for now, a U.S.-led assault.

The sometimes destructive role of national and state authorities is also a reminder that the power of working people will not flourish at the street level unless it is consolidated nationally.

Yet the community councils in Libertador call us to us, Sí se puede! – Yes we can do it! Enlisting the majority, the working people, in government is indeed possible. Venezuela's people's power—while still embryonic—is a living, viable reality.

John Riddell is co-editor of Socialist Voice

https://mail.zmag.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.socialistvoice.ca).

* Marta Harnecker, Gobierenos Comunitarios: Transformando el Estado desde abajo. [Community governments: transforming the state from below] Monte Avila Editores, 2007. This book is not readily available outside Venezuela. However, its text is available online. Harnecker is director of the "Popular Participation in Public Management" program of the Central Internacional Miranda, a Bolivarian research institute in Caracas.

Audio program from Venezuela Solidarity Symposium: http://calamadison.org/dasa/

Citizen Power Councils in Nicaragua: Are the Accusations of Patronage Founded?

With a $230 loan from a local council, Maria Auxiliadora Rivera started a small business making tortillas over an open fire in her makeshift home in Managua.




Questioning the validity of mainstream media is vital to creating a better understanding of struggles for participatory democracy around the world. If one were to read only the first half of this article, he or she would find that Nicaragua is controlled by a communist dictator who manipulates the populace in an effort to maintain power. The language used strikes all negative chords in the psyche of the mainstream consumer of NY Times information and most people would not wade their way through to the very end where the article begins to explain how community councils could be beneficial to the poor and repressed population. Given that it does give some space for this other argument, it can be argued that that the article is not biased. However, the incendiary headline may be the only thing that the average joe reads, and it creates a conception of Nicaragua that is meant to diminish the validity and necessity of creating communal councils as effective agents of community development. When you read this article, obviously consider both sides, but make sure you get all the way through to the end and the important comments by other readers. Please submit any additional information about community councils in Nicaragua that you find to the editors so that we may share it here. -Editor


Nicaraguan Councils Stir Fear of Dictatorship

Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/americas/04nicaragua.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The government billboards and graffiti in this sultry city tell a visitor a lot about the ideological battle racking Nicaragua.

President Daniel Ortega Saavedra beams from the billboards, promising “Citizens Power” as a solution to Nicaragua’s endemic poverty. “The world’s poor arise!” the signs say. But beneath the billboards, on walls and benches all over town, others have scrawled “No to CPC. No to dictatorship.”

The graffiti alludes to Citizens Power Councils — or C.P.C.’s. In December, Mr. Ortega established the neighborhood committees, which are controlled by his left-wing Sandinista party and administer antipoverty programs, despite a vote against the plan by the National Assembly.

Mr. Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, maintains that the councils are meant only to let community leaders have a say in where and how government money is spent.

But opposition leaders say the councils are another step in what they call the Ortega administration’s drift toward an authoritarian and secretive government that does not have to answer to the legislature — mostly because the president controls tens of millions of dollars a year in aid from Venezuela.

Some of the president’s opponents charge that the Citizens Power Councils are nothing more than patronage mills, channeling government largess to supporters of the party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Mr. Ortega has made no attempt to hide his desire to make an end run around the National Assembly. He declared last fall that the legislature’s vote against the councils was intended “to deny the right of the people to exercise power” and “to keep ministers from governing directly with the people.”

“It is the people who have the final say on the system they want,” Mr. Ortega declared at a rally on Dec. 1.

Opposition leaders complain the councils smack of similar party-controlled organs in totalitarian governments like Cuba’s, where local committees of party loyalists not only influence who gets government benefits but also spy on political opponents.

“It’s part of a vision that President Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, have to destroy the model of representative democracy and replace it with a direct democracy,” said José Pallais, a Liberal Party leader. “The C.P.C. serve as a fundamental element, a strategy, to control the society, to spy on the people.”

Another Liberal opposition leader, Wilfredo Navarro, defended the Sandinista party’s right to organize political committees but said the president had crossed a line when he gave those committees power over government programs. “Ortega can form his Citizens Power Councils, but he cannot give them the role of the state,” he said. “To pave a street, you have to talk to the C.P.C.”

He added, “It is very clear the state’s money should not be used as an instrument of political blackmail.”

Elías Chévez, a prominent Sandinista party leader who oversees the citizen councils in Managua, denied that the councils showed favoritism in handing out subsidies, though he acknowledged that they were controlled by the party.

In defending the councils, he said past governments had failed to lift people out of poverty in part because neighborhoods and towns lacked local organizations to send aid where it was most needed. He portrayed the critics of the councils as members of a corrupt oligarchy interested only in protecting business interests.

“These people don’t want the population to have a role, to play a part,” he said....

One complaint of the opposition is that the financing of both the committees and the social programs they administer remains murky. Last year, Nicaragua and Venezuela signed a deal that opposition leaders and budget experts say has given Mr. Ortega’s administration essentially a slush fund outside the national budget, worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Under the deal, Venezuela supplies Nicaragua with about 10 million barrels of oil a year, enough to cover all the country’s energy needs. Nicaragua pays half the market price and has 23 years to pay off the rest at 2 percent interest. The deal hands Nicaragua what amounts to a large low-interest loan every month for infrastructure projects and social programs.

But the loans are not reflected in the national budget, since the transactions are handled through a quasi-public company called Albanisa and the state-owned oil company, Petronic. (The treasurer of the Sandinista party, Francisco López, also runs Petronic and is a vice president of Albanisa.) The Ortega administration has never given a full accounting to the legislature of how the money is spent.

“It’s off the books — no institutions, no controls,” said Roberto Courtney, the executive director of Ethics and Transparency, a Nicaragua-based lobby group advocating openness in government. “That’s how the C.P.C. gets its money.”

The network of citizen councils is overseen by Ms. Murillo, Mr. Ortega’s wife and communications director, who is widely seen here as a powerful political figure. She did not respond to a request for an interview.

Each council has 15 members, and each member has a portfolio, roughly paralleling the government ministries. Though members of other parties sit on the committees, a vast majority are Sandinistas.

Among other things, the committees decide which stores will handle the subsidized food program for the poor, which streets will be paved under an infrastructure project financed by Venezuela, which women will receive low-income loans to start small businesses and which farmers will get free cattle, pigs and seeds. They also oversee vaccinations and literacy classes.

Jeannette Suazo, a Sandinista, is the chairwoman of the committee in a Managua neighborhood known as September 14th. She insists that aid is handed out without regard to politics, and she said that her committee had four members who belonged to the opposition party. All are volunteers and get no pay, though some have government jobs, she said.

“We are the communicators between the people and the government,” she said. “It’s easier to solve these problems with an organized people than with a disorganized people.”

On the impoverished streets of Managua, people complain more about the scarcity of government aid coming from the councils than about favoritism in doling it out. Subsidized supplies of beans, rice and oil, for instance, run out long before the lines disappear outside stores, some said.

“They give us too little product for too many people,” said Lidia Urbina, whose family runs the tiny store in the September 14th neighborhood chosen to distribute food. She said the program was not partisan. “There are liberals, Sandinistas, people from all parties, all of them carry off their food.”

Among the poorest residents of Managua are those who live in shanties constructed within the ruins of buildings in the old city center, which was destroyed in an earthquake in December 1972.

Maria Auxiliadora Rivera, 37, lives in a filthy, one-room hut in the ruins with six children and her husband, surviving on a kitchen job that pays $60 a month. She makes tortillas over an open fire against a sooty wall of a destroyed building.

Though not a Sandinista, she said she received a $230 loan recently through the local citizen’s committee to start a business making and selling tortillas on the street. She said the loans were not going solely to Sandinistas.

Still, she said, it would only help her survive, not make a permanent difference in her standard of living. “We are really abandoned,” she said.

Others living in squalid and dangerous structures in the ruins said Sandinista party members and civil servants were getting preferential treatment for units in a public housing development going up nearby, a project financed with Venezuelan aid.

“They are building houses, but only for the people in the party,” said Carlos Reyes Herrera, 46, who ekes out a living collecting cans and bottles. A veteran of the Sandinista revolution in the 1970s, he lives with his wife and two children in a plywood shack among the ruins. “For me, the committees are all Sandinista. They look out for their own.”

End

The New York Times article generated the following comments from residents in Nicaragua on the Nicaragua Living Website - Editor:

Source: http://www.nicaliving.com/node/12096

Which comes first?
Submitted by fyl on 4 May, 2008 - 11:42.

Quite sincerely, I don't know whether to be concerned or not about CPC makeup. Four of 15 in Managua being non-FSLN makes it sound like it is not an exclusive club. Maybe it should be 6 or 8 or 10 but, on the other hand, as the CPCs are seen as an "FSLN thing", it is reasonable to expect that others don't want to join.

The income stream issues are, well, more troubling. But, that also has two sides. I know a lot of usanos that don't want the government in the business of social programs. So, CPCs not being the government will be a plus.

All in all, I see the reason for concern but on the ground, the CPCs probably make sense. The government itself is politicized—for example, being an FSLN supporter in Estelí will get you priority with regard to government services. While it shoudn't be that way, the reality is it is, it has been for a long time and it is unlikely to change any time soon.

CPCs are they really a political instrument?
Submitted by nicareal on 4 May, 2008 - 15:43.

I can not speak for other towns but here in SJDS we seem to have a number of them. Every barrio seems to have its own version. I was invited to join the one in our little community. While I was hesitant at first, after the first meeting I realized that the items discussed had nothing to do with politics whatsoever. The discussions centered on how to get everyone to cut their "rondos" and how we get the town to improve the roads. As in most places in Nicaragua, people are more interested in the every day problems than in politics.

Will the CPCs be a strong political instrument? I don't think so.

Thanks for your input, nicareal
Submitted by Daddy-YO on 5 May, 2008 - 12:42.

First-hand accounts are invaluable in putting 'news' in proper perspective.