Venezuela’s Communard Union, an organization that brings together popular power collectives across the country, held its first national gathering dedicated to communal feminism.
Organizers reported over 1,600 participants in attendance at the meeting that took place on March 29 in Caracas.
“What we have here today is an achievement of feminist struggles,” Yeini Urdaneta, a spokesperson from the Che Guevara Commune in Mérida state, told those present.
Our organization is diverse but has always held feminism as a key principle.
Urdaneta, who also belongs to the Communard Union’s national leadership, mentioned that Saturday’s event was the culmination of five prior regional meetings that saw local communes debate their needs and priorities.
“We are building the communal feminism that we identify with, and we will continue raising our banners of struggle,” she concluded.
Célia Cunha, an activist from Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) and a communard from El Maizal, highlighted the “historical” significance of the gathering as proof that the work carried out by the Communard Union is “bearing fruit.”
“Our task is to continue conquering participation spaces and to develop concrete actions to change our surroundings, to dismantle patriarchy,” she said in a panel. Cunha has spent years in Venezuela as part of the MST’s internationalist brigade and has been heavily involved with the Communard Union’s political education processes.
The day-long event featured interventions from spokespeople representing different regions. Participants likewise approved establishing four main policy priorities: developing a feminist economy, protecting women’s healthcare, eliminating gender-based violence and expanding political participation. A commission was appointed to follow up on the different lines of work in the Communard Union territories, with follow-up meetings expected every year.
Saturday’s communal feminism gathering closed with a musical performance from Grupo Herencia’s Mujer Tambor, a women’s band that plays Afro-Venezuelan rhythms with an assorted range of drums.
The Communard Union held its founding congress in March 2022 and has the stated goal of unifying communes from all over Venezuela to build socialism as envisioned by former President Hugo Chávez. Since its inception, communard activists have pushed for the organization to put women’s issues at the top of its agenda.
The political project has democratically elected regional and national structures and has gradually expanded to incorporate more grassroots collectives. National leadership members told Venezuelanalysis that there are now 142 communes from 19 Venezuelan states engaged in the Communard Union’s political, economic and education initiatives.
Edited by Cira Pascual Marquina from Caracas and José Luis Granados Ceja from Mexico City, Mexico.
