The Commune and Popular Sovereignty in Times of Imperialist Siege – Orinoco Tribune<https://orinocotribune.com/the-commune-and-popular-sovereignty-in-times-of-imperialist-siege/>
By Cira Pascual Marquina – Mar 27, 2026 I write these lines at a particularly difficult moment for Venezuelan sovereignty. The imperialist attack of January 3 and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and Congresswoman Cilia Flores marked a new escalation in an aggression that now spans more than twenty-six years against the Bolivarian Revolution. This is not an isolated episode. It is a new chapter in a broad and multifaceted strategy aimed at taking away the Venezuelan people and government’s power of decision and, ultimately, reversing the political path inaugurated in 1999. In this context, the leadership of the revolution has been forced to make difficult decisions. There has been no shortage of tedious and often legalistic debates about the reform of the Hydrocarbons Law. However, that reform had in fact already been under discussion prior to the attack. By contrast, what does constitute a tactical concession affecting our national sovereignty is how the United States now oversees and controls our oil sales. No one who has historically defended energy sovereignty can ignore the weight of this blow. Nevertheless, the immediate alternative to this concession was not maintaining sovereignty—an idea often invoked by “leftists” in the global North as they hastily declare the end of our revolution—but rather an all-out bloody war under extremely unfavorable conditions, accompanied by a naval blockade. Under imperialist siege, even revolutionary processes may be forced to maneuver to preserve life and ensure their continuity. It was a hard blow. But it was also the result of a prolonged economic war whose objective has been precisely to close off all avenues for the country’s material reproduction. Lenin knew these situations well. In the most difficult years of the Soviet Revolution, he defended the New Economic Policy as a necessary tactical retreat to preserve what was fundamental. Revolutionary politics, he insisted, requires distinguishing between what can be defended at a given moment and what constitutes the strategic core of a historical process. Today, that distinction becomes crucial once again. National sovereignty is not reducible to control over a strategic resource, however important it may be. In Venezuela, there exists another equally important dimension: organized popular sovereignty. This is the terrain of the commune. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41303): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41303 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118607353/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
