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Programmatic Foundations

Introduction

In 2019, a group of Venezuelan communal and social organizations began the process of building an integrative and unitary political instrument, which would allow the Chavista popular movement to regroup around a common program of struggle to offer a revolutionary response to the ongoing crisis. The initiative developed over the course of the year through assemblies, work meetings, local deployment and organizational articulation assignments. By the end of 2019, in the Che Guevara Socialist Commune in the State of Merida, the effort began to take the form of what we know today as the Communard Union.

As soon as 2020 began, the Union embarked on a journey of territorial activation, bringing together some one hundred grassroots organizations in five regional assemblies held in Lara, Anzoátegui, Mérida, Apure and Caracas. 

The campaign stirred the excitement and morale of the Chavista popular movement, which had been badly damaged and demobilized by the effects of the crisis that rocked the Venezuelan pueblo. The meetings offered a clear assessment of the state of popular struggles — their problems, contradictions and difficulties — but also expressions of resistance, ideological determination, creativity and vigor with which Chavismo upheld its banners of struggle and preserved spaces of revolutionary construction. 

The regional assemblies also reactivated the debate on the historical need for the commune as an instrument for the construction of Socialism. It was urgent to convene the Founding Congress of the Communard Union, as a space of programmatic synthesis that would define the ideological foundations and the strategic outlook of the nascent organization.

But the Covid-19 pandemic brought momentum to a halt, forcing the postponement of the Founding Congress and a reconsideration of strategy. 

However, despite new challenges, the Union resumed its organizational work, providing educational spaces, promoting productive initiatives and economic exchange, developing communications work and continuing with the process of local activation and social articulation through the Argelia Laya Brigade, which successfully deployed to more than thirty communal areas in 2021. The necessary conditions were thus once again set to establish the Founding Congress, with the organization of a Pre-Congress on December 9, 10 and 11, 2021 in the Alí Primera Commune in Urachiche, Yaracuy State. 

This is how the Communard Union has now come to the lands of El Maizal Socialist Commune, this March 4 and 5, 2022, to hold its Founding Congress and sign its organizational birth certificate in the service of the noble and just causes of the Venezuelan people. Nine years after the physical passing of Comandante Chávez, 20 years after the civic-military counter-offensive that defeated the coup d'état and the Oil Sabotage promoted by the national oligarchy under the supervision of US imperialism, 30 years after the Military Rebellion of February 4th that shook the foundations of the Punto Fijo ‘particracy’, 33 years after the popular insurrection of February 27th and 212 years after the Independence of Venezuela, the Communard Union, committed itself to the rebellious history of the people, conscious of its role in the revolutionary transformation of the Venezuelan homeland, hereby sets forth the Programmatic Foundations which establish the ideological foundations of the organization, as well as the prospects for struggle and the strategic horizon handed down to us by Comandante Chávez and synthesized in the slogan 'Commune or Nothing!'. 

Independence, Commune, and Socialism!

1. Democracy In Times Of Revolution

The Bolivarian movement led by Comandante Hugo Chávez launched the construction of a new conception of democracy, beginning with its challenge to bourgeois liberal democracy, particularly to democracy for the elites as expressed in the Punto Fijo Pact. 

In the 1990s, the Bolivarian movement built a solid national organization from below, touring around the country, listening and dialoguing with ordinary people, while escaping incorporation into the system by electoral participation and dodging cooptation attempts. Meanwhile, elections went forward as a "festival for electoral machines" to ratify elite rule. On this matter, Chávez said: 

"A government or special regime cannot be a government that is the product of elections plus agreements between elites. Nothing that tries to overcome this model of liberal democracy, which for us is already dead, can emerge from elections. Without this transitional government and without popular organization, which includes the military, the desired objective can never be fulfilled, and the role that all these supposedly 'democratic' governments have played will be done." - Hugo Chávez. 2004

After a process of accumulation of forces and having chosen the electoral route, Hugo Chávez triumphed on December 6, 1998 and set in motion the call for a constituent assembly.

"They are tyrannies disguised as democracy, that’s what we have had in this country for a long time (...) We must tear down the foundations of the Colonial State and build a new Social State, a new republic that is an expression of the constituent power." - Hugo Chávez. 2006

After the electoral triumph, the Comandante warned: 

"Yes, we have buried the Pact of Punto Fijo, which does not mean that we have definitively buried the flaws of the Fourth Republic and the threats that continue to loom over us. We are obliged to break with them and give more life every day to a vigorous, participative and protagonist democracy". - Hugo Chávez. 2006

Participatory And Protagonistic Democracy

Popular participation and popular organization are the fundamental aspects of Chavista democracy, which can be understood as Participatory and Protagonist Democracy, and became the central premise and the starting point to break with the prevailing depoliticization and incorporate the people into political practice. 

Such a binding participation required instruments, initially envisioned in the form of "plebiscites, referendums, popular assemblies, popular consultations, law initiatives," accompanied by multiple emergent organizational forms that arose from the heat of struggle and the desire to achieve the social demands buried in previous decades. However, such participation was conceived as a means to an end and not an end in itself, as expressed by Chávez:

"It is not enough to talk about participatory democracy as if that were the end, no. Participation must be an instrument to achieve an end. Participation must be an instrument to achieve an end, because what is the point if everyone participates, speaks, raises their hand or discusses or writes; no, that cannot be the end. The goal has to go further." - Hugo Chávez. 1999

Notwithstanding the many races and the enormous energy invested in them, elections are only the minimum requirement of democracy for Chavismo. Therefore, the concept is broadened and the people are involved in politics beyond the act of voting: 

"Because democracy cannot just happen every five years, take the people to vote and elect a president and that's it. No! That would be very boring, that cannot be democracy. (...) Bolívar, our Liberator Bases and Father of the Homeland, on the banks of the Orinoco River said: ‘Democracy must be the system of government that provides its people with the greatest possible amount of happiness, the greatest possible amount of equality, the greatest possible amount of social security'. Only in this way, we have to conceive democracy." - Hugo Chávez. 1999

However, since the early years of the Bolivarian Process, there has been a tension between the traditional representation and the emerging protagonistic participation: "Democracy of the elites, representative democracy, is counter-revolutionary. A government making decisions enclosed in four walls, expropriating the sovereignty of the people, is counterrevolutionary." Therefore, "We are representatives, but we have sworn to give life to a democracy, not representative but participatory, and beyond that: protagonistic" declared the Comandante.

Revolutionary and Socialist Democracy

Later, Chávez radicalized his vision and clarified his conception of democracy, stripping it of its abstract notion of democracy as a simple democracy:

"It is not the same to speak of a democratic revolution as of a revolutionary democracy. The first concept has a bridle, like the horse: it is revolution, ah, but it is democratic. It is a conservative brake. The other concept is liberating. It is like a shot, like a horse without a bridle: revolutionary democracy, democracy for the revolution." - Hugo Chávez. 2006

Beginning in 2007, popular power acquired more concrete forms after the Comandante reaffirmed the socialist course of the revolution, and on the basis that within capitalism, democracy is not possible because it "is not the power of the bourgeoisie or the elites."

"In order to advance towards socialism, we need popular power capable of disarticulating the structures of oppression, exploitation and domination that persist in Venezuelan society, popular power capable of configuring a new society based in daily life, where fraternity and solidarity go hand in hand with the permanent emergence of new ways of planning and producing the material life of our people. This involves completely smashing the bourgeois State form we inherited, which still reproduces itself through its antiquated and harmful practices, and providing continuity to the creation of new forms of political governance." - Hugo Chávez. 2012

This process of the development of Chavista democracy laid the political foundations for constructing the communal project as a synthesis of the different expressions of popular organization that had been growing in the midst of social struggle. The Communard Union feeds on this process of developing Chavista democracy, to give continuity and depth to the communal project as a way to build Socialism.

2. The Communal Project

The creation of the system of combined association and self-governance in the Venezuelan Commune arises as a response to exhaustion: institutional exhaustion of the Liberal Bourgeois State, political exhaustion in its bipartisan clientelism, and economic exhaustion in the monopolistic rentier model of accumulation, which Venezuela has endured since the Fourth Republic (1958-1998). 

It is in this framework where the communal project is able to clarify its objective. The commune represents a heroic solution to the historical crisis inherited by the Venezuelan people, in the face of the pressing need to build new political structures and practices that will allow them to consolidate a political-social system that will provide them with the highest degree of happiness and a space for the conquest of their hopes and dreams.

Under these principles, traditional bourgeois democracy is challenged, reformulated and transcended through the participatory, protagonistic and conscious exercise of popular sovereignty in revolutionary democracy. In the same way, the old economy based on inequality, plundering, exploitation and monopoly of the productive forces and means of production is reformulated through the struggle for democratization using social property and the consolidation of a popular economic system based on humanism, generosity and the primacy of the social over the economic — fundamental pillars for the achievement of socialism.

In this regard, Comandante Chávez said: 

"The Commune must become the socialist cell; all these ethical, moral, political, economic and social efforts must become embedded there to fight against misery". - Hugo Chávez. 2008

On the other hand, the communal project is supported by an extensive body of laws and regulations of great strategic value for the project's realization, concentrated around the Laws of Popular Power and other legal instruments, including the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Organic Law of the Communal Councils, the Organic Law of Popular Power, the Organic Law of the Communes, the Organic Law of the Communal Economic System, the Organic Law of Public and Popular Planning, among other instruments, which, although they may be subject to improvement, provide the communal project with a solid legal basis.

The Communard Union assumes the Commune and the Communal State not as a completed and flawless project. It is taken up with its successes and contradictions, with its achievements and debts. It tries to rescue its essence and its constituent elements as pillars of the strategy proposed by the Union, which in turn embraces the challenge of continuing to nurture — based in praxis — the method and the program of the Chavista communal project.

The Communal Union puts forth the following fundamental principles of the communal project:

• Participatory and protagonistic democracy as a fundamental condition for the incorporation of the people into the practice of politics and for the construction of popular power, in contrast to the conceptions of representative democracy that result in a "democracy" of elites.
• Communal institutions, in their multiple expressions of association, as spaces for the practice of communal governance.
• This form of governance takes the shape of self-governance, in that it represents the people governing themselves.
• Communal self-government is called upon to overcome localism, and to project itself as a force with national character, until it becomes a national system or federation of communes; the self-government of all the people.
• The communal project means exercising territorial sovereignty, governing and legislating on what is present in its territory: land, resources, water, infrastructure, roads, etc., taking into account the limits imposed by nature and the balance of ecosystems.
• Social ownership of the means of production is the center of the economic approach of the communal project, from which production, distribution, exchange and consumption are organized to satisfy social needs and transcend market logics.
• The communal processes must not only guarantee material conditions, but fundamentally become spaces for constructing consciousness of social responsibility — the reproduction of socialist values in order to prefigure both the ways of life and the subjectivity which must characterize socialist society.
• The entire commune is a school, so that education, in all its dimensions, must be a permanent and comprehensive task.
• Communal spaces must guarantee democratic mechanisms for participation, decision-making, accountability and transparency in political practice and resource administration. The spokespersons are not representatives who hijack decision-making and enjoy special privileges; on the contrary, the spokespeople are always first in the performance of their duties and last in the enjoyment of their benefits.
• The communes must progressively reach degrees of economic and political autonomy, and not be appendages of the entities of established power or of any partisan formation. As the Comandante stated in Aló Teórico Number 1 from 2009: "the Communal Council cannot be an appendage of the Party (...) The Party assists, it must assist; the Party encourages, it must encourage! The Communal Councils cannot be appendages of the city halls, they cannot be, they must not be, do not let them be! The Communal Councils, the Communes cannot be appendages of governorships, nor of the ministry! Not of the Ministry of Communes, nor of President Chávez: nor of anyone, they belong to the people, they are the creation of the masses, they belong to you!"
• The communal movement must equip itself with its own program of struggle, born of its own needs and aspirations, which will allow it to advance with its own agenda. An effort of construction framed in the Program of the Homeland passed down to us by the Comandante, as well as all the experience of construction advanced so far by the Venezuelan communards, and nourished by the historical lessons inherited from other nations that have attempted similar projects.
• The dialogue of the communal movement with entities of established power must be based on the pillars of joint responsibility, respect and mutual recognition, in order to ensure the transfer of capacities and resources to the communal movement. Popular power should not be reduced to relations of subordination, clientelism or co-optation.
• In communal spaces we fight against xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of social discrimination.
• The communes are spaces to fight against the patriarchy and the forms of domination derived from it. 
• The communal project is not confined to the commune and its forms of association, it must forge organizational relations with the other sectors which compose Popular Power in order to build a common program of struggle and a new social fabric.
• Internationalism is an essential attribute of the communal movement, with which relationships are woven with peoples in struggles around the world, from militant solidarity, the exchange of experiences and the fight against the common enemies of humanity, which as a ruling class has configured a system of exploitation, neocolonialism, military intervention and the plunder of nations that seek their self-determination and sovereignty.
• By definition, the communal project is anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and socialist, aimed at contributing to the radical transformation of society.

3. The Communal Road To Socialism

"Let us remember that, at first, socialism is like a ghost. Right now, it is urgent that we begin to give a material basis to socialism, to the socialist project, and that where we have already begun to do so, let us accelerate it... with the full participation across the entire front of the communes, of the people's power, of the workers..." - Hugo Chávez. 2008

Socialism and the commune represent complementary ideas within the Bolivarian project for a new society. Based on Comandante Chávez's proposals, we can outline 5 major strategic points on the communal road to socialism.

1. Moral and ethical. To confront the values of capitalism, selfishness, individualism, pettiness in order to construct and reproduce socialist morals and ethics, which have at their core the consciousness of social responsibility and the reproduction of values such as solidarity, cooperation and mutual aid.
2. Political. Communes must push for the realization of new revolutionary democracy, where the organic social fabric of the empowered and conscious community is combined with the aim of conquering the political — linking popular power with popular government and constituent power with established power.
3. Social. The commune must act as a people’s shield against suffering, developing responses to the community’s daily social needs, eliminating poverty and generating social welfare.
4. Economic. The achievement of authentic economic democracy anchored in social property under the political control of the commune, allowing for the reconstruction and remaking of the dynamic process of life's reproduction and the breaking of capital's metabolic chain in order to overcome Venezuela's extractivist and rentier model.
5. Territorial. To break with classic political-territorial division, to create a new geography based on communal federation, following the compass of the people's work, consolidating a living and dynamic geography.

In this sense, the commune must be the epicenter of popular and sovereign power. It should not become the State that has preceded it but rather it should transcend the State. The commune should become the alpha and omega of the popular political imaginary and at the same time draw the tactical lines of revolutionary practice in the economic, political, cultural and social spheres.

Faced with the systematic process of the shrinking of the State, the commune must expand its action, rebuild the spaces of struggle, re-politicize daily life. 

The Communard Union fundamentally traces this horizon of its struggle, with the firm conviction that it is on the right side of history and taking up communal spaces — in spirit and conscious strength — in the face of the challenges ahead.

4. Towards A National Communal Federation

"The Revolution must, lest it perish or be captured, radically modify the capitalist vision of the world, it must undertake actions that reconstruct the social fabric, and for this it is of the utmost importance to elevate the local to the universal scale. To establish political, social, economic, organizational and spiritual relations from the base to the national level — from the nucleus, I would say, from the cell to the level of the entire nation." - Hugo Chávez. Aló Presidente Teórico No. 1, June 11, 2009

The communard movement in general, and the Communard Union in particular, has the historical responsibility of contributing to the construction of a new stage of nation-wide association, on the road to the edification of the Communal State. In fact, this task was entrusted to us by Comandante Chávez in the Aló Teórico No. 1 of 2009: "Twenty years from now, our Communes must become this, they must have been transformed into a unified national system".

This idea takes the form of a National Communal Federation, which manages to unite the efforts of the communes in different parts of the country in a new organization and in a common program of struggle.

In this respect, the Comandante affirmed:

"With the Communal Councils we must now transcend the local, and we must create and continue creating by law, at first, a certain  regional, local, national confederation of Communal Councils. We must march towards the formation of a Communal State, and the old bourgeois State, which is still very much alive and kicking, we must progressively dismantle it while building the Communal State, the Socialist State, the Bolivarian State; a State with the conditions and capacity to lead a revolution". - Hugo Chávez. 2007

The construction of an instrument of this nature starts in principle from the need to break with the localism and isolation that too often prevail in communal organization processes. Communal organization, often idealized and romanticized, sometimes tends to become self-absorbed and become an end in itself, limiting itself to functional coexistence with capitalism and the logic of the bourgeois State. In this way, communal self-government is called to overcome localism, and to project itself as a national force, until it becomes a system or National Communal Federation; the self-government of all the people.

However, the current reality of Venezuelan communes, battered by the crisis and facing organizational problems, makes it necessary to encourage a tactic of recomposition of their internal fabric. This involves the revitalization of their nuclei — the communal councils— as well as the different forms and instances of communal self-government. The strengthening of communal bases is an indispensable requirement for the construction of a communal federation at the risk of becoming an artificial, merely representational and bureaucratic organization.

The process of construction of the National Communal Federation is of a dual character, just as the conception of power that emerges from it is of a dual character (dual power). It requires efforts both in the communal bases and in the superstructure derived from the association. These initiatives must strengthen the organizational life of the foundations of communal power and simultaneously advance towards achieving the goals of national articulation and projection. To the extent that progress is made simultaneously in these two directions, the power delegated to the communal entities and spokespersons will enjoy greater legitimacy and political standing.

In the conception of dual power, efforts must be translated into a process of accumulation of forces, of building power from below and from above, which in turn enables contestation and winning new spaces of power, as well as guaranteeing the transfer of (and struggle for) resources, responsibilities and functions of the bourgeois State. Power is conceived not as an end in itself, it is a means for radically transforming society and an instrument for new constructions, at present in the form of an obedient power, a power administered by the people, a truly Popular Power that expresses its dual character as opposed to the machinery of the bourgeois State, which must be "progressively dismantled."

5. The Commune And Internationalism

"Proletarian internationalism is a duty, but also a necessity. This is how we educate the people." - Che Guevara

"To be an internationalist is to settle our debt with humanity." - Fidel Castro

Like all organizing principles, internationalism is based on a set of human values as well as on daily practice. To speak of internationalism is to speak of solidarity, humility, rebellion, resistance, the ethos of sacrifice and voluntary labor.

Comprehension of the internationalist dimension of the practices of popular struggle and resistance is strengthened with the development of political theories that allow us to understand that working people have the same enemy in any part of the world. Therefore, to combat this shared enemy the program of revolutionary struggle to combat this must also be shared.

The slogan 'Workers of the world, unite!' is the synthesis of the strategy of the peoples' struggle, and it is on this basis that the Union joins in the construction of the organizational instruments that unify struggles, contributing to the vision of the totality of processes of resistance.

Comandante Hugo Chávez promoted the internationalist principle from his position of power as a political leader, demonstrating solidarity in concrete actions, expanding the policy of forming alliances both among governments and among organized people. At the same time, he positioned Venezuela as a strategic space of articulation and resistance against the imperialist enemy's onslaughts. 

The Venezuelan people have historically held an ethical position and admirable internationalist practice; we need only look back through history to see the material nature of this internationalist spirit. We remember the heroic struggle for independence led by Simón Bolívar, capable of fighting for the liberation of the peoples of our America, without occupation and colonization. Thus, Bolívar, Miranda, Chávez, deserve recognition as admirable internationalists and add to the deep understanding of this organizing principle. 

The Communard Union embraces this principle, committing itself to creating and strengthening a program of articulation and alliances with revolutionary organizations and movements throughout Latin America and the world. Internationalism manifests itself in a clear program of struggle, strengthening the strategy of the union of peoples and creating an internationalist culture within the organization. Internationalism must be expressed in daily practice on the land, in the communes, in revolutionary collective ritual (mística), in political training schools.

Internationalism is not optional but a clear necessity in the struggle against Capitalism and Imperialism. 

Solidarity is the tenderness of peoples.

Internationalize struggle, internationalize hope!

6. Fighting Against Patriarchy, Building Communal Feminism

"We women fight for our rights and for those of our homeland, because the problem of women's equality is the problem of the liberation of the peoples." - Argelia Laya

The hegemonic power of the capitalist and patriarchal system can only be fought by building popular power, where the oppressed can assert values of freedom, justice and solidarity, putting an end to the different forms of existing oppression, from the most savage and violent to the most subtle and less visible, present in the daily life of the people, present in our daily life and in our own behavior.

This process means understanding that the construction of a new socialist and feminist society will only be possible to the extent that the practice in one's personal life, at home, in the community, in social and political organizations, in social relations (as a couple, with family and friends) reflects what is thought, said and done, prefiguring the new society with human beings in permanent development, imbued with liberating values.

The Communard Union is part of the radical legacy of Comandante Chávez, in the wager for power in the hands of the organized people. The Union's members commit themselves to building new social relations in their communities, with productive and socially owned economies. Within the framework of the slogan "Commune or Nothing!" the Union commits itself to shattering paradigms, redefining conventional concepts and building new ones. 

Although the total emancipation of women cannot be achieved without the socialist revolution, this does not mean that the struggle should be postponed until after the revolution. The struggle against patriarchy, understood as a logic of domination of women, linked to the class system of society, which subordinates women workers to a process of double or even triple exploitation, cannot be postponed and cannot be avoided. The struggle against patriarchy should not be understood as a struggle of women against men as assumed by bourgeois feminist currents. It is about dismantling patriarchal logic to guarantee the organic incorporation of women to revolutionary tasks, and together with the exploited classes, liquidating capitalism and building socialism.

The Communard Union recognizes popular feminism from a class position, which includes the struggle of the people, the anti-capitalist struggle and within this context organizes to build Communal Feminism, as a banner that emerges from Venezuelan communal reality, exactly as Commander Chávez suggested. The communes are where the power relations between men and women will be transformed, where a fairer society for all genders is being built — from the historical, revolutionary, socialist and Chavista project. 

The construction of Communal Feminism will be the heroic creation of women of the Communard Union, which must provide spaces for meeting, debate and consolidation in order to transcend the contradictions of the patriarchal-capitalist system, where equity is the fundamental basis for action. 

The local terrain of struggle is very important, understanding the communal as rooted in a specific territory that is trying to build new economic, social, political, productive and reproductive relations. These new social relations and ways of organizing life from the bottom up will have the objective of building a life with dignity, which is where the concept of socialism points towards.

Communes are where power relations between men and women will be transformed, where a more just society for all genders is built, and where empowerment is generated to promote personal and collective liberation processes, in order to transform the entire system and with it, the relations that exist in our communities. Through the processes fostered here, new tools and conditions are acquired for political and community spaces to take on — constructing the social subject, with a combative position in local communities. 

The strategy for promoting this policy are the Women and Gender Equality Committees, conceived as organizational spaces formed in communal councils and communes with the purpose of exposing the discrimination and oppression experienced by women in the capitalist and patriarchal system, creating spaces for meetings to raise awareness of this situation in personal as well as public life, developing the mutual support necessary to tackle transformational processes. 

Build and organize Communal Feminism!

7. Methodology For Our Work

The Communard Union carries out its political and organizational actions around a set of areas of work, related to the reality of the communes and in response to their concrete needs.

The construction of a movement as proposed by the Union requires more than the sum of its parts; it fundamentally requires an organic structure that guarantees quantitative and qualitative growth as an organization aspiring to contest power.

The ideological vision from which these areas of work are conceived is inherent to the communal project itself. The reflection and action that the Union seeks to develop from these areas of work is aimed at reproducing the communal cosmovision — imbued in every area and each task, no matter how small, that compose the fundamental principles of the revolutionary and communal transformation project that the Union has decided to undertake.

Autonomous Communal Production

The Communard Union asserts its strategy of Economy and Production from the conception of the Communal Economy, in response to the mode of production and material and spiritual reproduction of goods and services of capitalism based on private ownership of the means of production, the purchase and sale of labor power and the market as the economic regulator.

A Communal Economy seeks to establish a set of socialized relations of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services, as well as knowledge and know-how, based on popular participation, social ownership and democratic management of the means of production.

Based on the principle of participatory and protagonistic democracy, the fundamental pillar of the Communal Economy is the participation of communards in the direction, administration, management and implementation of communal economic activity. Communards democratically define — according to their own needs, potentials and capacities — the economic life of their communities as well as its forms: socially-owned enterprises, family production units, solidarity exchange groups and any other aspect that is integrated into the Communal Economic System.

On the other hand, social ownership of the means of production, as a model that surpasses private property, is the foundation that makes social reinvestment of surpluses possible. Social property breaks the capitalist mechanisms of private appropriation, and allows the commune, in a participatory and planned way, to have the necessary resources for economic sustainability, social welfare and the financing of communal self-governance.

Strategic planning and democratic management of the communal economy are considered necessary tools to revitalize and adapt the model to the principles of the communal economy, as well as the need to foster a model based on the Budgetary Financing System aimed at eliminating commercial categories that could reproduce themselves within the Communal Economic System.

Strategic Objective 

Building a National System of the Communal Economy and Production aimed at integrating, strengthening and consolidating the economic and productive efforts being developed by the communal and social organizations of the Communard Union.

Tactical Objectives

• Creating an economic map of the communal and social organizations that make up the Communard Union.
• Establishing a National System of Solidarity Exchange among the communes of the Union.
• Building productive supply chain mechanisms among the different communal zones.
• Developing a national network of communal distribution centers.
• Creating a national policy for primary, industrial, and commercial production as well as service provisioning.
• Negotiating, managing and regularizing the transfer of land and means of production to the communes.
• Identifying and facilitating access to sources of financing to guarantee productive investment processes in the communes.
• Constituting the Communard Union Bank as a national fund for financing communal economic life together with a National Economic Communal Planning Council.
• Developing mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating economic activity in the Union’s communes.
• Guaranteeing efficient and transparent management and administration procedures for the Union's communal and social organizations.
• Developing a policy for innovation and leveraging science and technology to increase productivity in communal territories.
• Encouraging and cooperating with free and associated producers, as well as with diverse economic entities that exist within communal territory.

Education For Transformation

Within the framework of the Bolivarian and Chavista project, and with the horizon of "Commune or Nothing", the Union proposes the construction of an educational policy under the principles of popular education, the dialectical, dialogical and movement-oriented vision of reality.

The applied pedagogical method is derived from the legacies of Freire, Marx, Simón Rodríguez, Makarenko, Chávez and other revolutionary left approaches. For the sake of coherence with the principles above, the elaboration of contradiction is adopted as a way of advancing knowledge construction. Likewise, the recognition of diversity: rural-urban, youth-adult, ethnic diversity, sexual-gender diversity, etc., is the starting point to converge towards a dialogue among knowledges, recognizing that everyone has knowledges to share. Special emphasis is placed on technical and political knowledge, built from the people mobilized in the resolution of their needs and responding to concrete realities. 

In summary, we point out some methodological features that constitute the educational approach of the Communard Union.

• “Punto y Círculo” approach
• Identification of issues based on reality: research
• Approach to practical knowledge: participatory action
• Conflict as part of methodological practice: transformation
• Pedagogy of example: self-criticism and conscious discipline
• Movement-based and alternating pedagogy: intensive, collectivist and experiential
• Pedagogy of care: opposed to the logic of predation, it is committed to life
• Popular education: organizational and programmatic
• Mística (collective ritual): inspire to conspire
• Praxis: theorizing our practice about reality in order to act in a more precise and specific way.

Strategic Objective

Guaranteeing technical, ideological and political education for all the members of the Communard Union.

Tactical Objectives

• Build a National Educational System from the social bases, autonomous and supporting the organizational, productive and historical construction of the communard movement.
• Developing training programs on organizing methods and methodologies that contribute to the strengthening and practice of popular power.
• Establishing teams for the National Education Commission to ensure the socialization and consolidation of pedagogical methods.
• Supporting the efforts of the Argelia Laya National Brigade in components of training for the development of local work.
• Triggering continuous and permanent education and self-education processes that add to politicization rates and awareness of the social responsibility for communal and social organizations.
• Facilitating the socialization of theoretical and practical tools for developing technologies, media and praxis that secure the communes' economic base.
• Collecting the records of organizational development and systematizing its processes, under the logic of research — action — participation.
• Fostering the unity of the revolutionary militancy, creating socialist and humanist internationalist consciousness.

Communal Communication

The Communard Union proposes to develop its communications from a critical approach based on the materialist conception of history, which places class struggle as the main axis of the historical process. On this basis, we turn to Popular Communication as a working example and method, adopting its constitutive principles for developing a communications policy. 

Communication is conceived as a dialogical process of constructing meanings and social ties, which cannot be dissociated from the cultural practices of their historical subjects, moving beyond the reductionist view that limits communication to mass media.

The notion of the ‘popular' is intimately linked to class analysis that emerges as a political project. Therefore, Popular Communication is understood as the process in which the people — aware of their role in political participation and practice — can seize their own reality and work towards revolutionary transformation. When the people speak with their own voice, communication becomes a mechanism for social transformation, dismantling structures meant for domination and the distortion of reality.

In communal spaces, activity is not merely reduced to material production. There is also cultural, symbolic and meaning production — and reproduction. It is recognized that in these spaces, as in society as a whole, there is a permanent conflict between dominant ideological reproduction and the production and reproduction of a liberating consciousness. 

Communicative processes must contribute to social mobilization understood as a process of identity construction, political and cultural empowerment, and the creation of a sense of social responsibility. Communication also serves as a vehicle and catalyst for the production, reproduction and exchange of knowledge produced collectively through the experience and processes of struggle.

Likewise, communication is conceived as a vehicle for seizing the means and program of struggle, seeking to reaffirm ourselves as subjects of transformation. 

It cannot be reduced to a purely rational fact; it organically links rational and emotional aspects of the human condition, interwoven by morals and ethics that are consistent with principles of the production and reproduction of life as a social process.

Strategic Objective

To rescue, uphold and project the communal project as the backbone of Popular Power and the path towards the transition to socialism in Venezuela.

Tactical Objectives

• Projecting the work that the Communard Union has developed across different areas of action in the process of developing as a national organization. 
• Actively participating in ideological struggle and in the emblematic political debate taking place in Venezuela today, emphasizing the need to strengthen the revolutionary and communal path towards socialism.
• Promoting the political, organizational, educational and economic efforts that the Union's communes have launched themselves in their communities.
• Highlighting and supporting the struggles that communards have been waging against the large landowners, capitalism and reformism.
• Organizing a National System of Communal Communications. 
• Encouraging the creation of a communications office within the Communard Union. 
• Fostering a communications training program in conjunction with the Union's National Education System. 
• Building alliances with public, national and alternative media, popular communicators, independent  journalists and international media.
• Building alliances with other organizations, movements and social actors in Venezuela and the rest of the world.

Territorial Activation And Communal Mobilization

Processes of territorial collective activation are fundamental for the organic structure of the Union. These processes seek real closeness, organizational growth and close ties between the different organized elements of the Union. 

The experience of territorial activation has nurtured our own approach, methodologically defined our practices and reaffirmed its importance as a vehicle for understanding and gathering communal and social organizations around the need to build a political instrument that links the various projects that are being developed in local communities across the country.

The processes of territorial activation constitute the mechanism for the first approach, which allows to experience and observe in situ the life of the organizations that will join the Union, from which an accurate assessment of their experience can be made. Therefore, territorial activation guarantees the quantitative growth of the Union, but on the basis of real recognition of the work carried out by the communal organizations in their local areas. 

The Argelia Laya Brigade has become an instrument to boost identification, recognition, articulation and activation in the communes. It is made up of communards as well as members of social organizations from different regions of the country.

Beyond the integration of organizations into the Communard Union, the policy of territorial activation seeks a closer connection and deeper recognition of organizational experiences, even seeking to stimulate the revitalization and repoliticization of the commune's social base, to the extent that they identify with the struggles of other communities, and the genuine possibility of advancing towards common objectives.

In this way, solidarity and cooperative initiatives also emerge, which allow communes to establish initiatives for mutual aid and working together to achieve their goals and projects. 

On the other hand, the Argelia Laya Brigade also represents a necessary instrument for strengthening and consolidating the communes, trying to solidify organizational ties from the base, expressed in communal councils, as well as the different bodies that constitute the commune’s self-governance. This work is essential for the organic construction of the Communal Union.

Strategic Objective

To guarantee quantitative and qualitative growth of the Communard Union.

Tactical Objectives

• Generating processes of identification and assessment of communal and social organizations related to the Communard Union’s proposal. Conducting local field visits to obtain a characterization of communal and social organizations.
• Encouraging opportunities for meeting, recognition, articulation and exchange among communal and social organizations. 
• Establishing the Argelia Laya National Brigade and its regional branches, as well as strengthening its organizing capacity. 
• Promoting the development of work plans in conjunction with the Commissions for Economy and Production, Education, Communication, and Comprehensive Defense to carry out local strategies. 
• Contributing to strengthening the communal councils and institutional structures of the communes.

Statutes

Chapter I. Basic Provisions

Article 1. Definition.

The Communard Union defines itself as a National Political Movement of Communes that raises the banners of socialism, the anti-imperialist struggle, communal feminism, environmentalism and the Bolivarian and Chavista project of the Communal State.

The movement advocates unity in diversity and socialist ethics as political cornerstones, together with permanent revolutionary reflection and action as a creative principle.

Article 2. Objectives.

The Communard Union, committed to the principles of the program inherited from Comandante Chávez in the Homeland Plan 2013-2019, and recognizing its Bolivarian, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist orientation, proposes:

1. To build a National Communal Federation. 
2. To contribute to the construction of the Communal State as a way of overcoming the liberal logic of the bourgeois State. 
3. To actively contribute to the construction of the Communal Road to Bolivarian Socialism. 
4. To undertake an internationalist policy of organizational development together with experiences linked to the revolutionary and communal project.

Article 3. Values And Principles.

The Communard Union constitutes itself as a socialist and Chavista movement that affirms the communal path as the main alternative to the structural crisis of the bourgeois State and the capitalist system, wagering on the realization of the Communal State and with it the attainment of Bolivarian Socialism, as proposed by Comandante Chávez.

Accordingly, it considers the legacy of Comandante Chávez as the creative source of its principles, reflected in the three-rooted tree of the work of Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez and Ezequiel Zamora. Likewise, it embraces the legacy of the political tradition of scientific socialism, universal critical and humanist thought, examples of resistance, afroindianidad and anti-imperialism bequeathed by figures such as Guaicaipuro and José Leonardo Chirino. It also advocates principles of gender equity and equality and thus incorporates the teachings and legacy of Argelia Laya's popular, combative feminism. 

It also recognizes the historical and ethical duty to build a model for the reproduction of life that respects the planet, guarantees the sustainability of our lives, the survival of all humanity and future generations. 

Article 4. Organizational Principles.

The Communard Union as a political movement of Communes, consciously revolutionary, mobilized and committed to the ideals of Comandante Chávez will organize itself and function defending the principles of Socialist Democracy, namely:

1. Democratic centralism.
2. Collective leadership at all levels. 
3. Political-ideological unity. 
4. Democratic recall, resulting from the evaluation of management, of respective positions.
5. Exercise of socialist emulation. 
6. Criticism and self-criticism. 
7. Revolutionary integrity of the organization's members. 
8. Gender equality and equity. 
9. Honesty and transparency. 
10. Communalization of political practice. 
11. Generating the necessary political conditions to promote gender parity in the participation of all organizational bodies.
12. Internationalism.

Article 5. Regarding Our Symbols.

The organization’s primary emblem is composed of the visual representation of a left fist hitting the right hand, inspired by the sign that the Comandante used as a gesture of combativeness. The star represents the Socialist Horizon assumed by the Bolivarian Revolution as a historical project. The circle surrounding the emblem represents the necessary unity around the communal project, and the tricolor that paints the symbol, retakes the colors of the flag as a reaffirmation of our independent and sovereign homeland. 

We adopt as our motto the expression "Independence, Commune and Socialism", which brings together the three essential elements for the emancipation of the Venezuelan people and the conquest of the highest form of social happiness.

Chapter II. Forms Of Participation

Article 6. Regarding The Admission Of Communes.

The communes must be recognized and validated by the Regional Coordinating Body of the territory where they are located, where their entry is approved based on the assessment of their communal work, as well as the adherence to the Statutes and the Programmatic Foundations of the movement. The National Directorate shall be notified of the decision. 

The entry of a commune to the Communard Union will be determined primarily by criteria of organizational structure: exercise of self-government, culture and activity of assemblies, legitimization of the spokespersons by the bases, economic activity, processes of local struggle and permanent mobilization of the bases, together with the legal criteria specified by existing law. 

In the event that there are limitations and gaps in the commune's legal status, efforts will be made to legalize and update it.

Article 7. Regarding The Participation Of Other Forms Of Social Organization.

Any local or sectoral organization may participate in the Communard Union, provided that it requests its incorporation to the movement and supports organizational work with any commune linked to the Communard Union that is active in its area. This organization shall adhere to and accept the Statutes and the Programmatic Foundations of the movement, as well as actively participate in the mobilization and organization of its bases. 

The admission of these organizations will be approved and validated by the Regional Coordinating Body of the area where they operate. Their entry will be accepted there, based on the evaluation of the local or sectoral work carried out to enrich and strengthen the communal struggle. 

In the absence of a commune in the area where the local or sectoral organization is located, the Regional Coordinating Office directly evaluates the performance of said organization and approves its admission according to the corresponding evaluation, ensuring its communal activation in the area where it operates, together with the communes of the region.

Article 8. Regarding The Mechanisms For Withdrawal.

The following are defined as mechanisms for leaving the Communard Union: physical dissolution, voluntary disaffiliation or expulsion from the ranks of the Union, whether of militants, communes or local or sectoral organizations.

The voluntary expression of withdrawal from the Union by a member must be expressed together with a written declaration by the commune or local or sectoral organization of which they are a member, and submitted to the body in which they participate.

Likewise, the voluntary withdrawal of a commune or local or sectoral organization from the ranks of the Communal Union shall be accompanied by a statement of reasons to be filed with the Regional Coordinating Body to which it belongs.

The militant who unjustifiably abandons their responsibilities, violates the principles and violates the organizational integrity of the Union as set forth in this document, as well as in the Programmatic Foundations and the guidelines of the organization, according to the due procedure established in the Disciplinary Rules and the verdict of the Disciplinary Council, may be expelled from the Union, duly communicating the decision to the commune, local or sectoral organization of which they are a member.

Chapter III. Regarding Membership

Article 9. Membership Characteristics.

Any person over fifteen (15) years of age, who belongs and participates organically in a commune, local or sectoral organization, validated by the Union, and who subscribes to its Statutes and Programmatic Foundations, shall be considered a member of the Communard Union.

Every member of the Communard Union is a socialist, a representative of the communard, Bolivarian, anti-imperialist, environmentalist and communal feminist spirit.

Communes, as well as local and sectoral organizations, can participate in spaces of leadership and coordination, as long as a larger participation of the communes is guaranteed, since the latter are the central actors of the political program of the Communard Union.

Article 10. Membership Rights.

Every member has the right to:

1. To participate in meetings and any organizational body defined by the Union with full voice and vote.
2. To nominate and be nominated for the different leadership and/or coordinating bodies of the organization. 
3. To present ideas, projects and programs to the different organizational leadership bodies. 
4. To formulate criticisms only within the movement's organizational bodies with due justification. 
5. To activate and participate together with the organized communities through the Territorial Activation Brigades and in the various areas of work. 
6. To formulate and demand the fulfillment of the organization's conscious and collective spaces of care for its members. 
7. To assume social control of the movement’s different organs.

Article 11. Membership Responsibilities.

All members are obliged to comply with the following responsibilities:

1. To comply with and defend the values and principles of the Communard Union, to recognize its various bodies, to ensure the strengthening of its political orientations and its local initiatives. 
2. To know and understand the contents of the fundamental documents of the organization: Statutes, Programmatic Foundations, and other inputs that nourish the organizational construction of the Communard Union. 
3. To constantly encourage and practice education, self-education, discipline, solidarity and revolutionary love in all militant spaces. 
4. To encourage and promote a safe militant space for all members. 
5. To abide by and comply with the guidelines and instructions emanating from all levels of organizational leadership.
6. To attend the congresses of the Communard Union. 
7. To carry out permanent actions of militant work within the organization, always putting the greatest energy in the mobilization and agitation of the social bases. 
8. To fight tirelessly against the scourge of corruption, opportunism and clientelism within the organization. 
9. To confront bureaucratism in all its forms so as to always ensure the organization's dynamism. 
10. To educate and self-educate in the revolutionary traditions and constantly draw the most valuable lessons from the political praxis of the movement's bases.

Chapter IV. Structure And Operation

Article 12. Organizational Bodies And Areas Of Work.

The Communard Union is composed of organizational bodies ranging from the local to the national level. The following are bodies of the Communard Union: the National Congress, the National Conference, the National Directorate, the Monitoring and Supervisory Commission, the Disciplinary Council, the Regional Coordinating Bodies, the Communal or Local Coordinating Bodies, the Communal Units and the Working Commissions. The entire operation of the Union revolves around five (5) areas of work: Economy and Production, Education, Communication, Territorial Activation and Comprehensive Defense, from which the political actions of the organization are developed. 

The Union must guarantee gender parity at all organizational levels. In those bodies where there are not sufficient conditions to guarantee gender parity, the organization must build and generate the conditions that contribute to parity participation — from the communal bases to the leadership bodies. 

This structure seeks to prefigure the operational model of the Communal Federation that the Communard Union intends to build in order to reach a higher stage of the Communal Aggregation System.

Article 13. The National Congress.

The National Congress is the highest decision-making and deliberative body of the Communard Union. It approves or amends its Statutes, approves its strategic direction, expressed in its Programmatic Foundations, and other documents, as well as presents and reviews an assessment of the organization since its previous congress. 

It is held regularly every 4 years, and extraordinarily when circumstances dictate. It may be convened by the majority of the National Directorate or by the majority of the Regional Coordinating Bodies and is made up of the active membership of the organization. All decisions taken in this space are binding and mandatory for all the members of the Communard Union.

For the realization of the National Congress, an Organizing Commission will be temporarily established to oversee all logistical, organizational and methodological aspects necessary to guarantee the fulfillment of its established objectives.

Article 14. The National Conference.

The National Conference is a space for debate, deliberation and decision, which gathers delegates from the various Regional Coordinating Bodies of the Communard Union, the size of which shall be determined by the situation and the importance of the decisions to be taken. It is convened annually to present the Annual Report and Accounting of the organization, and may be convened in an extraordinary manner to deal with a specific and/or circumstantial issue, which merits the consultation and approval of the entire organization. It may be called by the National Directorate or at the request of a simple majority of the Regional Coordinating Bodies.

Article 15. The National Directorate.

The National Directorate is an executive body in charge of guaranteeing the proper functioning of the organization, as established in the Statutes, as well as developing, planning and implementing the guidelines approved by the Congress, in accordance with the Programmatic Foundations of the organization.

The National Directorate is:

1. Made up of three (3) spokespersons elected in each Regional Coordinating Body of the Communard Union for a period of two (2) years, and may be reelected for an additional term, and recalled according to the mechanisms established by the Disciplinary Council. The measure must be taken based on a procedure that demonstrates and justifies the reasons for the recall and in which the person involved may exercise their right to defend themselves.
2. Composed of members who, in addition to meeting the qualifications described in this document, have the time, dedication, technical, political and ideological skills necessary to assume the task of exercising leadership in the Union. 
3. In constant dialogue and coordination with the other bodies, from which it receives periodic reports on the Union's performance and to which it sends guidelines for the implementation of the organization's plans and projects. 
4. Meets every three (3) months on a regular basis and in person, and on an extraordinary basis when the body so decides. 
5. It organizes and coordinates the National Work Commissions (Education, Communication, Economy and Production, Territorial Activation and Comprehensive Defense) together with those responsible for each area of work of the Regional Coordinating Bodies and the membership that has the necessary profile to integrate said commissions. 
6. It develops tactical and operational guidance for the rest of the bodies through an instrument called 'Action Guidelines'. It also makes use of Political Reports to debate the strategic aspects, the political and economic situation, the historical framework and the ethical and ideological principles of the Communard Union at all organizational levels. 
7. Plans and budgets projects; organizes and systematizes communal political processes at the national level, addresses legal issues, manages a variety of plans to obtain financial and non-financial resources, and is responsible for their administration on behalf of the organization. 
8. Develops policy for alliances with other national and international organizations.

Article 16. The Monitoring And Supervisory Body.

This body is responsible for ensuring compliance with agreements, monitoring the progress of organizational processes and assessing progress towards the organization's objectives in constant consultation with the Disciplinary Council. 

It is made up of one (1) spokesperson, elected in each of the Regional Coordinating Bodies.

Article 17. The Disciplinary Council.

The Disciplinary Council is an organ of the Union, composed of one (1) member of recognized ethical, moral and political integrity, who is selected by each Regional Coordinating Body, for the purpose of applying disciplinary procedures and emulation mechanisms to the membership of the Union, as established by the disciplinary regime and the protocols available to the organization for such purposes.

Article 18. Regional Coordinating Bodies.

The communal and social organizations that are part of the Communard Union in a given geographic region, previously delimited and approved by the Congress, meet and coordinate their efforts in an entity called the Regional Coordinating Body that:

1. Is composed of at least one spokesperson for each commune or local or sectoral organization that operates in the region. 
2. Meets once a month on an ordinary basis, and on special occasions whenever the body deems it necessary. 
3. Analyzes and debates the Political Report issued by the National Directorate. 
4. Implements and adapts the Action Guidelines issued by the National Directorate to the specific characteristics of the region. 
5. Develops proposals, recommendations and initiatives to be submitted to the National Directorate in order to contribute to the political objectives. 
6. Elects three (3) members to the National Directorate. 
7. Elects the spokespersons responsible for each one of the Areas of Work that together with the respective national officer integrate the National Work Commissions.
8. Appoints a member to sit on the Disciplinary Council. 
9. Appoints a militant to sit on the Monitoring and Supervisory Body. 
10. In the event that the number of members of a given Regional Coordinating Body makes its functions impossible, the National Directorate and the respective Regional Coordinating Body shall determine the procedure to follow in order to activate another organizational body to make possible the required organizational work.

Article 19. Communal Or Local Coordinating Bodies

In each commune or local organization that comprises the Communard Union, there is a Communal or Local Coordinating Committee, made up of at least five (5) members, who develop the political and programmatic orientation and manage the different areas of work of the Union. The Local or Communal Coordinating Committees meet periodically in the territories and elect at least one spokesperson who is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the region to which they belong. The Communal or Local Coordinating Committees are the link between the grassroots organization and the regional structure of the Communal Union.

Article 20. The Communal Units.

The Communal Units are entities with a presence in the Communal Councils of the Communes that integrate the Union. It is formed by a minimum of two (2) members and its objective is the implementation of the political direction of the organization as well as the reactivation, strengthening and consolidation of the basic unit of the commune with a view to its organizational integration on these same points.

Article 21. National Working Commissions.

In addition to the fact that the five (5) Areas of Work (Economy and Production, Education, Communication, Territorial Activation and Comprehensive Defense) permeate the actions of the Communard Union, it is necessary to create National Commissions for each Area of Work to address in greater detail the resulting techno-political needs.

National Work Commissions are coordinated by the National Directorate and are formed by those responsible for each Area of Work within the Regional Coordinating Bodies. The inclusion of other members with the technical and political profile to contribute to the objectives of such commissions will be considered.

The Communard Union has five (5) National Work Commissions:

1. Economy and Production: Its main objective is the design, planning and implementation of the economic policy of the Communard Union around the construction of a Communal Economic System.
2. Education: Commission responsible for the technical, political and ideological training of the membership of the Communard Union. Designs, plans and implements the education policy through the National Education System.
3. Communication: Promotes the reach of the organization's communications, the visibility of its political actions as well as the construction of mechanisms and organizational forms for communal communication, which guarantee the symbolic and identity construction through a National Communications System. 
4. Territorial Activation: Seeks the identification, coordination and construction of mechanisms to incorporate new organizations, as well as strengthening the local organization of those which already are part of the Union. The Argelia Laya Brigade is the name of the organizational vehicle created for these purposes. Each Regional Coordinating Body will have a Territorial Activation Brigade, and all brigade members will form the Argelia Laya National Brigade. 
5. Comprehensive Defense: Safeguards the achievements of the commune, the comprehensive defense of the territory, as well as the safety of the lives of members of the organizations that make up the Union, in coordination with the Bolivarian National Militia and the defense bodies provided for such purposes.

The National Work Commissions carry out objectives approved by the Congress in each corresponding area. They shall submit the work plan for each area of the Communard Union's operation to the National Directorate.

Article 22. On Decision-Making.

Within the deliberative and decision-making bodies of the Communard Union — namely, the National Congress, the National Conference, the National Directorate and the Regional Coordinating Bodies — a simple majority of the members of the corresponding body shall constitute a quorum. Consensus building for decision-making shall be sought in all instances, however, in situations in which debate has been exhausted without reaching consensus, a vote shall be taken, in which case the approval of the motion shall also be made by simple majority.

Votes within the Regional Coordinating Bodies in the Union shall be counted per participating organization, with each organization entitled to one (1) vote in each corresponding electoral event. Both in the National Congress and within the National Directorate, the votes shall be counted per region, with each region having one vote in each event, in order to guarantee the voting balance between regions.

Article 23. On Financing Mechanisms.

The Communard Union shall manage resources from public and/or private funds, both national and international, for its functioning as a movement. It may also receive donations, solidarity contributions, subsidies and transfers of resources the legality of which has been ascertained and verified. 

On the other hand, it may also be funded by the communes themselves, local and sectoral organizations that are part of the Union, or by economic activities established in cooperative agreements with such organizations, as determined by the operating model of the Communal Economic System of the Communard Union. 

The Communard Union shall have a centralized fund to administer the financial resources necessary for the organization's operation, as well as the provision of funds by regions for such purposes. The use of these resources shall be defined in plans and projects derived from the political objectives of the Union, the use and administration of which must be duly documented and freely accessible to the rest of the organization's bodies.

This document was approved on March 3, 2022 by the communes and organizations that participated in the Founding Congress of the Communard Union, held on the grounds of the El Maizal Commune, in the Simón Planas Municipality of the State of Lara.