A film by Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler

94 min. / 2010

“We have to decide for ourselves what we want. We are the ones who know about our needs and what is happening in our community”, Omayra Peréz explains confidently. She wants to convince her community, located on the hillside of the poor districts of Caracas, to found a Consejo Comunal (community council). In more than 30.000 Consejos Comunales the Venezuelan inhabitants decide on their concerns collectively via assemblies. Omayra is supported by the activists of the nearby shantytown “Emiliano Hernández”, which has had a Consejo Comunal for three years already. The inhabitants there managed to get a doctor from the governmental program “Barrio Adentro”, who treats everyone free of charge. They also got money to renovate their houses and replaced over a dozen of sheet iron huts by new houses. All of these activities and a lot more have been organized via the Consejo Comunal. By local self-organization from below several working groups have been established on self-decided topics and decisions are made in assemblies.

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http://postcapitalistcity.blog.hr/

The city is the space where the reproduction of social, political and economic forms of life takes
place and where these forms of life confront instrumental political power or political diagonal. This
reproduction of forms of life represents the central site of exploitation as well as of resistance.
Resistance is manifested through production of common values and through cooperation. This
complex environment can be the key force behind the making of democracy, justice, common
values and free space. Cities can become places of post-capitalism. (mehr …)