John Brown

Revitalizing popular counterpower in Venezuela: Tensions between the PSUV and popular organizations John Brown & Atenea Jiménez — Under an increasingly authoritarian government, Venezuela’s Chavista project faces stark challenges and dilemmas.

Drawing from interviews with figures from communes movements, leftist parties, former/current PSUV figures, and participants in popular organizations, the article details the challenges facing critical sectors in Venezuela links.org.au/revitalizing....

Oligarchy, Populism, Democracy: Re-conceptualizing Democratization and De-democratization in the Neoliberal Era Published in Socialism and Democracy (Ahead of Print, 2025)

O/A article tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Oligarchy-populism-democracy, novel conceptualization for analyzing leftist parties/leaders. Dual democratization-de-democratization. Competing actors/understandings of democracy employ ideological/economic/military/political powers to achieve goals

Oligarchy, Populism, Democracy: Re-conceptualizing Democratization and De-democratization in the Neoliberal Era Published in Socialism and Democracy (Ahead of Print, 2025)

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... (Pour reprendre les catégories de l’article, le Macronistan offre un bel exemple de « centralisation régressive ».

The culmination of the party-building process saw a Podemos that lacked a coherent brand or any societal connections, leaving it vulnerable to replacement by a new challenger.

To pursue such moderation required insulating the leadership clique from radical voices via degenerative factionalism and oligarchization processes. Moreover, weak popular sector organizations were unable to counter the moderation–factionalism–oligarchization process.

The article argues that the electoral strategy of Podemos leaders in conjunction with opposition pressures encouraged a moderation of the party’s brand.

Supported by data gathered during interviews with key figures from Podemos, leftist parties and activists, this article disentangles why and how the outsider-to-insider party-building process culminated in a de-legitimized Podemos.

New OA article in Critical Sociology: Trajectories and Legacies of Outsider Party-Building: The Rise and Fall of Spain’s Podemos. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Building the Commune Since 2011, a wave of popular mobilizations has swept the globe, from Occupy to the Arab Spring, 15M in Spain and the uprisings in Greece. Their demands were varied, but what they share is a commitmen...

Hi Mike, not sure if you want a Venezuelan focus, but Geo Maher's book is great for English language discussion of experiments there www.versobooks.com/products/147...

Petro said 'Gaza is a rehearsal for the future', meaning a rehearsal for how the West will (mis)treat the many who seek refuge and help from climate disaster. The political establishment calls for borders and exclusion, feeding existing social resentments. Workshop on Saturday in Dublin.