Economy
In mid-2006, President Hugo Chávez unveiled in front a group of cooperative members and future community bankers a new weapon to fight capitalism: encouraging barter.

"I exchange one cachama (a fresh water fish) for three bunches of bananas," the Venezuelan President said. He immediately warned his ministers: "I want to see results: (The establishment of) community and barter markets."

"You will say: 'Chávez is going crazy!' Well, this is the only way to break with capitalism from below," the leader of the Bolivarian revolution added.

When people exchange goods without the use of conventional money, some uneven exchanges are produced. For instance, how many cachamas are changed for a jacket? Or, there is also the possibility that the person who has a jacket does not wish to eat a cachama at that time? To correct this problem, the government created some local currencies that will operate as a sort of voucher. However, the plan was practically abandoned during the last two years.

Now, the plan has taken momentum. The National Assembly is discussing a draft law to regulate the communal economic system in which Article 50 provides for direct and indirect barter.

"There will be a network of communal distribution. (...) For instance, you can exchange furniture for agricultural products," Alfredo Murga, the president of the National Assembly Citizen's Participation Committee, told El Universal.

Lawmaker Ulises Daal, a member of the Standing Committee for Citizen Participation said in an interview with the state-run news agency AVN that the community currency will be used in the food distribution network established by the government. The government network includes Mercal, Pdval and Abastos Bicentenario.

This goal requires a series of definitions. Mercal stores will receive community currencies that will be given to the government to obtain new merchandise that is mostly bought in Venezuelan bolivars and US dollars. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a new exchange rate.

The board of the Central Bank of Venezuela has not said how it will set up the value of the community currencies with respect to the Venezuelan bolivar.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas

Victor Salmeron
EL UNIVERSAL