Chavez gives this speech in late 2012 where he's berating his government ministers - it's his last major speech - and part of what he's trying to do is lay out his legacy, and to make it clear what he stands for. And in that speech it becomes perfectly clear he stands for the commune, and the development of an alternative form of production and radical democracy that stands against the existing state.

Political theorist George Ciccariello-Maher explores the political and economic history of the Venezuelan commune, from its pre-Chavez roots in a popular uprising against the neoliberal order, to the challenges of sustaining direct democracy and socialist principles in the face of vast demographic changes, oil market fluctuations and capitalist resistance.

George's new book Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela is part of the Jacobin series from Verso Books.