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REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL CHANGE IN COLOMBIA Patriotic Bolivarian Council (100) responds to the needs of cells and works with members of the Secretariat
Bolivarian cells respond to the needs of the members and propose 10 names from each nucleus for election to the Patriotic Bolivarian Council
Members of the MBNC arrange themselves into Bolivarian cells
Members of the Secretariat respond to the needs of the Councils
On being informed of Council propositions and needs, the Secretariat as a whole acts, when possible, on behalf of the Councils
Figure 7.3 MBNC (PCCC) model of political organization Source: observational research between 2004 and 2006.
Marulanda Vélez stated, “we must make changes to the government through the Bolivarian Movement in cities and the countryside with the help of the FARC to avoid what happened to the UP” (quoted in Dudley, 2004: 178). The FARC-EP is therefore directly related to and supports the MBNC. This chapter has detailed extensively how the FARC-EP has and continues to create conditions of social change through, of, and with those from below. Offering numerous examples of how the FARC-EP has created a platform on which radical measures are being created alongside revolutionary projects throughout parts of the countryside, it highlights the insurgency’s war of position and unique Marxist-Leninist approach towards substantive change. It has demonstrated how the FARC-EP has worked closely with local communities to create a dual power which repudiates top-down revolutionary perspectives. The insurgency has employed a model of social change that has facilitated pre-revolutionary mechanisms throughout various social, cultural, and political spheres of Colombia’s rural and urban regions. This approach from below not only obstructs the conventional state without taking centralized power, but also continues to hamper existing pillars of capitalist political-economics that seek further opportunities for exploitation.
