Meeting in dilapidated school houses and potholed alleyways, Venezuelans have formed neighbourhood groups to fix deficient water supply systems, to organise volunteer efforts at local schools and to launch recycling campaigns.
Committees are conducting censuses and writing neighbourhood histories as part of a government plan to grant land titles to hundreds of thousands of slum-dwelling families who squatted decades ago but were long ignored by the authorities.
Others are attending self-convoked 'citizen assemblies' to talk about everything from neighbourhood problems to national politics, and to create local planning councils where municipal authorities will be required to share decision-making with community representatives.
Community radio and television stations, banned by previous governments, are thriving.
Reed Lindsay Guardian UK August 10, 2003
