Bolivarian Circle of Salisbury, NC

The Bolivarian Circles are a 2.3 million member, loosely-knit political and social organization of workers' councils, originally begun by President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, but with world-wide reach from Germany, Austria, and France (where circles exist in Vienna, Tübingen, Bielefeld, and Paris). Circles are also found in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and several other nations. They are named in honor of Simón Bolívar, the leader who transformed most of South America from Spanish colonial outposts to the independent states now in place. Chávez organized these circles, which he cites as examples of grassroots and participatory democracy. The circles themselves were purportedly decentralized, made autonomous from any central government oversight, and instead organized on the neighborhood and block level. The circles were charged with such tasks as neighborhood beautification, mass mobilization, lending support to small businesses, and providing basic social services. "You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism." -Martin Luther King Jr.