In Venezuela, instead of a frontal attack against the old administrational and bureaucratic machinery, parallel structures were created to perform the tasks that the traditional apparatus was unfit to solve. These new, parallel structures mainly organized from below manage the social, health-care and educational programs of the Chávez-government that received much international attention. The resources and authorities of these parallels are, however, limited that delays the solution of many urgent problems and hinders the progress toward a direct democracy.

The article analyzes the steps the Venezuelan working-class movement has made towards the workers' self-management since Chávez came to power. It introduces the struggle between the old trade unions and their new, more spontaneous counterparts, and the various theoretical and pragmatic results of self-management. It emphasizes at the same time that the process is far from being over: the Venezuelan "revolution" may have a few surprises in store.

The French philosopher, who died 20 years ago, was an original thinker as a critic of the "disciplining society." With his new methods he was able to reveal much of oppressive processes that take place in the micro-world of power. Re-reading the philosopher today induces a healthy and productive liberal anarchism, which can be also related to the Marxist critical theory by the analysis of the modern power-dependency structures.

The study calls the attention to the conclusion that Lenin's political and theoretical views on the first Russian revolution are organically and directly rooted in the historical-economical-theoretical and political analysis of the capitalist system, more precisely the Russian capitalism. From the perspective of his "preparation" for the revolution of 1905 (and 1917) it is such a fundamental circumstance that is necessary to understand his political-strategic considerations that later played a dominant role in his revolutionary activity and thinking.

Lenin's article of 1917 has become a major paradigm of the historiography of the revolution of 1905 although this relationship received relatively little interest. It is therefore very actual and illuminating to re-discover this forgotten document on the centenary of the revolution.