Eclipsed from the headlines by the ongoing carnage, there is an active
civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime
it protects, and the jihadi and Ba'athist 'resistance' alike.
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sat, 11/03/2007 - 20:00.
AP outlines some of the proposed constitutional amendments:
* Allow authorities to detain citizens without charges and censor the media when the president declares a state of emergency.
* Prohibit torture, being held incommunicado and sentences of more than 30 years.
* Enable the government to expropriate private property without a court ruling and allow property to be managed by state-organized cooperatives.
* Give the executive branch total control over the currently independent Central Bank. Allow the executive branch to set monetary policy.
* Reduce the workday from eight to six hours and prohibit forced overtime.
* Reduce the minimum voting age from 18 to 16.
* Create a state-run social security fund for Venezuelans working in the "informal economy," such as taxi drivers, hair dressers, artisans, fishermen and farmers.
* Prohibit "associations with political objectives" from receiving foreign funds.
* Extend presidential terms from six to seven years. Eliminate limits on two consecutive presidential terms.
* Increase from 20 percent to 30 percent the number of voters' signatures required to trigger a presidential recall vote.
Note that the amendments are a mix of populist measures and prescriptions for authoritarianism and repression. Should this be read as a carrot-and-stick tactic: wealth redistribution and social security guarantees to sweeten the pot as an authoritarian state is consolidated? Or are the populist and repressive measures more fundamentally unified: draconian measures will be necessary in order to effect the wealth redistribution—especially given the demonstrated putschist designs on Chavez by Washington and its local proxies?
Sound off, readers.
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Venezuela's constitutional amendments
AP outlines some of the proposed constitutional amendments:
Note that the amendments are a mix of populist measures and prescriptions for authoritarianism and repression. Should this be read as a carrot-and-stick tactic: wealth redistribution and social security guarantees to sweeten the pot as an authoritarian state is consolidated? Or are the populist and repressive measures more fundamentally unified: draconian measures will be necessary in order to effect the wealth redistribution—especially given the demonstrated putschist designs on Chavez by Washington and its local proxies?
Sound off, readers.