Re: [OPE] Latin America

Paul B.,

The current proposal in Venezuela is a SINGLE proposal regarding term
limits and that is the proposal I was mentioning (not the earlier package
deal).

There is absolutely no reason for a comrade to preface a comment about the
current proposal with a "I unconditionally support the government of
Venezuela". Nor need a comrade shut-up. Rather, one COULD preface a
comment with "I unconditionally support the right of workers to have
alternative points of view fully exposed and to have their full voice heard
in a truly democratic manner". (We know what the opposition is up to, but
it would be undemocratic to simply suppress those opinions on the left --
whether inside or outside Venezuela -- who feel the proposal to be faulty.)

Many of us, maybe all of us, have experience with the issue of limited
versus unlimited terms. It has been a big issue in my own union. I don't
go around prefacing a comment about such an issue with "I unconditionally
support my union", nor do I need to do it for the issue of the Presidency
of Bolivarian movement (whether or not my judgment would change in
comparing the circumstances).

If I go to a demonstration in my city against U.S. imperialist adventures
in Latin America and a reporter happens to come up to me with a question
about the referundum, and I were to reply "I don't welcome that question
and I unconditionally support the government of Venezuela", it would WEAKEN
support in the U.S. for the solidarity effort (should my comment be
reported and read). Even expressing opposition to the Venezuelan
government on that particular issue AND clearly expressing opposition to
U.S. imperial adventures in Venezuela would be more effective -- because it
would implicitly say that opinions on such an issue do not change the main
point of this demonstration.

Paul Z.

--On 12/18/2008 12:02 PM +0000 paul bullock wrote:

> The question of the constitutional
> amendment you refer to is a good example. Few 'critics' had actually read
> - opr were interested in reading
> - all the amendmentS or compared them to the original /preexisting
> constitution.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Vol.23) THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11 Seven Stories Press soft, 2nd ed. 2008
(Vol.24) TRANSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA ~~~Research in Political Economy~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka

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Received on Thu Dec 18 14:12:37 2008