The National Assembly has approved appointments: Ambassador to Mexico, Roy Chaderton will take the post of Venezuela's representative to the Organ-ization of American States (OAS), replacing Jorge Valero who will move to New York as head of the diplomatic mission to the United Nations. The lack-luster former Ombudsman, German Mundarain will represent Venezuela before the UN international organizations in GenevaThe surprise announcement of the day is the appointment of AN deputy, Robert Hernandez as the new Labor Minister replacing the lame duck Jose Ramon Rivero whose term in office has been questioned by many pro-government trade union leaders. His handling of the Sidor-Sutiss collective bargaining negotiations proved disastrous and his undoing.
President Chavez has assigned 449 million bolivares to boost popular power by financing 2,462 projects sent in by communal councils. 90 million of the funds are for 300 communal banks under the care of the micro-financing development fund. Bs. F. 45.6 million will cover 253 projects run by urban land committees. 29 million will go towards 62 indigenous projects, while 15 cultural projects will receive more than 1.5 million. 4.8 million have been assigned to 23 projects tendered by water technical committees. This is the second delivery of credits that President Chavez has granted this year. In March, the President financed a total 1,888 project communal projects during a Sunday radio address from Lara State.
The National Assembly (AN) has passed the second reading of the new oil tax law expected to generate $770 million a month given current price tendencies in the oil market. The law is aimed at giving Venezuela a percentage of any sudden profits that oil companies receive from sudden oil price rises. The money received will be used exclusively for social development projects and infrastructure. The law with come into force once President Chavez includes it in the Gaceta Oficial. Energy Minister, Rafael Ramirez told parliamentarians that the spirit of the law is to obtain for the State as the owner of a natural resource extraordinary income generated by oil shortages. Ramirez also said that part of the new tax will be used to buy out the majority of actions of the Sidor steel company which will be nationalised.
Labor Minister, Jose Ramon Rivero says collective-bargaining negotiations with Sidor Steel should take place immediately, even before the company passes to state ownership. Rivero argues that unlike in the private sector, collective-bargaining contracts in the public sector need to meet a series of requirements. Speaking for himself and the Basic Industries & Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz, Rivero says both want to see an agreement before the transference. Rivero insists that the government wants foreign investors to remain with Sidor and that it has nothing against Argentinean capital but it should be minority and under state control. If the company does not agree with the conditions the State lays down, Rivero adds, the State will have to pay for 80% of shares since the workers already own 20%.
Speaking during the handing over of credits to popular power organizations, President Chavez says the community should demand accountability from candidates to state governorships and municipalities. United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidates, Chavez insists, must commit themselves to a project and a community, and not just slogans ... "candidates must be connected to the communities." Another commitment that candidates must make, according to the President, is to fight bureaucracy, which, he contends, has prevented the government from attending needs of the people. Those elected " must not enclose themselves in offices ... (but) be on the street listening to people."
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leaders have called on opposition State Governor Manuel Rosales to respect the law. The challenge comes after Rosales announced that he would proclaim the candidacies of Enrique Mendoza and Leopoldo Lopez. However by law the two men cannot present themselves for elections until they have been cleared of charges of rebellion against the legitimate government of Venezuela. Both candidates were high-profile protagonists in the coup against President Chavez on April 11, 2002.
The state telecommunications regulatory commission (Conatel) h as opened an administrative procedure against private Televen TV channel for transmitting "The Simpsons" during so-called open time. The government considers the program unsuitable for children because of " images of dramatized violence, inappropriate language and conduct" that could negatively affect children and adolescents. Conatel has ruled that for the above reasons the program violates the social responsibility law. Conatel general director, Elda Rodriguez says Televen was asked to abide by the law on January 30 and has not complied by continuing to showing the program on open time when children can watch TV. The company has 20 days to present and defend its case.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
Chávez sacked that piece of shit Ramón Rivero?? Excellent! Bravo Comandante. Can't say Hugo doesn't err on the side of the people -- once he realizes he's erred on the side of the class enemy. Just too bad he makes so many errors, eh? But how do you learn, then, when you don't have anybody to give you a hand up..? Except Fidel Castro, maybe. Now is Chávez maybe going to fire the crew running INTI? There're a lot of latifundias and empresas which need nationalizing, pronto. And someone's been foot-dragging...
ReplyDeleteIt's great too, to see power and resources systematically and somewhat quickly devolving to the consejos. But this process needs constitutional guarantee -- backed by the armed might of the people in the consejos themselves, if necessary -- to fix it properly in the socialist governmental scheme of things. However, it's great to see this huge backlog of infrastructure projects finally being tackled. And lying capitalist critics can try to purposely equate this work they didn't do with "socialism" -- when things go wrong and they want to confuse the issue and muddy the waters; but as Venezuela continues to develop, the socialist projects undertaken will get bigger and better and more fantastic: less and less about sewers and roads, and more and more about hi-tek and ecologically-sound development...
And as for accountability: it must be the consejos which collectively run the city and state governments now. Time to do away with bourgeois-style politics and politicos. And therefore all offices must be elected -- and their occupants subject to recall at any time. That is socialism.
As for persecuting any media outlet for showing the likes of The Simpsons to kids(!?)... it's a bit of a call: seeing as how Fox mostly controls this "property" now, as I see it. But the issue here is actually about another negative aspect to this revolution, other than the influence of pro-capitalist pseudo-socialist "bolivarians" inside the government: the presence of petit-bourgeois social-democrat liberal reformist types inside the government. People who want to turn every revolution into some milquetoast version of Scandinavia or Western Europa -- right down to the micro-managing of laws of social behavior. It seems that every "identity politix" type on the planet has come running down to Venezuela, to spin the Revolution into just about everything but an actual socialist direction...
You know the type I mean, eh? The type that turned Porto Alegre into a defanged, de-clawed "non-offensive", "peaceful", "inclusive" NATO imperialist puppet show, for instance.
If there's one thing a socialist society and a revolution don't need, it's "political-correctness" up the wazoo -- to the point where nobody can even think anything without offending someone. How horrid. LET the damned kids watch the fucking Simpsons, ferkrissakes. The point is how they interpret and act-upon what they see. And that is a function of a critical, open, open-minded society. A truly socialist society. This here is just oppressive bureaucracy and officious busy-bodies nosing into everyone else's business. Actual police-state stuff, when you get right down to it. Enuff of this stalinism-lite. A little balance, please.