Love to see it. Solidarity with our Chilean comrades as they cast off the chains of their oppression.
Now and forever.
Now and forever.
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‘An End to the Chapter of Dictatorship’: Chileans Vote to Draft a New Constitution
- Thread starter janoGX
- Start date
Indeed, one of many victims of the American Empire, but hopefully this paves a path forward to a new tomorrow.
Allende would be proud.
Congrats to Chile! I got to visit last year and fell in love with your country. I have been following all the big political new I am able and was just taking to this with a couple my wife and I became good friend with while there. We did a zoom chat and she was telling me all about this vote a week ago.
So happy for you all. Send your energy up fm here for us next week.
So happy for you all. Send your energy up fm here for us next week.
Funniest part: Right wingers and government saying that this is victory represents them because they also want something better for Chile! While there are right wingers that realized this was needed, I can't stop laughing at how fake most of them feel, even more now.
Next step is justice for the fallen.
Lots of hope! Taking out Trump will also set a precedent for the rest of the world,
Next step is justice for the fallen.
Lots of hope! Taking out Trump will also set a precedent for the rest of the world,
I was looking for this threat yesterday.
It was a long time coming and it's finally here.
Yeah, at least those that are still shouting chilezuela are consistent, but you could see from a mile away most of them would jump ship as soon as they realized they were gonna lose. I truly despise all of them.
Apuesto que se van a hacer los desentendidos con todo lo malo que han hecho.
It was a long time coming and it's finally here.
Yeah, at least those that are still shouting chilezuela are consistent, but you could see from a mile away most of them would jump ship as soon as they realized they were gonna lose. I truly despise all of them.
Apuesto que se van a hacer los desentendidos con todo lo malo que han hecho.
This is great!
So I presume that the party that will draft the new Constitution is left-leaning?
So I presume that the party that will draft the new Constitution is left-leaning?
Not necessarily. The new Constitution will be written by democracy elected people in an assembly that will be formed some months in the future, so the end result will still be decided by who are the people that ends up being elected for this and can still bites us in the ass if a combination of wrong people is chosen.
The assembly will have 155 people elected democratically. The good thing is anyone can run for a seat in there, the bad is that marketing is a real thing as we all know, so wealthier people might have a better chance at getting a seat in there, and thus rigging everything for their own interests.
In the worst case scenario we might end up with a worse constitution than the one we had, although it would be highly unlikely since the previous one was made in dictatorship by a military figure (with influence of the US back then). Well worst case scenario it would at least be made in democracy lol.
Some stuff will be left-leaning, yes. Other will be right-leaning.
But, overall, it will be a LOT better
The *idea* is that it doesn't belong to a single party - the assembly that is elected should be as diverse as possible. The reality, however, is that the current political class (especially the right and the "center-left" parties that formed the coalition government right after Pinochet) are trying their hardest to impede independents and NGO/grassroots representatives to run for said assembly. They want to control how it's formed, obviously, because they're afraid.
Congrats to the Chilean people. Bolivia and Chile out there smashing neoliberalism right in it's smarmy mouth. The US and UK could stand to learn a little in that regard. I'll likely die before ever seeing another constitutional amendment, but Chile's people are drafting a whole new constitution like Gangstas without a single lawmaker being involved.
¡Felicidades, compañeros Chilenos! Fuera con el modelo neoliberal
Great to have LatAm exercise some self autonomy lead by the people in peace wherever possible.
Great to have LatAm exercise some self autonomy lead by the people in peace wherever possible.
First - it was formulated and drafted by the Dictatorship and that alone makes it illegitimate. Even though it has seen a small number of reforms (the last "major" one in 2005), it's -at its core- the same constitution as it was in 1980, with the same pillars.
It's essentially a neoliberal think-tank's wet dream. It essentially relegates the State as a 'mere' guarantor (or, even worse, only a watchman) of rights instead of a promoter. It's what's called "subsidiary state" - it only appears where the private sector cannot reach (and won't reach). The most egregious example is that the current Constitution does not guarantee a right to healthcare. It guarantees the right to access either a private or public provider of healthcare which is not the same thing even if it appears so at first glance. The right to property (and property rights) are the core of the document - private property and entrepeneurship at the cost of social rights.
Also - it has a lot of traps. There's basically no other way to call them. They're institutional mechanisms that allow for the political right, even in a minority position in Congress, to hold enormous power. And yes, it absolutely benefits the right because the Constitution was written (mostly) by a hardcore right-winger who knew exactly he was doing: he said the idea was to make "the 'other side' to play by 'your' rules, because you're setting the boundaries and they'd realize that taking a different course of action would be extremely costly". This translates to an election system (now thankfully abolished) that almost unfailingly guaranteed the right wing to have at least one congressman elected in *every* election (the gist of it was: you run in pairs for each coalition -left and right- and you needed to double the other pair's results for your pair to get elected. If you didn't double, then the best result from your pair and the best result from the opposite pair get elected. This meant almost *every* time one from the left and one from the right get elected, even if the right-wing one had a shockingly low amount of votes). Another big trap is the existence of "supermajorities" - quora that need to be reached when passing certain laws or trying to reform the same constitution. For example, certain laws require majority of 4/7 of the current diputados and senadores (essentially 57% of each chamber). God forbid you try to reform the Constitution by following the Constitution's own rules: you need a 2/3 quorum.
And the last great big trap: the current Constitutional Tribunal which -admittedly- wasn't in the Constitution drafted by the Dictatorship... or at least, it wasn't in its current design and function. That was the result of the 2005 reform. The idea of a special tribunal having the last word over which law abides by the Constitution and which doesn't isn't a far fetched one, but the implementation of our own CT leaves a lot to be desired. Picture the US' Supreme Court composition and the nominees over RBG's death, that whole shitshow? Basically a small-scale version - our Constitutional Tribunal can be subject (in terms of picks) to the current government's picks, and they've turned into a "third chamber" that can veto laws that somehow have passed those ridiculous majorities I've already mentioned. It only takes a complaint from a minority congressman and the whole thing goes to the CT, which has a composition that skews towards the same ideology of said congressman and, voila! Law is struck down before it passes, even if most agreed on it.
That's a very hurried summary. And I'm sure you can find a paper that explains it better, but I hope I've made the issues a bit clearer.
Thanks for the insight, really helpful for an outsider like me!
