Chilean rejected new constitution
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/5/breaking-chileans-voted-to-repeal-reject
Chile has voted to reject a proposed new constitution that aimed to create a more inclusive society than the charter which was adopted during the rule of military dictator Augusto Pinochet, in a result that exceeded the expectations of the conservative opposition.
The new constitution, which would have had a greater focus on social rights, the environment, and gender equality, emerged from an agreement between legislators and protesters to end violent rallies against inequality in 2019.
The ‘yes’ campaign conceded defeat, according to Reuters news agency. Official results showed that with more than 88 percent of votes from the Sunday plebiscite counted, 62 percent had voted to reject the text, with just 38 percent in favour.More than 15 million Chileans and residents were eligible to vote and there were reports of long queues at some of the more than 3,000 voting centres. Voting is mandatory.
Polls in April predicted that more voters in the country of 19 million planned on rejecting the new constitution.
This result has some relevance for campaigners for citizens assemblies instead of parliament such as Extinction Rebellion in Britain. Whatever the democratic way of making decisions the result will reflect what a majority think. Changing what people think is the problem, not changing the thermometer.
Part of the problem seems to have been it was a ragbag of a constitution, skimming through it, I’m sure I saw it abolishing slavery twice: some parts looked good, a right to work, a right to food, water and housing, but it was all about the state being empowered: I’ll be interested to hear the actual reasons why it was defeated, but I suspect confusion would have been one of them.
I am a member of a Chilean discussion forum, and I told them a long time ago that the “Apruebo” was going to be defeated by a large margin, the result of this referendum was a referendum on the Chilean president who was elected a few months ago, and after three months of his election his popularity was declining, this has been an enormous defeat for his presidency and the coalition of the Communist Party and the Socialist Party that support him, both parties are just social democratic institutions who have also collaborated with the right wingers, as well the new president did when he was a state minister
The capitalist press are just saying that peoples rejected the constitution because it was a communist constitution, but it is just a lie, there is nothing of communism in that new constitution when similar clauses have been approved in other capitalists countries in Latin America including Mexico and Argentina, both countries who are heavily influenced by the Catholic Church and abortion was legalized and legal clauses favoring women were also approved, but the market system continue operating, and abuses against women continue and the Catholic Church has not lost its popularity
Most peoples that voted against the constitution were the ones who wanted a new constitution three years ago, but they did not want a constitution that would have given too much power to the state apparatus, and this new constitution does that, the proponents of the new constitution were saying that this constitution was going to eliminate inequality, climate disaster, discrimination against women, and exploitation which is impossible to be done in a capitalist society in the hands of a few senators, in any way, the constitution had to be approved by the congress, and the right wingers are the majority, and they were going to eliminate several clauses from the constitutional project. The constitution looks nice on paper
The natives known as Mapuches were also against the new constitution, and they did not want a pluri-national constitution, they wanted to be part of the society, and the new constitutions provided separations for several natives groups, the Mapuche live in extreme poverty and they voted against the constitution despite the fact that some natives are part of the new government but one of them resigned before the referendum because she was in contact with some rebel groups leaders
Most emigrants in Chile also live in extreme poverty and they are discriminated like in the USA they are also rejected and many social problems are blamed on them including criminality because many criminals gangs have emigrated from Venezuela, there have been confrontations between the police and military forces with the emigrants workers and some xenophobic groups
The situation is not so simple as several news center wanted to present it, it is a very complex situation with many social and economics problems that existed before the government of Salvador Allende, and it is a society very divided like the USA society and nationalism plays a major role in that situation, both sides have been affected and divided by nationalism and both side blame the problem in the right wingers or the left winger but both are irrelevant and they are not the major causes of the actual problems, the main problem is capitalism.
Personally, I think that the new constitution is like a smoke screen to detain the real claims that are being made by the workers and to detain the continuation of social uprising and social discontents, and the new constitution was not going to resolve most of the social and economic problem that they are facing now, and most of the problem come from the economic base instead of the state, the followers of the new president are saying that peoples voted against the new constitution because they are poor and ignorants but that is not the main reason because the rejection also include universities students, young workers, and some socialists and anarchists tendencies who reject both sides.
They were also saying that this was the president of the majority of the peoples but more than 47% of the peoples did not vote for him, and during the first election he did not win, they had to go thru a second election process and then he was the winner by a small margin of votes, it was the same case of Salvador Allende, he did not obtain a majority of votes and his presidency was decided by the Congress and the Christian democrats. Constitutional election was mandatory and part of the 47% that did not vote for the president, now they voted against him despite the fact that the constitution provided some new legal rights to them
There are already making an alliance or accord with the right wingers. Before the election they were called Fascist or post Fascists, therefore, following their own terminology, it can be said that they are making alliance with Fascists. He flew a lot to be a small pigeon. It was known that the president was going to be forced to make alliance with the extremists right wingers, the same old gangs that called him a “communist”,( and communists call him a social democrat ) it was also known that both project: “Rechazo” or “Apruebo” would have taken the cow to the same slaughter house, two routes conducting the workers to the same place. Students and workers are already on the streets again. It was known that the honeymoon was going to be short
Due to the constitutional defeat the President of Chile was forced to change his cabinets, and move to what they are calling ‘Center Left” or Democratic socialism, but the push was made by the right wingers, but other groups are calling the move ( or the purge ) a move toward Neo liberalism. We can see that between left-wingers and right wingers there are not any essential differences
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