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Various news outlets are reporting on an announcement by the Venezuelan government that it will leave the Organization of American States (OAS), a process that takes two years. The country will stop participating in OAS meetings immediately. No country has left the OAS since its founding in 1948.
According to Venezuela-based teleSUR, the move comes in response
[...] to a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuela scheduled for Wednesday, which violates the rules of the organization because it does not have the consent of the affected country.
[The foreign minister] indicated that there is also a group of countries with right-wing governments working under U.S. imperialist orders against Venezuela.
Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets demanding [President Nicolás] Maduro hold elections and denouncing his government as being responsible for triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a rise [in] crime.
It also says that 29 people have been killed in connection with the protests.
Additional coverage:
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 28 2017, @05:08PM (3 children)
Look, Communism doesn't work. In theory it does but in theory so does absolute laissez-faire anarcho-capitalism. In practice, neither system works, and they both fail for the same reason: people suck. Not one in 25 people by my estimate has the strength of character it would take to be a pure communist OR a pure capitalist, and the ones that do have that kind of character would do about as well in either system.
I always say if you're having a problem, it's rooted in the layer "below," e.g., if you have an intractable problem in chemistry start looking at the physics. This is a problem of economics, so the answers lie in the psychology of the individual and the group.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:15PM (2 children)
neither system works
The Shakers existed before there was a USA and continued on for well over a century.
(There are still some tiny communities.)
They had communal ownership of the means of production (land, buildings, tools) AKA Socialism and they did everything as a community e.g. child care AKA Communism.
Their products (e.g. Shaker furniture, Shaker boxes) were and still are in high demand.
Their shortcoming was that they were first and foremost a religious bunch depending solely on converts to keep their numbers up.
Their founder established a no-sex rule that they kept even after her death.
Men and women lived in separate dormitories and the individuals in the group didn't reproduce.
If it wasn't for that whacko part, it seems likely they'd be huge and successful to this day.
Native American tribes had communal living that worked for centuries before white Europeans showed up and started murdering them.
The Oneida communities, famous for their flatware, was another communal living/working thing.
The Amana communities, famous for their appliances, was yet another.
Those lasted for decades.
With more and more people in the USA (especially young people) saying that they approve of Socialism (and disapprove of Capitalism), those places that are worker-owned should make a point to put that on their signage.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 28 2017, @10:51PM (1 child)
Dunbar's Number is going to kick any large-scale attempt at communism right in the pelmeni, sorry. And have you noticed those groups never really accomplished much advancement beyond late iron age? I'm certainly not saying that communal living is antithetical to science per se, but given human nature it will tend to lead to...well, there's a reason we have the term "Lysenkoism."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @03:05AM
Oh, youngster.
I'll forgive you for being so clueless and not being aware of Amana appliances.
There was a time, not so long ago, when they were a big deal.
Oneida is still a widely-know name.
Apparently, at some point they let a fox into their multi-generational Socialist henhouse.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]