Chavez Imposes “Socialist Formation” Classes
Anyone still in denial that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has been positioning himself as a totalitarian dictator might be interested to learn that his government will require workers to spend four hours per week in “socialist formation” classes.
Employers are required to form “Bolivarian Work Councils” to run courses on the job. The point of the classes is to speed the transition from economic freedom to slavery by teaching the official government version of Venezuelan history and “basic tools for analyzing reality, the environment, the role of the state and socialist scheme.”
The classes will start with public sector jobs, then be imposed on the crippled remnants of private business, after Chavez issues a new law by decree that will establish reeducation guidelines.
Reeducation. Chavez’s fellow socialist Pol Pot was so fond of the concept, he built reeducation centers all over Cambodia:
Ordinary people were forced to march to agricultural reeducation centers all around the country. Families with sick members had to carry their sick members or drag them in their hospital beds. Because the Khmer Rouge were strict Maoists, they wanted to destroy all social divisions down to even the family unit. The Khmer Rouge wanted to purify Khmer society and bring the people back to the old way, before they were invaded by the west. Every one was put to work in the rice patties. Thousands died from overwork and malnutrition. Countless more were killed by the Khmer Rouge effort to eliminate all western influences.
If Chavez has something similar in mind for Venezuela (and Pol Pot is hardly the only precedent), the USA had better be sure not to put a stop to it. I’m sure the UN — not to mention the Democrat Party — would highly disapprove of such unilateral imperialism.