President Hugo Chavez: "The class struggle must NOT be hidden..." http://www.pr-inside.com/venezuela-s-president-hugo-chavez-the-r1774533.htm

In an important speech last night to United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) members, who have enrolled as pre-candidates for primaries to choose candidates to run for parliament in September, President Chavez introduced a new concept, namely the figure of 'El Pueblo Legislator' ... which basically means the legislating people.The people organized in Communes -- as a maximum expression of popular power -- should start thinking about making laws. Congratulating the National Assembly (AN) for initiating another round of street parliamentarianism to debate draft laws, Chavez suggested that what he would like to see taking over is "the parliamentary street" and urged deputies to get out on to the streets to meet and talk with people.

The call was widely applauded by the audience and is seen as a rectification of conduct among deputies many of whom have grown soft, cocooning themselves with bodyguards and privileges.In another suggestion, the President insisted that the Communes could start legislating in line with the Constitution and create a Comunal Charter governing such important matters for the people as eliminating liquor sales near schools.The National Assembly, he urged, must start opening up opportunities to allow organized people to create communal charters or people's charters to ensure a better standard of living and morale in neighborhood-barrios. Chavez came down strongly on alcohol abuse and told how he had stopped friends from driving with a beer bottle in their hands.

The President welcomed the speedy process of electing representatives of the country's Mayors to the Federal Council of Government plenary session. Opposition Mayors took part in the voting and even voted for PSUV members to represent them.The President also for the first time used the term "proletarians" to describe party members and the people in honor of the anniversary of Karl Marx' death, today (Sunday).The opposition press has highlighted Chavez' criticism of opposition website -- Noticiero Digital -- for publishing "alarmist and false news" ... for two days running, the website held that controversial TV talk show host Mario Silva has been killed in an accident and, on Friday, that Public Works Minister Diosdado Cabello had also been killed, along with bodyguards, in an ambush.

The Attorney General, he said, should investigate such alarmist stories and take the website to task.Another false information being spread on some websites is that Venezuelan military officers have been attending training courses organized by terrorist groups. "Completely false," the President charged.At the end of his discourse, President Chavez returned to his analysis of why there have been desertions in the ranks, concluding that the main reason boils down to ideological failings and a denial of the class struggle."The class struggle must NOT be hidden ... we must take the veil off the class struggle."