In a small hotel, within Marrakech’s Medina, I talk with my host and friend Yousuf. Over the past two days he has been, very patiently, helping me to refine my impoverished and diminutive knowledge of Arabic. We discuss pronunciation and, of course, dialect. Arabic is perhaps more diverse than any other major language, so much so that an Arabic speaker from Syria may struggle to understand Arabic dialect in Algeria.

During the conversation Yousuf pauses to tell me that he has ‘his own language’, in addition to Arabic. His eyes change; he is unmistakeably proud. Berber, he says, contributes considerably to Moroccan dialect Arabic, but is also a language in its own right. Berber is Yousuf’s ‘own language’.

“That 98.5% of Moroccans agree on such a complex and important question is extremely unlikely.”

The next day I travel across Morocco by taxi. It is a long and fascinating journey, but its defining feature is the police checkpoints. Every 20 miles there are policemen stopping motorists. My first thought is that they must be monitoring long distance travel within Morocco, as part of a surveillance program aimed at keeping tabs on the Polisario.

In 1975 Western Sahara was finally decolonized, and as soon as the Spanish left, Morocco and Mauritania immediately invaded. By 1979 Morocco had established administrative control of the country, but the Polisario – a Sahrawi resistance movement – were both strong and popular. I ask the driver why there are so many checkpoints, are they monitoring the Polisario? He replies only to tell me that he was ‘a policeman for five years’.

As we drive on another possibility presents itself. A convoy of about 20 cars is driving slowly down the main road, accompanied by the sound of honking horns. On this point, our driver is far more amenable. The cars are draped in hand written signs that are, he says, canvassing the ‘Yes’ vote in the upcoming Referendum. In response to the wave of protests and popular political organization that has gripped Morocco just as strongly as the rest of the Arab world, King Muhammad VI had offered a referendum on a new constitution.

The new regulations would involve the King renouncing a modest amount of power, make the prime minister the head of the government, grant women ‘social equality’ with men, and – strikingly – acknowledge Berber as an official state language along with Arabic. The ‘Yes’ convoy is unobstructed by the police. Is the referendum the reason for the quantity of checkpoints?

It is the 30th of June. Throughout my travels King Muhammad VI has been there. In every hotel, restaurant, shop, café, and even in the souks of Marrakech, there are portraits of the King. His ubiquity is a stark reminder of Egypt in 2009, when Hosni Mubarak’s face was plastered even onto the make-shift walls of Cairo’s shanty town. I am in the coastal town of Essaouira, and in the central square there is a large rally.

A stage is erected, and the sky is strewn with ‘Yes’ fliers. The ‘Yes’ campaign is undoubtedly well funded. The town is, however, divided. The ‘Yes’ camp are louder, they dance, and their microphones ring through the streets. Their supporters clutch the same portraits of King Muhammad that have become so familiar.

But there is a considerable group of protesters calling for a boycott of the referendum, and though there is no sign of any violence, they are completely contained within a police cordon. Is this Moroccan Kettling? Are the police merely pre-empting clashes, or are they sending a message?

Though they are not insignificant, the reforms are not those that the protest movements want. The February 20th movement has been vehemently arguing for a political system based on the separation of powers, foreign policy decided democratically, and for something to be done about Morocco’s increasing youth unemployment, which currently stands at nearly 40 percent. The referendum, it is widely agreed, is as much a vote on King Muhammad as it is on his minor reforms. If that is true, it follows that the referendum was not a vote the King could afford to lose.

The result comes in: 98.5% have voted yes. The UK government has decisively moved to support not only the new constitution but this result, and therefore there are some points that need to be made. The first is hardly necessary to emphasize; the proportion of support is scarcely believable. That 98.5% of Moroccans agree on such a complex and important question is extremely unlikely.

The second is that the opposition and popular movements have pushed for boycott, rather than a ‘no’ vote; this alone at least partially invalidates the result. There are also questions that remain unanswered. What effect has the police presence and its noticeable yet measured action around the referendum had? And how many people, proud like Yousuf of a sense of distinct Berber identity, have supported the reforms because of the King’s addition of the official language change?

King Muhammad VI has been shrewd. His referendum is ostensibly a victory, and a weapon against those who will argue for more radical democratic changes. It is also an excuse for Western governments like our own to oppose Arab democracy, as they always do. Scratch the surface and you find the reality is more complicated. Though Morocco is not Libya, or Egypt, the protest movements will not be perturbed by this.

I learned much about language in Morocco. The truth about the referendum is that it was not a loud clear shout of support for the King’s continued power. The reform movements are alive and well, and will continue to voice their desire for a more democratic Morocco, in both Arabic and Berber.

The article My Experience of the Moroccan Referendum appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

After all the boycott attempts made by the Italian government and especially by the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his party, the 57% of Italian people went to vote for the four referendums last Sunday and Monday.

More than 29 millions of Italians went to the polls and 95% of them said no to the return to nuclear energy, no to privatization of public water and no to parliamentary immunity law.

These results are very important both for the future of the country and for the political sign given by the electors to the government. Italian people rejected all the programs and the laws introduced by Berlusconi and his parliamentary majority, giving another slap in the face to the Prime Minister and the government just after the heavy defeat of the local elections of May.

In spite of the numerous abstention requests made by Berlusconi and his party, the electors – also the right-wing ones – expressed their democratic will on the four fundamental questions of the referendum, ruining the government’s plans.

The need of change and the frustration of the Italian people were stronger than the boycott campaign carried out by the government by any means. The appeals to the courts for the referendums to be declared invalid and illegal and the sabotage of the television information turned out completely vain and useless.

Italians sent another strong signal to Berlusconi and the ruling class. It is clear that the distance between people and government is getting wider every day, and that the country has the will to change and want to express its disapproval of the disastrous policy of the government.

Also from a political perspective the results of the referendums are very important. The right-wing governmental coalition seems to be giving way after the defeats suffered in the last weeks. Northern League – the second party of the majority – expressed its discontent in regard to Berlusconi’s policy and his party’s line. Moreover, many Northern League exponents have publicly opposed Berlusconi’s program in occasion of the referendums’ campaign.

It remains to be seen which will be the choices of the government in the matter of energy, the country needs an energy plan but we don’t know yet what will be chosen as “substitute” to Berlusconi’s dearly beloved nuclear plants.

Anyway, for the second time in 24 years, Italy says no to nuclear energy – the first referendum had been held in 1987 – and for at least the next five years the country won’t start any atomic plan.

About the questions on privatization of water, Italians decided to keep the service public as it has been until now, confirming the value of water as a fundamental public good.

The other question was about legitimate impediment law which, if not rejected by electors, would have warranted the parliamentary immunity to the Prime Minister and the other ministers, saving Berlusconi from his numerous trials – four at the moment.

Thus, a terrible blow for the Premier and his government, and a strong signal by the people that there is a need for democracy and change.

The article Referendum in Italy, a Need of Change and Democracy appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

After Ohio passed its dramatic union stripping bill, the state is posed for an epic fight over the measure.  Ohio does not have a recall process like Wisconsin but they may have something better, a referendum process that was used successfully the last time Ohio tried to strip unions.

Under Ohio law, opponents have 90 days from the time the governor signs the legislation to collect 231,149 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot.  If they collect enough valid signatures from 44 Ohio counties within that time frame, the law wouldn’t go into effect until the November election—that is if voters approved the referendum, which now seems pretty unlikely.

It is pretty obvious that the majority of people are not for the union stripping measures that are popping up all over the nation.  It is certainly painfully clear in Ohio.  The Columbus Dispatch analyzed more than 14,000 of Governor Kasich’s emails obtained through a public-records request.  The breakdown was pretty dramatic.  Only 16 percent of the emails were in favor of SB 5 which proposed even more draconian union stripping measures than Wisconsin.  A whopping 84 percent of the emails analyzed were against the bill.  Despite these numbers, the Ohio legislators passed the bill and Kasich quickly inked it into law.

Nearly two-thirds of the emails came from writers who identified themselves as a public employee or a close relative – virtually all of whom opposed the measure.  However, even without the self-identified public workers, the Senate bill was still opposed by 57 percent of those who emailed Kasich.  And dozens of those who backed the anti-union law are from out of state, with several remarking that they had seen Kasich on Fox News.

Before passing the bill, Kasich said there were some who support Senate Bill 5, and the number will grow as more people understand what’s in it. He also acknowledged many Ohioans’ dissatisfaction with him and parts of his agenda.  “I really think that people want change, but they’re not sure what it should look like,” Kasich said. “When the headlines every day are about change, it unsettles people. But I said that from the beginning, that this was going to be a time of big change, and that there would be people who wouldn’t like it.”

It seems like doing something that is overwhelming politically unpopular will have consequences.  That is certainly the case in Wisconsin where the first recall petition has been filed.  In Ohio, it appears that the political consequences could defeat this bill ultimately.  It seems like lawmakers would be more concerned with taking on these losing battles knowing that it will affect their future.  Their cavalier attitude concerns me.  Do they know something about the next election that I don’t know?  Or are they simply betting that voters will continue to have poor memory and will forget about their giant misdeeds by the time the next election rolls around?  The reason why these positions are elected positions are to prevent this sort of power grab.  If the vast majority of voters are against a proposal, the elected official should bow to the will of the people.  This is intended to be a “representative government.”  What happened?

The article Republican Governors Will Pay Political Consequences appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.