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Sign with women against the division of Bolivia
Bolivia, 4 May: support our sisters and the people of Bolivia who are mobilizing all over the country to stop the separatist ambitions of the racist elite of Santa Cruz.
On 4 May the prefect of the department of Santa Cruz has called for illegal elections on statutes which, with a clear separatist aim, would grant autonomy to the region and reject the constitution of Bolivia.
The Global Women’s Strike in Bolivia, together with the majority of women and the population generally, will be demonstrating: in defence of the constitution, and against the separatist policies which want to divide Bolivia in order to deny people its wealth.
We highlight some of the articles of the new constitution:
Article 15 – No one will be tortured, disappeared, enslaved. There is no death penalty. Everyone, particularly women, has the right not to suffer physical, sexual or psychological violence, whether in the family or outside. Article 16 – Universal right to water and food. Article 30-32 – Rights of Indigenous Native rural people and of Afro-Bolivians. Article 35-45 – Universal right to free healthcare and social security, including traditional medicine. Protection during pregnancy, labour, prenatal and postnatal. The right to a pension. Article 48 – Women will receive the same remuneration as men for work of equal value. Article 51 – The right of both rural and urban workers to form trade unions. Ideological and organizational independence for trade unions. Articles 334-6 – Support for cooperatives, micro and small businesses. Article 338 – Recognition of the economic value of work in the home as a source of wealth which must be quantified in national accounts.
The organizations and individuals below sign in support of the following statement.
Statement from the Bolivian Network of the Global Women Strike
Our history is full of heroic women who were involved in the struggle for liberty and sovereignty. Some examples: centuries of struggle to end slavery and the yoke of Spain; women who fought for their ideas were killed in 1952; the mining women whose 1977 hunger strike, together with their sons, brought the criminal dictatorship of Hugo Banzer to an end; the massive participation of Indigenous, Native and rural women in the long march for Land, Dignity, Development and Political Participation of Indigenous People (a woman died fighting for this); the march for Sovereignty of the People and Natural Resources; the campaign for legislation to uphold women’s rights; participation in the Water War in 2000. In the 2003 Gas War (where 11 women lost their lives), women’s participation was decisive in the downfall of a neo-liberal government which was auctioning off our natural resources and productive industries to foreign companies. The toppling of the subsequent right wing government in 2005, the repossession of our hydrocarbons, and the establishment of the Constituent Assembly are other examples.
Mining women, rural women, Indigenous Native women, women of African descent took part in all these events to bring about a change in the history of our country. This led to the election of the first Indigenous president, Mr Juan Evo Morales Ayma, a product of the class which has been exploited and excluded for 500 years. Bolivians have placed their hope in this president. Because of his social and ethnic background, his working class convictions and his commitment to being accountable to the movement which carried him to power, he is implementing measures which promote an equal and equitable redistribution of resources.
Bolivia has one of the highest rates of poverty in Latin America with 67% of the population (approximately 6 million people) in poverty. The other 30% live moderately well and only 3% can be considered rich. According to statistics, 6 out of every 10 Bolivians live on $2 a day. The distribution of wealth in Bolivia is among the most unequal in Latin America. The poorest 20% receive 4% of the GNP. Between 20% and 34% suffer from severe malnutrition. In rural areas only 25% of households have electricity and only 41% have drinking water.
Given that neoliberal politicians deny women’s right to: decent food; ownership of the land we work and fair prices for our produce; social and economic recognition of our caring work in the home which produces and reproduces the whole human race, that is all the workers of the world, and creates social wealth and welfare; decent jobs outside the home and equal pay; free healthcare; social security; education and professional training.
Given the blatant and cynical RACISM of the OLIGARCHY, which opposes any change towards a plurinational and inclusive State so that those who have historically been exploited and repressed (Indigenous Native rural people, people of African descent and the whole impoverished class), can enjoy our rights.
We, women, will not allow the clear attempt, promoted by the U.S., to destabilise and divide the country. We cannot allow EXTERNAL economic forces and their INTERNAL allies to balkanize our country and to interfere in our process of change, especially the US and its ambassador in Bolivia Philip Goldberg, a balkanization specialist (he presided over the division of Yugoslavia).
We also reject the inflammatory role of those media which prioritize their economic interests, using their outlets to promote social unrest, destabilize the government and divide the country, preventing the process of change.
We, women, are fighting for a country where basic food is guaranteed, where the extreme poverty caused by the neo-liberal capitalist system is brought to an end, and where our children’s lives are guaranteed. That is why we are defending the universal pension for people over 60 introduced by the government of Evo Morales.
We, women, are defending the Constitution we won despite the violent opposition of separatists elites. It recognizes economic and social rights, and the participation and inclusion of all Bolivians, regardless of social, gender, ethnic or religious differences.
That is why today and now we are fighting against those who oppose the profound changes we are carrying out. Invest in caring not killing!
Email: redhuelgamund.bolivia@hotmail.com
SIGNED BY:
The Global Women’s Strike in Guyana, England, India, Ireland, Peru, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, US, Venezuela
Please add your name, organization and email and return to womenstrike8m@server101.com
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