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Press Release…Press Release…Press Release… October 21, 2002 Contact: Phoebe Jones, Global Women’s Strike, 215-848-1120 As Venezuelans reject corrupt unions’ general strike, women in the US demand an end to US intervention It is not only Saddam Hussein that the US oil men want to bring down. Since President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (the world’s fourth largest oil producer) was elected with a huge popular mandate to tackle poverty and corruption, the US has tried to overthrow him by orchestrating military coups or destabilizing the economy. Saddam Hussein is a despot; President Chavez is a democratically-elected and popular leader. What they have in common is oil, therefore they are being targeted. Today, the rich white minority which opposes President Chavez and has close links with the US, has called for a general strike in this latest attempt to bring the government down. Philadelphian Phoebe Jones, who was part of the Global Women's Strike’s international women’s truth-finding mission to Venezuela in July, goes public with their findings in a letter she wrote to President Carter, Nobel peace laureate, and Mrs. Carter: Dear President and Mrs. Carter: I recently returned from a women’s truth-finding mission to Venezuela. We learned not only about the goals of the economic and social reforms of their "peaceful and democratic revolution" and women’s involvement in it, but also about the tremendous efforts being made to undermine the government which was duly elected to carry out these reforms. While we were there, the US government announced its intention to open an "Office for Transition". This caused great alarm throughout the country as a thinly disguised attempt at transition to yet another US-orchestrated coup, the April 11 armed coup having been overwhelmingly rejected and reversed by the people there, especially women who were the first on the street. I am writing to urge you, whose Carter’s Center is active in Venezuela, to condemn this office and any such intervention -- subtle, covert or overt – aimed at defeating the will and the determined efforts of the great majority of the people there and the government they elected. But first, let me introduce myself. My father, John Jones, was Deputy Ass’t Attorney General under Bobby Kennedy, and worked for your Lawyers Committee to Free the Hostages in Iran … She goes on to demonstrate how women – 67% of household heads and the majority of the 80% of people of color who are poor – are the backbone of the efforts for social and economic change, and to keep the process from becoming a bloodbath. She contrasts election fraud in the US, not only the Florida Presidential election but one which her family personally experienced, with the election in Venezuela which President Carter determined were "fair and a true expression of democracy" and where 72% voted for the new Venezuelan constitution. She also raises the devastating impact that assassinations of popular leaders have. "It is employers and the corrupt trade union officials working for them with the backing of the US administration which have called this strike," says Ms. Jones. "From word we have received, 3 million people demonstrated in Caracas alone last weekend in support of the President they elected and most workers, including 85% of oil workers, have vowed not to go on strike. They expect to take over workplaces and universities that enforce lockouts, and small businesses have called for families to denounce the strike and join the People’s Market Day in the oil area of Maracaibo." For interviews, please call 215-848-1120. Copies of the letter in English and Spanish can be found at http://womenstrike8m.server101.com or by email: philly@crossroadswomen.net URGENT ACTION ALERT...URGENT ACTION ALERT... October 2002 Estimadas/os amigas y amigos de Venezuela ... An Open Letter to
President and Mrs. Carter regarding Venezuela |