| Open Letter to the Movements
of Indigenous and Rural Women
Dear sisters: 14 January 2002 Greetings from an Aymara woman in Puno – grassroots Aymara leader and social communicator of the Rural Confederation of Peru. I am a member of the Aymara Cultural Centre, Communication and Development "PACHA ARU" and I belong to the Women's International Network for Wages for Caring Work - WinWages (Red Internacional de Mujeres por el Salario para el Trabajo de Cuidado). We are calling a Global Women's Strike for 8 March 2002 and we invite you to participate. This will be the third Global Women's Strike in which women in more than 60 countries have taken part. The Strike can be useful for you to press for your local and national demands, and to show that women are always the first to oppose war. The Strike calls for the valuing of all the caring work that women do, as well as valuing the lives of all women and of all the loved ones we have produced with our bodies and our work. At this critical time for Indigenous and rural movements in the Americas, in the face of globalisation and militarisation and the USA's "new war" which has implications for the whole world, the Strike demands a total change of priorities: invest in life not in death. It would help you to know that there are women who think that there is no need for women to do everything men do in order to demonstrate our worth. Although we believe we have the right and the ability to do all that men do when we think it necessary or desirable, we don't have to go through that in order to demand and win the right to be recognised and valued for who we are. It is vital that we demand the recognition we deserve for all the work we are already doing, which has been crucial to the survival of Indigenous communities through centuries of exploitation and genocide, and on which men and the whole of society still depend. It is women who do the work of the home: first and foremost as the mothers, carers and educators of children. We also cook, clean, launder, and tend the smaller animals. And we do agricultural work: in the fields, with great physical effort we till the land, we sow, we harvest, and we trade what we produce at fairs and markets; we work side by side with men and sell our labour power as farm workers until the last day of pregnancy. That is why our health deteriorates and we constantly suffer from vaginal haemorrhages, miscarriages, abdominal and kidney pains. As shepherds, we tend the livestock (cows, sheep, llamas and vicuñas). We also do craft work, individually and in groups, with llama and vicuña wool; we make "chompas", "chullos", shawls, blankets, etc., then market these products to satisfy the basic needs of the home. In the community we play a very important role in various activities: in road construction, in organizations, mothers' clubs, in cultural work . . . But none of this is recognized or valued, and our views are ignored at communal assemblies. As Indigenous and rural women we have our own independent case to make as a sector, and the Global Women's Strike is an opportunity to give national and international visibility to every sector. This autonomy is essential to strengthening our movements and preventing us from being divided and defeated. The Global Women's Strike is the first global strike of workers, and the first global call which demands that the lives and work of all women be valued, beginning with unwaged work. Indigenous and rural women in other parts of the world – from India and Ghana to Uganda – have been very successful in publicising their demands through the Global Strike and in achieving a new level of co-ordination among grassroots women. In Lima, Peru, the Domestic Workers’ Centre (Centro de Capacitación para Trabajadoras del Hogar), most of whom are Indigenous women who have had to emigrate to the city, co-ordinated the 2001 Strike with much success and is mobilizing for 2002. We Indigenous women need to be in touch with each other across national borders and continents, and with other women of colour. Regionally, we have presented the following demands: · Fair prices for our agricultural produce, given that our work is very demanding.· Recognition for all our caring and rural work and wages for Aymara and Quechua women.· Participation, through our organisations, in the budget management of the local government.· The creation of of women’s police stations in the community to combat violence in the family.· Respect for our autonomous organizations so they are not manipulated by other -- partisan and political -- interests.· Support with basic services through development projects for electricity, water, drainage, education and housing.· Just laws to benefit Andean women, so that our Andean culture can be protected and maintained.· Our native cultures – our mother tongues, customs, races and ways of life – must be respected and valued.On May 1st last year we launched a declaration for International Workers’ Day, demanding the following of the central government and the relevant authorities: · Recognition by law of rural and native women as grassroots workers of Peru.· As workers, we call for wage incentives for mothers -- native rural women -- to whom part of the military budget must be allocated, and with justice we demand that the government must invest in life and welfare rather than in military budgets and prisons.This is an opportunity for Indigenous women from all the movements of the world to unite among ourselves and with other grassroots women, to highlight the situation of every one of us and demand the recognition and the resources we deserve. Fighting autonomously as women is the best way to protect and advance our families, communities and struggles, especially in the face of globalization and war. Many men support the Global Women's Strike because they realize that it is women's response to globalization and war, and that it is decisive to changing fundamentally the aims of the global economy: finally to end genocide and, in its place, to promote life and therefore the care of people and the environment. Let’s not forget that we women give life and are the first who do the work of protecting it. If this work of caring were valued, men would also do it and governments could not wage war. WinWages highlights that: "The US government responds to the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington in which the lives of 6,000* people were lost, with a world war. However, nothing is said of the 35,000 children who died of hunger that same day, and every day, as a consequence of the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While $80 billion would cover the basic needs of everyone, more than $800 billions is squandered globally in military budgets that destroy life and guarantee the submission of Third World countries to globalization. The US government has already invested $40 billion in this new war. "The anti-globalization movement has to take a position against the military-industrial complex that imposes globalization on all sectors, waged or unwaged, and destroys the independence of the Third World and Indigenous communities. It is our responsibility to highlight how important women are in this new anti-war and anti-globalization movement. Then, and only then, CARING NOT KILLING can become a reality." Looking forward to hearing from you, we enclose Strike materials. LONG LIVE WORKING WOMEN IN THE COUNTRYSIDE AND IN THE CITY! LONG LIVE WORKING WOMEN OF THE WORLD! DOWN WITH DOMINATING MACHISMO! AYMARA, QUECHA AND NATIVE WORKERS OF THE HOME, REMEMBER THAT UNITY MAKES US STRONG AND THAT TOGETHER WE WILL ACHIEVE OUR SOCIAL DEMANDS! STOP THE WORLD TO STOP WARS! Rosa Palomino Centro Cultural Aymará, Comunicación y Desarrollo "Pacha Aru" *The official figure is now under 3,000. |