Nora Castañeda:
"Creating a caring economy in Venezuela"
"Micro credit is an excuse to empower women. We believe that the economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings at the service of the economy. We want to create an economy based on cooperation and mutual support, a caring economy. We are not building a bank. We are building a different way of life."

"We women won our rights in the constitution. We won Article 88, which recognizes that housewives create added value and must be compensated with social security." April 2003

Nora Castañeda is the President of the Women’s Development Bank in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Los Angeles, January 31, 5 pm
Immanuel Presbyterian Church 3300 Wilshire Blvd. LA
Childcare l Wheelchair accessible l Translation l Video clips
Donation sliding scale: $25 for one or $40 for 2. Low waged and unwaged $5-$10. No one turned away.

Nora Castañeda, an economist committed to grassroots women, was appointed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to head the Women’s Development Bank when he agreed to women’s demands for a bank as a way of funding reforms to benefit the poorest families & communities. Of African and Indigenous descent and the daughter of a low-income single mother, Ms. Castañeda is a remarkable woman in a remarkable time – one of great economic and social change ushered in by the election of President Chávez in a landslide in 1998 to get the country’s oil revenue back and to tackle poverty and corruption, and by the people’s defeat of the 2002 coup carried out by the racist Venezuelan elite with the support of the US administration. Venezuela is the world’s 5th largest exporter, yet most of its population lives in poverty.

Selma James, Global Women’s Strike (GWS) international coordinator, and Nina López of the GWS Bolivarian Circle/UK, both from London, will be accompanying Ms. Castañeda, providing introductory remarks and translation.

Ms. Castañeda’s tour is coordinated by the Bolivarian Circle of the Global Women’s Strike.

Sponsors: Venezuelan Embassy, Danny Glover, Ed Asner Office of the Americas, KPFK, 2000+ Bookstore; ANSWER/LA; El Sereno & San Gabriel Valley Neighbors for Peace and Justice

Endorsers: Bolivarian Circle/LA "Ezequiel Zamora"; CISPES; Ricardo Moreno; Alexandria House; Action Resource Center; Puerto Rican Alliance; WILPF

For further information on the tour or the GWS video "Venezuela - A 21st. Century Revolution", in which Ms. Castañeda is a featured speaker, contact:
Email: la@crossroadswomen.net Tel: 323-292-7405
Website: http://lwomenstrike8m.server101.com

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