In 1998 Hugo Chavez was elected in a landslide and formed a government committed to returning the wealth of the country, especially its oil revenue [Venezuela is the 4^th biggest exported] to the 80% of the population, mainly people of African and indigenous descent, who lived in poverty. A Constitution and a whole set of laws were passed to end corruption and robbery by the rich racist white elite who had had been in power for 40 years through two parties – very much like the Democrats and Republicans in the US or increasingly the Tories and Labour in Britain. Every change was ratified with a huge popular vote: the Constitution by over 74%.

By 2002, the Chavez government faced a coup orchestrated by the US government who wanted to privatise the Venezuelan oil industry so they would own it, the rich Venezuelan elite, the corporate media and a corrupt Venezuelan trade union backed by the US trade union federation which for decades has acted as an arm of the State Department in relation to foreign policy.

The coup was successful for two days. The first thing it did was to abolish all constitutional rights, raid people’s homes and offices. The US government [this defender of democracy] was the first and only to recognise it. On the third day, it was defeated and the elected government was brought back to power by a popular uprising led by women from the poorest areas of Caracas with the support of soldiers loyal to their elected government. This is an example that the US can be defeated if there are enough of us and we are determined enough.

From that moment, 13 April 2002, the people of Venezuela have been in a permanent mobilisation to defend their Constitutional rights and their revolutionary process.

Everyone, starting with President Chavez, recognises that women are central to this revolution. 70% of households in Venezuela are headed by women – their leadership in the process must have a lot to do with that.

We have highlighted and supported women’s victories in Venezuela, and they support our Strike. Today at their official celebration of IWD, they will read our statement of support and we read theirs.

We, revolutionary women support THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE.

In a post-cold war world, Venezuela defends a new world order in which multipolarity, the respect for sovereignty and the self-determination of the people, the integration and cooperation with our Latin American sisters and brothers and with the rest of the countries that integrate the international community, is the way forward for all the nations of the planet to achieve PEACE.

For these reasons we support, as the National Women's Institute, and as part of the organised women's movement, the demands of the Global Women's Strike, and we share the theme of its campaign: WOMEN SAY NO WAR -- INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING, and its demands:

The present political process in Venezuela was born from a commitment to a democracy with the direct participation and protagonism of all citizens, in order to build a new republic based on equity and equality.

The Bolivarian revolution is peaceful, and its political project was born from and built by the people. Its mission is to rescue the human, political and social rights of men and women. The Bolivarian process is a clear example for the world of a peaceful and democratic revolution.

Since 1999, the Venezuelan people has re-emerged as the protagonist of this process of deep transformation towards a more just society. In these 4 years, we have had many victories that have allowed us to improve the quality of life of millions of Venezuelan men and women, who until yesterday were living in the most extreme poverty.

The 1999 Constitution has a unique character, for it guarantees total social, political and economic rights. Its uniqueness is also rooted in a vision of gender issues that recognises the rights of women, which until now had been suppressed in our society as well as in many other societies in the world, just like the rights of minorities, indigenous groups, children and others.

The women's movement in Venezuela has achieved an unprecedented political and social victory: women's rights are included in article 88 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality between men and women in the exercise of their right to work, and also recognises the activities of housewives as work which brings all social security benefits [such as the right to a pension]. Article 88 is an example to be followed by all countries in their struggle to eradicate discrimination against women.

Our Constitution enhances the struggle against discrimination of human beings, and because of this it includes mechanisms for the protection of all social groups.

A series of laws in support of women have been passed. For example, the Law for the Creation, Support, Promotion and Development of the Microfinancial System, through which the Women's Bank is funded. So far this institution has issued 3.900 microcredits [to the poorest women]. Another example is the Law for Land and Rural Development, which on top of watching over the interests of rural men and women [by distributing idle land to the landless] and ensuring that it is good land, establishes that women heads of household are prioritised in the assignation of plots of lands, and guarantees a special pre- and post-maternity food subsidy for rural women. The Land Bill is one of our most noteworthy victories.

Also, through a Decree Indigenous languages are now official languages, so that we can rescue the cultural tradition of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, who had previously been excluded from our heritage.

On the other hand, with the Decree for the Democratisation of Urban Land [the urban equivalent of the Rural Act], those who live in suburban areas, those who live in houses built on waste land [ie in shanty towns], will own their land, for the land belongs to those who work it or live on it.

And to ensure the implementation of the Law on Violence against Women and the Family passed in 1998, we have prepared a National Action Plan.

Our revolutionary process has a civilian-military character. The people and the armed forced have united their efforts to defend our democracy. At crucial moments: on 11,12 and 13 of April 2002, when groups of the extreme right tried to overthrow the legitimate government of President Chavez, and in December, when the economic powers planned to sabotage our national petrol industry PDVSA [on which the survival and welfare of the whole population depends], popular mobilisation, together with the action of the armed forces loyal to the process, defeated the coup d'etat.

María León
President of Inamujer

President Hugo Chavez has said that the armed forces must return to their proper social function, both as citizens and institutions, and be incorporated in the democratic development project. They are now using this great human potential [ie soldiers normally locked in barracks segregated from other people] to build schools and houses, and to defend the democratic process.

The Global Women's Strike condemns the waste of over 900 billion dollars in military budgets [more than half are US military spending which sets the standard for other government priorities.]

These military budgets kill us not only with bullets and bombs, but with the poverty they create and maintain through our daily repression. There is no money for women and children, for basic needs such as water, food, health, decent wages, pensions and education, but there is always money for war and repression. Even poor countries like Uganda and Pakistan spend 75% of their national budgets on the military!

For us, [since we cannot right now abolish all armies in the world] the use of the military as a force for civil development for the poorest communities in rural and urban areas is an important way to INVEST IN CARING, NOT KILLING, and to demand the military budget for the entire society.

Power to our sisters in Venezuela who with us say:

NO A LA GUERRA – QUE SE INVIERTA EN CUIDAR NO EN MATAR!