| A firebrand of Venezuela's revolution Morning Star, Tuesday 22 March 2005 INTERVIEW: NORA CASTANEDA talks about the battle to help ordinary people overcome years of neglect. NORA Castaneda should be tired from her gruelling speaking tour of Europe and Britain, but she is like a power station at full capacity, pumping out energy and radiating sparkle as well as humour. She and and her colleague Angelika Alvarez have been invited to Britain by Global Women's Strike as part of International Women's Week and have proved inspirational to packed audiences up and down the country. Castaneda is president of Banmujer, the women's development bank, a unique initiative by the Chavez government in consultation with people in the shanty towns and the countryside. Banmujer's main function is to provide micro-credits to groups of women, enabling them to form co-operatives and run local businesses for the good of themselves and their communities. Low interest rates are subsidised by the government. "How can my government afford this?" Castaneda asks rhetorically and answers: "Because we have oil!" Venezuela has the world's largest combined resources of petrol, gas and bitumen in the world. But the proceeds from that wealth are now benefiting the people, not just a small elite as before. "In most countries, aid simply helps women administer poverty," she says, "whereas our programme is intended to help them climb out of it." President Chavez has said that, "to eliminate poverty, we must give power to the poor" and Banmujer is part of that commitment. Castaneda says: "We believe the economy must be at the service of human beings not human beings at the service of the economy. And, since 70 per cent of those who live in poverty are women, economic change must start with women." She knows this first hand, being the daughter of a low income single mother of African-indigenous descent who nevertheless managed to send her daughter to school and university, where she studied economics. "But," she comments with a chuckle, "I learnt Chicago economics and I had to rid my brain of that virus." What is particularly impressive is the language that Castaneda uses, reflecting the building of a whole new consciousness. "We don't have bosses or chiefs," she says, just "responsables," those with responsibility. She despises the term economically inactive that is often used with regards women. "What does that mean?" she asks angrily. "It implies that women who do all the housework, look after the children, cook the meals and often work a small plot of land and sell their produce, are not active. Of course they are, but it is unrecognised and unpaid labour. "Micro-credit is a means of empowering women," she explains. "We want to create an economy based on co-operation and mutual support, a caring economy. We are not building a bank, we are building a different way of life." This pioneering initiative could be a cornerstone in the fight to overcome poverty throughout the world. It is something that should be copied and taken up on an international level and by the World Bank - Gordon Brown, please take note. Since 2001, Banmujer has handed out 51,000 micro-credits, 96 per cent of which have gone to women and 4 per cent to men. The Venezuelan state believes that social viability should have priority over purely economic decisions. With this in mind, Banmujer has helped more than 70,000 people set up co-ops and in this, in turn, has created over 144,000 jobs. They have trained over 60,000 people in basic business principles. They encourage these small businesses to work in a co-operative rather than a competitive way - no doubt anathema to neoliberal economists, but it works. In fact, Banmujer has been attacked by outside banking interests, because it doesn't produce profit, but runs on a deficit. But Castaneda says that that is not a valid argument and that over 90 per cent of the loans are being repaid, whereas, in the past, million dollar loans by the state to big companies often remained unpaid. "Banmujer includes the majority in its work, whereas neoliberal policies exclude the majority," she emphasises. She stresses that the transformation that Venezuela is going through is not based on a particular movement or party programme, but on years of accumulated history of struggle and a whole range of diverse movements, parties and organisations. This reflects what writer Richard Gott says - that the Bolivarian revolution is not like the storming of the Winter Palace or of guerillas coming down from the hills to take Havana, it has been a slow, step-by-step reforming process. Castaneda gives us a few examples of what has been achieved so far. For instance, the Robinson literary campaign, which, in one and half years, has taught over 1.3 million citizens, 60 per cent of them women, to read and write. It has been so successful that Venezuela has now asked the UN to add it to the list of countries that have eradicated illiteracy. It has also instituted a programme to encourage people to take up secondary education and go on to higher education - and this is all free. Castaneda and Alvarez show us their little blue books - the new Venezuelan constitution. Every citizen carries one around with them and can quote from it. It is their property and they are proud of it. "This constitution," Castaneda emphasises, "is the revolution. It was not written by a group of jurists or academics but is the fruition of years of history and widespread consultation and debate among the people. They have taken ownership of it. "We women won our rights in the constitution, we won article 88, which recognises that women who work in the home create added value and must be compensated with social security." After all, what is more important than bringing up and looking after the new generation of society? That is something more valuable than anything else and should be properly remunerated. "Solidarity is the expression of the people's tenderness" is a slogan of the revolution. Then there is the Barrio Dentro (Within the Neighbourhood) programme, which has been instrumental in setting up local clinics in poor neighbourhoods, which offer advice on sexual health, provide free ante and post-natal care, cervical cancer checks and sexual education. Castaneda emphasises the vital importance of health care for the poor. "Our own doctors," she says, "saw health as a commodity, to be sold and thus excluded the poor. Without the incredible self-sacrifice of the thousands of Cuban doctors who, although paid for their services, have come to Venezuela to work in the shanties and rural areas, we couldn't have achieved what we have." Cuba has also carried out several thousand cataract and similar operations on Venezuelans. Another government priority is housing and the aim is to build 320,000 new, affordable housing units in one year. Vuelven caras is another new initiative to develop the popular economy, a caring economy built on the principles of solidarity not competition. It is named after a famous historical event during the 1810-30 war of independence from Spain. At a final decisive battle, the Venezuelan fighters were told to turn their backs on the enemy and pretend to walk away as if defeated. Once the Spanish thought they'd won, they relaxed their guard. The Venezuelans then turned around (vuelven caras), attacked and were victorious. Castaneda says, with a cheeky smile, that "we know imperialism is incredibly strong with its nuclear weapons, its marines and its communications media, but we are ready to counter them in a similar way. "Along with the other Rio group of countries, we repudiate the use of unilateral political and economic coercion on developing nations to threaten them, forcing them to toe the US or neoliberal line. Such methods contravene the UN charter on the sovereign independence of countries and hit only the poor, women and children. "We are striving to construct a free society, based on justice and dignity, but this effort is being attacked by the US, which is spreading the lie that we are a destabilising factor in the region." Venezuela has also taken steps to eradicate the traffic in young women and children as virtual slave labour and for the international sex trade. It has signed up to the UN charter on this. But the US press decries what Venezuela is trying to do and accuses it of the exact opposite, of not doing enough to stop such trade, and is calling on the world community to take economic sanctions against Venezuela. "They also don't like our media Bill," Castaneda says, "which insists that the television, radio and newspaper media accept a measure of social responsibility in terms of their output. "We don't want to go down the US road, where young kids copy the violence they see on their TVs and shoot their neighbours and siblings." At a meeting at the London School of Economics last Monday, Castaneda was asked what Venezuela was doing on a whole range of issues, like GM food, environmental reform and in terms of international solidarity. "Listen," she said, "we've had 500 years of dependence and only six of independence, we can't achieve every goal at once. The '80s and '90s, throughout Latin America, were described as the 'two lost decades' when our societies went backwards and poverty as well as people's unhappiness increased. "However, hope didn't die because of grass-roots solidarity. And, as was shown at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, there is now a renewed hope for an alternative world. And we can all build on that. "Our constitution takes these issues on board, but it is only a blueprint, a platform to be realised over time. And we will only be able successful in achieving our goals if the world takes up these issues too." At the conclusion of the meeting at the LSE, buckets were handed round by Global Women's Strike for the audience to contribute to the costs of hiring the hall. Castaneda pointed at them and said ironically: "See how my government is financing international subversion." As they and the audience chanted Venezuela si, Chavez no se va! (Yes to Venezuela, Chavez is not going), there was no doubt, though, that Castaneda and Alvarez are subversives - subverting injustice, endemic poverty and international indifference. Interview by John Green and Michal Boncza |