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STATEMENT FROM WOMEN HOUSEWIVE WORKERS IN THE HOME TO OUR PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ FRIAS—4 February 2006

We see the need to issue this statement given the imminent emergency of having to spend another year without a budget or begging here and there for resources in order to guarantee people's participation in the direct exercise of participatory democracy and grassroots sovereignty.

We have been working for five years as the Red Popular de Los Altos Mirandinos (Grassroots Network of Los Altos), Miranda State, Municipality of Guaicaipuro, with connections in Aragua, La Guaira, Mérida and Valencia spreading information on the creation of the Land Committees Urban and Rural, and the setting up of the Mesas Tecnicas Locales (Local Technical Committees). In those five years we have designed and carried out property surveys, population censuses, socioeconomic studies, and workshops with their own methodology for topography, seismology and urban planning. Our experience also includes working with the Consejo de Economia Social (the Social Economic Council) since its creation three years ago. There we worked on developing projects and budgets and on selecting projects and studying their feasibility within the communities. We were also involved in the creation of the Red de Usuarias y Aliadas del Banco de Desarrollo de la Mujer (Network of Users and Allies of the Women's Development Bank) Banmujer. There too we carried out a selection process using a socioeconomic study to locate the women with the greatest need. We gave workshops on ideological training for the creation of a caring economy. From this selection process we developed the criteria used to deliver 120 credits between 2003-04 and to locate the Casas de Alimentacion (soup kitchens) and the Mercal (state-subsidized markets for people on low incomes). The Land Committee welcomed and found a location for the Mission Barrio Adentro (the healthcare mission based in low-income neighbourhoods) and supported the Cuban doctors while they set up the grassroots clinics. We also provided support for the Consejos Comunales (Community Councils) as they were being set up and advised on the creation of projects that were going to be selected for the Plan de Obras Municipales (the Municipal Works Plan).

The great majority—between 70 and 80 per cent of participants nationwide—are women housewife workers in the home who have become community leaders and defenders of this revolution, this participatory democracy. We are the women who are doing the work of carrying forward this revolution. We work for free and we are treated with contempt by the State bureaucracy—they take advantage of us by using our work to project themselves politically and give themselves credibility, appropriating the few resources we have managed to get after many battles, and which they have the nerve to pretend to administer and even operate. This has brought disappointment and despair to those who believe in the President but not in the majority of those who surround him. By stealing our projects and the resources needed to carry them out, and denying our ability as grassroots organizations, they are stealing the revolution and this unique and unrepeatable opportunity to change the world.

The President announced yesterday that, as part of the redistribution of the oil revenue, the work done in the home by women heads of household—starting with those who live in extreme poverty—would be recognized with a housewife's pension equivalent to 80% of the minimum wage (that is 372.000 Bolivars a month) which would be paid to 100,000 women during the first semester of this year and to an additional 100,000 in the second semester. The President said that this would be administered by the Ministry of Work and the Ministry of Popular Economy and that the beneficiaries would be put forward by the Consejos Comunales and the Juntas Parroquiales (Parish Boards), which would take account of the Land, Water and Health Committees and other community organizations for monitoring and accountability. In order to ensure that this economic recognition—which the women of Venezuela and the world have fought so hard for—is delivered directly to those entitled to it and doesn't stay in the pockets of bloodsucking bureaucrats who live off the politics business and who discredit the government and corrupt any initiative that attempts to deepen the revolutionary process, we propose the following points:

1. We do not want the resources to pass through the town hall, the county hall, the parish or local councils, or other State institutions which divert or steal this money.
   
   
2. We do not want the parties to decide who shall be the beneficiaries of social programs because they use the Misiones to buy votes.
   
   
3. We do not want the points of reference of grassroots organizations to be manipulated and displaced in order to impose on us civil servants and bureaucrats who know little about our reality.
   
   
4. Nor do we want the projects and initiatives to be stolen from community leaders in order to be presented by the councils or the county authorities as their own.
   
   
5. We do not want to be excluded with accusations that we are escuálidos [the term that refers to the pro-coup opposition] if we make any criticisms or point out something that isn't working that is the responsibility of a government institution or programme. Rather, we want to be respected as monitors of social expenditure and guardians of this Bolivarian revolution.

1. That the funds destined for workers in the home be paid personally and directly through Banmujer and that the selection be made through the census of the Redes Populares de Usuarias y Aliadas de Banmujer because our experience shows that this would guarantee that the money is not stolen, that there is no partisanship or cronyism, and that social justice prevails.
   
   
2. That the pension is not temporary but for life because women's work is not temporary and never ends.
   
   
3. That they include the recognition of revolutionary community work as productive work that should be remunerated. It is not right that we the women who, as our President has said, are the foundation of the revolution, have to depend on the charity of our partners and relatives in order to carry out our revolutionary labour.

1. No queremos que los recursos pasen por la alcaldía, la gobernación, juntas parroquiales, consejos locales o los institutos del estado que desvían este dinero o se lo roban.
   
   
2. No queremos que sean los partidos los que decidan quienes sean las y los beneficiarios de los programas sociales porque utilizan a las Misiones para el clientelismo político.
   
   
3. No queremos que se manipulen y se desplacen las direcciones de las organizaciones populares para imponernos funcionarios y burócratas que desconocen nuestra realidad.
   
   
4. Tampoco queremos que se roben los proyectos e iniciativas de los líderes comunitarios para presentarlas como propias de los funcionarios de alcaldías y gobernaciones.
   
   
5. No queremos que se nos excluya acusándonos de escuálidos si hacemos algunas críticas o señalamos algo que no esta funcionando por parte de las mismas instituciones o programas del gobierno, sino que se nos respete como contraloras sociales y guardianas de esta revolución bolivariana.

1. Que los recursos destinados a las trabajadoras del hogar se hagan personal y directamente a través de Banmujer y que la selección sea a través del censo de las Redes Populares de Usuarias y Aliadas de Banmujer porque la experiencia que tenemos demuestra que esto nos garantizaría que no se roben los reales y que no habrá compadrazgos ni amiguismos ni partidismos sino que prevalecerá la justicia social.
   
   
2. Que dicha pensión no sea temporal sino vitalicia porque el trabajo de la mujer no es temporal y nunca se acaba.
   
   
3. Que abarque el reconocimiento del trabajo social revolucionario como un trabajo productivo que debe ser remunerado. No es justo que las mujeres que, como bien lo ha dicho nuestro Presidente, somos el fundamento de la revolución, tengamos que depender de la caridad de nuestros compañeros o familiares para el desempeño de nuestra labor revolucionaria.