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03/10/2006:

"Venezuela Leads the Way: Welfare Mothers and Grassroots Women are the Workers for Social Change"

There is screaming, hugging, chanting, and many shhhs; the group takes a momentary pause in their celebration to hear the news. A delegation of 70 women from all over the world, including, India, Uganda, Guyana, the UK, and the US stand together in the community of La Padera, Venezuela, awaiting the details.

Juanita Romero, also known as Madre, explains that President Hugo Chávez has just given the news that we have all been waiting for: the implementation of Article 88 of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Constitution.

This diverse group, which makes up the Global Women’s Strike, has been visiting the grassroots projects that are the foundation of the Bolivarian Revolution. After three exhausting days of visiting medical clinics, land committees, food program houses, and educational missions, the Global Women’s Strike has been overwhelmingly reaffirmed, that it is the grassroots women who are building this process.

"Women are the ones that are leading the projects. They are always there and they are always the majority." says Nicola Marcos from Guyana.

The Global Women’s Strike was formed to win economic and social recognition for unwaged caring work. Since the addition of Article 88 in the Bolivarian Constitution (1999), the Global Women’s Strike has built many relationships with grassroots communities in Venezuela.

Article 88 declares:The State guarantees equality and equity between men and women in the exercise of their right to work. The State recognizes work in the home as an economic activity that creates added values and produces social welfare and wealth. Housewives are entitled to Social Security.
upsidedown.org