[ssf] What a strange idea!

[spodulike at freeuk.com]

> "To eliminate poverty we must give power to the poor." President Hugo 
Chavez
> 
Which reminds me, there are a couple of speakers from venezuelan women'
s credit union type things coming to Sheffield:

Venezuela: Creating a caring economy
A Global Women's Strike tour for International Women's Week

Nora Castañeda (President of the Women's Development Bank - Banmujer) 
and Angélica Álvarez (Promoter Co-ordinator for Banmujer in Bolívar 
state) will be speaking in Sheffield.

Thursday 17 March
7.30pm St Matthew's Church Rooms, Carver Street
Co-sponsored by Sheffield Cuba Solidarity Campaign, South Yorkshire 
Women's Development Trust, Sheffield Women's Forum

"To eliminate poverty we must give power to the poor." President Hugo 
Chavez

"We believe that the economy must be at the service of human beings,not 
human beings at the service of the economy. And since 70% of those who 
live in conditions of poverty are women, economic change must start 
with women. Micro credit is an excuse to empower women. 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. 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." Nora Castañeda


------------------------------------
Women support Chavez

Friday February 25, 2005
The Guardian Letters

It is appropriate for women to comment on plots against Venezuela's 
president, Hugo Chavez, since women have most to lose from his 
assassination (Bush is plotting to kill me, says Chavez, february 22).

Behind the elected military man there is a women's revolution. Women 
are the majority, as users and service providers, in all government 
social programmes to tackle poverty - literacy, education, health, 
water, housing, and land rights.

Venezuela's crime is its refusal to privatise oil and hand it over to 
US corporations. Behind this refusal are economic priorities 
diametrically opposed to those of the would-be US assassins.

["The economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings 
at the service of the economy. And since 70% of those who live in 
conditions of poverty are women, economic change must start with women,"
explains Nora Castañeda head of Venezuela's Women's Development Bank*.]


Women are least likely to accept defeat when loved ones are kidnapped, 
murdered and disappeared - we have been the hidden majority in human 
rights organisations everywhere. Women were the majority to come out 
demanding the return of Chavez, which reversed the 2002 coup. They have 
been the majority in the electoral battle units which ensured his 
victory in the 2004 referendum and regional elections that followed.

Latin America will go up in flames if Chavez is killed. And Europe? 
Will it allow the US government to get away with preaching democracy 
while assassinating popular elected governments?

Nina Lopez
Global Women's Strike
Cristina Navarrete
Sara de Witt
Latin American Group for Venezuela
Maggie Ronayne
Lecturer, National University of Ireland, Galway