Champion of the People, Champion for the Women of Venezuela

We salute our commandante President Hugo Chávez who was a valiant and fearless revolutionary and defender of socialism and for the masses of the people, not just in Venezuela but also worldwide.

The significance of this leader to not only Venezuela but to all of what is called Latin America, the Caribbean , to Africa and to the world is underestimated today but will be better understood and appreciated in years to come.

While many criticise him today as does those with 20-20 hindsight, it is clear why President Chávez was so very popular with the masses of the people in Venezuela and worldwide. For all the criticism today that his government receives, especially during the elections post his transition, with claims of mismanagement of the economy, it was clear to the masses on the very bottom of the economic ladder in central and south America and especially to those in Venezuela that there was a noticeable reduction in poverty. This reduction of poverty was due to the Chávez government not just talking about poverty and campaigning on the reduction of poverty but actually reducing poverty by taking back control of the national petroleum company PDVSA. And the revenues of the oil production were largely spent not on cronies in government or the elite, like is done in capitalist societies. The profits where spent on development of social programs and improvements of the badly needed infrastructure of the society! Government spending increased 60.6%, a whooping $772 billion dollars of the last 10 years.

And this Venezuela is a democratic society despite what the press tell us. They practice a different participatory democracy than America.

In their democracy, you don’t have to be a millionaire to run for office! You don’t need a million dollars to run a campaign and you aren’t expected to pay cronies and lobbyist to gain popularity of certain issues of a certain constituency. This participatory democracy allows a bus driver, who just ran and won office to become President! That is democracy, of the people, for the people.

And why have the women of Venezuela, of all of Latin America embraced Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution?

It is because the Bolivarian Revolution has become a social and Cultural Revolution that has required the poor and that means the majority of its women to become full partners in the transformation of the society! This is what socialism means to all societies, that the entire mass of the society participate in its development, its advancement and the benefits of its success!

This is what Venezuela has promised under the Chávez Government and it delivered on its promise.

How you ask? It started with its constitution in 1990.

In the constitution, it guaranteed, for the first time in their history, women would receive equal pay for equal work (article 91); the right to be free from all forms of violence according to the International Convention against Discrimination against women (article 21); the benefits of protection and support during maturity in all its forms (article 76); and the most famous article 88 the declaration and guarantee that women’s domestic work be considered productive economy activity entitled to public pensions. This is unique to socialism but unheard of in capitalist societies. In fact many of the constitutional guarantees are unheard of in capitalism and would never be because the profits of production go only to the rich top 2% of the elite and nothing but misery trickles to the masses.

Long live the Bolivarian Revolution and it is the Women who defended the Revolution, even with their lives when President Chávez was kidnapped and held in the early years of his Presidency. With these guarantees changing the lives of the masses and especially the women, they took it upon themselves to insure the Revolution they fought for would continue and so the military sided with the women and the masses in the end and Chávez was returned!!!