Today, October 31, 2010, Brazil celebrates the election of its first female president, socialist Dilma Rousseff, while Argentina continues to mourn with its female president, socialist Christina Fernandez, the sudden death of her husband of 35 years, former Argentine president, the socialist Nestor Kirchner. Latin America is a great place for women these days, machismo and capitalism no longer rule!
Here in Venezuela, where I live, the socialist Chavez government has many women in its highest positions: the speaker of the National Assembly and vice-president of the ruling PSUV party, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the chief of the National Electoral Council, and in many, many other power jobs at all levels of government and politics.
Women are a major force in this Bolivarian socialist movement, if not its backbone, and their voices have had a real impact on the lives of millions of Venezuelan women. Besides labor laws which benefit women and children, such as guaranteed paid maternity leave, women here have a Constitutional right to a life free of discrimination.
Since 2008, women have specifically had the right to a life free of violence. That is the precise name, in Spanish, of the organic law which was passed in 2008: “Ley Orgánica Sobre El Derecho De Las Mujeres A Una Vida Libre De Violencia”.
The legislative intent of the Organic Law On the Right of Women to a Life Free From Violence” declares:
Violence against women constitutes a grave problem, which women have had to fight, worldwide, throughout history,the violence [perpetrated] against them solely because they are women. Violence against women has its deep roots in the characteristic patriarchy of societies in which prevail structures of subordination and discrimination against women which embody concepts and values which systematically demean women, their activities and opinions...
Public authority cannot remain aloof from violence against women, which constitutes one of the most flagrant attacks on fundamental rights, such as liberty, equality, life itself, and the security and non-discrimination which is proclaimed in our Constitution. [Exposición de Motivos De La Ley Orgánica Sobre El Derecho De Las Mujeres a Una Vida Libre De Violencia].
This law extends protection of the dignity and integrity, physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial and legal, of women who are victims of violence in either their public or private life. It applies to the work place and even to hospital obstetrical wards and medical services.
Women who are victims of violence will be provided with the information and social services they need to live free from violence. This includes provision of emergency legal assistance, housing, childcare, medical and psychological services, job training and assistance in finding employment.
This law recognizes that helping women to become economically self-sufficient is fundamental to their ability to escape from the violence, so job training and placement are important aspects of the law. A national agency, the National Institute for Women and Children, with offices in each of Venezuela’s 23 states, works with the court system to provide the needed services to affected women and children.
Women who are victims of violence are given preference in receiving the services of all national welfare programs, such as access to housing and credit.
The national government and the states have the duty to educate the public to end violence against women, and educational pamphlets explaining the law and the rights of women are distributed through thousands of government offices and consejo comunals (community councils) throughout the country.
The new law to help women is extremely comprehensive. There are, however, some problems in putting it to work in practice, largely due to the existing bureaucracies in the police and court systems. The police and courts have been developing their paperwork procedures since the Spanish landed here in the 1500’s, and a complicated paperwork system has evolved which, as is the wont of bureaucrats, they guard jealously. The new law imposes new duties on the bureaucracy and collides with some of their procedures. As a result, implementation of the new law can be stymied or delayed. (Similar problems obtain around many other new laws which the bureaucracies can obstruct, impede or just ignore. The revolution has a long way to go to permeate the entrenched bureaucracy, but efforts are being made to do so.)
The actions of the consejo comunals (community councils) may be the most effective means of lighting fires under the bureaucrats. The community leadership is awesome here, and quick to take to the streets in protests to assert their rights if the bureaucracy doesn’t respond quickly enough to problems.
In my consejo comunal, which serves about 200 families in our apartment complex, the administrators, the majority of whom are women, take the lead in personally assisting those who are victims of violence to get help from the police and the courts, accompanying them to the appropriate offices to obtain restraining orders and acting as advocates for them. Their strong voices can intimidate the police and courts into following the new law.
In urban areas, each consejo communal has between 200 to 400 neighboring families. The groups are small enough so that consejo volunteers are generally aware of problem families in their communities, know the families personally, and are in a position to assist when needed. The consejo volunteers are trained in the resources available to community members and provide help not only to women who are victims of violence, but to all those in the community who need medical, psychological or financial assistance. The consejo comunals are an important part of the social service network in their communities.
Venezuela’s organic law on the right of women to a life free from violence is an example of how a government that puts the needs of its people ahead of the profits of private corporations can improve the lives of its citizens.
Venezuela’s socialist government is putting the needs of human beings first. Thus, when a few of the private banks here were found to be defrauding their customers, the banks were taken over by the government and the fraudsters put in jail. This was done very quickly and the bank depositors were paid what they were owed almost immediately through the government itself. There are no foreclosure frauds in Venezuela and no mortgage-backed security frauds either.
Here, when the private corporations withhold their products from the market in order to try to force a price increase or switch their production to a non-regulated produce in order to avoid government price controls of basic necessities, they risk being nationalized. The same fate greets companies who refuse to bargain with their unions or fulfill the terms of the union contracts. Failure to pay business taxes results in businesses being shut down until payment is made.
For sure, Venezuela has a long way to go before reaching a fully socialist society, but it is definitely on the way to creating a society where meeting human needs and especially the needs of its women, takes precedence over profits and substantially improves the lives of its citizens.