Venezuela Celebrates International Women’s Day 2012

Thousands of women, and many men, marched through Caracas on Thursday 8 March to commemorate International Women’s Day. Participants celebrated gains made for gender equality and women’s rights under the Bolivarian Revolution. These included the constitutional recognition of gender equality, new spaces of participation in social programs, increased welfare support , low interest loans supporting women’s cooperatives and financial independence, and new laws and tribunals combating violence against women.

Activists also handed over proposals promoting gender equality in the proposed new Labour Law, to be passed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on 1 May this year after a consultation process. One of these proposals was the collectivisation of domestic and community labour, with Daniela Hinojosa of the Feminist Spider Collective declaring that the overall aim was to create a Labour Law with gender equality “running right through it”.