PRESS RELEASE . . . 30 December 2001

Women respond to the crisis in Argentina

The “cacerolazo" (mass protest with banging of pots and pans), invented by women, has become the strongest protest symbol of the people in Argentina in the face of economic conditions imposed by the IMF and the World Bank, and the corruption of the ruling parties. The "escraches" –protest with graffiti outing unconvicted torturers at the homes, invented by the children of people disappeared during the military dictatorship, and now organised by women against corrupt politicians – have also used the symbol of banging pots and pans. Although the national and international media have reported on the ‘escraches’ and ‘cacerolazos’, the vital role of women in keeping families and communities alive and giving direction to the protests hasn't been recognised.

The Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe – SAC (Housewives' Trade Union), co-ordinator of the Multisectoral Women's Action Coalition and representative in Argentina of WinWages – the Women’s International Network for Wages for Caring Work, which we represent in Spain, is presenting immediate proposals to tackle the poverty in which most families and communities in Argentina find themselves.

In response to people taking the food they need from the shops, the government says it will give unemployed people 200 pesos a month (US$200) in exchange for community work. After participating in demonstrations in the square in front of City Hall and in the emergency municipal meetings, SAC wrote to the Governor of the Province of Santa Fe proposing that these emergency payments should be paid as a priority to women heads of households. The $200 are due to women in recognition of our work caring for others, that is community work which we are already doing in our homes and neighbourhoods. All over the world we are familiar with women using any resource we have access to, to make sure first of all that our children, relatives and neighbours have what they need to survive. We also put in more hours as voluntary workers maintaining communal soup kitchens, children's free milk programmes, schools, hospitals and other emergency services.

SAC also asks to be social auditors of the government plans, so they monitor how and to whom the payments are given out, "in order to guarantee the transparency of their actions".

We enclose their letter to the Governor in which they explain that:

After every disaster - natural, social or political - it is women who pay the highest price in overwork for the loss of resources. It is we who rebuild families and communities. But this work is invisible, unwaged, and it is not taken into account. ...
This vital work of caring for others represents two thirds of the world's work. In our country, housewives work on average 68.9 hours a week, that is, about 10 hours a DAY. None of this work is valued, nor are the lives of our daughters and sons and of the workers we produce and reproduce day after day. As mothers and carers we haven't fought to bring up children for them to end up as cannon fodder for those who control the resources and the wealth.
In moments of crisis demands are made particularly on women, that we take on even more responsibility and work, counting on our doing this without wages, out of self-sacrifice and altruism.

With this grassroots protest women are presenting an independent and viable plan in a country where nobody has confidence in any political party or trade union.

We propose that you get in touch with SAC so you hear and can report on the Argentinian crisis from the point of view of women, who are on the frontline of the struggle against poverty and corruption.

SAC is also the co-ordinator in Argentina of the Women's Global Strike, which is celebrated each 8 March since 2000.

CONTACT ADDRESSES

Argentina:
Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe – SAC (Housewives' Trade Union)
President: Isabel Zanutigh
Telephone: 0342-4530216, //0342- 4523992// 0342-4960868
E-mails:  izanutig@gigared.com and  nkreig@arnet.com.ar
Published article (in Spanish): El Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina, 27 Dec 2001  http://www.ellitoral.com

Spain:
Mujeres por un Salario para el Trabajo Sin Sueldo
(coordinadoras de la Huelga Mundial de Mujeres en el Estado Español)
Radas 27, bajos, 08004 Barcelona, España Tel/Fax: 00 34 93 4422304
e-mail:  mujerescuentan@terra.es

England:
International Wages for Housework Campaign
Tel: 00 44 20 7482 2496 Fax: 00 44 20 7209 4761
Email:  womenstrike8m@server101.com
Website:  http://womenstrike8m.server101.com

USA:
International Wages for Housework Campaign (Los Angeles)
Tel: 001 323 292 7405 Fax: 001 323 292 7405
Email:  70742.3012@compuserve.com

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Governor of the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina
DON CARLOS ALBERTO REUTEMANN
 sprivada@arnet.com.ar

26 December 2001
Sir,

After every disaster - natural, social or political - it is women who pay the highest price in overwork for the loss of resources. It is we who rebuild families and communities. But this work is invisible, unwaged, and it is not taken into account. We manage tensions and serve as emotional supports, devising ways so family members can cope.

This vital work of caring for others represents two thirds of the world's work. In our country, housewives work on average 68.9 hours a week, that is, about 10 hours a DAY. None of this work is valued, nor are the lives of our daughters and sons and of the workers we produce and reproduce day after day. As mothers and carers we haven't fought to bring up children for them to end up as cannon fodder for those who control the resources and the wealth. In moments of crisis demands are made particularly on women, that we take on even more responsibility and work, counting on our doing this without wages, out of self-sacrifice and altruism.

The national government has decided to create a million jobs in exchange for community work. These jobs will be given to the provinces so that each province can decide how to deal with them.

In 1991, in your first mandate as governor, you passed the law on a retirement pension for housewives and vetoed in particular those clauses which referred to resources and the creation of a retirement fund specifically for the housewives’ sector. Your decision not to veto the law in its entirety showed your recognition of the social and productive contribution of the work of housewives as well as the justice of such a claim. History gives us the opportunity to act on this recognition.

The government is considering paying 200 pesos (= US$ 200) a month in Lecop to unemployed people. Women have a job; what we don't have is a wage for this job. Our job is to care for others. In our homes we take on the care of ill people, of schoolwork, of managing the resources of the home; we cook, iron, clean. If on top of this, we have to go out to a waged job, hypocritically we are made responsible for abandoning our children.

Thus we consider it fair that there be a reassessment of priorities for how the government plans are to be carried out. Women who don't have a waged job and who cannot count on other family income must be the priority when these payments are awarded.

What cannot be demanded of women is that we take on community work, since we are already doing this work in our homes and neighbourhoods, because it is women through our unwaged work who enable society to function. The majority of voluntary workers are women. Voluntary organisations are usually women's initiatives and depend on women’s perseverance and continuity for their day-to-day functioning.

For this reason, we propose that you act on the principle, which we share, of recognising, through payment, the caring work done by women, prioritising women in the execution of the government plans without demanding community work in return. To demand such work would be a grave error, as it would force those mothers in greatest poverty, with five, six or more children, to leave them home alone, preventing us from caring for them, making mothers once more the victims of a situation for which we are not responsible.

We also ask to be social auditors of the plans: how and to whom the payments are given out, in order to guarantee the transparency of these actions – the only way to start rebuilding the torn fibres of a society which has been humiliated and outraged by most of the political class who don’t measure up to the people.

We are asking for support for our demand from the Multisectorial de Mujeres para la Acción (Multisectoral Women's Action Coalition), to which we belong, and to WinWages – the Women’s International Network for Wages for Caring Work whose headquarters are in London, and whose co-ordinator in Argentina is SAC, the Housewives Trade Union in the province of Santa Fe.

In the hope that you will understand the political importance of this request, we look forward to meeting with you as soon as possible.

Isabel Zanutigh


CONTACTS: Telephone: 0342-4530216, 0342- 4523992, 0342-4960868
E-mail:  izanutig@gigared.com or  nkreig@arnet.com.ar

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Support needed for emergency situation in Argentina

Dear Sisters and Friends,

We have been in touch with our sisters in Argentina, the Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe (SAC) to find out what is happening given the mass protests which have brought the Argentinian government down. You may have seen in the news that all over the country there have been huge demonstrations to the sound of banging pots and pans, and that people have been forced to go into shops to take food and other goods because there is no cash and wages are not being paid. The government called a state of emergency, which caused even bigger protests and it was forced to call it off. However, about 30 people have been killed as a result of the heavy police repression; some have been shot by shopkeepers. An interim government has been formed and elections have been called for March. But the uprising continues.

The IMF and World Bank encouraged the Argentinian government to borrow huge sums and to privatise all utilities. This invited corrupt politicians to drain the country of all resources and enrich themselves in the process, while most people got even poorer. People are furious with the inhuman economic conditions now imposed by the same politicians on behalf of the same IMF and World Bank, in order to pay back loans from which most people never even benefited.

As you know, SAC has been co-ordinating the Global Women’s Strike in Argentina in the past two years and is totally committed to payment for caring work. Everyone in SAC is safe so far but many people have no food to eat. And there is fear that the military will once again take over. SAC has been taking the lead in putting forward women’s immediate needs and demands. They have pressed the local government to give to women the food parcels which are being distributed and to let SAC oversee the distribution in order to ensure ‘complete transparency’. The government was not ready to accept such accountability.

SAC has written a letter to Governor Reutemann of Santa Fe province, demanding that the money the new government intends to distribute to people without incomes should go to women heads of household as a priority.

We have been working with them via email to see how we can help. SAC is asking that as many people as possible send emails to the governor supporting their demand. We enclose their letter as well as a press release we have issued in different countries.

Please send an email to the governor of Santa Fe. And please contact any media you think may be interested urging them to interview the SAC women about women’s responses to the crisis. It is crucial that women’s autonomous voice be heard. There can be no change of priorities, no building of a more caring society, unless women’s caring work is valued and recognised, and the needs and demands of carers and those we care for are heard and acted upon.

Please send a copy of your emails to SAC and to us. Donations would also be most welcome. We are working out a way to send money. If you would like to send a donation please let us know.

Thank you for your help.

Nina Lopez-Jones