Dear Editor,
Our occupation of the space outside Parliament yesterday is Red Thread’s main action to mark International Women’s Day: we organized it to coincide with the reconvening of Parliament after a break of one full month.
In the three months since Parliament first convened, it has met only three times, and neither the government nor the opposition has made any attempt to properly explain to grassroots people what they are doing. Nor have they taken the time to find out from us (without whom they wouldn’t be there in the first place) what issues we want to see addressed immediately. We recognize the efforts being made by the opposition to demand accountability and transparency from the government and to bring about other changes, such as reform of the Constitution and GECOM. But we are outraged that they have not included among their priorities the issues fuelling the protests that have erupted among different sectors of all races – women, men and youth who are vendors, sugar workers, university students and lecturers, and community residents, including women in Mahdia, who held a march led by Red Thread on International Women’s Day to demand access to the most basic facility of all, potable water. All these sectors have been protesting for economic reasons – because we are tired of bad wages, poor access to affordable goods and services, and abominable living and working conditions.
We have read in the newspapers various discussions about whether and how the government will consult the opposition about the budget. But we’ve heard nothing about whether and how all of them will consult the rest of us. While rich people get richer and flaunt their increasingly obscene wealth in our faces, too many of us live on starvation incomes. One grassroots single parent who sells dry goods out of her house told us how stricken she was when one of her neighbours came to buy half of an ounce of cheese and another tried to buy “a dab of nut butter”.
We have spoken out often about the people on public assistance – many of whom are women who are caregivers – who are still receiving $5,500 per month or $178 per day, which can’t buy a half pound of powdered milk or a loaf of bread or two pints of rice.
We are against the approach to economic development shared by all parties in Parliament that focuses on what they call the “national economy” without regard to what is happening in our household economies.
We have argued this over and over again. The measures we call for should be taken not only because they are humanly right, but because they make economic and social sense. The conditions under which too many mothers and other caregivers are forced to live not only grind us down but grind down all those we care for – children, elderly people, those who are sick and relatives whose disabilities are so severe they need help. Children, especially, are in danger. When a household doesn’t have enough to meet its needs, parents have to choose between feeding our children, paying the rent and other bills, or sending them to school. Some mothers – including the many mothers who are domestic workers, security guards, small restaurant workers and shop assistants – are forced to leave their children unprotected and unsupervised for long hours just to earn a little pittance in an attempt to make ends meet. This exposes children to all kinds of predators. Other mothers migrate, often leaving the children behind. Yet our politicians cannot see that it would make Guyana more secure if they invested money in providing living incomes instead of on so called security.
As we relaunch our campaign for a living income, we are serving notice on women members of Parliament that we have had enough of their lack of accountability to women outside Parliament, especially grassroots women. We were among those who fought for one- third of the candidates on national elections party lists to be women. In the years since then we have often wondered why we bothered. As a group made up of grassroots women and their allies, we are outraged that we don’t see any of the women parliamentarians from either side of the house carrying the voices and the demands of grassroots women into Parliament. Over the years as we have protested outside Parliament, not one woman parliamentarian has ever stopped to find out why we were there. Instead they step into Parliament with their heads held high as if we don’t exist, and to make matters worse, when they get there, the majority of them say nothing.
The problem is that the women in Parliament account to their parties, not to all the women outside. And what do the parties offer us? So far, empty promises made during the election campaign to get our votes. We’ve had enough. We demand better.
We demand a budget that begins with the needs and interests of poor women and our families, starting with those of us who have least. We demand Public Assistance and Old Age Pensions that provide access to a basket of goods and services. We demand a living income for all and for all our work – this must include a minimum wage determined by the cost of living for both public and private sector workers. We demand wages based on a policy of equal pay for work of equal value. We demand better wages for teachers and nurses. We demand affordable access to goods and services critical to our lives and the reduction in VAT some parties promised.
Yours faithfully,
Joy Marcus,
Joycelyn Bacchus,
Wintress White
and Halima Khan for Red Thread
