Ladies and Gentlemen.
This is the fifth time that our UIS has spoken at a plenary session of the ILO. I can say that the previous four
interventions have unfortunately served little. No one in the ILO leadership has shown the slightest interest
in the problems of people over 60 years of age.
The ILO is now 100 years old and has never been concerned with defending the rights of older people. Not
only because the composition and direction of the ILO are mainly pro-capitalist, but also because they have
never been interested in organizing the retired people, the yellow unions, the reformist unions, the unions that
deceive the workers in order to collect the gratification that entrepreneurs and governments give them if they
guarantee social peace.
But every time we are and we will be more, we the people with right to retirement, organized by the classist
syndicalism, the one that already reunites almost 100 million workers in the World Federation of Trade
Unions.
The right to a pension is a conquest of the working class that was won at the beginning of the 20th century
and that was consolidated in the countries that built socialism. It was one of the first laws enacted by Lenin
when the Great Bolshevik Revolution triumphed. Today there is already the right to a pension in almost every
country on the planet, and I am referring to the public pension. Private pensions are another scam of capitalism
and we denounce and repudiate them.
In addition, the pensioners are veterans in lived struggles and it is enough to keep them organized so that they
continue defending the rights they obtained, during their active working life, through strikes and
demonstrations. A good organization of the older people of each society will also influence the election
results, since each time its figure is closer to 30% of the voters.
Our slogan, which summarizes our just demands, is: “LONG AND DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR PENSIONIST
AND RETIRED PEOPLE”. In other words, we demand the right to a public pension that guarantees a decent
life for all the people of the planet who have already reached retirement, which should not be later than 60
years of age. And this means that these people must have guaranteed the following minimums: 1) drinking
water at home; 2) a habitable dwelling; 3) sufficient healthy food; 4) Health, leisure and free, public
transportation of good quality.
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
There is more than enough money on the planet to pay for these just needs. It will be enough to dedicate a
small fraction of the GDP of each country to the pensioners and retired people, much less than the 2 and 4%
of the GDP that NATO requires of the member states. And the imperialist NATO, with the fascist Trump at
its head, demand this enormous expense for, as imperialist countries, continue colonizing economically,
plundering and exploiting and murdering the inhabitants of the countries of the planet that have raw materials
desired by the multinationals that pay the electoral campaigns of the NATO leaders.
There is also a lot of money in private hands, that is, which gives welfare only to the richest people on the
planet (that 1% who is much richer than the remaining 99%), or these 7 people, the richest, who possess the
same wealth as half the world’s inhabitants. Injustices that are only possible because capitalism exists, that is,
the new stage of human slavery.
The World capitalist economic and political crisis, which is inevitable under capitalism, always takes care of
the ruthless creators of the crisis, at the expense of the already exploited.
Retirees and pensioners have lost their economic usefulness to the owners of Capital.
But. We won’t go away. We were fighters before. And we are experienced tonight fighters today. We are
all an integral part of the international working class which will throw out crisis creators and all who support
them.
Retired people know that the world will not be fair until we build socialism in all countries of the planet and
put an end to the freedom of human exploitation. Successful experiences have already been enough, as for,
learning from the mistakes made, to be clear that the future of Humanity will only be built by destroying
capitalism as a system.
Do not doubt that the veteran people, in whose name I have spoken to you, will continue fighting to build
socialism as the only solidary society capable of satisfying all the aforementioned human needs.
LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS!
LONG LIVE THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS!
LONG LIVE SOCIALISM!
LONG AND DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR RETIRED PEOPLE AND PENSIONERS!
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