“We are all retired” said many of the calls to the massive mobilization on Wednesday, in reference to what is only a matter of time to reach the age of retirement. As of March 23, the Government intends to take that right to millions of people by not renewing (as the pension moratorium had announced), since 85% of people of retirement do not have the set of the necessary contributions.
To this point comes Milei’s decision to pay the adjustment to retirees and retirees that while outside the National Congress, the National Gendarmerie and police repressed the protesters; Inside the enclosure, Martín Menem, took advantage of the tumult generated by his own deputies and deputies to lift the session authoritatively, when there was a quorum to continue with a agenda that could include the extension in the retirement moratorium.
Retiree organizations confirmed that they will protest again in front of the Nation Congress next Wednesday, March 19, last Wednesday before the term of the moratorium is in force. It is at stake not only the low level of income to which the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, intends to condemn older adults, but even the possibility of accessing a minimal retirement.
Law No. 27,705, that is, the Pension Moratorium Law (“Pension Debt Payment Unit”) approved, after overcoming the obstacles that the Peronist government put, in March 2023, it contains the possibility of being extended for another 2 years. But freedom progresses and its allies ranging from pro to sectors of Peronism, through radicalism, refuse to approve the extension of the term. It is no accident, that law was questioned by the International Monetary Fund repeatedly for not facilitating the cuts of the items for the pension system.
As Patricia Bullrich has been making explicit, the Executive Power has other priorities, such as guaranteeing repression to those who express a growing anger with the ruling party. Only a few hours later of the massive march, when there was still a concentration in the Plaza de Mayo, a decree was published to allocate more than $ 7.3 billion to the Secretariat of Intelligence, including more than $ 1.6 billion for reserved expenses. They adjust to retirees and finance more espionage and operations against social protest.
Without a new pension moratorium, those who are at the age of retiring but do not reach 30 years of contributions, will be forced and forced to resort to the PUAM (universal pension for the elderly): that raises the retirement age in the facts for women at age 65, and with a lower credit, of 80% of the minimum retirement. The value of the PUAM in March is $ 293,300 (the minimum being is $ 349,000, in both cases the $ 70,000 bonus is included that is frozen).
If people close to retireing today cannot do it and need a moratorium, it was not by choice, it is because they worked in informality or for having been in certain unemployed periods. Also, for having performed tasks such as cleaning, cooking, care of children, patients and elderly, etc., mostly tasks done by women who were not recognized or paid, because in the patriarchal capitalist system it is naturalized that women perform them without being compensated.
The crisis of the pension system is the responsibility of the IMF and the governments of the last decades
In the latest Social Security Statistics report that the ANSES elaborates, published in September 2024, you can see the serious situation of the pension system. There they affirm that: “There were a total of 7,836,722 beneficiaries of retirement and pension pension debt, while the remaining 36% corresponds to pure contributory benefits. “
The figures are the accumulated result of decades of increase in unregistered work and of removes to the employer contributions. If we take into account that 6 out of 10 current retirees or pensioners agreed by moratorium and it is estimated that between 8 and 9 out of 10 they could only do so in this way, we can observe the growing deterioration of working conditions.
Moratory are just a palliative that do not solve the background problem due to their multiple limits. These ways to access a retirement, put the burden on the worker, to which they make him pay with a discount to his credit that is not really his responsibility but that of the companies that made fraud and that did not pay him the retirement contributions. Even that discount was undercover behind the lowest wages perceived for not being registered.
The underlying problem is that the pension system is definanced based on the interests of large entrepreneurs and the International Monetary Fund. In addition to the work fraud and the removal of employer contributions promoted by Cavallo and Menem, the growth of the monotax and the tax benefits to the companies must be added, such as the last money laundering that allowed the entrepreneurs to evade the taxes applicable to billions of dollars.
A pension moratorium today is necessary and urgent today. But this is only insufficient if a discussion of how to raise the resources of the system is not also addressed, how to apply a true work laundering, how to rebuild assets and restore 82 % mobile, among other first measures to guarantee a decent livelihood for all older adults.
The Government is increasingly authoritarian and repressive to try to sustain the adjustment in the midst of serious political crises such as the cryptophawal of $ Libra. This Wednesday the persistent mobilization of retirees and jumped hit the support of broad sectors of society. While Milei seeks to save his economic plan by decreeing a new agreement with the IMF, the fight in the streets shows the way to put a brake on the adjustment plans.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
