A retired woman stands in the front row as the National Gendarmerie advances on Callao. She tries to stand firm against the constant onslaught of the officers’ shields. When she is alerted to the situation, two young men help her to stand up. Another demands that the gendarmes stop. They help her to sit down at a bus stop. She touches her knee, it bothers her. On the sidewalk, the shields reappear. She looks up. She takes out her baton. She hits the shields. The young men stay with her. The gendarmes leave.

Moments later, a group of Federal Police hold a person on the ground at the intersection of Rivadavia and Callao. A retiree yells at them. Two officers go after him. They throw him into the middle of the street in front of Congress, on Virrey Ceballos. They hit him on the ground. They take off his beret. The repudiation is total and a small crowd pounces on the officers. “He’s an old man, let him go!” The officers can’t continue. They release him. The crowd repudiates them. The images go viral at the time of this article and are circulating on social media. The rejection of the actions of the Government and its security forces is total. The idea that today, Wednesday, September 4, 2024, Milei and Bullrich crossed the line is gaining strength.

The scenes took place This Wednesday afternoon, as part of the important mobilization called by organizations of retirees which took place in the surroundings of Congress against Milei’s veto of retirement mobility. It was repressed by an operation led by the Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich. The Gendarmerie, the Prefecture and the Federal Police against retirees who refuse to collect a miserable pension.

They were accompanied by students, workers, neighborhood assemblies and the deputies of the Left Front: Nicolás del Caño, Myriam Bregman, Romina del Plá and Alejandro Vilca. The support of various opposition political figures in the mobilization was used by mass media that tried to discredit the call and install the idea that the march was empty of retirees. The images that accompany this note speak more than a thousand operations of the friends of power.

As the day progressed, different organizations such as the Trade Union Front, the Federal Current, the two CTAs and the UTEP They called for a mobilization against the veto next Thursday, September 12 at 3 p.m.

What if that scene could multiply its force throughout the country? If the call were massive, if the students and the educational community of the public university that fights for a budget; like the teachers of ATEN in Neuquén who fight against the “attendance law”; the state workers who have been suffering layoffs, suspensions and “voluntary retirements”; the health workers; the judicial workers who were repressed this Tuesday; those fired from different factories; the unemployed who receive miserable social plans; the neighbors of the AMBA who suffer from the rate increases in services, joined together side by side in the streets to accompany the retirees, who worked all their lives, in their just demand for a dignified retirement?

The Next meeting on Thursday, September 12 at 3pm in Congress It is a good opportunity to continue building a movement that confronts and defeats Milei’s veto. But for that to be possible, it is necessary that this call be accompanied for a general strike and a serious plan of struggle.

If one walked through the streets around Congress this afternoon, a loud cry could be heard: “Where is that famous CGT, we can’t see it.” It was the cry of the retirees who demand that the unions not leave them stranded, as they have been doing since Milei took office. Although the CGT issued a statement and a spot where it repudiates the repression that took place on August 28 against the retirees, this afternoon they were again conspicuous by their absence. Meanwhile, Hundreds of people responded to Pablo Moyano, who days ago said that “there is no effervescence to call for a general strike.” The message was clear: They have to end the truce with the Government.

This afternoon it became evident that retirees They are not willing to let themselves die of hungeras Milei’s government intends. The cut in pensions carried out by the La Libertad Avanza government accounted for 27.7% of the total surplus between January and July, according to Cepa’s calculations. For this reason, they have been demanding that the increase approved by the deputies and senators not be vetoed, and They demand a real increase that will bring all pensions and retirements to no less than $900,000 which is what the Basic Basket for Senior Citizens is estimated at. As we have been denouncing in La Izquierda Diario, the truth is that from Macri to Milei, including Alberto Fernández, the deterioration of pensions has not been stopped and implies a reduction of half of their purchasing power. It is a true “stolen decade”.

These are facts, not opinions. But our elderly feel the adjustment in their stomachs, in their bones, in their souls. And they say enough. Just as Norma Plá did in the 1990s against the adjustment that the then president Carlos Menem and his Minister of Economy, Domingo Cavallo, also wanted to impose on retirees. Just as hundreds of thousands of us said when Mauricio Macri’s government carried out the pension reform at the cost of blood and repression on December 14 and 18, 2017.

This time, we need to win the fight. The unity and coordination of all the sectors that have been suffering from the adjustments of Milei and his accomplices needs to be strengthened. For them, for us. In every workplace and school, in every neighborhood, every hospital, let us build a strong movement until we defeat Milei’s veto.


Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com



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