ARGENTINA: Press Release 1689 “Wednesday of the Retirees”

The story below comes to us from our correspondent Marcos Wolman in Buenos Aires. What is extrordinary about the right-wing assault on the benefits and Social Security for the retired and pensioners is its similarity to the right-wing attacks in the United States. The same IMF playbook is on full display. The only defense against these attacks on our seniors is to build the "broadest call to retired, union, social and political organizations to build a large united front of struggle to overcome the reactionary policies of this government and its allies, while making the demands of the active and retired working class a reality." _____________________________________________________ When the current director of ANSES appointed by the Executive Branch, Mariano De Los Heros, spoke in the Senate a few days ago, on the occasion of the discussion of the so-called Mobility Law approved by the House of Representatives, he proved to be, like the rest of the officials and advisors of the Milei government, a worthy representative of the large international and national economic groups. With a harsh argument, he expressed that the priority is zero fiscal deficit, even when to achieve it, retirees must be condemned to greater suffering and misery. In this direction, the government intends to have the Senate approve the House of Representatives' text, with modifications that force the prolongation of its discussion and the postponement of the application of what would be the new law. In reality, it is part of the plan to put the public, distribution, intergenerational pension system in crisis and to have the path clear for its privatization. From the conduct and statements of the deputies of the so-called “dialogue” opposition, who try to appear to be in opposition but are actually in government, it is clear that, once again, we retirees and pensioners will be bargaining chips for all these mercenaries, members of a large, diverse, reactionary and conservative political bloc, who claim to be critics of the government, but in the end make far-right proposals, for example, in labor matters. They are the genuflexible republicans who approve the Bases law and sign the so-called May Pact; they are those who remain silent in the face of the advance of the state apparatus to persecute and penalize social protest; they are those who turn a blind eye to the actions carried out by representatives, self-proclaimed libertarians, who vindicate the dictatorship while defending and praising the condemned genocidaires. In the hands of these characters they intend to decide the destiny of the working class and in particular that of the retired and pensioners, seeing how they delay the approval of a law, a bad law, as we have expressed in its debate and in the mobilizations, which would mean that the current retirement benefits would be from that moment on just a little less miserable. No more than that. But they do not want to approve even that while they compete among themselves (government and dialogue) to see who is more generous with the big national and foreign capital by granting them obscene benefits that will guarantee them enormous profits at the expense of the people. From the National Coordinating Board of Retired and Pensioner Organizations we reiterate our broadest call to retired, union, social and political organizations to build a large united front of struggle to overcome the reactionary policies of this government and its allies, while making the demands of the active and retired working class a reality. Argentina, August 5, 2024.-