#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #CANADA #QUEBEC #ANARCHISM #News Journal #Update - (en) Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - Ageism: What do older people want? (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The Collective published two and a half years ago the article "Ageism: another

system of oppression to fight here and now!" which is worth re-reading for its
accuracy to a specific system of oppression. A few notes are worth adding to this
one. ---- As a social subject, the elderly have undoubtedly received more
attention in Quebec in recent years than in the past with the health crisis.
There is nevertheless reason to wonder who this socially constructed elderly
person is, since this doubling of attention is obviously not a sign of
transformation, or even of collective resumption of power and improvement, for
them. In fact and very paradoxically, it is a social subject who has remained
speechless in the face of the issues that affect him. It is constantly in her
place that we hear about public figures like Minister Marguerite Blais, a former
liberal who joined the CAQ, a politician who nevertheless participated in the
disaster and practiced willful blindness to its consequences. Beyond these
policies of "management of cumbersome populations" of public institutions (as the
Collective named them in the previous article), one question remains full and
complete: what do the elderly want?

This question presupposes first of all that we grant them an equal place,
therefore that we fight against their social exclusion, their marginalization, as
well as against ageism, i.e. the whole of the "social relation of domination
which socially assigns a position of power to individuals, differentiated
according to their age group[1]". It is certain that it is not with a few reforms
or technocratic visions "from above", that is to say from the authorities
regardless of their party, that we will achieve this situation. It also
presupposes that human life is not reduced to a contribution to the accumulation
of capital for the few, that the quality of life cannot be quantified in dollars.

The reduction operates on the level of "possibles". Rejected into marginality,
the social subject of the elderly person is compartmentalized in an atrophic
temporality. While there are alternatives to "old people's homes" and CHSLDs, the
fact remains that, under current conditions, with the lack of support for
caregivers and the shortcomings in home help offered by the State, they remain
rare and most often precarious islands. Living in dignity and collective
autonomy, which the libertarian mutualists hoped for a century and a half ago
with their mutual aid funds, is very far from what the State offers, despite
lives of investments and contributions to retirement plans. Banks, shareholders
and multinational corporations lined their pockets with dues from people who were
already having their jobs stolen by bosses. For their part, the urbanization and
gentrification of neighborhoods has seriously undermined the networks of
solidarity and mutual aid that could support isolated people and people in
precarious situations. Placement in an institution very often becomes necessary
when the family is exhausted (due to the lack of external resources) and has to
throw in the towel. There is not always the consent of the main interested
parties. These social conditions are the primary causes responsible for distress
and despair in the elderly. This goes as far as the fear of disturbing their
loved ones, or even of having to apologize for still being alive. Watched by the
chronos of our alienation, we too often close our eyes to this main form of
abuse, but trivialized. It is in a way the contempt of the capitalist system
towards the unproductive. "Individuals, writes the libertarian philosopher
Michael Paraire, interest the system of globalization only insofar as they are an
active commodity, a dynamic object, capable itself of consuming other objects. As
soon as they grow old and pass over to the side of passive, non-desiring,
under-consuming commodities - as soon as in reality they become burdensome
objects, which they cost - the recognition of their dignity disappears and they
must themselves agree to disappear. We understand why our leaders do not take
care of it[2]". Thus, we should no longer be surprised to see so many retired
people responding to the clarion call of the "slave market" (to use an expression
from Chartrand) and returning to work.

It is in social struggles that the social subject of the elderly person will be
able to develop a real capacity to change society and to combat its exclusion. In
the immediate term, it is necessary to fight to guarantee sufficient retirement
pensions and for more adequate support for the elderly in the environment that
suits them. It is also necessary for activist groups to pay more attention to
their realities with a view to intergenerational solidarity, inclusiveness and
the deconstruction of essentializing representations of inequality. We need to
break the widely held image of old age as undesirable, almost dead, or even
something that could be prevented or cured with the right medical technology. Old
age is inevitable and part of life. Our elders can instead be an asset in our
communities. The greatest contribution they can make lies outside wage
exploitation and its productivist expectations. In a radical break with the
framework of the capitalist, colonialist and patriarchal system, new ways of
living are to be developed in which the elders occupy an authentic place in the
communities while being supported by a "community of care". Finally, this is the
only way to apply the famous adage: "from each according to his abilities, to
each according to his needs".

Steve Tremblay

Posted 16 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman

http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2022/10/ageisme-que-veulent-les-personnes-agees.html
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