WORLD WORLDWIDE SPAIN News Journal Update - (en) Spain. CNT, #435: All in defense of public pensions - Antonio Bobadilla Castro (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 With fear of the future, the workers contemplate how day after day

capitalism inexorably directs them towards an unpredictable social
decline and although anguish passes through them, they do not show
external signs of it. When everything seemed to be what the defenders of
capitalism had promised them, who could trust in a pleasant future after
having completed the period of exploitation to which capitalism condemns
them, for the umpteenth time they find themselves involved in the storm
of selfishness, both for cent and the accumulation of capital. ---- Many
had been trusting in the political promises of all political stripes, or
in the empty proclamations full of falsehoods from the approved unions,
about the goodness of the new reforms that, in terms of pensions, were
initiated after the elections that They brought to the country the
current coalition government, what some called the "progressive
government." The pensioner social movement, born in response to the
contempt that the government made of pensioners in 2018, launched a
cycle of mobilizations that undoubtedly helped the fall of the
conservative government in a motion of censure that many, deludedly, saw
in it. recover dignity and rights, among others pensioners.

After almost a legislature where for one reason or another the
"progressive" government has been - in popular language - making
trouble, the most controversial pension reform of any that has been
carried out in the history of Spain has just been completed. After a
long journey where the minister of the sector of the Sánchez government
has mounted a reform in installments, in order to distract pensioners
and workers, the end has not been at all favorable, neither for the
current nor for future pensioners.; Quite the opposite, and even more
regrettable, is: the interested complicity of the two official unions,
whose acceptance of the reform is nothing more than a new betrayal of
the working class.

Faced with the main demand of pensioners: recovering the indexation of
annual pension increases to the real CPI, the government gives up with a
new element such as the average annual CPI, and twists the index with
the sole purpose of cutting the amount annual pensions.

The reform that the government gives us must be considered as a whole,
even if it has been approved in parts. The first begins in 2021 after
the approval of law 21/2021, continues with law 12/2022 and ends with
the latest bill 2/2023 from last March. In that period of time, a series
of measures included in previous reforms have been modified - the
Zapatero government in 2011 and the Rajoy government in 2013 - and new
elements have been introduced, which never cease to surprise for their
twisted and sibylline nature.

Let's look at some important aspects, both concrete and abstract, that
denote the perverse character of the government and its minister. Facing
the main demand of pensioners: recovering the indexation of annual
pension increases to the real CPI - this is how it appears in the latest
agreements of the Toledo Pact - the government takes off with a new
element such as the annual average CPI, twisting the index with the sole
purpose of cutting the annual amount of public pensions, an objective
pursued by neoliberal capitalism since the last decade of the last
century . Under the same heading, the government places other trap
measures such as the improvement of minimum pensions, again using the
fine print of the BOE, it deceives pensioners into believing in the
goodness of a measure that in reality remains at the lower level, only
reaching to those pensioners with a dependent spouse, leaving the rest
in limbo, in the same way with the minimal increase in non-contributory
pensions that are not part of the contributory pensions and that must be
addressed from the general budgets of the state.

Another aspect to consider is the formula with which Mr. Sánchez's
executive surprises us again, to replace a very harmful element of the
Rajoy reform of 2013 and a workhorse of pensioners during these years,
which was the Sustainability Factor, whose aim was: to adjust the
pension to the variation in life expectancy, which sought to modify the
existing replacement rate, whose value in Spain is over 75%, to place it
at a lower level, closer to the average of OECD countries 40.6%. The
solution found by the minister to eliminate this unpopular measure has
been to introduce a new tax on work - Intergenerational Equity Mechanism
(MEI) - which represents an increase in contributions by 0.6%, later
increased to 1.2%. %.

Continuing with the diabolical formulas to increase the voluntary
retirement age against youth hiring, so necessary for young women of age
to begin their career path, the reform includes a whole treaty of
subtlety, aimed at reducing both access to pension, as to its amount.
All of this makes us suspect that, despite the grandiose statements by
the Minister that his reform is perfect and will not be reformed in the
future, it will not take long, be it this government or another, to
reform what has been reformed again, see the opinion of the AIREF.

Detailing all the visible components of the reform would take us many
pages that would possibly lead the reader to boredom or confusion,
therefore only highlighting, in addition to the previously reviewed
components, those elements that are not written in the BOE of the reform
and which are the most important to understand from the point of view of
workers, where does neoliberal capitalism want to take us in terms of
pensions? with the complicity of both this government and previous ones,
perfectly aligned with the privatization will of the European Union.

The sustainability factor is replaced by a new tax on work, no less
harmful: the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), which means an
increase in contributions by 1.2%

Our rejection is the protection and conditions to which both the
government itself and the EU mechanisms submit to this reform. These are
imposed in component 30 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience
Plan approved by the EU. to be able to receive the 140,000M. of euros,
which: taking advantage of the economic need of Spanish capitalism after
the unfortunate pandemic, the Community Europe will make available to
the government of Spain. The requirement of European capitalism is not
new and is aligned both with the World Bank report of 1994 -aging
without crisis- and with the Pan-European Individual Pension Plans, both
in tune with the interests of banks and private pension funds. and that
after several attempts by the country's political class to lead workers'
pensions to the field of economic financialization, opens the doors wide
open to private pensions from the private company plans reformed by the
progressive government .

On the other hand, on the other side of the Pyrenees, French workers are
also in a similar situation to us, they have been fighting intensely for
eleven days to defend their pensions. Although their system is somewhat
different from ours and there are several demands, the backbone of the
fight is the increase of two years in the retirement age, going from 62
to 64 years - in Spain it is 67 years with a contribution base of 27
years after the reform.

The elements that coincide between both countries are that workers must
remain active longer and receive less pension, aspects typical of
capitalist exploitation and that even despite a lot of deluded people
who defend the system and its benefits, capitalism at the time history,
of domination of financial markets over politics, companies and states,
projects on humanity a future full of uncertainty, precariousness and
misery that will bankrupt humanity. This is what the French workers are
feeling when in the eleven days of strike against the Macron reform,
global agent of neoliberal capitalism, they have taken to the streets en
masse, clearly identifying the enemy, the financial funds, putting
pressure on their superior committees to have to lead this vital
struggle for them, which we hope will not falter.

While in Spain the party goes in a very different way: the majority
unions, which keep their members narcotized with the perks offered by
the current union model of anti-worker representation, and deceive the
workers who trust them and lull them to sleep with praise. towards the
reforms dictated by neoliberal capitalism.

Just remember that only with class consciousness and the direct action
of the workers will it be possible to break the current complicity of
the Government, Employers and Collaborationist Unions and advance the
fight against capitalism controlled by the Financial markets.

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/todas-en-defensa-de-las-pensiones-publicas/
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