WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #12-25: School: no more cuts - no more scams on pension funds that finance war (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The school contract, which expired a few years ago, is being renewed,

the last among the various sectors of the Public Employment, but as
always the resources are inadequate. What will arrive in the paychecks
will be an average increase of 60 euros per month. ---- These are, as
with all public employment contracts, increases that are around 5.7%
compared to an inflation that is running at 18%. Italian paychecks are
the lightest in Europe and salaries are losing purchasing power at full
blast. ---- The whole game of contract renewal is a gigantic farce,
conditioned by concerted agreements between governments and the most
representative unions that have established for decades that increases
must stay below the ceiling of programmed inflation. If any increase, a
priori, must remain below programmed inflation, imagine how much
deviation there is from real inflation! National bargaining, at whose
table sit the self-proclaimed most representative unions, therefore only
serves to sanction the loss of purchasing power of the wages of an
entire category and to keep a concerted wagon in place that serves the
interests of the employers. And the economic problem is not the only one.

For next year, the budget law has already provided for significant cuts
in teaching staff and ATA staff. The reforms of secondary schools that
are on the horizon and that provide for the generalized four-year
program of schooling, together with the already established four-year
chain of technical and professional staff, will do the rest. The picture
is that of a sector with growing unemployment, in which poorly paid
workers are forced to work in overcrowded classes, increasingly
precarious and increasingly exposed to hierarchy. Because, if the
contract renewal for the economic part is a disaster, for the regulatory
part it provides for the recognition of intermediate figures, tutors,
trainers and middle managers, functional to hierarchize a sector in
which instead egalitarianism has been fundamental, and not only as a
political principle, but also and above all to make the education system
work. Even the stones should know in fact that division and
hierarchization induce de-responsibilization in those who find
themselves confined to the lowest levels, with inevitable repercussions
that in a sector such as education are unacceptable. The desire for
hierarchization of the school sector is very strong and is evident not
only in the tendency to establish levels among workers, but in the
growing despotism of school principals, who increasingly use the
disciplinary tool, disputes of charges and sanctions as an ordinary
method of managing schools. The new disciplinary code for public
employees, introduced in July 2023, also goes as far as to investigate
the use of personal social media, prohibiting the issuing of "any
intervention or comment that could harm the prestige, decorum or image
of the administration to which they belong or of the public
administration in general".

But let's return to the economic question, to the significant and
further planned cuts and to the ridiculous resources envisaged for the
contractual renewal of the school sector.

Once again we have to underline the strident comparison between this
desolate situation of cuts and, on the contrary, the proliferation of
military spending, destined among other things to increase further and
consistently with the scenarios linked to the huge costs of the
delirious European rearmament program. In this context, it should be
noted that the flourishing sector linked to the production and trade of
weapons is considered profitable to pour pension funds into it as an
investment. In Europe this has already begun and important Dutch and
Danish pension funds are proceeding with investments also in groups that
produce components for nuclear weapons and devices defined as
"controversial", such as anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions,
chemical-biological weapons etc., removing any ethical obstacle from
their insurance statutes. In Italy the situation is quickly adapting,
even if there is a widespread curtain of disinformation on the issue. It
is known however that the investment of pension funds in sectors
generically linked to defense in 2024 increased by 23% compared to the
previous year. At the moment there is no data on which sectors are
affected, however there is no need to have too many illusions:
investment in sectors that produce conventional weapons is in fact
considered legitimate, while at the moment those that produce
"controversial" weapons are excluded, but we must not forget how certain
distinctions are elusive and functional to justify and guarantee
investments in the war sector, which can be achieved, for example, also
through investments in dual technologies, those that can be used in both
the civil and military fields.

The supplementary funds strongly desired also by the concertative
unions, see for example, in the school, the insistent Espero campaign
also supported by the ineffable CGIL; those funds that contribute to the
process of dismantling public welfare; those that unfortunately several
workers have fallen for, often through the fraudulent system of silent
consent, handing over their severance pay. The use of those funds will
serve, among other things, also to fuel the arms industry, the factories
of death, to support wars, to impoverish public services. On the other
hand, these are the inevitable paths of supplementary pension provision,
always exposed to financial turbulence and the pursuit of profit,
especially of those who manage it, responsible, with the policies of
those who authorized and supported it, for the dismantling of the public
pension system and a solidaristic conception of pension provision.

Let's oppose this system, the cuts in social spending, exploitation,
hierarchy! The wage claim serves not only to support income, but also to
remove it from speculation and the funding of war. This is more
important than ever. Let's bring this determination to the squares of
May 1st and to the next strike actions proclaimed for May 7th by
grassroots unionism.

Patrizia Nesti

https://umanitanova.org/scuola-basta-tagli-basta-truffe-sui-fondi-pensione-che-finanziano-la-guerra/
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