68th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORGANIZATION ---- PLEBISCITES
AND PERSPECTIVES ---- YES TO SOCIAL SECURITY ---- Two plebiscites willbe voted on in October. Let's analyze them one by one. Let's start with
the plebiscite that proposes a constitutional reform in defense of
Social Security promoted by the PITCNT and a group of social
organizations, without any political sponsorship. After a signature
campaign that exceeded general expectations, this campaign stage to get
each citizen to support the initiative has not been easy, but it is a
hand-to-hand and word-of-mouth campaign.
This initiative proposes that the retirement age of 60 be guaranteed in
the Constitution (without prejudice to better retirement situations
according to each sector of activity), the elimination of the AFAPs and
all forms of private profit and equalizing minimum pensions and
retirements to the national minimum wage. The three pillars of the
reform address deeply felt popular needs and end the speculative game of
capital in matters of social security. The AFAPs "gamble" workers'
contributions in investments and speculative games of the worst kind,
maximizing profits - which the AFAP keeps - and if there are losses,
they belong to the "clients" who have private accounts in each AFAP.
It is a lie that the money deposited in each worker's account in the
AFAP belongs to the worker; it belongs to the AFAP. It is the AFAPs that
pressure the government to change the rules when it suits them, as a
little over ten years ago - under the Mujica government - when they
changed the per capita and the workers who retired from there lost 8% of
their AFAP pension. This clearly benefits these companies.
Today we see pensions from the AFAPs of 4000 pesos or less. In addition
to being unfair, it has no logic. The AFAPs also do not pay unemployment
insurance, certain therapies, glasses, etc. All of this is done by the
BPS under a logic of contribution and solidarity fund.
Most of the contributions to the BPS come from the workers: we
contribute 15% of the pension fund. The bosses only contribute 7.5% for
each employee in their charge. The civil-military dictatorship and the
government of Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-1995) reduced this
contribution. In all parts of the world the bosses pay more than the
workers, why is Uruguay the exception?
From the political class it is said that the BPS is underfunded and
that it costs us several million dollars. A hundred or so "left"
economists have come to the fore, supporting and reinforcing the
arguments of the government, the right and the businessmen. Then they
maintain that they do not want to debate, after launching "their truth".
That "truth" is that of the bosses, of multinational and financial
capital. The same people who, in 15 years of government, did not touch
on the subject, nor did they analyze it.
The fact that the BPS is underfunded is relative. Social security is
precisely one of the most important social policies and one worth
investing in. They complain about paying family pensions and miserable
retirements, but the Military Fund costs us more than 550 million
dollars a year, and the tax exemptions on capital are immense, the same
as the employer contributions already mentioned. As an example: 282
million dollars for donations to private institutes, another amount for
employer IRPF, almost 860 million dollars for IRAE, close to 667 million
for wealth tax, IMESI almost 45 million... It gives us a total of just
over 2,135 million dollars that the State does not collect per year,
exonerating and benefiting big businessmen.
2135 million, which represents 2.7% of the country's Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), practically a little more than half of the Education
budget. It is an immense transfer of resources from the popular classes
to the dominant classes, in a terrible and tragic way. This is how the
enrichment of the "malla oro" and multinational capital and all the
social strata that guarantee domination in Uruguay, including the high
command of the Armed Forces, is financed. In addition, the AFAP manage
an amount of 23 billion dollars, almost a third of the Gross Domestic
Product.
That is why this campaign is to end one of the most screwed up
neoliberal policies in our country. To put a stop to it. To strike a
blow to capital, to the right and to those who call themselves "left"
and safeguard that same capital and the functioning of the capitalist
system with right-wing logic.
What costs us dearly is to sustain the party and the luxury of those at
the top. With these exemptions and the cost of the Military Fund, we can
not only finance the BPS and increase benefits, but also develop a
policy of popular housing so that there are no more people living on the
streets, a policy of employment, education, health and amply cover all
the needs of the people. All this by simply not exonerating capital. Can
you imagine all that could be done if we go all the way?
NO TO NIGHT SEARCHES
It is no coincidence that the same social and political sectors that
oppose the plebiscite on Social Security have been the ones that have
drawn up and are promoting a Constitutional Reform project that
guarantees night searches and eliminates a basic right of classical
liberalism: the home as sacred and inviolable at night. The pretext is
drug trafficking and the violence that has been increasing in recent times.
There can be no doubt about the class bias of both policies. The same
people who starve you to death with your retirement - if you ever retire
- intend to raid your home at night as if that would solve the serious
problems we are experiencing. Violence and drug trafficking in
working-class neighborhoods will not be combated by raiding any home or
even an entire neighborhood at night. First, drug trafficking at all
levels could not exist without the approval, permission and involvement
of the police, the judiciary and the political class. Several of the
most important drug traffickers who have sent drugs to Europe via the
Port of Montevideo are businessmen linked to the National Party. Those
who bring drugs into the country for consumption here also have
extensive links at all levels.
On the other hand, this measure proposed by those at the top is nothing
more than the corollary of a war of the poor against the poor that has
taken hold in our society,
given the magnitude of the misery and exclusion of broad sectors of the
population from access to the basic necessities of life. A tenacious
struggle for survival is breaking out among those at the bottom, instead
of breaking out against those responsible for hunger, misery and lack of
opportunities. These same people, who live in private neighborhoods and
near the coast, introduce drug trafficking into even their smallest
networks and request night raids, after this whole situation generates
high levels of violence in the working-class neighborhoods on a daily basis.
Of course, night raids would be applied in our neighborhoods, not in the
upper-class neighborhoods. They are not intended for La Tahona,
Carrasco, Punta del Este, but for Cerro Norte, Casabó, Marconi, Borro,
La Teja....
The only period in our recent history in which night raids were carried
out was during the dictatorship. It couldn't be clearer. Human Rights
violations in an abrupt and total manner; in reality this measure is
intended to be used later, in another political context. Drug
trafficking and violence are just a pretext, since the deepening of this
economic-social model will surely generate protests of greater depth and
that is what they expect to face in the near future. In any case, it is
a "tool" that would be included in the Constitution to be used by the
government in power, in a "democratic" way, when they need to repress
the organized people.
Therefore, in the face of the campaign of fear and easy solutions to the
issue of "security" that only enable more repressive and social violence
at the same time, we must consider the globality of the problem and
avoid repressive solutions. Repression that is already permanently
installed in the neighborhoods and that is intended to increase, giving
more free rein to the police. As long as there are no solutions to the
real problems of the people: bread on the table, work, health, decent
housing and education, the situations that we are experiencing in the
popular neighborhoods will continue and deepen.
What we are experiencing is the long process of social deterioration
after the closure of thousands of factories and the loss of hundreds of
thousands of jobs, it is a consequence of the reprimarization of the
economy and of making Uruguay a fiefdom for the extraction of resources
for foreign capital in an increasingly accentuated way.
PERSPECTIVES
Roughly speaking: if the Uruguayan people approve the YES vote on the
Social Security reform, a stop will be put to looting, a first-rate
social policy will be implemented and it will be possible to regulate
spending and investments in this area. It also allows us to discuss the
generation of wealth and how it is distributed in our society, allowing
us to go deeper into the real problems we experience every day.
If the proposal for night raids is rejected, on the other hand, a
minimum framework of protection for Human Rights will be safeguarded and
a stop will be kept to the abuses of political power and repressive
agencies. We must avoid setbacks and go for more. In the face of the
advance of the right and capital, in the face of the deepening of the
neoliberal model with its wake of death, resistance is the only
possibility of building a dignified life. In the face of hunger,
dispossession, the precariousness of life in all its facets, resist. In
the face of increased repression, resist. In the face of the deals of
those at the top, resist.
Because there will be no magic solutions if this or that party or
candidate wins, we already see that there is not even a debate of
proposals or ideas in the middle of an electoral campaign.
The script is already written, there is not much room to deviate from
it, therefore, no political force is going to touch the interests of the
dominant classes or go deep into relevant issues. That is why they are
silent on the issue of night raids and do not say a single word against
them, and on the other hand, the chorus of economists and politicians
subservient to capital comes out, avoiding the candidates to speak out
openly, although they have already stated that they will not support the
plebiscite.
That is being a government: governing for those at the top. Governing so
that the dominant classes maintain and increase their privileges. With
luck, throwing some crumbs to the popular sectors. Our Organization
already said it in 1971 in the pamphlet entitled "Time for struggle,
time for elections?": "The institutions of the bourgeoisie can only
serve the bourgeoisie."
That is why, beyond the approval of the YES to the reform of Social
Security and the rejection of night raids, the fundamental fight is in
the street. Strengthen unions, housing cooperatives, student unions,
neighborhood organizations and collectives in the interior of the
country, mobilize on a daily basis, place sensitive and general issues
as the axis of said mobilizations, build a minimum platform for which to
fight in a joint and unified manner. That is the effective guarantee of
an advance of those below and of consolidating the conquests, defending
rights and going deeper in favor of the popular interests and against
those above.
In this October, where our Organization turns 68 years old and
commemorates two years of comrade Juan Carlos Mechoso, we redouble our
commitment and fight for Socialism and Freedom.
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF POPULAR POWER!!
UP WITH THOSE WHO FIGHT!!
URUGUAYAN ANARCHIST FEDERATION
http://federacionanarquistauruguaya.uy/carta-opinion-fau-octubre-2024/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten