TUI P &R CIRCULAR JUNE 2014

 GENERAL SECRETARIAT Communication number 4. June 2014
Comrades, I give an explanation of everything realized from the COMMUNICATION number 3:
A) WORK OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT (GS).- 1. It was stimulated to that in the Day of May 1 there was presence of the pensioners in the actions, but information of the realized was not received specifically. Mainly, the pensioners took part inside the general actions without showing the specific vindications.
2. It has carried on demanding in the face of the bureaucracy of the ILO to be recognized as TUI, and we obtain the first response three months after our first letter. They do not accept our participation in the 103 Conference for a bureaucratic problem of period (according to their bureaucratic periods, we had to warn them before our Fundational Congress). We will insist until the last day of the 103 Conference, and if they do not agree we will denounce it (On June 2, I will be received, as General Secretary of the TUI, in the offices of the ILO). I attach in ANNEX 1 the definitive text to be spread in the ILO, after gathering the amendment suggested by the comrade of India, belonging to the executive direction of the TUI, VAN Namboodiri (The text is available in 6 languages: Spanish, French, English, Russian, Arab and Portuguese). Wide circulation is requested.
3. There have been received the Labor Union's Curricula of the comrades, in the following order: Quim Boix, D Gopalakrishnan, Alain Rodriguez, VAN Namboodiri, ROUANI Djamel and Miguel Guerrero. It is required to other members of the direction of pensioner's section of TUI that they send personal ly his Curricula in 3 languages, if being possible: French, English and Spanish, to be spread.
4. On May 16 there was received a response of the union USB of Italy. They agree to designate a comrade to accomplish with what we agree in the Congress of Barcelona, but given their important task of reorganization as union (due to an important growth in affiliation) we will not have their defined response up to after next summer.
5. The General Secretariat has sent and redistributed the most important information that the headquarters of the WFTU spreads. This help must not diminish the regular consultation of the web of the WFTU on the part of the leaders of the pensioners of TUI.
B) WORK OF OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTION.-
1. There has received and redistributed plenty of information about union fights of the pensioners in various continents: Greece, Argentina, India, Cyprus, Australia, etc.
2. There has been received, from the Vice President of the TUI for America, a detailed information of her stay in Havana on the occasion of the first of May, and of the meetings and contacts there realized to prepare the First Congress of America of the pensioners of TUI.
3. In Catalonia - one of the Spanish Autonomus Regions -, the pensioners's CSU did on May 22 the public presentation of the agreements of the First Congress of the TUI of pensioners, and also of the contents of the speech prepared to be spread in the 103 Conference of the ILO. Again, there was not achieved that the bourgeois press was echoing the WFTU. Our class enemy controls thoroughly the mass media in the capitalism.
4. The Secretariat of Propaganda has realized an important work of translations of Spanish to the French language; it have allowed to spread texts in the web of the WFTU. Our letter of congratulation to the good work of the comrade Alain Rodriguez.
5. The comrade Jose Maria Lucas, person in charge of the Secretariat of Finance, has elaborated a plan of work, attached as ANNEX 2, which all we, the members of the direction, must study to be able to contribute our amendments and suggestions.
6. The comrade Alain Rodriguez, responsible of the Secretariat of Propaganda, already presented on May 5 his plan of work, attached as ANNEX 3, which already was be sent to all the members of the direction of the TUI. This proposal , as that of finance (and those that must beeing coming from other responsibles), must be studied to be able to contribute our amendments and suggestions.
ANNEX 1.-
TO THE ILO
I speak on behalf of the hundreds of millions of Pensioners and Retirees that there are today in the World. An important part of them are organized in class trade-unions or specific associations that consider Capitalism as the great enemy of Humanity.
I will not expand on demonstrating this feature of Capitalism, but I assure you that a Museum of Horrors of capitalism could be built within a few decades. Horrors that should not be reproduced, just as the horrors of slavery, which should not be
reproduced. Capitalism is three things at once: 1) the current slavery because is involves the exploitation of people (in order to steal them the surplus value generated by their work, as the texts of Karl Marx explain well), 2) the plundering of the riches of the countries that do not belong to NATO (which is the new colonizer world army), and 3 ) it is the stimulus of the most unsupportive values of people (pro-capitalists think that succeeding in life means to sink or destroy the opponents).
In Dakar, Senegal, we can find a Museum of Horrors of Slavery. Sooner rather than later (as Salvador Allende said), there will be a Museum of Horrors of capitalism in which the names of many rulers and many entrepreneurs will appear, so never again decisions like the ones they have taken or are taking (an example of this are the events that took place in the textile in Bangladesh a year ago) are repeated.
Taking into account what I have just said, I will explain the reality of Pensioners and Retired. Both collectives, which sometimes merge into one, receive a payment (private or public) to compensate for their inability to work, whether it is caused by disease, accident or age. It's a great right of people that should soon be included in the category of Universal Human Right.
Nearly a 20% of the 7 billion people who live today on planet Earth can be classified as pensioners or retired, although this condition is not recognized to a very high percentage of them.
The lack of recognition is due to three causes: 1 ) non-acceptance of many diseases as partially or completely disabling for work; 2) many cases of accidental injury (a major part comes from industrial accidents, which by the way employers do not want to prevent as they consider that spending money on prevention decreases their selfish benefits) are not recognized as generators of the right to a pension; and 3 ) there are many countries where a retirement age has not yet been set, an age that should provide the right to live without working (regardless of the fact of having payed contributions, understanding that those who have been involuntarily unemployed in their working lives should not pay another penalty with a decrease of the rights to a decent pension that enables them to live).
From Canada to Spain, passing through Asia and other places, we are hearing that there is no money to pay pensions, that the reserves or funds created for this purpose will be exhausted by the increase of the life expectancy and other arguments.
Those who say this, usually rulers or representatives of financial multinationals (like the IMF), do find money to continue increasing, year after year, their astronomical salaries, their personal pensions and the military expenditures or other items in the public budgets that create (apart from enormous private benefits) destruction and death instead of welfare for the people.
On planet Earth there is also plenty of money. Publicly known figures show that 85 individuals on the planet, who would fit in a small corner of this room, have more money than more than half of the inhabitants of the world, more money than 3,5 billion people. I.e., each one of these 85 richest people has the average equivalent in wealth than 41 million of poor people. Yes, you have well understood, one alone and individually has more than 41 million people.
It is a simple problem of unfair distribution of wealth. I have not said wrong distribution because it is a distribution that the capitalist system itself is interested in perpetuating.
Therefore it is clear that there is money and that there is another possible way to distribute it.
The Pensioners and Retirees of the world claim that this fair distribution of wealth is made soon. Not only because most of us have fewer years of life ahead than the young people today, but also because we believe that people with age have an additional contribution to make to society, our experience and accumulated wisdom.
The history of mankind is full of evidence that the so called elderly are a key element to the continuation of the human species, they have been and remain being the most respected people in many cultures.
It has to be ensured that these people, Pensioners and Retired (disposable under capitalism for being unproductive), can have a decent life, i.e., a life in which the following is guaranteed: drinking water, food, housing, health, continuity in the intellectual training, leisure and transport in their living environment. Today these elements are not guaranteed for many, more than half of the world population in general, and even less for the elderly. Therefore, the WFTU has placed these demands in its Internationalist Day for Coordinated Global Action (held on October 3rd each year).
The Trade Union International of Pensioners and Retired, of which I was elected Secretary General at the World Congress held in Barcelona last February, attended by delegates from the 5 continents, demands the universalization of the right to a public pension which allows a decent life with the abovementioned basic needs covered from the age of 60.
We do not endorse what the representative of the ILO in those territories said publicly in Senegal, at a seminar for trade union training. Verbatim, without blushing, she said that the elderly do not need to have a pension as the ancestral African solidarity ensures that the children and grandchildren will take care of the grandparents.
The right to non-dependency from family or anyone is a basic right that we can claim today as an individual right for all inhabitants of the planet.
This is right that I, on behalf of the only existing global organization of Pensioners and Retired today, demand here for members of this group from all over the World.
Quim Boix CP, Presidential Council of WFTU
General Secretary of TUI of Pensioners and Retirees (P&R) http://www.wftucentral.org/?language=en
http://www.pensionistas.info/web/en
ANNEX 2.-
Work plan proposal to the finance of the TUI of pensioners and retirees
Pending of collective approval
FINANCE SECRETARY OF THE TUI OF PENSIONERS AND RETIREES OF THE WFTU.
As notified in the previous informative release, through the present proposal this Secretary will try to establish a collective project for general and individual finance in order to make us capable of fulfill our solidary responsibilities to the WFTU while at the same time we create the financial framework to cope with the further development of any project from the TUI through its Director´s board, its different Secretaries and its working teams. For that, we propose the following General Objectives, its particular and complementary aspects and the possible way to enforce it. The scheduled time table for that should be those marked by the Congress mandate. Obviously, periodical information will be released through all our publications on the progress of this working plan to make us able to the development of our trade unionist and political aim.
● GENERAL OBJECTIVES:
It may be enforced the payment of contributions and fees by all collective bodies and trade unions of the TUI of Pensioners and Retirees according to its criteria and possibilities, as stated in our previous release and approved at the Congress. We proceed, as a reminder, to repeat those contents:
Article 47: Assets of the TUI of Pensioners and Retirees is formed by its present resources, donations and legacies as well as those to be acquired in the future while in its term till the next Congress. Therefore, it will be part of these assets all fund collected through fees by those adhered and friendly organizations, and also those coming from legal donations made in its favor, along with archives and documents related to the working and investigation areas.
Article 48: Those organizations members of the TUI of Pensioners and Retirees will contribute with an ordinary fee for each person affiliated. Contributions will be made from a flexible basis and taking on account the daily realities of each trade union. Different fees have been fixed, according to the financial strength of each trade union, as follows: 2USD (yearly fee) from those trade unions based in North America, Western Europe, Australia, Persian Gulf and Japan; 1USD (yearly fee) from those trade unions based in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Pacific, and Half a USD (yearly fee) from those trade unions based in countries from Latin America, Caribbean and Africa.
To reach this basic and vital aim this Secretary may be duly provided of accurate information on the membership´s numbers at each organization regardless of is size: local, regional or national. So, we may be able to work under strict criteria concerning income and expenses and therefore issued proposals for help and betterment on every level.
● We may be able to create a minimum but useful asset to our TUI of Pensioners and Retirees made from real estate and patrimonial assets. We should not be in a hurry on this matter, but
looking for studying each possible option as the cession for use as local headquarters. Concerning this point, any information on the possibility of access to any premises that may be used as a trade union office should be forwarded to this Secretary to be analyzed from a financial point of view. Only those matters on financial issues approved on a collective basis by the board of directors and other official bodies of the TUI will be in charge of this Secretary. Neither a trade union or an organization would be entitled to make any financial claim unless previously decided and approved by the bodies elected during our first Congress.
● We must help to create a permanent net of any kind of donators for the TUI, being “any kind of donators” only those people and organizations with a background for honesty and class consciousness principles that may be able to help our organization in any way. It may be clearly understood that this Secretary is wide open to receive any kind of information and suggestions on this matter and about this concept and criteria. A general proposal will be issued on the procedure to collect those altruistic contributions.
● As to reinforce the previous proposals for the financing of our unionist activities we may point to two other different ways: asking for public funds from governments and public institutions as long as the granting of these funds doesn´t mean any kind of agreement to may risk or compromise our critical points of view and most of all our trade union´s policies. Other way could lie on the mutual assistance among our organizations to provide its members with programs for cultural and economical inter-change on a personal and collective basis so we may be able to get both cultural advantages as well as some contributions to a better afford of our activities.
● This Secretary propose classic activities very well known by all of us by its previous outcome, but at the same time we understand that current changes in the productive forces, in technology as well as in all areas of human knowledge bring us wider opportunities to act in the field of Financing to be added to our assists on personal creativity and general experience. For this reason, any financial proposal related to a better funding of our organization will be thoroughly taken into account by this Secretary.
Among all this activities we may put our attention in the making of several publishing and propaganda materials that could be sold and therefore produce some kind of financial benefits (materials always provided with a trade unionist contents).
Signed by: José María Lucas Ranz, in charge of the Finance Secretary of the TUI of Pensioners and Retirees.
AN NEX 3. -
Work schedule for the secretary for propaganda:
Alain Rodriguez
Do a press release to various newspapers to introduce them to the new TUI P&R.
Send out a letter to the CGT and the FSU organisations, to the trade unions, the local unions, and to the district unions to introduce them to the new TUI.
Writing and distribution of a pamphlet during the pensioners’ demonstration on June 3rd 2014 in Paris.
Send a brotherly salute from the TUI P&R to the TUI Transport congress in September 2014
Inform about the firms’ actions in the different countries in order to let the working class of the other countries know.
Send out messages of support to trade union organisations struggling around the world.
Spread the information concerning the event organised by the WFTU on October 3rd 2014.
Introduce people to the demands of the TUI P&R