August 2016 to January 2017 COMMUNICATION No. 14

General Secretariat, COMMUNICATION No. 14,
From August 2,016 to January 2,017

CONTENT:

Comrades, I give account of what has been done since COMMUNICATION # 13:

A) WORK OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT (GS) .-

1.- Preparation of the presence as TUI of P&R’s in the 17th Congress of the WFTU. Drafting of the intervention to be carried out there, translation into several languages, dissemination to collect opinions and distribution by means of more than 200 copies in Durban, in full Congress. (Look at ANNEX 1).
2.- Preparation of the First Internationalist World Day of the class Organizations of the P&R’s: Poster made  in Greece, document with the general claims (drafted by the Technical Commission of Investigation of our TUI). (See ANNEX 2).
3.- Preparation of the First African Conference of P&R’s, held in Dakar, Senegal, on November 16, 2016. (See ANNEX 3). Drafting and dissemination of the call and OF the documents to be discussed in it. Attendance in Dakar for the preparation and carrying out, plus later meeting of the team chosen by the Conference to direct the tasks of our TUI in Africa.
4.- Support to Comrade Dimos Koumpouris, President of our TUI, for the preparation of the First Asia and Oceania Conference of P&R’s, held in Nepal on December 3, 2016. (See APPENDIX 4).
5.- To make up for the non-work of the Secretariat of Propaganda elaborating the greeting design of the year 2017. (See ANNEX 5).
6.- To help the Secretariat of Finances to prepare the letter reminding the obligation of all organizations to contribute with financial assistance to our TUI in the form of statutory quota.
7.- Reception in Barcelona of Comrade Mostapha Brouziyine, Secretary General of the DOP (Democratic Organization of Pensioners), which is part of the union, affiliated to the WFTU, DWO (Democratic Workers' Organization) of Morocco, to start up his work as Coordinator of our TUI for all Africa.
8.- Assistance to Comrade Tony Donaghey of Great Britain, Coordinator of our TUI for Europe, to prepare his proposal for a Work Plan for this continent.
9.- To propose Comrade Marcos Wolman, Coordinator of our TUI for America, to prepare the Work Plan for 2017 and a meeting in May in Cuba.
10.- To obtain the commitment of the OWT (Organization of Workers of Tunisia) to hold in this country the First Conference of P&R’s Organizations of the Arab Countries, to be held on October 26, 2017. To begin to prepare the documents that will serve to summon the Conference and the debates in it.
11.- To insist on the rest of comrades with responsibilities in our TUI to assume their responsibility and to develop it.
12.- Proposal to use the Skype program as a connection and exchange system that allows meetings of two or more comrades who are situated in different countries, thus avoiding travel expenses. (See ANNEX 6).
13.- Assistance, as TUI of the WFTU, to the organizations of the Spanish state of P&R’s in the organization of the fight of the pensioners in this country.
14.- Holding of several conferences, in several cities of Catalonia, in order to explain the work of the WFTU.
15.- Attendance with the WFTU flags to many actions in the streets to show the support of the WFTU.
16.- Announcement to the ILO of the willingness of our TUI to intervene in June 2017 in the annual Conference to express there, again, the claims of the P&Rs.
17.- Drafting of various documents taking position in the face of the problems of nowadays trade unionism on our planet. (See ANNEX 7).
18.- Request all comrades with responsibilities in our TUI to send (in one or more of the following languages: English, French and Spanish) their CV (union CV), to know each other better. (See ANNEX 8).
19.- Dissemination of the information and documents of the P&R’s of different countries.
20.- Sending of information regarding the reality of the struggles of P&R’s in several countries.
21.- Redistribution of central information of the WFTU.
22.- Petition to the leaders of our TUI in each continent to equip themselves with indispensable translators teams to internationalize our struggles by spreading our activities and demands in several languages.

WORK OF THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE DIRECTION.-

1.- Drafting by comrade Dimos Koumpouris of the proposed documents to be discussed at the Conference of Asia and Oceania of our TUI:
2.- Attendance of Dimos Koumpouris to the First Conference of P&R’s of Asia. From this work we have received the discussed documents, the approved documents, the final resolution, the main speeches that took place in it, and we are waiting for the written summary to serve as the Conference Minutes.
3.- Two phone calls from Athens to Barcelona (the second one via Skype) to coordinate the work of the President of our TUI with the Secretary General.
4.- Letter from the Secretary of Finances to all organizations affiliated with our TUI. (See ANNEX 9).
5.- Work of Comrade Tony Donaghey, of Great Britain, Coordinator of our TUI for Europe, to prepare his proposal of Work Plan for this continent.
6.- Work of Comrade Marcos Wolman, Coordinator of our TUI for America, to prepare the Work Plan for 2017 and a meeting in May in Cuba.
7.- Work of Comrade Mostapha Brouziyine, Secretary General of the ODR (Democratic Organization of Pensioners), which is part of the union affiliated to the WFTU ODT (Democratic Workers' Organization) of Morocco, to launch his work as Coordinator of our TUI for all Africa.
8.- Participation in the important actions of the First World Day of Struggle of the P&R’s that took place on October the 1st of 2016. This Internationalist Struggle Day will be repeated every year.
IMPORTANT DISSEMINATED INFORMATION:

1.- The fight of the P&R’s of Argentina, every Wednesday in the street claiming their rights before the Parliament.
2.- Preparation in France of the 11th Conference of the P&R of the CGT. Since some of the CGT sector federations are not in the WFTU, they have not accepted the presence of our TUI as a guest. To this we must add protests in the streets.
3.- Realization on February 10th in Portugal of the 8th Conference of the P&R’s of the CGTP-IN. I proposed that they invite the TUI of P&R’s and they replied that there will be no international guest (FERPA either).
4.- The P&Rs of Greece have intensified their struggle and activities, organized by PAME: assemblies, rallies and demonstrations through all the provinces of Greece, 3 large territorial concentrations disbanded with tear gas, a central demonstration against the Ministry of Labor in the which the letters received from the government were symbolically burned, a later central demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Prime Minister in which they achieved the removal of the barriers that the police had placed and managed to enter the premises of the Presidency to debate for 1 hour and a half with the Prime Minister and with the Minister of Labor. Consequently, they committed and executed the payment of 617 million € to complete the lowest income pensions. The Greek P&R’s will continue on the streets. They have pledged that before May 1 PAME of Greece will pay its quotas of 2017 to our PIS of P&R’s.
5.- Chile, great actions that began in August and continued in November, demanding the return to the public pension system that Pinochet surrendered to private companies with the support of the ICFTU yellow trade unionism (now ITUC). Now the pensioners are paid half of what they were paid with the public system.
6.- Increase of 50% in January of the pensions in Venezuela.
7.- Unitary struggles in Spain, without the yellow unions (CCOO and UGT), in defense of the demands of the P&R’s. The most important actions were held on December 20 in 14 major cities and repeated on 8 February in 8 regions across the state.

ANNEX 1.-
Speech of the General Secretary
At the 17th CONGRESS OF THE WFT
Comrades.
The collective leadership of our TUI has entrusted me with the speech that corresponds before the Plenary of this important Congress.
At the documentation given to each delegate it is included a summary of our work as TUI, outlined at the 4 pages that the Secretariat of the WFTU demanded.
I will not repeat it now, but we are open to comment it bilaterally when you like.
Our will of organization and fight, within the WFTU, is summarized at the motto we have used at the Regional Conferences, continent to continent:
“LET US FIGHT TOGETHER AGAINST CAPITALISM, FOR A LIFE WITH DIGNITY”
This is the main aim of our, to the moment, successful task of organization of the P&R over the world.
The WFTU is the only organization which coordinates worldwide all the Pensioners and Retired workers. We have thus fulfilled the goals set at the 16th Congress of the WFTU.
We carried at Quito, Ecuador, in September 2015, the first Conference of P&R of America. Several organizations from 25 countries participated in diverse ways.
We carried at Denmark, July 2016, the first Conference of P&R of Europe. 54 organizations from 42 countries have participated. A big success, thus.
We will carry out at Dakar, Senegal, next November the 16th, the first Conference of P&R of Africa.
We will carry at Nepal, December the 3rd this year, the first Conference of P&R of Asia.
And, last, we are preparing a Conference at the Arab countries.
Not any other organization has structured the struggle of the P&R to fight for our rights and fair claims. Neither can they nor they want, since their submission to the wills of the Capitalist leaders makes it impossible for them to organize the P&R for the fight.
The ITUC backs Private Funds for Pensions, such as the ones Pinochet set out at Chile during his dictatorship. The ITUC gets money out of these private plans by having its leaders as Chairmen of these Capitalist companies that handle this money. The ITUC does not defend the right to public pensions that make the Private Funds for pensions unnecessary. The ITUC has only a coordination of P&R in Europe, and is unable to organize any struggle.
We, the WFTU, with class criteria, remembering (as we were taught by Karl Marx) that the fight of classes is the actual motor of history (and will continue till there is Capitalism), we, as TUI of the WFTU, we group all the organizations of P&R ready to fight against Capitalism. And we take this occasion to ask the P&R territorially syndicated to the WFTU, to connect with our TUI, of P&R.
Many of the organizations of P&R existing at the planet are not even a syndicate. Sometimes they cannot be due to the Law of the country, which does not allow syndicates of P&R.
But what is important is not the name, but the goals each organization fights for.
We, as TUI of P&R we have aimed to coordinate all the fights, that keep growing through the 5 continents, boosted by the Pensioners and Retired of all the planet.
>
> Few days ago we carried our first October the First: we do not have still the final result of the actions carried,  for the first time in the history of Mankind , an international and global act of the P&R in the world.
We have claimed and we will continue to demand (with greater strength if all the organizations of WFTU include it in their lists):
1)      Universal right to retirement
2)      Reduction of the retirement age for men and even more for women.
3)      Social care public and free.
4)      Medical and pharmaceutical care, public and free for everybody, without exceptions or conditions.
5)      Public pensions that fulfill our actual needs with the aim to have a life with dignity, this is, to have: social facilities, housing, drinking water, health and entertainment, plus nearby transport, for free.
Our mottos, this International Day, have been:
¡WE WILL NOT FEED WITH THE CRUMBS OF THE CAPITALIST BARBARITY!
¡LET US FIGHT TO CONQUER A LIFE AND FUTURE ACCORDING TO THE WEALTH WE PRODUCE!
¡LONG LIFE TO INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!
And we have concluded hailing: ¡LONG LIFE TO OCTOBER FIRST!, ¡LONG  LIFE TO WFTU!
Since we will repeat this act each year, till we end up with Capitalism, that is causing all the problems of the P&R and of the working class.
Thus, we ask all the leaders of the WFTU to help us organize the P&R.
We must be creating conscience, beginning with the active workers, that every salaried must aspire to live many years, and that the final years he or she must count with a worthy pension; this is, a pension such that the following are guaranteed :
1)      Drinking water at each home
2)    Healthy and sufficient food
3)     Housing.
4)      Public health aid, of quality and free, with the necessary complements for the old age.
5)      Entertainment, culture and proximity transportation, free and of quality guaranteed by the Public Administration.
To fight for these fair aims, we P&R are in better conditions than when we were exploited, every day at our work as salaried. Today:
1)      We cannot be fired or sanctioned by a contractor or entrepreneur.
2)      We have all day long to ourselves to organize the best way to plan the struggle.
3)      We have our salary, now pension, independently of our fight. Our participation at the struggles will not have negative consequences in our monthly income.
4)      We have near us many P&R with whom to discuss.
5)      We have many years of experience regarding the organization of struggles.
6)      We are more convinced than ever that our main enemy is Capitalism and its genocidal organization, the imperialist NATO.
7)      And we know how to explain our arguments, in a most convincing way than ever, depending on the features of our public.
Because of this, we are going to organize the working class at the final chapter of their lives. And we will do it better if all the syndicates of the WFTU share information of the reality of the P&R at their territories.
For our TUI, the same as for the WFTU, we are working class till the grave.
We, The P&R, are approximately 20 % of the population and 30 % of the voters.
We have to better organize this huge collective to turn the aims of the FSM to victories.
We count on all of you.
UNITED AND ORGANIZED WE WILL DESTROY CAPITALISM
¡LONG LIFE TO THE WFTU!
Quim Boix
Presidential Counsel of the WFTU
General Secretary of the de TUI (Trade Union International) of Pensioners and Retired (P&R) of the WFTU.
Durban, South Africa, October 2016.