Hope for better days for Brazilian retirees and pensioners.

Hope for better days for Brazilian retirees and pensioners.

With the election of President Lula, the struggle of this important social layer gains new contours. Yes, it comes out of position, from defensive strategy to offense, and more proposition.

We see, from the current government, harsh criticism of the pension reform approved during the Bolsonaro government, Lula is clear that without laws that minimally repeat the broken social fabric, it is difficult to talk about development project. Days ago, the Minister of Social Security said in a meeting with the trade unionist that the dignity contained in the federal constitution is a guaranteed right and that, therefore, it must be fulfilled and, in this sense, it is already discussed: verify the impacts of the changes, form of adjustment of benefits; tax exemption, end of queues of people waiting to be served at the welfare agency, among other measures. In Brazil the retired or pensioned population corresponds to approximately thirty-seven million (37) people, whose sum they receive in cash represents about fifteen percent 15% of the country's income, many small cities depend on this resource to move their economies.

By the reform approved in 2019, only those who have a sofa have more contribution time by age are able to retire, 65 years for men and 60 for women. But in reality, this possibility is totally annulated, since more than fifty percent of the workforce works in informality and does not contribute to social security and, under these conditions, nothing is computed. In a word, the workforce that is active, especially young workers, has no prospect of ever retiring.

Finally, our current struggle focuses on pressuring the Lula government to institute a new labor code capable of covering each and every one formally, and that, in its bulk, it is granted retirement and a decent pension for the generations of the present and the future.

Fraternal embrace, comrades.

Helifax P. de Souza February 2023