APRIL 22, 2025—Every day, the media bombards us with terms that mean nothing to working people: macroeconomics, fiscal deficit, exchange controls, trade balance, comparative advantages, crawling peg, etc., etc. What we do understand, more than that, is the dilution of our retirement benefits, to which must be added the increasingly cut, to criminal levels, PAMI benefits. We ask whoever wants to answer: What freedom is President Javier Milei talking about when minimum retirement benefits are below the poverty line? What moral authority can he boast of when many of his officials have actively participated in ruinous policies for the country throughout history, including dictatorships, and continue to do so today? How much does he care about the well-being of workers when the only response to their legitimate demands is repression? We retirees will not be distracted by media scandals, which in reality clearly expose unspeakable political operations. We retirees know that our demands are legitimate, that the money that should be allocated to our salaries is being used to guarantee the survival of an economic adjustment program, aimed at satisfying the greed of the national and transnational economic power sectors of which Milei is a mere employee.
We know that these guys’ project is an increasingly unjust and violent society where anyone who dares to protest is physically and judicially retaliated against. We see proof of this every Wednesday in front of Congress. As Diego’s famous phrase goes: “You have to be a real coward not to defend the retirees.” And that defense of the retiree should begin with the State administered by the Government. But it’s the opposite: for the elderly, it’s only beatings, pepper spray, and continued hunger and hardship. Meanwhile, the President of the Nation, who is in reality a colonial viceroy, travels to the United States to receive instructions from the IMF and to kiss the butts of Trump’s delegates.
We must be certain that the government and its allies in the “dialogue-seeking opposition” have as their central objective, in terms of pensions, the conversion of current pensions into old-age subsidies, raising the retirement age, definitively eliminating the moratoriums that allow workers defrauded by employers to access retirement, and, fundamentally, establishing the privatization of the Argentine retirement system for the benefit of the financial sector.
Given this situation, we at the National Coordinating Board of Retiree and Pensioner Organizations say that the imperative of the hour is to continue our struggle with the greatest possible strength and unity in order to thwart the political initiatives of this puppet government. In this regard, we call on the working people, unions, social, student, cultural, and political organizations to participate and support retirees in our struggle, particularly this Wednesday, April 23rd, at 3:00 PM in front of the House of Representatives Annex. We will march starting at 4:00 PM to Plaza de Mayo, where a rally will be held.
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