“Miley: you play “The letters of freedom… Of freedom reserved for the rich,” read the placard held by Pedro Conide, who retired in 2013: “I have never been as poor as I am today.” Like him, thousands of retirees, accompanied by unions and left-wing and Peronist groups, demonstrated in front of a Congress that has turned its back on them: the deputies ratified this Wednesday the veto of the far-right president on an 8.1% increase in pensions.
In Argentina, the majority of retirees, more than five million (out of a total of seven million national retirees), receive the minimum pension of 234,000 pesos (about 221 euros) plus a bonus of 70,000 (66 euros) as compensation for assimilating it to the basic basket. According to the latest report from the Argentine Center for Political Economy (CEPA), by keeping the value of the bonus frozen since March, minimum pensions have suffered a reduction equivalent to 52,000 pesos (49 euros).
With the increase that frustrated the bench that supports Milei, the minimum payment would have been 316,000 pesos, which in itself was already insufficient in a country that in December experienced a megadevaluation of 54.4% decided by the ultra government. So far this year, the inflation recorded is 87%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).
Retired Chainsaw
The record adjustment decreed by President Javier Milei has affected retirees in particular, a segment that accounts for almost a third of the total of the “mixers and chainsaws program.” This is clear from a report prepared by CEPA, in which specialists warn of the “regressive nature” of social security reforms.
“Over the period January-July 2024, 27.7% of the adjustment in government spending is explained by the loss of purchasing power of pensions and retirement benefits.” In addition, the analysis does not take into account December 2023, the month in which the sharp devaluation triggered a historic rise in inflation, which worsened the crisis like never before. Since Milei took office on December 10, the minimum pension amount has fallen by 5% in real terms.
“Strike, strike, strike, general strike, those who joined the call of retirees sang loudly this Wednesday. Every Wednesday, retirees gather to demand a decent wage for a lifetime of work. The day of the week is no coincidence: in the 90s, it was part of the resistance to Carlos Menem’s adjustment and the privatization of social security, born of the labor reform of 1994.
In 2008, the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner nationalized the private system known as the Administrators of Retirement and Pension Funds (AFJP), similar to the current Chilean AFP, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
The opposition in the Congress of Deputies failed to obtain the two-thirds vote needed to override the presidential veto of a law approved in August that increased the purchasing power of retirees. La Libertad Avanza, Pro (the party of former President Mauricio Macri), a mosaic of allied blocs and five deputies from the Radical Civic Union (UCR) managed to gather just over a third of the votes needed to protect Milei’s veto.
On the street, these radical deputies were called traitors, since they had approved the revaluation – not recognized by the government – of 8.1% due to inflation in January.
The final result of the vote was 153 votes in favor, 87 against and eight abstentions. The far-right president celebrated it on his networks. “Today, 87 heroes put an end to the degenerate prosecutors who were trying to destroy the budget surplus that we Argentines managed to obtain with so much effort,” he said.
Bullets and gas
Milei’s administration has always responded to the protests in the same way: with repression. After the vote in Congress, the police fired rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas and expelled the protesters according to the “order” protocol established by the Ministry of Security headed by Patricia Bullrich.
An 11-year-old girl was hit by tear gas and Amnesty International warned that “children cannot be the target of tear gas and bullet impacts.”
Minister Bullrich blamed the girl’s mother, not the officers. “Irresponsible and violent mother,” he said in
“Bullrich, Milei: not with the elderly,” read the sign in the hands of Liliana Cabrera, a retired nurse. “I recently retired, I earn a little more than the minimum. As a nurse, I always have something to do, like taking blood pressure or giving injections. But the idea is not to continue working,” she told elDiario.es.
A woman with a handkerchief in her hand, imitating that of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, showed the phrase coined by Diego Maradona during the menemism: “You have to be shit not to defend retirees.” The 78-year-old actress said she retired “thanks to the moratorium of the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.” She was referring to the moratorium so that workers who have not contributed for 30 years can retire. “The Argentine people are waking up after nine months of nap,” Cristina Allende said. “My father was a first cousin of ‘Chicho’ Allende, I am like his second niece,” she added about former Chilean President Salvador Allende. Ironies of Latin American history: the demonstration took place on September 11.
