France vs Macron: The struggle against the pension reform from a communist perspective

On March 7, millions of people took to the streets throughout France participating in a nationwide strike against the anti-popular pension reform by Emmanuel Macrons' government that plans to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old. 

 

That was the sixth strike against the reform this year, following large mobilizations in January and February. Over 260 demonstrations were reported in the country, with the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) talking about 700,000 protesters in Paris. 

The pandemic revealed the bankruptcy of capitalism

On 15/6, the Health–Welfare Section of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) presented its new publication under the title “COVID-19 pandemic: Capitalism in its twilight”. Workers in the Health–Welfare and other sectors, young people, and students flooded the park next to the largest hospital in the country, “Evangelismos”, where the book presentation took place. Among them were many vanguard trade unionists who work in public hospitals and who, for the past two years, under the extremely difficult conditions of the pandemic, have been at the forefront of the struggle to defend people’s health. 

Capitalist Russia: Anti-people pension reform approved by lawmakers in Duma

"So, how is it like living under capitalism?", Lenin asks.
Archive Photo: Billboard in Lugansk.

Do you remember the Soviet Union where the retirement age for men was 60 and for women 55 years? Well, in capitalism's Russia such privileges for the working people cannot exist anymore and the Putin-Medvedev government knows it. 

Russian lawmakers approved on Thursday a hugely unpopular government plan to hike the pension age that has led to protests and a record slump in Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings. A total of 327 lawmakers in the lower house or State Duma, voted in favour of the bill in its first reading, with 102 against.

The anti-people legislation is going to raise the pension age to 65 for men and 63 for women. On the eve of the vote approximately 1,000 people protested against the reform in Moscow while on Thursday hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Duma itself.

Capitalist Russia raises retirement age under the pretext of "budget stability"

According to international and russian media reports, Russia’s bourgeois government wants to raise the retirement age for both men and women and to increase value-added tax, unpopular measures it hopes will ease pressure on state finances, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

As Reuters has reported, Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have long talked about raising the retirement age but have shied away from doing so, in part because such measures risk stirring up popular discontent and damaging politicians’ popularity.