- On 30 January we have an appointment to fill the streets of Bilbao. In addition to symbolising the confluence of the demands of pensioners and other social and trade union agents, we must show that there is a living people in favour of social change.
A people willing to build a social alternative to the model that capital wants us to impose, a working class. The management model of the PNV and the PSE is, precisely, the first trench of the capital project in the Basque Country. But there's a social majority in this country that doesn't accept technocratic and post-political speeches, that knows it's just a mask to leave public resources in the hands of a few.
They want us to believe that this model they call “management” is the only way and that the economic future of Euskal Herria lies in the subcontracting of the public, in the unsustainability of care tasks and reproductive work, in the tertiarization and internationalization of the productive model, in the investment funds or in the reduction of “labor costs”. Preseski, Bizkaia is the country in which this paradigm comes in a clear way.
They present us as a model of success, but it is a lie; it is a weak and untenable base model that condemns more and more people to precariousness, poverty and social exclusion, and it also leads to cuts in the field of social protection. A clear example of this is the debate in the Basque Parliament on the IGR. We must not forget that in Greater Bilbao they are experiencing the highest rate of poverty and precariousness in the Basque Country and that the institutions are looking elsewhere in the face of this reality.
There are strong grounds for starting a cycle of offensives. Social mobilization and trade union conflict have clearly multiplied in our country.
That is why we believe that on 30 January we have the opportunity, at least one day, to remove the monopoly of power from the institutions and to return it to the street, to the organized working class, to social movements. We need to give people power back to create a new horizon. We must broaden the sense of the political and place it beyond the actions of the elites, size the value of democracy, sovereignty, social justice and the right to decide in all areas of our lives, whether political, economic or social. In this way, it is crucial to understand the city as a space of struggle in which the political and social tendencies of the Basque Country are marked. Precisely, this General Strike is not understood without a picture of what has happened in the streets of Bilbao in recent years.
There are strong grounds for starting a cycle of offensives. Social mobilization and trade union conflict have clearly multiplied in our country; the mobilizations of the feminist movement have become references beyond our scope and have changed the prisms of understanding the social movement, making several struggles visible. The trade union conflict is also on the rise and a clear example of this is the metal struggle, which has taught us that it is possible to win the PNV-CONFESBASK model. Furthermore, we must not forget that more and more sectors are active in defence of their rights and that, in addition, the demands that go beyond classical union action are beginning to be integrated into collective bargaining: measures to curb subcontracting, measures to ensure conciliation, measures to end discrimination in recruitment... As has been said, those who have engaged in specific struggles are workers who have not so far been very showy, such as home help, concerted education, sports clubs or offices.
Capital designs the city with the aim of maximizing profits, which has a direct relationship with the new phenomena of labor relations and with the processes that are taking place in the sphere of employment. The clearest example is uberization. This General Strike, to the extent that it aims to integrate the most precarious sectors of the working class into a new transformative subject, also opposes this link. Proof of this is that the Riders X Derechos platform has come out in favour of the strike.
Many people may think that we live better than in the rest of the state and that, in addition, with a “progressive” government, new possibilities are opened up, the General Strike makes no sense
But it is the old generations who have given us a lesson in dignity. It was that generation that won the rights that we have today about the death of Franco, the one that fought against deindustrialization, the one that was present in the Euskalduna and in the Altos Hornos, the one that rose up against the labor reforms felislopes... The Movement of Pensioners in Bizkaia has been, following this line, the vanguard of Euskal Herria and the entire State. The shameful rise of 0.25% of pensions has served to focus on the defence of public pensions, but not only that, but they have also drawn up a roadmap on the productive model, labour relations or social protection measures, with the aim of ensuring a decent life for all.
Many people may think that we live better than in the rest of the state and that, in addition, as a “progressive” government opens up new opportunities, the general strike makes no sense. The strike of 30 January has been convened with the aim of improving the living conditions of working women. The General Strike is carried out, as the motto rightly explains, to give effect to our right to a dignified life. In this sense, if the pensioners’ movement has taught us one thing, it is that we must always play the offensive and the pro-positive key. We cannot take the streets only when there are cutbacks or when they violate our rights. We have to turn the scheme around. We are in a supposed “progressive” context because thousands of people have been mobilized and organized. We cannot lose that political capital, quite the opposite: we have to strengthen mobilisation and bring it to our scale. We have to reproduce them in all the areas of shock of models and in Bizkaia we have our own challenge, which will probably determine the future of the workers of the Basque Country.