As for pensioners, in Hego Euskal Herria there are 218,000 people who receive a pension of less than €1,080, the majority are women, who have been performing housework, without the possibility of doing other professional work. They have not paid, the institutions have. Children's schools and senior homes have come later. As we age, care needs begin to emerge. With a pension below €1,080 it is difficult to meet the needs of care.

The family network remains responsible for the care. We have been cared for as a child, so a “family debt” is created and most of us have to be caregivers. In some cases, care is performed with heart and conviction, but when forced, problems arise among family members, conflicts and anger. Care is often a major burden. Therefore, the responsibility for care has to go beyond the family network, because debt is somewhere else.

On the other hand, care is something we need from birth to death, so we must understand it more broadly. We want universal, public and community. Universal, because it is a right of all and cannot depend on the economic capacity of each. We also represent public surveillance. That is what demands greater institutional responsibility. And we have to risk and start to qualify for community. Deepen community work and experience in the Basque Country.

Today's society has become quite competitive, the revolving gates are normal, the distribution of wealth is more unbalanced and trading with rights. Individualization has been strengthened and the collective perspective weakened. We have problems in sight. For example, in a piece from the Bertsolaris Bizkaia Championship chamber, 5 out of 6 bertsolaris took very similar songs to sing the three bertsos. Each bertsolari made it clear, in his accent and in his measure, that what is today out of fashion aesthetic standards is punishable to create health problems. It is no accident that the five bertsolaris agree. It is also a sign of the failure of mutual care.

From the historical practice of resident work in the Basque Country, from this deep-rooted community work, we could learn and do something to transform adverse situations and guide some care needs. Auzolan, community work, would help overcome individualization and strengthen knowledge, relationship and care among citizens. In any case, we must set priorities so that all care is well directed. Some must be resolved immediately, not least because the working conditions of workers, wages and irregularities are regrettable.

Although we consider that our objectives can be utopian, the experts affirm that utopia can be considered a project of social realization and that, like any project, it is a representation of what one wants to build, is inspired by concrete forms of a society to overcome its problems and reorganize itself around an idea. All of this will therefore help us to transform and reorganise surveillance.

Ana Mezo Basaras

Pensioners Member of Abian and the Oneka women’s pension platform