While the majority of the working class and the general public have enjoyed as much as possible their summer holidays, capitalism has worked tirelessly. It has been designing new measures to continue to accumulate profits in the offensive. Now, on the return of the holiday, the workers and the grass-roots sectors will also be affected. Thus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the major organizations serving capitalism in the world, has called on the Spanish Government to reduce wages by 10%. It has also called for further cuts in social aid, higher VAT and lower pensions further. Cynics are not ashamed to say that the aim of these measures is “to promote the economy and employment”. Conversely, the ultracapitalist organization presiding over Cristine Lagarde estimates that unemployment will not fall by 26% until 2018, according to the forecasts of the Noos Institute. To achieve these changes, the IMF says that a consensus between trade unions and employers is needed to achieve them.

The European Commission has supported this strategy. The great Spanish employer, the CEOE, including the Basque employers, has also voted in favour of this. The Spanish Government has announced legislative changes in the field of labour, with the aim of achieving greater wage and working time flexibility. The governments of Pamplona and Vitoria-Gasteiz, in practice, have approved the strategy designed in Madrid. The intention is to make further cuts from Madrid and the Council of Ministers of Spain approved at its previous holiday session a daily expenditure of EUR 2.4 million for the purchase of arms. I wanted to buy planes, helicopters, warships and cars.

It is now time for trade unions, workers and the grass-roots to put an end to this scourge. Through joint actions, an anti-capitalist counter-attack of workers and citizens must be designed, recognising the rights that belong to us, in order to demand respect for our salaries, social aid and employment.