"Together we will stop the pension reform of the De Wever-Rousseau government"

Hello ManiFiesta!

It's so wonderful to be here again!

Look around you - we are more than 15000 here in Ostend this weekend.

Thank you for making ManiFiesta such a big festeival of the people. For two days here the world is as it should be.

I'd like to start by asking for a big round of applause for all the volunteers, contributors and artists who have made this possible!

ManiFiesta comes at a special time this year. An important moment in the social struggle. This is not a year like any other: since January, there has been a permanent resistance movement against the De Wever-Rousseau government.

Last week, more than 110,000 people took to the streets in Brussels, in support of Gaza. Next month tens of thousands of people will again take these same streets in Brussels to protest the anti-social measures of the De Wever-Rousseau government.

And the protests surpass Belgium. Last Wednesday, the French working class blockaded the country while protesting the policies of Macron, the president of the rich. In the Global South as well, more and more countries are rising up and questioning the current world order.

So obviously ManiFiesta comes at a special time this year. And this is where all those people that support these different struggles meet. To exchange experiences. To debate. To celebrate together.

ManiFiesta is at the crossroads of all these struggles. ManiFiesta feeds off of it. And if all these struggles come together, we can win!
 

So I want to tell you the story of someone who is experiencing this struggle firsthand: Mieke from Vilvoorde. Mieke has worked hard all her life as a cleaning lady with several families. Full-time at first, but in recent years she's had to cut back. Because all those years of heavy lifting and cleaning take a toll on your joints. She's had eight surgeries already.

Normally, Mieke would be able to retire at 63. With a pension of 1,500 euros. Not a lot, is it? But this government wants to impose a malus on her: she would lose 300 euros. Every month. For the rest of her life. She would have to make do with 1,200 euros. I have only one word for that.

Pension theft. That's what the De Wever-Rousseau government is doing to Mieke: pure pension theft

And Mieke is not the only one. The government wants to force everyone to work until 67. Taking away our best years, that's what they want to do - without even a single specific measure for the tough jobs. They want to make us work until we drop. As my comrade and retirement specialist Kim De Witte so astutely puts it in his new book, "Work, Shut Up & Die," that is their logic.

The politicians are in their own bubble and of course it's easy for them to say. They are well off. The government thinks you all can and want to work until you're 67. We don't think so.

So we've launched a big survey on pensions. Download our app on your smartphone and fill out that Pension Survey, and have your colleagues and everyone around you fill it out, too. That way we can communicate your opinions loudly and clearly to all those politicians in their plush seats in Parliament.

Don't believe them, all these lying politicians. One of them is a real champion. A president with a rather authoritarian streak about him. I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about, right? Yes, Georges-Louis Bouchez.

Just last week I was in a debate at RTL with him. He gets there in his big 100,000 euros Mercedes. The debate starts and the journalist asks a question about the nurses' situation. I immediately say, "There's no way they can work until age 67," to which Bouchez replies : “We allow people to retire at the age of 60 years after a career of 42 years.”

Let's put that through the lie detector. Mr. Bouchez, if the nurse wanted to pursue early retirement, at what age should she have started work? 60 years minus 42 years ... that's 18 years old. So according to you, a nurse should start working at 18 years old. Don't you think a piece of the puzzle is missing, Mr. Bouchez? Because the nursing program takes four years to complete. So the earliest a nurse can start working is when she's 22!

Bouchez would say anything to advance his policies. And he is not afraid to lie in the process, right in the faces of millions of Belgians. But Mr. Bouchez, your lies are no longer catching on. More and more working people know that your words are miles away from their reality.

And that is precisely why the protest will keep on growing in the weeks to come. We are going to get you to back down and we are going to stop your pension reform.

No, dear friends, do not believe the government's lies about our pensions. In  Humo, two weeks ago, Conner Rousseau said: "Our pension system is the most generous in the world" - the most generous in the world! In what world is he living?

How can Conner Rousseau say such a thing? Our pensions are amongst the lowest in Western Europe! An employee receives an average pension of 1,523 euros in our country. You couldn't even pay for a room in a retirement home! We receieve 300 to 400 euros less than people in France or the Netherlands.

And now De Wever and Rousseau want to take away even more of our pension money. Mark our words here at ManiFiesta: We won't let them get away with this pension theft!

The government would like us to believe that there is no other choice. They say, "We have no money. We have to make cuts. It's the only option. Our pensions are not affordable."”

No, dear friends. Our pensions are perfectly affordable. Today France and Austria are paying proportionally more in pensions, than we will have to pay in 50 years. If they can do it today, why wouldn't we be able to do it tomorrow?

They have no money to go towards our pensions. But when they wanted to buy weapons and F-35s, they suddenly found some. And not a small sum either. 34 billion euros, dear friends and comrades. Like it was nothing. It's made it very clear: This is not about money, it's about political choices.

And it is incredible that Conner Rousseau is such a big supporter of those choices. Without Vooruit, they simply would not be able to implement these reforms.

Our pensioners get nothing, but when Trump snaps his fingers and demands we buy more weapons in America so that they can focus on their Cold War with China, they immediately snap to attention: "Of course Mr. Trump. Definitely Mr. Trump. All you have to do is ask, Mr. Trump"

And what's at the top of our government's 34 billion euro shopping list? 11 new F- 35s. American bombers.

Make no mistake, dear friends, those F-35s are not defensive weapons. The government wants our country to be a participant in NATO wars around the world. At a time when there's a threat of further escalation. Defense Minister Theo Francken is on the record as saying he wants to "destroy strategic targets deep in enemy territory."

He even calls it "wars out of necessity." But to what extent were the wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya, the military actions in Africa and in the Middle East necessary exactly? They were certainly not about democracy or human rights. They were wars about money: for oil in Iraq, for raw materials in Africa and now for rare metals in Ukraine.

For the profits of big multinationals, while the common people, both here and there, pay the price.

So that's what De Wever and Bouchez want for our society: to be tailored to the rich and to the war mongers.

Mieke from Vilvoorde has to continue working until she's 67 so that Theo Francken can buy his bombers. Cuts in healthcare, public transport, climate, development cooperation and accomodation for the victims of those wars, just to be able to buy more frigates and tanks.

Mark our words here at ManiFiesta: this is not the society we want. Invest in our society, invest in peace and not war.

We won't let them get away with it.

Because, dear friends, don't forget: nothing has been finally decided - not a single pension measure has been voted. The texts have not even been submitted. After the big march on June 25th, the government has had to make some concessions. For example, about the years of technical unemployment that also counted for the pension malus. So don't believe them when they say there's no point to taking the streets.

Countries like Croatia and Canada show the wins of the social movement. The retirement age in those countries went back from 67 to 65. If they can do it, so can we!

Dear comrades, dear friends, this is why we must all take to the streets on October 14th, at the call of the unions. Bring your colleagues, your family, your friends. Together we can stop the government's pension reform. In a broad social movement. Because if we stand together, we can win!

As Peter said it just now: ManiFiesta is also a place of solidarity with the Palestinian people. It always has been, but it is even more so today. 

Israel now openly declares that it wants the Palestinians out of Gaza in order to further colonize Palestine. And the U.S. and Europe continue to support Israel. Israel serves their interests and so it is allowed to do whatever it wants.

But Netanyahu and his genocidal regime forgot something. Something they could not have imagined.

That millions of people around the world would not just sit by.

That there would be huge rallies from London to Cairo to Brussels.

That students worldwide would take action. That hundreds of people would sail on the flotilla to break the blockade of Gaza.

That people would continue to have their voices heard on social media, would take to the streets every week in their communities.

And that here in Belgium, more than 110,000 people would be on the streets in June and in September.

Yes, you can applaud that.

And do you remember what Bart De Wever said then? Do you remember? That he would not be distracted by that "murmur from the outside world". Murmur from the outside world. 65,000 dead in Gaza, is that "murmur from the outside world"?

Deliberately executing ambulance drivers and journalists, is that "murmur from the outside world"? Starving 2 million people and driving them out of their homes, is that "murmur from the outside world"?

If that is a murmur to you, Mr. De Wever, then something is thoroughly wrong with your hearing. What Israel is doing in Gaza, is not a murmur, it is a genocide and we will not rest until it ends.

Dear friends, dear comrades, it is only thanks to that pressure, that sustained pressure from below, that the government was forced to take action against Israel for the first time last week. But let's be clear: their measures are totally inadequate and hypocritical.

And it's not just the PTB-PVDA saying it, 110,000 people repeated that in Brussels last week. It is time for boycott, sanctions and divestment for the rogue state of Israel. It's how we brought apartheid to its knees in South Africa back in the day, and it's how we will stop apartheid, occupation, colonization and genocide in Palestine.

Dear friends, dear comrades, This is not a year like any other. The world is tilting.

The omnipotence of the United States falters, the European Union is sinking into crisis. This instability invites reactionary forces to seize their opportunity to spread the poison of division, nationalism and racism.

But at the same time, this is also a moment when our side - that of the Marxist Left - can make great progress in the struggle and in the consciousness of the working class and youth.

A lot of people are angry, feeling lost and looking for alternatives to the current model of society. And we offer that alternative: socialism, a society for the working class, for social justice and for peace.

The question is: who will emerge stronger out of this crisis? That depends on us. On our commitment. On our every conversation with colleagues, neighbors and friends. On every action, every strike, every gathering. On every video we put online. Tens of thousands of small acts of resistance together make a difference.

We have the power of truth on our side. For as much as the propaganda machines of the right claim otherwise: capitalism cannot solve the social, environmental and democratic issues of our time. 

It is up to us to accelerate history.

It is up to us to take our destiny into our own hands. 
 

It is up to us to book small victories today and tomorrow, so as to bring in the big victories the day after tomorrow.

ManiFiesta, the struggle continues!