The above question prompts us to take a look at the various social categorizations of retirees, recognize their problems and demands, and discuss a way out. Without a doubt, today in the midst of confrontations over demands on the streets, retirees are considered to be the awakened conscience of the class movement in Iran.

I am emphasizing; today’s retirees, workers, teachers, and wage earners are yesterday’s people who are all facing a 70% inflation rate, point by point, the elimination of meat and chicken, eggs and oil, rice and fruit from their tables, and the lack of treatment and medicine, and the return to rationing and allocation in the current state of the neoliberal economy and the government’s looting of retirees’ funds. In a situation where each of them should be spending their retirement and relaxation time with their families and grandchildren and enjoying comfort, they are still struggling on the streets in a chain-like manner and their protests for their demands, which have been going on for a long time, have become a weekly and serial nature and continue.

From Iran to Paris and other parts of the world, one of the concerns and desires of every working person after decades of work is retirement and enjoying its legal benefits. However, it must be added that unfortunately, in Iran and other countries, retired men and women are among the forgotten groups of the society and wage earners, and the cycle of capital is seeking their gradual death.

Retirees in both government and independent sectors are still struggling. The former – meaning government-created organizations – are afraid of the retirees’ street protests and marches and want to resolve their demands through begging and pleading. However, the millions of retirees are constantly fighting and pursuing their rights, and their series of protests are not cold and silent, but rather fiery and explosive, spreading beyond one or two provinces and taking on a serial form. This series of protests has been going on for years as a clear reaction to discriminatory policies implemented by Mohammad Bagher Nobakht and his group of profiteers, who have caused division and discrimination among retired military, national, social security, cultural, mining, and steel workers, as well as their colleagues and non-colleagues. These gatherings have continued until they reached the current government; not just in one part of the country, but in over twenty cities, including Tehran, Ahvaz, Shush, Shushtar, Dezful, Kermans

Protests and demands of retirees.

Retirees’ objections are now subject to review at the following levels:

• Continuous protests by retired telecommunications employees

• Protests on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays by retired social security workers.

• زارت کار

  Protests by retired bank network employees, Ministry of Labor

• Protests by disabled individuals for the removal of the budget for disabled individuals, who are also retired in the field of work and labor.

These protests are being held in Tehran, in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and in other cities in front of the Social Security and Telecommunications offices. The main focus of the gatherings is the demand for fair payment for retired workers in “hard and harmful” occupations, proportional to their years of service. This includes those who have worked for 30, 35, or more years and are protesting the lack of compliance with Article 96 of the Social Security Law, the disproportionate implementation of proportional payments by national and military funds, the government’s negligence in paying the organization’s debts, the lack of consistency in proportional payments and calculation of retirement benefits between working and non-working retirees, the failure to implement proportional payments for retirees in 1999, the lack of equal representation of stakeholders in the management structure of Social Security, the failure to transfer shares of Shasta to retirees, the payment of employment benefits to retirees in war and operational zones, the lack of tiered healthcare services, the opening

Reviewing the Labor Law and Development Bills, which are constantly being rewritten by the same legislators and their descendants in the Organization for Planning and Budget and the Islamic Consultative Assembly, still seems to affect the lives of retirees. Today, once again, with a blow to the Labor Law, which is officially and unofficially being cut more than ever from its supportive aspects for the workforce, it must be said that the Seventh Development Plan, the Organization for Planning and Budget, which will be consulted in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, imposes and forces modern slavery on our class. If the workers do not unite, protest and resist, this plan in the Seventh Development Plan will be another tombstone on the grave of the same exploitative Labor Law for their own profit and modern slavery for our class. What is related to the situation of retirees, the government in the Seventh Development Plan, actually wants to cover the bankruptcy costs of the pension funds, which have led to their bankruptcy, from the workforce and by

Another point is that based on the information published so far, social security funds, the steel fund, the cultural heritage fund, the rural, farmers and nomads insurance fund, are among the funds that the government is the main debtor to. In other words, the Social Security Organization has been the target of right-wing and neoliberal governments who have taken from the intergenerational capital of workers wherever they have been lacking and have not paid their share of insurance. According to the statistics presented, the government’s debt to the Social Security Organization is estimated to be more than 460 to 500 trillion tomans, which they are not willing to pay. The main cause of these debts is mainly legal provisions that result in non-payment or incomplete payment of their financial burden, leading to a large accumulation of claims.

As an example, the Steel Employees’ Pension Fund is one of the oldest funds related to workers and employees in the country, which in recent years has faced many ups and downs and during a period in the 1990s was on the verge of merging with the national pension fund. Issues such as corruption, government debts, and astronomical debts, mismanagement, and other common challenges in various pension funds have also been observed in this fund, which has been taken more seriously during the new management period. According to the CEO of the Steel Employees’ Pension Fund, it is estimated that the government’s debt to the fund has reached over 90 trillion tomans and this figure needs to be updated more accurately.

The Cultural Teachers’ Fund is also one of the other challenges mentioned, which is a government debt of nearly 3,060 billion tomans until the end of 1400, which has increased even further since then. It has been announced that the payment of this debt has been postponed under the pretext of approving the charter.

In addition, the situation of the rural, agricultural and tribal social security fund is also important. One of the most important groups and categories that play a special role in the production and work process are the workers of the agricultural and rural sector. The tribes of the country are also considered as one of the groups, where each family unit is considered a productive nucleus. In order to improve the well-being of this large group of nearly 25 million people in our country, the rural, agricultural and tribal social security fund was established after the revolution. This fund is owed 11 trillion tomans from the government and this amount has only been calculated until 1400 and has not been audited yet for 1401 to see how much it has increased.

It is truly possible to oppose the government’s suppression of any independent workers’ organization, security crackdowns, and the arrest and imprisonment of labor activists and retirees from the perspective that the entire apparatus of suppressing the working class in the Islamic government is aimed at silencing the voice of protest against this very theft and attack on the resources and value of the working class of the country. That is why they use the most severe methods to suppress any voice of protest and any attempt to unite workers with baseless and illegal accusations. In the face of common demands of retirees and protests on their own streets in recent years, the means of unity and the formation of independent demand-based organizations have become louder and more effective every day on the streets. The fundamental question is who in the organization of planning and budgeting holds the claim of expertise in these inhumane, immoral, and anti-social and economic laws that they twist in such a way?

Until now, the seventh development plan has shown a brazen invasion against the living and working conditions of millions of wage earners, workers, and retirees who, without the implementation of this plan, are already struggling at the bottom of poverty and destitution with wages below the poverty line. The recent series of protests against the government’s implementation of equalization plans has provided a new opportunity for a united front of retirees demanding their rights from all sectors of the country, from military to social security, cultural, steel, and mining. This is because only a widespread collective struggle in defense of workers’ rights can force the implementers and designers of this plan, who claim to have passed it after 45 meetings of the specialized commission and seven meetings of the cabinet, to retreat. We must put an end to this level of oppression and injustice, and this is only possible through the power of unity and becoming one as a class.