Because the people can’t tolerate it anymore! We propose these measures to the Pietro and Francia government¡
This August 7th the government of Pacto Histórico begins, headed by Gustavo Petro. Many Colombians expect immediate solutions to the most urgent necessities: hunger, unemployment, high cost of living, health and education.
Starting the fulfilling of the campaign promises, forces the new government to adopt in the first few days a set of measures that clearly show, beyond any doubt, that we are in the face of a real change. Change is not only words, is not only speeches and is not only a performance. Change is the measures that drastically and rapidly modify the miserable conditions in which millions of Colombians survive.
The electoral victory of Petro and Francia was a consequence, fundamentally, of the struggles and thousands of non-conformists, young people, women, peasants, indigenous people, workers in the formal and informal economy, unemployed people, who said no more to the governments of hunger and repression with the struggles initiated in the year 2019 and that culminated with the National Strike of 2021.
The Grupo de Trabajadores Socialistas and Impulso Socialista propose the following immediate measures that the government should implement:
Against hunger
-Submitting with urgent request the bill of the “Law against hunger” and that it includes the freezing of prices of all the products of the market basket of food and the direct and free distribution to Colombians that today live in poverty.
-Increasing the minimum wage in accordance to the inflation rate, as requested by the union centrals.
-Against the high cost of public services, zero fee of public services of water, energy and gas for stratum 0 and 1, 50% reduction for stratum 2 and 25% reduction for stratum 3.
For free and public education
-For quality education institutions, schools and universities.
-Increase of the budget for superior education that guarantees it is free of charge, universally accessible, ensuring an increase in the number of quotas for students, teaching staff and the installed capacity of public universities in the entire country. No more act 30 or commodification of education!
So that health is not a business
-Health is a fundamental right and the State is obliged to guarantee it as a public right and not a business.
-To urgently ratify the Health Reform Bill, which will allow providing a service with full coverage to Colombians.
-Immediate strengthening of the network of public hospitals in the country, that the EPS pay the debt to clinics and hospitals.
-Elimination of co-payments.
If the Congress does not adopt the measures, the President will be obliged to undertake them immediately.
Against unemployment
-Compliance with Article 25 of the Political Constitution which states: “Work is a right and a social obligation and enjoys, in all its forms, the special protection of the State. Everyone has the right to work under decent and fair conditions.” This work, in order to be decent and fair, the Constitutional Court has said, must meet the requirements of Article 53 of the CP, which are: a stable employment contract, with a sufficient salary, social benefits and social security in pensions, health and workplace risks.
-Immediate elimination of the CAPS, Administrative Contract for the Provision of Services. Immediately repeal the rules on the harmful service provision contracts and all persons currently hired under this model must be included in the payroll of the corresponding entity with their labor rights and social security covered by the employers. Put an end to labor outsourcing and intermediation.
-Within a period of no more than three months, every public or private company must expand its staff by 30%, increasing its production or redistributing the work among all employees -reducing their working hours- without affecting their salaries.
Money if there is any
To initiate this emergency plan, the government has sufficient resources.
1. 50% reduction of the budget of the Military Forces and the Police; allocating this budget to education and public health.
2. Suspension of the payment of the public foreign debt, which amounts to US$100,582 million, and the private one, which is currently at US$73,731 million, both totaling US$174 billion dollars. This figure represents 49.2% of the country’s GDP.
This foreign debt has been the way in which the bloodsuckers of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions have plundered the country, plunging millions and millions in the world into misery.
3. In the next Tax Reform bill, to be presented, the tax exemptions to the financial sector, oil companies, and mining companies, granted by the Duque government in 2019, must be eliminated.
These will be the basic demands to the government of Gustavo Petro, many of them promised in the electoral campaign. The popular fighters, who supported with their vote the Pacto Histórico are waiting for the fulfillment of the electoral promises. We, the Grupo de Trabajadores Socialistas GTS and Impulso Socialista know that within capitalism the evils that afflict the dispossessed, the “nobodies,” cannot be ended, that is why our commitment is with them. Therefore, our struggle and mobilization will be permanent until capitalist exploitation is defeated.
Grupo de Trabajadores Socialistas – Impulso Socialista