DECLARATION OF THE III CONGRESS OF THE TUI OF THE WFTU P&R

The TUI 3rd Congress of the P&R, held in Athens from 14 to 18 April 2024, concluded with the adoption of the following Final Declaration.

The congress of the TUI of the P&R took the measure of the general nature of the attacks made by our common enemy: capitalism, which uses all the means at its disposal to discourage or weaken us, because it understood that our TUI of the P&R, the only international union of pensioners and retirees, has been strongly strengthened despite all the obstacles. Our enemy has once again demeaned itself by using the most cowardly means of visas to enter Europe for African trade unionists, we have attended for one visa application for 140 participants, only about sixty trade unionists from different African countries have obtained it, despite an official invitation and a hotel reservation, The inconceivable is that for most authorizations, the validity period varies between one week (07 days) and twenty days (20 days).Never before has an international trade union organization had so many visa refusals or visas issued for such short durations.

But these obstacles did not discourage our activists who took up the challenge and came to Athens in force, while those who did not have their visas insisted on attending this congress by video conference. At the Congress, they attended 200 pensioners from 90 countries, plus 30 pensioners from 20 countries via videoconference.

This congress was marked by the approval of the 3 documents presented: 1)Global developments ; 2) Amendments to the Statutes; 3) Report on activities and work plan and by the election of a leadership team that will continue the work done by the previous one and was an opportunity to pay tribute to those who have been lost forever since the first congress as well as to those who created this union.

The threats that weigh today on pensioners, the unemployed, unemployment insurance and the civil service are in line with those posed to the Labour Code and the methods of exercising labour law throughout the world. Only a union between all trade unions , including the pensioners’ unions, can defeat all these capitalist and imperialist projects. Today, in order to increase the retirement age and to privatize pension funds, governments announce their bankruptcies, so if this is true, it is easy to get the money from the bosses or recruit even more workers.

We cannot close this Third Congress without denouncing the genocide that has been taking place in Palestine for more than 6 months causing nearly 35,000 deaths, mostly children and women, with the blessing of NATO, the United States and the EU, despite the millions of citizens who are demonstrating in these countries to put an end to Israel’s terrorist acts and to recognize the Palestinian state.

MUST BE COMPLETED ON THE DAY OF THE CONGRESSThe congress closed with these recommendations:Motions in support of Palestine, to the workers of Greece on general strike on 17-4-24,Other two resolutions, Continuing to strengthen our union, Unifying pension funds and saying no to privatization

ATHENS, 16-4-2024