Statement of the CNT-AIT (Spain) Regarding the State of Emergency

This crisis, which has come to be called the COVID-19 crisis, is yet another crisis of the system and is one of the most "virulent", putting working people between a rock and a hard place. Governments repeat the mantra that "the virus does not respect social classes or political ideologies - the virus makes us all equal." But this is not true. Teleworking in a comfortable and spacious home is not the same as spending long hours in a supermarket checkout. Having a balcony or a terrace or a garden is not the same as living in a crowded shared house. It is not the same to have a guaranteed job and salary as to be one of those workers who are going to land up on the street due to the closure of their companies or freelance workers who cannot do their jobs now.

The government has announced an injection of funds to alleviate the economic effects of the crisis, but we have serious doubts about who will benefit from this package of measures. Because our experience tells us that the brunt of the crises are always paid by us.

The CNT-AIT has a package of demands:

- Paid leave from work for workers forced to leave their job due to any of the measures adopted because of this crisis.

- Immediate stoppage, with paid leave, in all non-essential industries and services.

- An automatic and substantial salary increase for all workers in sectors that must continue to function as employees of supermarkets and food stores, pharmacies, food distributors, social workers, cleaning, maintenance and health personnel, including sanitary and administrative workers, cleaners, maintenance, etc.

- Enhancement of care: Remuneration for those who have left their jobs to care for people dependent or affected by the COVID-19 and effective measures for domestic workers.

-Urgent and humanized assistance for the homeless, the displaced, immigrants and anyone in a vulnerable situation. We ask for a supply of free food, hygienic products and medicine to all people who live alone or in poverty.

- Suspension of the payment for essential supplies such as electricity, water or sanitation and obviously preventing cuts in these supplies.

-Private healthcare must put all its material and human resources at the service of public healthcare at no cost, in compensation for the many benefits they have obtained from public funds over the years. These resources should not be returned in the hands of private entities.

- Establish a suspension in the payment of mortgages and in the payment of rents for all families whose income is reduced due to the crisis and also suspend all evictions.

- Release of all inmates over 65 years of age, pregnant, terminally ill or with lung diseases, heart failure, kidney failure, diabetic and immunosuppressed patients, or who have cancer treatment, chemotherapy or are under corticosteroid treatment because people with these health issues are defined as vulnerable.

-The paralysis and withdrawal of sanctions that are being carried out on society, that only serve to blame it, immobilize it and frighten it.

-The immediate withdrawal of the army from the streets. The work they are doing that the working class does with all their necessary personal protective equipment and with that increase in remuneration already mentioned.

The working class has been carrying the weight of the system on our shoulders for too long. The time has come to say ENOUGH!
GET ORGANIZED AND FIGHT!

CNT-AIT

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