A-Infos (en) UK, ACG: Getting Older under Capitalism (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The article below was written by a supportive comrade outside the ACG. 
---- We get older. Get used to it. ---- Statistics suggest that the life 
expectancy of working class people is not much less that middle and 
upper class people. That's if you're lucky enough to live to a ripe old 
age. Working-class people will have faced the additional risks of 
less-healthy lifestyles, heavy manual labour, working in dangerous 
conditions and exposure to harmful chemicals, whether it be in the home, 
office, laboratories or the chemical industry. Older workers tell their 
younger workmates to take it easy as they'll regret it when they're 
older but they are ignored.

If they have survived terminal illnesses like cancer or heart disease 
and not be cursed with failing eyesight and hearing-loss, older 
working-class people will be more susceptible to conditions that affect 
joints like osteo-arthritis.

All in all, life under capitalism for working-class people is shit.

It was in 1948 that the State Pension was introduced, for age 65 for men 
and age 60 for women. Since then, successive governments have raised the 
State Pension age, presently 66 for men and women, with it likely to 
increase in 2026 and even more after 2044.

Working class people deserve to live their final years in comfort, yet 
the bosses, and their lapdogs, governments, want to minimise those 
'golden years' and work us to the grave! They don't care if work is 
exacerbating our health conditions as long as they carry on getting 
cheap labour and save on paying pensions for longer.

This is an issue that affects us all, old and young. Youngsters may be 
fit and healthy now but the years roll by quickly and they'll be like us 
old'uns soon enough. In other countries, like France, increasing the 
pension age is a massive issue, leading to large anti-government 
protests. Yet in Britain, we do fuck all. There are no active 
pensioners' campaign groups. The unions have retired members branches 
who just support Labour, their general secretaries happy for us to sign 
petitions until the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) recently 
threatened strikes and direct action over the issue. Governments want to 
impose the increases on us, the far-right never mention pensions and the 
far-left are only interested in the trendy issue of the moment. The 
chance for Anarchists to unite around the issue of resisting the pension 
age increases seems a golden opportunity.

Anarchist Communists have long realised that the struggle for 
working-class liberation is not just in the workplace but the community 
too. We may need to learn new skills in how we communicate with the 
wider working-class and build organisation on a small-scale, in our 
cities, towns and villages. Unless we do, we can all face having to work 
harder, for longer. Fuck that for a game of marbles!

Ned Skinn

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/07/25/getting-older-under-capitalism/
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