"The utopia is necessary to guarantee ... to overthrow injustice".

Quim Boix Lluch, an industrial engineer and trade union activist. He is preparing the first world congress of pensioners and retirees.
This 68-year-old man born in Barcelona retired in 2010. He was an engineer in the Council of Montcada i Reixac (a city in Barcelona), where he achieved his post in 1986. His union trade activity, which has never ceased, had caused his expulsion from eight companies   before, six private and two state ones. He was arrested 11 times for his anti-Franco struggle, tortured three times and sentenced to two terms of six months in prison. He is a member of the Presidential Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and is organizing the first international conference of pensioners and retired union members in Barcelona on 5th and 6th February.
- How many assistants are estimated?
- We expect up to one hundred delegates from the five continents. Some countries which have already confirmed are: Australia, The United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Somalia, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, India and Nepal.
- Which is the main struggle that will be the turning point in this conference?
- Achieving  that all the countries in the world recognize and implement the right to a suitable state pension to live decently from age 60, or earlier, regardless of whether they had worked or not previously. It is not the young people’s fault that so many of them can’t work these days.
- Will we get to know what is happening in each country?
Yes. The conference is planned as an exchange of country experiences. For example, on  January 2011  Spain planned to increase the retirement age from 65 to 67 – in a pact among PSOE,  CCOO and UGT- , whereas Bolivia was decreasing it for men from  60 to 55, and for women to 49 if they have three or more children.
- Are there any new union memberships once you are retired?
- Increasingly, since the social “clipping” is leading the people to look for help and protection.
- Where can the activity and progress of unionism in the world be followed?
- For example, in www.pensionistas.info.
- Both motivation and activity are the leading points of your retirement. Are your goals essential?
- The life of every person who wants to improve their environment needs some goals to be shared with others. Only then those goals become achievements, and it is good to set goals based on a collective work. This is the essence of democratic unionism and, therefore, WFTU’s too.
- Communism had to make do with being a reason to continue fighting, dreaming and working. Has it been 100% utopian?
- Communism,  like true socialism - not the one of those who praise capitalism from their multinational board of directors-, is an alternative to capitalism, but we only have experiences under construction , that is , with defects , like in Cuba . The utopia is necessary to guarantee the optimism required to overthrow injustice.
- Give me a message of optimism.
There is enough wealth in the world to ensure that everybody lives in dignity, as long as the needs of individuals are prioritized before the decisions of capital, which means the markets. If Spain finished with its tax fraud, there would be enough money   so as to increase 60%  the state pensions.
- Imprisonments and tortures were worth it?
Although I was an anti-Franco fighter,   I was one of those who turned out to be less damaged. Too many died shot or spent decades in prison or exiled. With the perspective of years, as I can see  that lots of  the claimed rights have turned into legally recognized realities - although our rulers want to reduce them now-, I feel extremely pleased.