President Gustavo Petro, from the balcony of the Casa de Nariño, to commemorate Labor Day, called on the workers to accompany him to defend the reforms that he presented to the Congress of the Republic. “There has to be a peasant town, a working town that knows how to unite, overcome fear, organize and go out onto the road, into the public square, to say… that they want their right to live in better conditions.”
“The people cannot sleep. It is not enough to have won at the polls. Social change implies a permanent struggle and that struggle occurs with a mobilized people…”, was the invitation of President Gustavo Petro to Colombians to demonstrate in defense of the labor, pension and health reform projects, which are being processed in Congress.
The president made the call on the balcony of the Casa de Nariño, from where he reminded the attendees and those who followed him through the media, that the bills “seek the social change for which eleven million Colombians voted.” .
In the commemoration of Labor Day, President Petro stated that the reforms presented are necessary for the country, so congressmen must approve them. “The reforms that we know are fundamental have been presented. And approving them should be an objective that the Colombian Congress -despite the pressures of privileged groups-, has to do, has to vote for them, support them, determine these great laws”, he said.
He argued that in order to get these reform projects approved, the people are needed. “This government of majorities needs a mobilized people. Congress will not do it alone, he warned. There has to be a peasant people, a working people who know how to unite, overcome their fears, organize themselves and go out on the road, to the Public Square, to say that there is a working people, of eleven million people, who want their right to live in better conditions.”
He regretted that the country has not been able to advance, until now, in the establishment of an efficient and just agrarian reform. “The privileged sector does not voluntarily offer us the land,” he said, after recalling that “in times of hunger and climate crisis, having fertile land without producing is nonsense.”
“That peasant right must reappear, so that it can be a fundamental actor. The land is for the one who works it; land has a social and environmental function. It is not for the heirs of the feudal lords, who defend it by killing the humble and who do not fulfill the social function of putting it to work to produce food,” said the president.
President Petro maintained that his legacy to the country will be to leave the reforms that benefit the poor. “They believed that once in the Government, Petro –cornered- would lower the flag of the Great Transformation, that of Social Change, and that he would live comfortable and calm with the fact of being the first left-wing President of Colombia and that he would not bother anymore. That he would go to live on my pension, like one more… But that is not our destiny, that is not our role in the history of Colombia. It is to achieve the triumph of the reforms!”
