Comrades of the Labour Party,

At seventy-three years of age, fifty of which I’ve dedicated to the fight against inequality, I feel rejuvenated by my nomination to the honorary presidency of Young Labour. This honor proves, above all, that one is only old when he abandons the dreams of his youth, and I will never abandon mine. It also proves that injustice exists everywhere, and that workers’ struggles are the same around the world.

“Austerity” is the magic and wretched word that the rich everywhere use to attack the rights and achievements of the working class. “We need to save resources, cut costs,” they say, as they disassemble the state and become ever richer while the poor become ever poorer. So it is in the United Kingdom, so it is once again in Brazil ever since the coup against President Dilma Rousseff and the subsequent election of a far-right government.