I am a worker, a husband and a father of two. I want my efforts to help leave them a better world. But increasingly, I wonder what future we are building.
We work too much. We get sick. There is not enough time to live, care for those we love and imagine tomorrow. At every election, new saviours appear. They promise to improve our lives, but all too often deliver more sacrifices and fewer rights.
What we want should be basic.
Every worker should have a decent home, healthy food on the table and time to spend with their family.
Every student should be able to look to the future with hope and find opportunities to build their life.
Every older person should grow old with security, health, enjoyment and respect — after a lifetime of contribution.
We build the world with our hands. We build homes, produce food, care for people and keep society running. We have a right to a dignified life in the world our work sustains.
But our needs have become commodities. Healthcare, education and housing are treated as businesses, even when this leaves people without care, without opportunities and without a roof over their heads.
Our lives are worth more than the profit anyone can make from them.
We are tired. Many of us live with anxiety, fear and discouragement. We have been taught to see this suffering as personal failure, as if survival depended on effort alone. As if we were not making that effort every single day.
Meanwhile, wealth and power become concentrated. Billions are fought over in races for markets, influence and control. We keep doing the sums to make it to the end of the month.
Our exhaustion helps keep everything as it is. When all our energy goes into surviving, little remains for participating, questioning and caring for one another. But the person beside us is also trying to survive.
How much does this war cost?
Why must we pay for education?
Why must we pay for healthcare?
Why is food so expensive?
Why can’t I buy my own home?
When did governments stop serving the people and start serving profit?
Why are we hearing hate speech again?
Why do they point one way and act the other?
It is in this landscape that the far right advances, turning insecurity into hatred and offering authoritarianism as the solution. In many places, it moves towards fascism: choosing enemies, feeding intolerance and treating rights as obstacles.
No people regain their dignity by persecuting another. No freedom is built by handing our destiny to those who demand obedience.
We also need a democracy in which our voices have consequences. Where economic power does not decide who will be heard. Where governments, large companies and digital platforms can be questioned and held accountable.
Brazil brought a breath of hope. The popular victory against the far right showed that resistance and victory are possible. That cry of “Enough!” can cross borders and inspire other peoples to regain confidence in their own strength.
We do not want an armed revolution, new wars or more violence. We want to organise, participate, demand accountability and bring about change. We want our indignation to become solidarity and collective action.
This is an invitation to workers, small business owners, students, older people and young people. To everyone who believes that the freedom and democracy we were promised must also exist in everyday life.
We do not have to agree on everything to defend what is essential: nobody should spend their life working without being able to live with dignity.
I want my children to have time to live, freedom to choose and a future that is more than a struggle to survive. I want that for your children too. For your parents, for your grandparents and for you.
