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Whether at district level where it opposes the government policies or giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, or at national level where it demands 100 days of work for at least one person per family, YCW India is fighting with the unemployed for their survival and their dignity.

A struggle for the reinstatement of 10,000 dismissed road construction workers

In one district where the YCW is present, one signature was enough for the previous government to dismiss more than 10,000 road construction workers. The YCW immediately made common cause with the workers in the district to carry out a campaign for their rehiring and the hiring of other unemployed workers to fill the vacancies. The YCW launched a postcard signature campaign to raise awareness about the issue and to put pressure on the government.

In India, it is not easy to be a woman. It is not easy to be a Dalit either. Dalit women are oppressed twice as much, because they are women and because they are Dalit. Their lives are made of discrimination and injustice. The India YCW knows the problem well as most of its members are Dalits, and it is carrying out concrete actions on the ground to make things change. Here is an example, in Pulimateau, a village in the state of Tamil Nadu. This action has been carried out with young women working in agriculture.

The background of the action

In Pulimateau, the young women working in agriculture only received INR 30 ($0.75). Note that for a kilo of rice (major food in India) they already pay INR 15. In their YCW group, they discovered that a five member family needs at least INR 150 a day to meet its basic needs. They made an in-depth review of their living and working conditions. Here is their analysis.

The „Symbolic Action" of the JOC Europe, "Young workers reinventing tomorrow's world of work!" 23-26.11. 2006 in Passau/Germany

Background and objectives of the activity

More than 100 young people from eight European countries met for four days in Passau to discuss about their visions and conceptions of the future work and life in Europe. This activity represented the climax of a three years process during which many projects and actions were organised and implemented at local, regional, national and European level.

Programme and results

The process in the national Movements
At the beginning of the meeting the three years process was briefly recalled and each national Movement got the opportunity to present actions/projects which had been implemented during this process. The presentations showed how much courage and energy young people develop when they try to find answers to their various problems on the training and labour market and gave the participants the possibility to get some small insight in the reality of the others which created a good basis for mutual understanding.