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Basma Louis, IYCW leader
IYCW News - On 12th July the NGO-UNESCO liaison Committee organized a preparation meeting for the 75th anniversary event which will take place this coming September by virtual means.
The NGO-UNESCO liaison committee works with more than 240 NGOs, but only 40 attended this meeting when asked to delegate young people under the age of 30. It is obvious that the NGOs need to include more young people in their organizations and structures.
The objective of the meeting was to develop a Position Paper on Youth and Guidelines for Advocacy to be presented at UNESCO’s 75th Anniversary celebrations. During the meeting, the delegates split into 4 different breakout rooms to discuss more specifically the position paper and the launching of the event.
The IYCW leader Basma Louis attended the meeting and brought the proposal of the movement to be included in the position paper.
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Last Friday 15th February, the International Secretariat (IS) team members met with representatives of World Solidarity Movement (WSM) as part of the process of integration of the new IS members. The meeting took place at the IYCW office in Schaerbeek, Belgium.
The WSM representatives were Bart, Ben and Jeroen. Bart and Ben are responsible for WSM’s international action department while Jeroen is a north-south cooperation program coordinator. All the IS outgoing and new team members were present at the meeting.
There were two strategic items on the agenda of the meeting: international political action and the cooperation program between WSM and the IYCW.
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European, legislative and regional elections were held in Belgium on Sunday 26th May 2019, in which Belgian citizens elected their representatives for the European parliament, the Belgian parliament and regional parliaments.
“Black Sunday”, “Brown Plague” (the name given to Nazism during the Second World War) are the words most frequently used after the results of the ballot. The far right has progressed dramatically in the North of Belgium, causing deep concern among democracy advocates.
The European elections were held in the 28 countries of the Union, and far-right parties were also winners in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Poland. Those parties are spreading racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-immigrant ideas across the continent.
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The Australian YCW held its national council last January. It brought together 34 young leaders from around the country to discuss the reality of young people in their cities. Their recently elected national president, Marilyn Bellett, gives us an update on their new national campaign called “Generation Connection.”
What they learned from the situations they discussed at the council is that “there is a real sense of distrust and disillusionment in young people, especially when it comes to institutions, whether that be schools, governments or church-based institutions.”
Some of the key areas they wanted to focus on included young people experiencing precarious work and wage theft, migrant young workers and refugees, asylum seekers and international students, young women, young men, as well as student realities in high schools and universities. With that last group, they have been developing their relationship with the Australian YCS (Young Christian Students).
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A Campaign by the Walloon YCW to "Stop Repression"
The Liege (Walloon) YCW is holding an annual event called "Stop Repression" to promote peace and demand social change in Belgium on 22-23 February 2013.
"Repression has been ubiquitous in our lives, our organization, and our society for quite a few years. In short, it has become part of young people’s reality everywhere," said Slim Essaker, a YCW activist in Liege.
Slim explained that there are actually various forms of repression such as abusive stop and check in neighborhoods, administrative arrest for anyone who might disturb public order, municipal administrative sanctions, installation of surveillance cameras everywhere, expulsion of undocumented migrants, etc.
Taking into account these various forms of repression and the negative impact on the public, the Liege YCW is organizing a seminar titled "Stop Repression."
Several social activists concerned with police violence are scheduled to attend the event.
Christy Nodin (YCW activist from Liege involved in the “Stop repression” campaign). He is one of the initiators of the campaign and of the 15th March annual event against police brutality.
Mark Monaco (Euromayday - Precarious United). He will draw a comparison between activism and repression in Genoa-Italy in 2001 and today, especially in the case of Belgium and “No Border Camp 2010”.
Ludovicus Mardiyono (Indonesian union activist - International president of the IYCW) will talk about strikes, factory occupations, imprisonment and repression beyond borders.
Olivier Stein (lawyer) will talk about civil rights when arrested by the police.
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As it does every year, the IYCW attended the 106th session of International Labour Conference held in Geneva in June 2017. Below is the IYCW-WSM joint statement on labour migration, read by Antonio Zela, a YCW activist from Paraguay and continental coordinator.
“I thank you on behalf of the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) and World Solidarity (WSM) for giving me the opportunity to make a joint statement to this Committee. We would also like to thank the Office for the report prepared for this general discussion.
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Discrimination and racism on the part of the police, repression of people’s movements, migrants hunting, tracking down of homeless people, widespread filing of personal records… It is most urgent to get organized and denounce the security logic. The Stop Repression campaign has been mobilizing against police violence and state repression for eight years now. We hope many of you will join us in the streets of Charleroi on March 15 for the International Day Against Police Violence!
Stop repression of migrations!
Subject to a repression organized at the highest levels of the state, the only crime of refugees and undocumented people is to look for a better future. They are arrested with brutality and placed in closed centers pending deportation. Closed centers are real prisons, and detention conditions are so bad that some migrants attempt to take their own life. Nowadays, even families with children can end up in a closed center. Nobody is spared by those racist security measures taken by the authorities.
Solidarity is also criminalized: legal proceedings against people who host them, violence against citizens who legally film arbitrary arrests. Migrants hunting is carried out to the detriment of mankind, the rule of law and solidarity among peoples. It sometimes ends up in a tragic bloodshed, like on 17 May 2018 when a police officer, still free today, killed little Mawda. To give itself the tools to implement its inhuman policies, the current government decided to build three new centers, including one in Wallonia, in Jumet. Faced with the state’s headlong rush, let’s demand the closure of all closed centers, the regularization of all undocumented people, and the freedom of movement for migrants.
