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In the city of Volta Redonda, south of Rio de Janeiro, living conditions are precarious, leisure and cultural facilities are lacking, and illicit trafficking and violence are frequent. In most families, the mother is the head of household. Most young people study in precarious public schools and also seek to supplement the income of the family network. Young people are the children of workers, mostly in the informal sector.
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A community without leaders, a lack of interest from local residents in taking care of their neighborhood, many abandoned spaces - the central park, the municipal hall, the sports fields - occupied by outsiders who were using them for drugs and alcohol.
This was the situation five years ago in the working-class, self-managed district of Villa El Salvador, south of Lima. This reality was the starting point for action by young YCW members, who involved residents in reclaiming the area, transforming the neighborhood where they lived and changing the lives of young workers and community members.
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"We are delighted with everything you have told us, it has opened our eyes and awakened our consciences, because we were in ignorance. The topics covered are necessary information/tools that will enable us to get by in society. We believe that the YCW is an ideal movement for awareness-raising and social integration." Makita Sanielle Chamelia
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The International Week of Young Workers is celebrated every year by the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) from the 24th of April to the 1st of May. It was first celebrated in 1970 as the National Week of Young Workers by the Brazilian YCW.
In 1983 during the International Council of IYCW in Madrid Spain, the International Week was adopted as one of the main events at the international level. Since then, the IYCW promoted it in all countries where it is present as a training, organizational, and demanding means for young workers. During this week, the young workers conduct different activities to share and analyse their situations, express their convictions, strengthen friendship, and participate in actions to claim their rights. Therefore, this week ends up with May 1st demonstrations, which will be organised virtually this year.
The working class in Brazil is suffering from serious setbacks that affect everyone especially the youth. Facing the current scenario, we are called to unify our voices and actions. As a mark of this challenge, we invite all young people and all people in solidarity with our struggle for life and decent working condition to join us in prayer:
"Jesus, I offer you this day, my work, difficulties and struggles, my joys and hopes. Grant us, as young people who are training for professional life, that we are looking for work or have work, awareness of our dignity, rights, and our responsibilities. Grant us the grace to witness our love for life and for what is honest and just, the daily dedication to our union and organization, and wisdom to act collectively for a dignified life and working condition. Grant us, at last, fidelity to the mission of working for the Kingdom that is yours, today and forever" - Reginaldo Andrietta, Bishop of Diocese Jales Brazil.
As described by Bishop Reginaldo Andrietta, after 36 years since the establishment of the International Week of Young Workers in the 6th International Council of IYCW in the city of Madrid, today the International YCW continues to develop its struggle through actions " by, among and for young workers, with the aim of achieving a more just and dignified world. During this International Week from April 24 to May 1, we, the activists of International YCW, would like to invite all young workers around the world to continue our struggle and resist against the new challenges we will face after the spread of the COVID19 global pandemic.
Once again, the International YCW is raising its voice to have a:
"Just work, equality, and a dignified life for all young workers around the world."
The International Secretariat of 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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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.
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The Caritas in Veritate Foundation recently presented their tenth working paper. Recent decades have witnessed the consolidation of a global economic system strongly characterised by exclusion and inequality as a result of a largely excessive and misplaced trust in the omnipotence of the markets. Today, the distortions and dysfunctions of the free market economy tend to adversely affect the lives of individuals and communities more than ever before. Consequently, work itself, together with its dignity, is increasingly at risk of losing its value as a “good” for the human person and becoming merely a means of exchange within asymmetrical social relations. This calls us to rethink and reconsider what labour is and what it means for the economy, society, policy.
