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Don’t let Covid or dengue break the strength of people who struggle!

Our friends of the Amazon urgently need drugs, sanitizers and non-perishable food.

If you want to help the Peruvian movement, your financial contribution is welcome. You can make a bank transfer to the Belfius account of the International YCW indicating “Solidarity Peru YCW”. We will send them your donation.

Bank details: Belfius Bank, chaussée de Helmet, 218 - B-1030 Schaerbeek, Belgium

IBAN: BE22 7995 5015 9447

Swift code: GKCCBEBB

“A young worker’s health is worth more than all the gold in the world”

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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 15^th 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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 “In the world today, there is a wide gap between the decent life everyone is supposed to be entitled to and the difficulty we have to meet our most basic needs,” said the YCW Asia Pacific (ASPAC) team in a statement it has recently published.

The ASPAC YCW mentions appalling statistics from international institutions. For instance, according to the World Bank, around 50% of the world population lives with less than US$2.50 a day while in Asia alone, even in the least industrialized countries, you need at least USD15 to 20 per day to meet basic needs. Around the world, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. The ILO reported that about 5.1 billion people (75% of the world population) are not covered by adequate social security, while according to UN-Habitat, 2.6 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation and 884 million people lack access to adequate sources of drinking water.

The Reality of Young Workers in Asia

The statement includes some testimonies from young workers in Asian countries.

“I am working in a construction field and I am a daily wage worker. I am 20 years old, yet I am the one responsible to take care of my family. I have 3 younger brothers and sisters whom I am supporting for their education and family food expenses. I receive a salary of PhP250/day (US$ 5). With this salary, we can’t even afford to have a good meal three times a day. There are days that we eat rice with magic syrup (artificial cooking powder), adding water in it.” - Jomarie Navarro, Philippines

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Equal Pay Day stands for the gender pay gap between women and men, which according to the Federal Statistical Office is 21 percent in Germany. This large pay gap means that women work for free until 18 March, i.e. 77 days, while men have been paid for their work since 1 January. Thus, the gross hourly wage for men is 4.41 euros more than for women. Germany lies thereby in the European comparison far behind. Positive examples in Europe are Romania, Italy and Belgium, which have gender pay gaps of less than 7 percent.

CAJ women see a huge problem here and do not want to accept this: Jasmin is angry when someone says that the pay gap doesn't even exist if more women work full-time or if they go less into social professions. She wonders why it is still the case that social activities are so badly paid.

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For years now, YCW Bavaria has been actively campaigning for the protection of Sunday to be free from work. It aims for the workers to have time to spend with family, play soccer with friends, establish relationships with the community, go to Church, participate in social voluntary work and build organizations. The action is against big shops that open on Sunday and some shops that extend the closing hours until 11 in the evening.

Sundays and legal holidays are defined as days of rest protected by the Basic Law and the Bavarian Constitution. However, some shops open during sales periods, Sunday markets and feast days, and on other special occasions, taking advantage of community activities to open.

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109 years ago, the Second International Conference of Women was held in Copenhagen, the demand for universal suffrage for all women was reiterated and, at the proposal of Clara Zetkin, 8 March was proclaimed International Women's Day. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the labour movement maintained a traditional patriarchal position on women's equality and demands. It was in the middle of the nineteenth century when the women's movements became stronger, with the struggle for women's suffrage, the demand for equality, the denunciation of social, family and labour oppression.