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“We are connected, we are one international movement and we are called to act, called to act for just work more than ever. In fact, the social contradictions, inequality, precariousness, informality and unemployment continue to grow, especially in the midst of the global Covid pandemic,” Sarah Prenger, the IYCW international president, said at the opening of the 15th International Council of the movement, calling all young workers of the world to act for change.
Sarah emphasized that with a strong and deep belief, young workers are able to act for social justice. “Social change is a shared task; you and I must act now to make change a reality.”
“With deep conviction in our hearts and minds, we must do something for change in our daily life, in our neighbourhood, in our school and in our working place,” Sarah said.
Sarah continued, “You and I must do something, we can make a difference, we can change the world. It is with this conviction, together with you, that I declare this XV International Council open. We should not be afraid of change.”
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When they welcomed the IYCW secretary-general (Orlando) and the ICA coordinator (Arlindo) last July, several former YCW members had the opportunity to meet and exchange on the realities and challenges of the IYCW and the ICA. Moreover, a delegation of the Walloon YCW came to join us. It was also an opportunity to present the different projects carried out by several former YCW members. Without giving a detailed description, the place is home to a collective vegetable garden, where some fifteen gardeners get together one day a week to grow various vegetables and share a common meal with products from the garden. The main objective of the garden is to encourage people to live together, creating social links through a vegetable garden which, it should be noted, does not use any pesticides.
The other initiative is a "Repair Café". This is a project that gives a second life to various electrical appliances, machines, clothes, tools, after being repaired for free by volunteer technicians. This is a way to fight against the overproduction of waste and thus preserve our environment.
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IYCW News - The Americas YCW (JOCA) organised a virtual exchange on 9 and 16 July 2021. The aim was to share about realities, needs, challenges and actions re unemployment and precarious young workers in the world of work at the continental level.
Participants in the event were young workers, activists and adults from different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, as well as a young German volunteer in Peru.
“The current global health crisis (Covid-19) has made even more visible the inequalities that we live in our societies; some of us have reinvented ways of work for survival while those who still have a job are submerged in long working hours and faced with double workload. Their salaries are often not enough to cover one or two meals a day plus other fixed costs. In addition, the cost of food, transportation and connectivity has increased,” Ana Cecilia from the Americas YCW team explained.
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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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There was an election at the ICA General Assembly held last February, and the following people were elected:
- Bernhard Bormann, a former member of the German YCW, was a member of the IYCW International team. He is currently working as a regional secretary of the KAB (Catholic Worker movement) in Rothenburg-Stuttgart. Bernhard represents the continuity, ensuring the bridge with the new advisors as he started to cooperate with the IYCW two years ago, in particular for the organization of the European Colloquy held in 2019.
- Marinete Alves Bayer was a member of the IYCW International Team from 1983 to 1987. She is a former YCW member from Brazil who lives in Spain. She is currently involved in several local social organizations in Spain and is very active in the Joseph Cardijn Educational Encounter Association.
- Michele Di Nanno was also a member of the IYCW International Team from 1983 to 1987. He is originally from Italy and is a former member of the Walloon YCW (Belgium). Very active and coordinator within the movement of permanent and popular education in Belgium, Michele will act as a bridge between the ICA and the Belgian particularities, as the IYCW secretariat is located in Brussels.
- Finally, Ludovicus Mardiyono was president of the International YCW from 2012 to 2016 and he was also president of the Indonesian YCW. He is the "most recent former member" of the IYCW. With his communication skills, he will assist the IYCW and the ICA, among others in editing and publishing website articles and newsletters that will be produced to keep you informed about actions and views on issues of importance to youth and the IYCW.
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Photo: Vatican Media Screenshot
Discussions at the 2021 ILO Conference have obviously been impacted by the global Covid pandemic. Items set on the agenda before the outbreak, such as “Inequalities” or “Social Protection,” became even more urgent, and it was necessary to call globally for action for a human-centered recovery.
The ILO Director General’s report showed the serious impact of the pandemic on the loss of jobs and the increase in inequalities, such as inequalities based on age, gender, and wealth. The IYCW took part in that discussion and commented on the topic, with statements read by Cecilia from the YCW Americas Team and by Basma from the YCW African Team.
In this 2021 Conference, Pope Francis addressed the ILO urging the organization and its members to continue to exercise “special care” for the common good, stating, “The time has come to eliminate inequalities, to cure the injustice that is undermining the health of the entire human family.”
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The Young Christian Workers (YCW) was born and developed in Spain throughout the 20th century, as in so many other countries. Because of its youth, worker and Christian character, it was always deeply marked by all the contradictions, fears and hopes of those turbulent times. On the one hand, it was rooted in the Spanish Catholic tradition, recognizable not only in its religious dimension, but also in its very relevant social, political and cultural role. On the other hand, it faced without complex the profound changes and the new realities and challenges that were constantly emerging from the workers' struggles.
This double condition placed it, during all this time, in a difficult state of equilibrium, nevertheless very creative and deeply innovative: it always wanted to be and was, without renunciation or concessions, part of the worker movement and part of the Church. This self-taught and non-formal militancy read reality through the eyes of the history of the worker movement and its struggles against exploitation, and through the eyes of a liberating Gospel, whose reference is the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
