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Brussels (IYCW News) – At least fifty-eight people have been killed by police and dozens of others have gone missing since the outbreak of social unrest in Colombia last April 28, 2021. Riots have occurred in various cities at the expense of young workers, women, peasants, fishermen and the urban poor. Police and soldiers have brutally fought the demonstrators in downtown streets.
Colombia is a country that has had a succession of neoliberal governments, which for decades have been implementing a series of anti-people reforms and laws in the areas of health, education, social security and labour, supported by a strong military and police system.
The government's latest attempt at fiscal reform, the cynicism of the ultra-right imposing their neoliberal measures, unleashed a massive popular rebellion, highlighting the structural crisis that the country is going through and the failure of this model on the continent. The government's response to demonstrations has been more than distressing: armed repression, human rights violations, disappearances of social leaders, sexual abuses and real urban massacres in different regions of the country.
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Brussels (IYCW News) – In the midst of the cries and screams of millions of contract workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IYCW continues to speak out to the world at the International Labour Conference which has been taking place virtually at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ana Cecilia Salazar, a leader of the YCW Americas Team, took the floor at the labour conference bringing her lament about the fate of a contract worker from Peru who lost her job due to the pandemic. "I had a temporary contract. When the lockdown was decreed, the company suspended the work. The contract will end and there will be 50 of us young people jobless," Ana read aloud as she shared the testimony of the Peruvian contract worker.
Contract workers are the most vulnerable workers and the first to be fired when the company has to terminate the employment relationship. In her statement, which was read from Peru, Ana emphasized that the phenomenon of easy layoffs for contract workers occurs in almost all countries and has affected millions of contract workers worldwide. This form of work, as well as all forms of precarious and informal work related to online platforms, is increasing even more in the aftermath of the pandemic.
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Brussels (IYCW News) – Basma Doka Louis, the African YCW coordinator, read a statement at the International Labour Conference (ILC) addressing one of the main topics in the conference in the social protection committee - A recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of social protection (social security), under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on social Justice for a Fair Globalization.
In her statement, she emphasized that young workers need to feel valued by living a recognized life. The full implementation of ILO convention 102 and recommendation N. 202 is crucial in order to guarantee a just social protection system for all.
Basma also shared the testimony of a restaurant worker in Australia who was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: “I was working in the restaurant as a cook. When Covid hit and the government provided a form of crisis social security payment, I was not eligible for it and the business let me go. I had to depend on charity events for food and groceries. It impacted my mental health.” The statement was read out from Egypt in a virtual ILC.
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On Thursday 23rd February, more than 140 participants joined the webinar on “Future opportunities and challenges for the Social and Solidarity Economy” which was organized by INSPIR/WSM, RIPESS, WEIGO and the IYCW. We first discussed the future challenges for the different SSE actors (civil society, trade unions, small scale SSE collective and cooperative producers and employers, ILO and other UN institutions, states, regional bodies, local authorities). These discussions were based on the 2022 International Labour Conference’s General Conclusions and the International Labour Organization Action Plan.
First, we asked participants to define the Social and Solidarity Economy with one word. The answers were: “humanity, solidarity, democratic economy, social purpose, sharing of wealth, contributory, human centered, reparative, collective ownership, sustainable, possible, community, non-profit, economic sustainability, post-capitalist, cooperation, principles, equality, values, alternative, future, support, just, co-construction.”
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For so long women have been exploited, discriminated, harassed, and oppressed in the factories, houses and societies, and looked at as fragile, weak and vulnerable beings who are only meant to stay at home and look after their family.
But the truth is that women are a crucial part of the social, political and economic development all over the world. Their role in the different parts of history can’t be hidden, because the struggle of women for dignity, equality and equity at workplaces and in societies around the world is not a new trend.
Today we women are continuing the struggle of these activist women who left their mark throughout history. We are fighting in the footsteps of all those who have already achieved so much for us: women workers, trade unionists, suffragettes, scientists, housewives, students - women who revolted!
