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The International YCW, with the support of the International Cardijn Association and the ACV-CSC, is pleased to invite you to a panel debate on the theme: "Popular education as an organizing tool”, its challenges and opportunities in the era of globalization, digitization, work precariousness/unemployment”.
The panel debate will be held on Tuesday 10 September in Brussels, (19 rue Pletinckx) from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.
The program is an integral part of the International Team’s plan of work and the international seminar and exchange due to take place in the month of September. It will be a great opportunity to meet friends, activists and long-time fighters, but also the current members of the International Team, leaders of different continents participating in the exchange and the International Team meeting, representatives of the Walloon JOC, KAJ, Spanish YCW and CAJ (Germany), some of whom will take part in the exchange, as well as friendly social organizations.
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"Young Workers in the World of Work Today, our Vision for Tomorrow"
The delegates and national movement’s representatives of the International Young Christian Workers together with the members of Catholic Inspired Organizations, associations and trade unions, gathered in Bandung, Indonesia from August 14-22, 2018, for an International Exchange and Seminar on the theme “Young workers in the world of work today – our vision for tomorrow. Reshaping the Future of Work in the midst of digitalization, ecological change, precariousness and unemployment”
The delegates are cconvinced that Just Work is an integral part of human being for personal and humanfulfilment that guarantee for our participation in the development of society. However, seeing the world of work today, it does not guarantee the young workers, and workers in general, a sustainable life as young workers are facing unemployment, flexibilization and precarization of work around the world.
They have seen that more and more of young workers and workers are victims of long working hours, lack of social protection, informalization of work, and low wages that it is difficult for us to provide the needs of ourfamilies. The digitalization of work resulting to the dismissal of workers leading to unemployment. Likewise the way in which work is being organised allow workers to be disintegrated our working relationship and organise ourselves preventing for free association.
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From February 11th to 13th, the YCW national movements in Europe are meeting in Brussels to plan collective work at the European level. Leaders of YCW Flanders, Wallonia and Germany are attending the meeting.
The aim of the meeting, coordinated by Sarah Prenger, the European Team member, is to develop a concrete plan towards a seminar and exchange at the European level on precarious work.
Precarious work is a thorny issue in Europe, especially for youth. They are forced to work in poor conditions due to a lack of job opportunities.
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Each year since 1977, from 24th April to 1st May, the IYCW has been organizing a series of actions and activities during the International Week of the Young Workers which ends with the traditional May Day celebration. The year 2017 could not be different. All over the world, young workers and YCW leaders carried out actions against job precariousness and instability, against all sorts of inequalities they may face in their daily life. They exposed the social, political, economic and cultural problems which keep affecting the working and living conditions of millions of young women and men throughout the world.
This year in Brussels, to close the International Week of the Young Workers, the IYCW took an active part in the May Day celebration in Laeken, remembering the 50th anniversary of Joseph Cardijn’s death and proclaiming enthusiastically that “Yes, Cardijn is still relevant today”.
This celebration took place in the church of “Our Lady” in Laeken. It gathered nearly 600 people - current and former YCW leaders, as well as many former members from Belgium but also from France, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
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In September 2019, the members of the IYCW International Team (IT) gathered together in Brussels for their annual ordinary meeting. Several events were organized with the participation of the IT and IYCW activists. The starting point of the reflection on different issues young people are faced with was the reality of young workers in Germany and in other countries where the IYCW is present. We conducted an action exchange on young workers’ realities, with a focus on “migrants, refugees and gender inequalities.”
During the exchange, young people from Cologne and Berlin presented their testimonies. Then the members of the International Team relayed some testimonies that reflected the reality of each continent.
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Since the year 2000 we celebrate the International Youth Day on the 12th of august, aimed at drawing attention to issues faced by youth across the globe. On the occasion of the 2021 International Youth Day, KADOC searched the IYCW-archives to highlight some ways in which IYCW has drawn attention to youth.
The IYCW is not only an organization of youth, but also an organization for youth. Since its conception, it has not strived for improvements in the life conditions of young workers but also for representation of young workers and youth in general. The archives show that the International Youth Day was preceded by several festivals, gatherings and federations which brought youth to the attention of the world. In many of these, the International Secretariat played an important part even before it had developed into the IYCW.
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Solidarity is a crucial idea within the IYCW and a quick glance at the archives reveals this. Throughout the years countless letters, bulletins and emails contains the words “in solidarity” instead of a more generic salutation. However, the IYCW also understood that solidarity is more than words alone. It has always encouraged solidarity through action, not only from national YCW’s to their compatriots, but also between various YCW’s around the globe. The many International Solidarity Campaigns coordinated by the International Secretariat are a result of a long tradition of solidarity. Although most were undertaken in support of the victims of dictatorships, military regimes and other forms of repression such as Apartheid, there was solidarity towards the victims of natural disasters as well. For this blog article, KADOC collaborated with the JOC d’Haiti in order to shed a light on how solidarity was turned from thought to practice.
One of the first responses of the IYCW to a natural disaster was after the 1960 Valdivia-earthquake in Chile, which is still the strongest earthquake ever recorded. The first detailed account of what happened reached the IYCW in the form of a letter written to Cardijn by Wim Verbakel, a Flemish Jocist who helped expand the YCW in Chile. He estimates that In the region south of Concepcion, around 40% of the homes were in ruins, as well as numerous other building such as factories and the YCW central. The magnitude of the earthquake was massive, for he also reports that the water level in several lakes had dropped around 10 meters and that five new volcanoes and several lakes had formed. Soon bound to leave for a voyage to Africa, Cardijn rapidly printed Verbakel’s account into a circular. He stated that there was only one response to this crisis: ‘a dry Sunday (without drinks and frivolities)’. In addition to fasting, members were encouraged to donate to Cardijn’s personal account with the mention ‘for Chile’. He himself had already pledged 10 000 franks.
