In December 2025, YCW Argentina marked its 85th Anniversary, in the year of the Centenary of the Young Christian Workers (JOC/YCW). This was not a commemorative act detached from reality, but a week of militant presence, collective reflection, and public struggle, rooted in the daily lives of young workers. The activities were accompanied by the presence of an international team member of the International Young Christian Workers, whose participation strengthened international solidarity and reaffirmed the global dimension of the struggles faced by young workers in Argentina and around the world.
Argentina Today: Crisis, Precarity, and Repression
Argentina is living through a deep social and labor crisis. Inflation, loss of purchasing power, layoffs, and labor reforms have intensified precarious work and fear in workplaces, especially among young people. Protest is criminalized, rights are dismantled, and workers are pushed toward individual survival in the face of structural injustice.
YCW Argentina stands firm: there is no individual way out of a collective crisis.
Memory as a Weapon for the Present
The anniversary week began on December 8 at the Church of Santa Cruz, honoring the 12 of Santa Cruz, victims of state terrorism. The tribute to Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, former Jocista and militant, reminded us that the struggle for justice has always carried risks—and that neutrality has never saved lives.
Remembering our disappeared militants is not symbolic. It is a political act. Memory strengthens resistance and exposes the continuity between past repression and present attempts to discipline workers and dismantle rights.
Political Holiness: Militancy Rooted in the Working Class
On December 9, Jocistas reflected on Political Holiness—understood as living faith through struggle, organization, and commitment to the working class. Participants spoke openly about fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty, but also about the necessity of breaking isolation.
Young workers are often made to feel alone. JOC militants take responsibility for opening spaces of dialogue, awareness, and organization. Holiness, we affirmed, is not moral purity—it is choosing justice over comfort, collective good over individual advancement, and struggle over resignation.
Human Rights Are Defended in the Streets
On December 10, YCW Argentina honored militants persecuted and disappeared during the dictatorship and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of José “Pepe” Palacio, placing a plaque at the site of his kidnapping. Pepe’s life remains a reference of militant faith and working-class commitment.
The following day, December 11, YCW Argentina marched in the March of Resistance at Plaza de Mayo. Alongside human rights organizations, unions, students, retirees, and social movements, we denounced repression, austerity, and labor reforms promoted by the current government.
Marching is not optional for our movement. Taking the streets is part of our identity, especially when rights are under attack. Even under extreme heat and social pressure, Jocistas marched with conviction, reaffirming that silence only benefits oppression.
Grassroots Organization as an Answer to Crisis
On December 12, the visit to the El Plumerillo Workers’ Cooperative exposed the harsh reality of popular neighborhoods: hunger, inflation, exhaustion, and abandonment by the State. But it also revealed resistance.
Cooperatives are not charity. They are political responses to exclusion—creating dignified work, sustaining community kitchens, redistributing food, and building collective care. In an “era of cruelty,” grassroots organization becomes a form of survival and rebellion.
The visit to a reclaimed factory managed by its workers reinforced a fundamental truth: workers do not need bosses to produce, but they do need organization.
Building the Future Without Forgetting the Past
The week closed on December 13 with a large assembly in Wilde. Through testimonies and collective reflection, militants explored how memory shapes identity and commitment. The sealing of a Time Capsule, to be opened at JOC Argentina’s centenary, symbolized continuity between generations of struggle.
The reading of the Manifesto of YCW Argentina at 85 Years reaffirmed the movement’s position: JOC is not neutral, not bureaucratic, and not detached from reality. It is a movement of young workers, rooted in neighborhoods and workplaces, committed to transforming unjust structures from below.
85 Years Later: The Struggle Continues
YCW Argentina reaches its 85th year in a country marked by inequality, repression, and uncertainty—but also by resistance, memory, and collective strength. Our history obliges us. Our present demands action. Our future depends on organization.
No one is saved alone.
Long live the struggle of young workers!
Long live JOC Argentina!
English 
Español 
Français 