In this month of April there are one hundred years of the birth of Christian working youth (JOC), an international youth movement founded by Joseph Cardijn in Belgium in 1925 and that quickly extended to many countries on the five continents. In Spain, its first groups were constituted shortly before the civil war, but this organization was only officially recognized and tolerated from the 50s of the last century, despite the Francoist government and thanks to the signed concordat with the Holy See, in which the relations between the Church and the State were regulated.
To commemorate its first centenary, the JOC has scheduled various activities in Belgium, in which Spanish Jocistas will participate, and there will be others in many countries of the world. In Spain, the central act will take place in Madrid on April 26, and in different cities throughout the state the jocistas have already begun to celebrate this event.
The JOC is a compound, directed and self -managed international movement entirely by young people from the local to the international. Young people who belong to the working class and we are committed to it, to try to change situations of injustice against people and to improve our living conditions. Young people with awareness of our dignity as people, aware of our transcendent dimension of life beyond death and temporal circumstances, trying to live a spiritual dimension that gives a deep meaning to life. Many of us live that dimension following the teachings of Jesus Christ, his example, his unconditional love, with a deep sense of love towards all the young workers of the world and respecting their various spiritual beliefs, which translates into a solidarity practice in our life and in our daily struggle. In this process of struggle we try to promote awareness by all the young people in the world to live according to that dignity and that transcendence.
The JOC is a training school in life through all its action. The young workers involved in these fighting processes develop important abilities and attitudes for life. Capabilities that make us more aware, more autonomous, freer and more skilled by practicing responsibility in the commitments we adopt, the generosity in the time we dedicate freely and voluntarily, solidarity by undertaking initiatives with other young people, the experience of planning and evaluating the planned plans, the experience of acting to achieve what we have proposed, the habit of managing, the tolerance and respect for others Like something normal.
Lifelong school
This commitment that begins from young people is for a lifetime, and we have demonstrated thousands of militants that we have remained organized on different platforms and actions of the working class, promoting cooperatives for production, consumption, savings, housing, teaching, immigrant welcome association Platforms, together with the closest population, to build alternatives with a goal: a more just society. Many of those people militants of the JOC, in addition to leading organizations, have made the leap to politics occupying positions of responsibility.
What has JOC contributed to people’s growth and, therefore, to society as a whole? The answer is simple: a lot. And it is justice to remember it in this centenary of his birth.
Has contributed a youth with International dimension. The fact of self -management our organization from the base to the international level, and to live together the different cultures and traditions, ensures a natural way of conceiving human fraternity in all its diversity and wealth, learning some people from others. This permanent exchange allows us to discover that, above the geographical, cultural, historical and ethnic situations, we all have the same aspirations and the same desires to be happy, to live in peace, to realize as people, to laugh, to feel loved and respected.
At the same time, there is a true and direct view of the exploitation reality suffered by working youth in the various countries of the world. A reality that is not spoken enough in the media or in education.
Throughout these hundred years, the JOC has carried out multiple interventions in the International Labor Organization (ILO) in which it has claimed improvements in working conditions and has pressed with campaigns carried out internationally and nationally. A good example is that in 1964 the European JOC, including the Spanish JOC, congregated 20,000 young workers in Strasbourg to get a letter/statute that included the regulation of several labor improvements and that in Spain improved the learning contract. He also made contributions to employment plans, when unemployment has hit youth in a very severe way, and also made contributions to youth policies around youth houses, leisure services and free time.
Has contributed a working youth aware of the message received from José Cardijn, founder of the JOC, who caught in all of us and we did it: “A young worker is worth more than all the gold in the world.”
Convinced of that value, the JOC has contributed a working youth criticism with situations of injustice and with the powers that maintain these situations. That critical position has sometimes led us to be badly seen and even persecuted by the official authorities, especially by the Police, and sometimes to be poor Organized by the JOC in Spain, at that time the 40,000 copies of the newspaper were guillotinated several times Obrera youth, that we edited monthly with information from the labor reality, and the Police intervened several calls for assemblies with young people in Madrid and Barcelona.
This international movement has also contributed to society a working youth securities carrier and coherent With our way of living spirituality until its last consequences, which throughout history has been adopting different ways of understanding and practicing Christian faith, always positioned next to working youth and motivated to act permanently to fight for better living conditions for everyone. The organization, especially in the last decades, has been formed by militants who found a response to their deepest aspirations in the great universal values.
In this way they have reaffirmed in values such as generosity, love, solidarity, justice over particular interests, freedom, responsibility, respect for everyone and nature, live together and share, help those who need it most, etc. And that way of living faith becomes an ideal of life forever. This practical way of living the Gospel has sometimes brought us enough misunderstandings on the part of some sectors of the official Church, until in 1982 it was legalized as an autonomous civil organization with the name of Christian working youth of Spain (Joce)
Likewise, the JOC has contributed a competent working youth, capable of self -managing and directing its organization, from the local to the international level: self -management its finances and their decision making, with all members. Representative to the maximum of their youth, there are 18 -year -old leaders and international leaders of less than 30 years.
Currently, the International JOC (JOCI) is present on the 5 continents, facing the great challenges of youth such as work precariousness, unemployment, the situation of the most vulnerable groups such as immigrants, as well as global concerns about the planet and gender equality, among other issues. One hundred years after its foundation, JOCI continues with the aspiration to continue responding to problems and offering a training school for action-reflection. His work and training method, ver-jug-to-act, continues to be as valid as then and equally necessary.
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