From 19 to 22 May 2022 took place in Haltern am See / Germany a seminar about “Young workers as actors of change in Europe”, organised by JOC Europe (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne - Europe) in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union. 24 young representatives of workers’ organizations from Belgium, Germany and Spain attended the seminar.
The seminar focused on the way young workers act for change in their organizations and environment and on the mutual learning about these strategies. Different situations require different means and strategies, but still getting to know fields of action and strategies of others gives fruitful impulses in order to make young workers’ actions more effective and solution oriented.
The seminar was important just now because many things in the environments and contexts of young workers in Europe have changed significantly in the last years. There is an increasing fear for the future in a world full of uncertainties: caused not only by the most recent developments like the war in Ukraine and Covid-19, but also on a more general level by the future of human life on our planet. This situation makes young people feel powerless and without perspective. In this current situation, it is fundamentally important to learn about ways of acting and facing these uncertainties and to strengthen the organization of young workers to empower them as actors of change.
The following topic fields were discussed:
The discussions started from the realities of live the participants identified in their countries and circled around the effects of the current crises that affects young workers’ lives:
- The war in Ukraine and its direct and indirect effects on the live and work of young people.
- The changes the pandemic left in our societies.
- The capitalist system that drives our economies and societies.
Seminar results
The participants identified several common problems they see in the different countries:
- The current crises have winners and loser. The winners are those who put a price tag on rare goods as vaccines or gas and take advantage of vulnerabilities. Wealth increases where it already is and poverty gets more severe for those who are already poor due to job losses, rising energy prices, etc.
- This has direct and indirect effects on the individual live of (young) workers). Job losses, exploitation and precarization of work, rising expenses and uncertainties increase the pressure on individuals. At the same time, the thinking pattern we learned through capitalism is that we are individually responsible for our success – or for our poverty.
- A shift of responsibility can also be seen during the pandemic. Caring for oneselves and others’ health was mostly individual effort: Staying at home, reducing social live, risking our mental health, surviving despite financial losses.
- There is an increasing fear and mistrust among young workers. They fear the future because of all the uncertainties mentioned above. At the same time, political actors don’t act in a transparent and consistent way but cause more mistrust. Far right groups and parties offer apparently easy and straight forward solutions and win due to the mistrust.
- Media also boosts this mistrust, as well as other developments seen. Media are not objective but follow their own political agenda.
- The last years have shown how much inequality there is still in our societies. Most recently, we saw racism against some refugees because of their skin color, while others are warmly welcomed being white. There is also still a huge inequality between men and women and discrimination against the LGBTIQ* community.
The participants also identified some positive effects happening during the crises:
- The international dimension of the recent crises have brought a broader consciousness of interdependences and the international systems we live in.
- Many young people are becoming more aware of the importance of self-care.
- The most recent arrival of Ukrainian refugees showed that there are possibilities to mobilize huge amounts of money as well as other resources for the good.
- The big pressure in the energy sector might lead to a more dynamic development when it comes to alternatives.
- People show a lot of solidarity.
The participants decided on:
- Deepen the discussions on specific topics raised during the seminar.
- Coordinate and publish demands and positions on current topics together.
- Common formation sessions for the different organizations.
- Have direct exchange between base groups that work on the same topics.
The delegations from each organization took some time during the seminar to reflect on their findings and learnings. Each organization will be followed-up by one responsible of the preparation team to help use the results in their own contexts.