WMCW Message For Womens' Day: "The Challenge Of Going On Caring The Threads Of Life"
International Women’s Day, that has its origin in a tragical event on 8th March in 1908, we receive it again in 2022 in the midst of a health pandemic which has wreaked havoc in the economies and societies in the world and, at the same time, it has showed us the structural inequalities in the development in all areas of our lives.
In this particular time of crisis, women have been at the frontline inside and outside the home. In the private sphere, more than three times the hours of unpaid care work already fell on their backs, the pandemic increased them; and, in the social sphere, their role has been essential in running the soup kitchens, the neighbourhood self-organising, the health promotion, in the neighbourhoods, even when the personal resources and institutional capacity have been limited and the rights recognized, have also been threatened. Despite this work by women, social and protection systems were broken up and calls for help, complaints of violence and the sexual abuse have increased. Women were left at the expense of domestic violence in conditions of greater vulnerability, taking place a rise of feminicides as the cruellest expression against them.
INFOR October 2021: "Review of «three T» campaign: land, housing and work"
Through the articles written by some movements, I would like to highlight the important work done by the forty and nine WMCW movements (affiliated and contacts) around the theme «Land, Housing and Work for a decent life».
This theme has found many echoes in all the continents and has strengthened our mission. We were also encouraged pope Francis’s words that, in the meeting of popular movements on 28th October, 2014, said: «There is a thing that every father, every mother wants for their children; an aspiration that should be at the reach for all, but which unfortunately it escapes it more and more to the most is: the land, the housing and the work. It is strange, but when I say this to some people, they tell that Pope is a communist. They do not understand that love to the poor is at the heart of Gospel. Land, housing and work, for which we fight, are sacred rights. Affirming that it is possible is the Social Doctrine of the Church».
And it is above on the basis of these sacred human rights that this INFOR issue presents testimonies about different ways of action around the right of Land, Housing and Work.
WMCW Message for the Year 2021
The Church and the world are expecting a lot from us. I start with this statement because we are looking at the effort and commitment of our Pope Francis in doing that the great community of Jesus Project’s followers joins around him, understands the dimension of this proposal that it goes far beyond from those who confess our creed, that reaches to all workers around the world and in every corner of planet, this our House, threatened dangerously today by the disease of consumerism, the greed, negationism, intolerance, rotten fruits of selfishness, this evil that was so struggled by the one who, by Love, gave his life by all us.
These times living are really strange, saddened by the number of deaths resulting from a pandemic, but also by the precariousness in which millions of victims of unemployment live, aggravated by the disease, but also by the mechanisms of wealth concentration of the powerful. We are saddened deeply to see to millions starving to death, despite all the technological advances in food production, but even more saddened by the waste. How worrying it is to see whole families moving aimless, hopeless, frightened by ethnic, religious and political conflicts, looking for a place where they can have peace; families barred by barbed wire, electrified fences, police with water jets and dogs that scare, humiliate and kill. This horrible scene we are witnessed, designed by a death project and produced by a system that nothing has to offer to humanity, is also wounded of death, as Mother Earth, it is dying; but the Mother will recover, due to the wounds, but the perverse system will pass, as others have done.
INFOR June 2021: "Telework and Digital Work"
Do telework and digital work contribute really to a greater working freedom?
Not if the labour legislation remains being what it is, if trade unions are still at company doors, if workers are still persecuted by thinking differently, if the normal working day is not reduced, etc. In this context, teleworking from home can only mean more exploitation and greater subjugation of worker –and his family– to work.
In many places, due to the need to confine our professional activity in our living space, teleworking has been seen as a panacea for many evils, among them the difficulty of reconciling working and professional life.
New forces are transforming in the working world. COVID-19 pandemic has social and political consequences: a «virtualisation of human life» and a social control” has been established. The world as we knew was stopped at the beginning of 2020 and the governments, supporting by science, had to implement measures to save lives.
It is true that life goes on, but undoubtedly we have adopted the most unusual way of working of this generation. The challenge for policy makers is how to remain protecting people’s life and health without, at the same time, causing any irreversible damage to the economy.
- MIGRANTS’ DAY MESSAGE – 18th DECEMBER: "LET’S BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS!
- MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON THE OCCASION OF THE FOURTH WORLD MEETING OF POPULAR MOVEMENTS
- 7th October, 2021: World Day for Decent Work Message
- Our comrade Juan Churats passed away
- May First, 2021: WMCW International Statement