“But let justice roll on like a river,righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
(Am 5:24)
7th October has to be an imperative framework in the fight for decent work, as proposed by the ILO - International Labour Organization. In the light of advances in technology, we affirm that work, today and in the future, can be carried out in freedom and creativity, has to correspond to the needs of people and communities, it needs to respect the environment and the natural resources and must be a factor of cohesion, integration and fair distribution of wealth.
We, the activists of the World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW), express our concern, indignation and disquiet at the way the dominant political and economic classes lead to the social and labour crisis that devastate the workers in the world and affect to the population without distinction, but especially to the most impoverished. With high unemployment rates, increasingly precarious employment, labour rights and social protection in regression in so many countries and nonexistent in many others, we are a voice of denunciation and commitment in the fight against the devaluation of human labour and to the discard of the workers.
Socioeconomic inequality has worsened significantly in recent years. Workers who had partly overcome poverty, are now returning to social security. It is perceived that, together with social inequality, violence tends to increase, all type of violence: against the person and life; against families; drug trafficking, arms and other illicit businesses; excesses in the use of the police force; corruption, tax evasion; "mismanagement" of public goods; abuse of economic and political power; the manipulating power of the media and environmental crimes.
Pope Francis insists on what has been happening in relation to the priority given to money, consumption of material goods, which contrasts sharply with contempt and neglect of people and their families. We believe that it is not fair to subdue / enslave the Right State to the neoliberal market in the name of the resumption of development. When it is the market that governs, the State becomes weak and ends up subjected to a perverse logic of financial capital. As Pope Francis warns us, "money is to serve and not to govern" (Evangelii Gaudium 58).
In the effort to overcome the grave moment experienced by the current working class, changes are necessary that are legitimized when they obey the logic of the dialogue with all of society, in view of the common good. Trade union, social and popular movements, like all institutions that fight for the poorest and most excluded populations, which are being criminalized and falsely denounced, are fundamental to these changes. The creation of networks and associations makes us stronger, more incisive and efficient in civic intervention.
As Training and Evangelisation Movement, we believe that the right to minimum income (basic) will contribute to the worker having better conditions to negotiate in the labour market, having close relation with the right to decent work. This minimum (basic) income must be assumed by States, as an accessible and unrestricted right, to those who do not have a job. This right would allow workers do not need to undergo certain types of work to obtain some income. With a minimum (basic) income, this worker would have the capacity to choose better where to work, being able to reject precarious and low remuneration occupations.
As a World Movement of Christian Workers, we reaffirm our commitment to remain steadfast in the mission through reflections, proposals and actions; in the commitment to the workers, especially those of precarious, poorly paid jobs, with the unemployed, the most impoverished and excluded, in the promotion of a dignified life and of "life in abundance".
We are called to remain faithful to the Gospel, which impels us to denounce and fight against all structural and historical injustices, especially in the great social debt with the weakest and most vulnerable. This is how we constantly renew our commitment to bring the Gospel to the Work World.
