Christian working Youth

The Christian working Youth , more commonly called JOC , is an association of young Christians of the working world, rested by the abbot Joseph Cardijn, a priest resulting from modest milieu. The members of the JOC are called the members of the J.O.C. . Until 1987, the movement was divided into two structures distinct the JOC (male) and the JOCF (female) created in 1928 pennies the impulse from Jeanne Aubert. In France, the movement is currently chaired by Ines Minin. The international Coordination of JOC (CIJOC) is present in 60 countries throughout the world.

Birth and development of the movement

It is created in 1925 in Belgium by the laic priest Joseph Cardijn and two Paul Garcet and Fernand Tonnet. The JOC is born in France with Clichy in 1927 pennies the impulse from the Father Georges Guerin. He proposes to the young workmen that he meets to reflect, to analyze what they lived, to be formed and act. He encourages them to militate in trade unions and to take part in groups of study of the social doctrines of the Church. He then hears of the Belgian JOC…

The JOC develops then in an industrial and working context in a way fulgurating in all France and quickly becomes a movement of mass. The members of the J.O.C. engaged everywhere where young workers lived:

By the action in favor of the living conditions of the apprentices and the statute of the employees of houses during the pre-war period.
In the camps of work among the mass of the young workers off-set, in the maquis and the networks during the Second world war.
By the creation of structures like the Hearth of young workers in 1955, permanences season in 1966, committees of unemployed and permanences precariousness in the Eighties.

The JOC under the occupation

Under the impulse of its new vice-president, Henri Bourdais, the JOC refuses to yield with the ordinance of August 28th, 1940, which prohibits associations. In spite of the pressures of the Church, largely favorable to the marshal, the movement radicalizes little by little its opposition to Vichy. August 3rd, 1943, the firm Gestapo the general secretary of the JOC and stops his general chaplain, the Guerin abbot. The movement, constrained with clandestinity, then approaches the National council of Resistance.

Goals

The JOC is an association which works with the insertion of the young people in the company and the life. Since nearly 80 years, she proposes to the young people to gather and offers the concrete means to them to implement projects which they themselves will have defined. Animated by the young people themselves (a JOC " with, for and by jeunes"), the JOC fights against their exclusion and aims at supporting their autonomisation by developing active solidarity.

The JOC offers to the young people spaces to meet, to be expressed, discuss and act together. By giving trainings, by giving access to information and by supporting personnel completion of projects or collectives, the JOC gives to each one the means of becoming actor of its life.

In France, they are 10.000 young people from 15 to 30 years, in formation, with the work or in precariousness, which act for:

To hustle a priori by showing interdependent and committed young people
To allow the young people to be autonomous while becoming truths actors of their vocational guidance, while reaching an employment and with housing.
To support the food together and the social link, particularly in the popular quarters.

The JOC accompanies them in their refusal by fate and gives body to their will to build a world righter and more interdependent. Animated by the young people, between the young people and for the young people, the JOC accompanies them, in particular by the formation, in the realization of the projects which they build so that they conclude their actions. It can to possibly propose them to join projects which correspond to their realities and their desires.

Christian working Youth: three words which forge an identity.

Youth - the JOC knows that the interest of the young people for the world which surrounds them is quite real. Only the form of their engagement is not that the their elder ones: they seek today to be an actor of their aspirations and to make live their desires of solidarity, without all to sacrifice to the militancy. Because the JOC makes it possible to share the particular concerns of each one, it gears down the capacity of action of the young people and makes it possible to find solutions viable. Carrying projects, she proposes a dynamics which makes it possible to be an actor of its life and to act on that of her entourage.

Working - Faithful to its origins, the JOC goes to the meeting of most underprivileged and is addressed in particular to the young people who live in the popular quarters, are in precariousness and with all those which feel close to their problems. While enabling them to belong to a group and to lead in their project, she seeks to develop the experiment of the success. By this achievement of oneself, she seeks to underline, beyond the words, the value of each one.

Christian - the Christian values that the JOC proposes, commits it being a craftsman of peace, tolerance and accommodating the other in its difference. Encouraging since its origins the interreligieux dialog and the cultural exchange, it is joined by young people who do not share necessarily the Christian faith, which live dimensions of the project which they wish. In its step, the movement underlines the interior dimension of the actions of the young people and invites them to take the retreat necessary on the acts which engage them.

Carried out actions

Currently, the JOC conducts a campaign entitled " Employment Asset Young people! ". This countryside began in December 2005 by an investigation (in partnership with the insitut SCUMS) in the streets from France. It was intended has to give a progress report on employment, the training and the orientation of the young people and to have concrete figures coming from 31.000 young people from 15 to 30 years.

From these results, roundtables were organized everywhere in France in order to join young people and actors of employment (elected, civil society and heads of undertakings) and to find together solutions (proposals) to improve employment of the young people in France.

Consequently, three main axes for this countryside could be defined:

insertion and precariousness
school orientation
the employment of the young people

Also, on September 30th and on October 1st, 2006 at the CNIT (with Defense), 1.200 young people of all France, met to discuss and vote on specific proposals at the time of the " General states for the employment of the young people ". A " the Charter for the Employment of the Young people " was voted by the participants. The purpose of it was signee by Marie-George Buffet, Jean-Paul Huchon, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Clémentine Autain, Ségolène Royal, Dominique Voynet… This charter is to engage at the same time the young people, but also the heads of undertakings, the elected officials and the members of the civil society (associations, trade unions…) because the young people and the JOC think " that it is necessary to stop returning the ball and that it is together that one owes agir".

Selected bibliography

Joseph Debès, Emile Poulat, the call of the JOC. 1926-1928 , Paris, Stag, 1986,292 p.
Michel Launay, Pierre Pierrard, Rolande Soaked, the JOC Glances of historians , Paris, working Editions, 1984,235 p.
What the JOC? , Paris, the Archipelago, 2005,128 p.
Francoise Richou, Christian working Youth (JOC). Genesis of a militant youth , Paris, Harmattan, coll “social Logics”, 1997,240 p.
Members of the J.O.C. in the storm. History of members of the J.O.C. (JOC-JOCF) of the Paris region, 1937-1947, Paris, Editions of Christian Testimony/the working Editions, 1989,220 p.
Pierre Pierrard, Georges Guerin. a life for the JOC , Paris, Editions of the Workshop, 1997,317 p.
Henri Bourdais, the JOC under the German occupation. Testimonys and memories of Henri Bourdais, national vice-president of the JOC in Paris of 1941 to 1944 , Paris, the Editions of the Workshop, 1995,224 p.
Jean-Pierre Coconut, Joseph Debès, 1937, the dash member of the J.O.C. Xe birthday of the JOC , Paris, July 1937, Paris, working Editions, 1989,186 p.
Etienne Davodeau, Bad people. A history of militants , Paris, Delcourt, 2005,183 p. drawn
Maxence Van der Meersch, Fishing men , Paris, Albin Michel, 1940, Romance on the JOC

External bonds

'' JOC '', the official site of the JOC of France
Walloon '' JOC '', the official site of the Walloon JOC (Belgium)

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