The birth of this newspaper will certainly delight the comrades who, for eight months, have given their soul to the movement. It is thanks to their bold and tenacious efforts that we we are now able to go beyond the closed-in field of our action and venture out into the strong light of day.
Who would have believed this ten months ago..... When, at the time of the first patiently recruited meetings..... those who came together to “discuss” unions for young people were looked upon as if they were the ”‘famous monster of the Congo.”
And yet we did not hesitate to promise this newspaper and we are launching it today with the same Christian confidence that inspired us when we planned its publication.
At last, we have a tool for propaganda and conquest as well as a platform and a friendship link. And when new difficulties, new obstacles, new setbacks arrive in the future, we will know how to meet them, because, through our newspaper, we will all understand the necessity of our effort.....
In addition to editorial articles, our comrades will find a documentary section dealing with the various issues of interest to young workers, a propaganda column that will provide a kind of healt hreport for our sections, a bibliographical column and lastly a column specifically for the international movement of young workers.
Our newspaper will not be a camouflaged copy of other newspapers. It will not publish articles on internal or external politics; there will be no maudlin tirades on the far away persecutions by white or red terrors....
Rather, it will defend the great oppressed who live alongside us, in our slums and factories: adolescents and young workers. We will mercilessly condemn the injustices and abuses that our investigations uncover regardless of whether the perpetrators are Catholics straying from the Gospel or unbelievers without any loyalty.
But above all, our newspaper will be the propagator of our Faith among young people science our friends have always been convinced that their complete uplifting will only be achieved on the day we bring them back to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the young carpenter of Nazareth.
And now, my young comrades, let the watchword be: Propaganda. Let everyone take responsibility, let everyone feel committed to the future of our movement, let everyone wish to win working-class souls to our cause.
There were only a few of us when we started ths journey, .....but by our next stop we hope to find ourselves among a large crowd.
Fernand TONNET, central secretary.
SOURCE
La Jeunesse Syndicaliste, September 1920, No. 1.
ORIGINAL FRENCH VERSION
http://fernandtonnet.josephcardijn.com/p/la-premiere-etape.html
TRANSLATION
Stefan Gigacz
