To mark 2025’s International Youth Day, the BWI Youth calls on all affiliates to take action in voicing young workers’ demand for peace and justice!

We envision a just future for all, and we are committed to building this future alongside the global union movement through solidarity and collective action.

We believe the time is now to FIST UP for PEACE!

We raise our fists because our generation is living through war, assault, occupation, repression, and economic crisis — and we refuse to be silent. From Gaza to Iran, from Israel to Ukraine, from Sudan to Colombia, young people are being displaced, killed, and denied their futures. Even as we share this statement, people continue to lose their lives due to acts of violence by authoritarian regimes.

This is not inevitable. This is political. And we stand against it. We stand for the right to live!

In a world of war, injustice, hunger, and mass killing, young people must stand for the right to live in dignity to protect the future. The union movement has always been more than a defender of workers’ rights. It is a defender of human rights, of a liveable world, and justice for all.

From the climate crisis to corporate greed, from violent and discriminatory politics to bombing of cities and the killing of children, our generation is witnessing unprecedented injustice.

We must remind ourselves: we have the power to change the world, and that power must be used now.

We demand freedom and the right to live in justice for all.

Today, we reaffirm that peace is not the absence of struggle — it is the presence of justice.

Together, we are building a movement that will not accept war, repression, and injustice as normal.

We choose solidarity over silence.

We choose peace over profit.

We choose life over fear.

Fists up for peace — because a better world is not only possible, but it is urgent.

In solidarity,

Vinodh Kumar

International Youth Committee Chair