Today, is the 80th anniversary of the death of Fernand Tonnet, lay co-founder of the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC) or Young Christian Workers (YCW) on 2 February 1945.
Like his lifelong comrade and YCW co-founder, Paul Garcet, who had preceded him in death two weeks earlier, Tonnet died a gruesome death caused by typhus at the Dachau Concentration Camp, where he had been confined for eighteen months.
As Cardijn commented: “The martyr’s crown remains the most beautiful crown, and it is immortal.”
Nevertheless, I am sure that both Tonnet and Garcet would prefer to be remembered for the movement to which they devoted their lives rather than the suffering they later endured.
Tonnet’s vision
Today, therefore, I’d simply like to recall Tonnet’s vision for the movement that he helped create, a vision that he set out in many of the articles he wrote under his own name or under pseudonyms in the magazines and newspaper of the JOC and its predecessor, La Jeunesse Syndicaliste (The Young Trade Unionist).
So let’s look at the article entitled Le premier étape or The first step that he wrote for the very first issue of the movement newspaper, La Jeunesse Syndicaliste, in 1920.
“The birth of this newspaper will certainly delight the comrades who, for eight months, have given their soul to the movement,” Tonnet began, praising the “bold and tenacious efforts” that now enabled the budding enterprise to move out from behind closed doors and “venture into the strong light of day.”
“Who would have believed this ten months ago,” Tonnet asked, “when, at the time of the first patiently recruited meetings….. those who came together to ‘discuss’ trade unions for young people were looked down upon as if they were the ‘famous monster from the Congo’.”
“And yet we did not hesitate to pledge this newspaper that we are launching today with the same Christian confidence that inspired us when we proposed its publication,” Tonnet explained as he introduced it.
A forum for friendship and tool for conquest
“At last, we have a tool for propaganda and conquest as well as a forum and platform for friendship,” he rejoiced in the language of the time. “And whenever new difficulties, new obstacles, new setbacks arise in the future, we will know how to deal with them, because, through our newspaper, we will all appreciate the necessity of our efforts…..”
What kind of content would it publish to achieve these aims?
As well as articles by the editors, Tonnet promised, “our comrades will find a documentary section that will deal with various issues of interest to young workers, a propaganda column that will provide a kind of health report for our JOC sections (YCW teams), a bibliographical column and lastly a column specifically for the international movement of young workers.”
Its editorial line would “not be a camouflaged copy of other newspapers,” Tonnet insisted. Referring to the civil war that had broken out in Russia following the 1917 Revolution, he emphasised that there would be “no tearful tirades about the distant persecutions by white or red terrors.”
Defending oppressed young workers
Instead, the paper would focus on defending “the great oppressed who live alongside us, in our slums and factories, namely adolescents and young workers.”
“We will mercilessly condemn the injustices and abuses that our investigations uncover,” Tonnet wrote, “regardless of whether the perpetrators are Catholics straying from the Gospel or unbelievers without any particular loyalty.”
“Above all, however,” Tonnet proclaimed, “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,” Tonnet concluded, “let the watchword be: Propaganda.
“Let each one take responsibility, let us each commit ourselves to the future of our movement, let us all aim to win working-class souls to our cause.
“There were only a few of us when we started on this journey,” he noted looking back, “but by our next stop we hope to find ourselves amidst a large crowd.”
Indeed, by the time of the deaths of Paul Garcet and Fernand Tonnet in early 1945, the JOC had already matured into a movement of millions of young workers spread across more than fifty countries around the globe. Twenty years later by the 1960s, it had reached nearly 100 countries.
And this year, 2025, we celebrate the centenary of the movement to which they gave their lives and set them on the path to martyrdom.
Stefan Gigacz
SOURCE
Fernand Tonnet, La première étape, La Jeunesse Syndicaliste, septembre 1920, N° 1
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Fernand Tonnet, The first step, La Jeunesse Syndicaliste, September 1920, No. 1
