Young Christian Workers, Labour and Democracy. Some Reflections from Italy in the Sixties

Through the analysis of the reflections elaborated in the Movimento Lavoratori and Giovani Lavoratori movement of the GIAC (Gioventù Italiana di Azione Cattolica), the essay investigates certain aspects of the evolution of the democratic conception that marked the Catholic youth laity in the world of work from the 1950s until 1969, the year of the maximum mobilization of the Workers Movement in Italy. Indeed, if the transformations of the European and South American JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne) in the same years have been widely investigated by historiography, the history of the Movimento Lavoratori of the Italian Catholic Action has not yet been the subject of systematic reflection in this regard. Moreover, the essay considers the relationships that existed between the Italian reality, the international JOC and other movements of the Latin America Catholic laity, which decisively marked the processes of transformation of the socio-cultural paradigms of the Italian movement.