[E-rundbrief] Info 2093 - Via Campesina: 2020 Annual Report

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief Info 2093 - La Via Campesina: 2020 Annual Report


Bad Ischl, .2020

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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La Via Campesina: 2020 Annual Report

  3 MAY 2021

Summary: This annual report highlights the struggles and activities we 
had and the progress we made in 2020. The year was one of the most 
challenging years of the last half century. No one ever anticipated 
that by March, the world would face a pandemic that would bring life 
as we know it to a halt. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic did that. 
The pandemic exposed two things: (1) the rotten core and the cracks in 
the global neoliberal economy and (2) the urgent need for radical 
policies to usher in change and bring relief, dignity, and equity to 
billions of people whose survival is hanging by a thin thread. With 
each crisis desperation has increased leading to unintended outcomes, 
for instance, the recent rise of the extreme right, fascism, and 
jingoistic-nationalism. Global inequality is at its peak. Empathy is 
at its lowest, and destructive economic, social, ecological, and 
environmental policies are more prevalent than ever. This pandemic is 
rooted in capitalism and strongly connected to the industrial 
agriculture model, and is one of the many recent outcomes of such 
destructive policies. As the turbulent 2020 drew to an end, many hoped 
that 2021 would be a better year. The surge in new infections in most 
countries do not show return to the "normalcy" of the pre-COVID times. 
Urgent actions are needed from the grassroots to the state level to 
transform and rebuild hundreds of millions of lives pushed to 
starvation and poverty by the COVID pandemic. The pandemic led us into 
a period where the understanding of the importance of local food 
production and the need for public health has increased. Food 
sovereignty as peoples' right to healthy and culturally appropriate 
food produced with ecologically sustainable methods is important.

As La Via Campesina, we have adapted our communication strategy, 
shifted resources towards communication actions, and intensified our 
presence in social media. This strategy became more central as a 
possibility to reach out, "stay at home but not silent", and to 
mobilize on our agenda. It is key that a movement like LVC remains 
present in the public eye and in public opinion to mobilize for the 
right changes! The realization of peasants' rights and those of 
migrant and seasonal workers by promoting UN Declaration on the Rights 
of Peasants and Other People working in the Rural Areas (UNDROP) 
remains a priority for the peasant movement. We will continue 
combating the criminalization and repression of peasant leaders, and 
explore different ideas of creating our own spaces of solidarity, 
while strengthening the existing solidarity networks..

Download PDF Report: 
https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-2020-annual-report/

Publication Date: April 2021



-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
     Wolfgangerstr. 26, 4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
     fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
     Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at