Dear people,

the time has come again when the olives sail through the air, gather in the nets and make their way to the olive mills.

A quick look back

We have had a rather unspectacular year. Unspectacular? No, there was our Fruits Of Solidarity 2020 campaign. Just in time for the first Corona lockdown, we started delivering the products of the Greek cooperatives Greenland and Modousa. Even if there were some delays, the pick-up and delivery worked without any problems. Almost everything was picked up by the summer and the campaign was completed. Products worth almost 30,000 euros were distributed and more than 4,000 euros ended up in the solidarity pot. This money was passed on to eight projects in Greece, which deal with the catastrophic situation of refugees at different levels.

There is little good to report about the political situation in Greece. The conservative government of Nea Dimokratia is using the corona restrictions to push loads of reactionary laws through parliament, e.g. the new demonstration (prevention) law basically copied from the junta law of 1970, the introduction of a university police, new closed refugee camps on the islands, deterioration of living conditions for refugees both on the islands and on the mainland, pushbacks from the islands and across the land border on the Evros back to Turkey, a new labor law that allows the ordering of work for up to 10 hours a day, chauvinistic propaganda against Turkey and the de facto abolition or circumvention of environmental laws to facilitate investments. Even in times of Corona, the government is investing huge sums in increasing the number of police and the military and at the same time decides to cut health and education costs for 2021.

And that's why we continue to work for a good cause

There will be another Fruits of Solidarity campaign in 2021. The support of cooperatives and civil society projects through solidarity trade is bearing fruit. Our partner organization DOCK has become one of the main hubs for solidarity-based economy in Greece and serves as a contact point for cooperatives from a wide variety of industries.

Our regional network is also thriving, and in addition to the collection points in Salzburg, Linz and Vienna, there are new collection options in Innsbruck and Fehring this year. We are extending the time window for orders a little. From today until the end of March you can order the products of the olive harvest that is currently taking place in our shop. In May, the orders will then end up in the collection points. In addition to high quality oils, there will also be edible olives again. On our homepage www.fruitsofsolidarity.at you will find the shop and the information about the products as well as links to the solidarity projects and the cooperatives Greenland and Modousa.

We hope you survived the difficult last year well and wish you all the best!

Your fruits of solidarity