Even in the most difficult circumstances, the National Association of Journalists of Peru – ANP (Asociación Nacional de Periodistas del Perú) may not forget its tribute to those who, day by day, by vocation and profession, facing all sorts of dangers, fulfil the undeniable task of informing with the truth to the Nation. It is their destiny of trade union of the workers of the press, pioneer and protagonist of the most important and remembered struggles and social achievements of national journalism.
This commemorative act, full of fraternal emotion, takes place, however, in one of the most difficult moments for the life and health of humanity. We are gripped by the suffering and pain of a globalized pandemic, during which the moral and material expression of the meaning of solidarity of individuals and peoples is being tested. Militant men and women of the ANP are an active part of the vanguard of civil heroes and heroines, who fulfil this sacred duty, as true messengers of social communication.
Nothing dares them. Neither physical violence, nor verbal threat, nor authoritarianism, nor abuse of power. For press workers, it is a democratic doctrine to respect and ensure respect for information as a right of the people. In its sacred commandments, the ANP affirms and will affirm, without fear, that the worst opinion is silence, that the imposition of the culture of secrecy will not pass. Its eloquent history, with more than nine decades of exemplary history, firmly endorses this position.
The ANP is aware of the meaning of this new anniversary of „Workers‘ Day“, of the inheritance of the struggles of the workers, employees, technicians and professionals, who gave their lives, here in Peru and in the world, for giving dignity to human work. But, equally, it is aware that this task has not ended. Furthermore, when globalization, under the pretext of an era of change and not the change of era, alerts us to the advent of the immaterial economy or digital economy, supported by technological resources, which perversely practiced, will end the right to work, to social and economic conquests. Human labour will then lose its leading role, there will be no safeguards for social justice and equity. The damaging effects of today’s pandemic will not be comparable, in the immediate future, with the condemnation of unemployment, hunger and misery of formal and informal workers, self-manager and co-manager entrepreneurs.
Faced with this bitter future, the ANP is alert and on its feet to respond, in democracy and freedom of speech, to those who do not conceive that technology should be a tool for the social and labour participation of the human person, of an economy that as a common good, does not marginalize, nor discriminates.
On Workers‘ Day, let us fight for a better tomorrow!
ANP, 1st May 2020
National Executive Committee
