Merger creates world's largest co-operative group

http://www.madasafish.com/news/article.asp?aid=18064526&cat=news

 

 

17 February 2007 - 10:19

 

 

The boards of Manchester's Co-operative group and Rochdale's United Co-operatives have agreed a merger which would create the world's largest co-operative group.

 

The Co-operative Group has 3.5 million members while United Co-operatives has 930,000 members.

 

In a joint statement, Bob Burlton, chair of the Co-operative group, and Bill Hoult, president of United Co-operatives, said: "We are delighted that our two boards have given the green light to the merger.

 

"If approved by our members, it will be the most far-reaching in the history of the co-operative movement in the UK, creating the world's largest consumer co-operative, with a turnover of more than £9 billion."

 

They add: "In the highly competitive markets we operate in, it will help to ensure the continuing growth and profitability of our businesses so that we can reward our members and fulfil our social goals in the communities we serve."

 

Peter Marks, the current chief executive of United Co-operatives, has been named the head of the newly created trading group.

 

Commenting on the boards' decision, Mr Marks said: "The two societies' activities are geographically complementary and, together, account for more than 80 per cent of co-operative retail trade in the UK."

 

Members of the two co-operative groups will meet in April and May to vote on the merger which has been recommended by the boards of both groups.

 

All Change at the Co-operative Association (New Zealand)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0611/S00390.htm

Monday, 27 November 2006, 11:27 am

 

Press Release: Cooperatives Association

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

 

27 November 2006

 

All Change at the Co-operative Association

 

Peter Macdougall of Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd was elected Chairperson of the New Zealand Co-operatives Association at Friday’s Annual General Meeting in Christchurch. Also, following Friday’s meeting, Ramsey Margolis has taken over the role of Executive Director.

 

Peter Macdougall runs an extensive sheep and beef property in Millers Flat, Central Otago. The 3200 ha farm is operated in partnership with his family. Prior to his directorship at Ballance, Peter served on the board of SouthFert for 12 years, including four years as Chairman. He is also a past director of the New Zealand Phosphate Company.

 

Peter is active in local community affairs, being Chairman of the Millers Flat Hall Committee and a member of the Roxburgh and District Lions Club.

 

Ramsey Margolis has a background in the communications industry, and has been involved in helping to set up co-operatives in the London printing and building industries.

 

The co-operative sector in New Zealand generates profits of over $6bn from a combined turnover of more than $25bn using $16bn of assets, and has in the region of 275,000 members. In line with co-operative principles, a considerable proportion of the profit is rebated to the members and shareholders of the co-operatives in proportion to their participation.

 

Co-operatives are a major player in the economic success of New Zealand. Their combined turnover currently represents about 22% of the country’s GDP.

 

 

 

Urban Earth Co-op

 

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005304.html

 

 

Sarah Rich

November 11, 2006 4:15 PM

 

Article Photo

 

At our Minneapolis book tour event, we had a chance to meet the growing team of Worldchanging Twin Cities bloggers. I spent a little time talking to Andi McDaniel about what's worldchanging in Minneapolis, and the first thing she mentioned was the well-established and still thriving co-op system. A number of worker-owned food co-ops have been around for decades in the Twin Cities and continue to have successful businesses and function as community hubs. Now a new kind of co-op is sprouting: a garden co-op.

 

Urban Earth Co-op is a member-owned flower and garden store with a one-time $150 buy-in fee. Currently they have 84 member-owners, and a goal of 400 by next year. At the local blog, Andi tells us:

 

In addition to carrying on the existing cut flower business, the 4,000 square foot store (with greenhouse) plans to offer native, standard, and heirloom vegetable, herb, flower, and prairie seeds and seedlings, hydroponically grown vegetables and herbs, a small farmers’ market, a Community Supported Agriculture drop-off point, a garden tool rental service, and community programming on everyday issues related to urban green living. In the fall and winter months, the store will also offer pumpkins, spruce tips, and Christmas trees.

 

With food stores being the most prevalent type of co-op around these days, it's nice to see the model being used to offer a different kind of service to the community. Having spent years shopping at the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco, and borrowing tools at the Oakland Tool Lending Library, I'm already on board with the value of these kinds of places to the surrounding neighbors. And a particularly cool added bonus from Urban Earth is flower delivery...I wonder if they deliver by bike or biofuel.

 

Thanks for the tip, Andi!

Sarah Rich

 

Taking stock: rural food cooperative case studies reveal critical retail success factors

 

Rural Cooperatives, Sept-Oct, 2005

by Greg Lawless, Anne Reynolds

 

Editor's note: This article is excerpted from the authors' new report: Keys to Successful Start-Ups for Rural Food Coops: Four Case Studies, CIR 63, produced by the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives. Hard copies of the report can be ordered by e-mail: dan.campbell@wdc.usda.gov, or by calling: (202) 720-8381. It can also be downloaded from the Internet at: www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/newpub.htm. The report was prepared for the North Country Cooperative Development Fund, with funding from USDA Rural Development.

 

What factors contribute to the success or failure of a rural grocery cooperative? To find some answers, four case studies were conducted of Upper Midwest co-ops: Iron River Cooperatives, Iron River, Wis.; Root River Market Cooperative, Houston, Minn.; Viroqua Food Cooperative, Viroqua, Wis., and Tower Foods Market Cooperative, Oneida Nation, Wis.

 

This article begins with brief overviews of the four coops, followed by analysis of key factors that influenced the success or--in one case--failure of these co-ops. Advertisement

 

Root River Market Cooperative--Houston, Minn.

 

The Root River Co-op is a full-service retail grocery store that provides a conventional inventory of foods and other grocery items in a city of 1,020, located in the southeastern corner of Minnesota. The community suffered the loss of its only grocery store in 1998.

 

After failing to attract a private company to run a store, a core of people in the community in early 1999 decided to try a cooperative. A study showed it would cost $400,000 to launch a co-op store. Some 310 members joined, who contributed $170,000 in member equity and loans. North Country Cooperative Development Fund (NCDF) then originated a loan for $225,000. About $12,500 in grants were also raised.

 

The store generated $1.06 million in the first year, about 12 percent below the projection. Operational costs had also been underestimated. To reduce costs, one of three department managers was reluctantly laid off.

 

Sales have been evenly split among members and nonmembers. Summer has been the heaviest sales period, driven by tourism to the area. In recent years, the co-op's gross sales have held steady at just over $1 million. A pharmacy (which rents space from the co-op) has drawn customers, particularly elderly residents. The gross margin held steady at about 25 percent during the first 5 years of operation, and it earned a 5.9 percent net profit, annualized over the past 3 years

 

At the end of November 2004, membership had risen to 419. Based on an average of 2.58 people per household, coop membership is estimated to be 1,081 individuals.

 

Viroqua Food Cooperative--Viroqua, Wis.

 

Located in a town of 4,335 which has become a hub of the "alternative, back-to-the-land community." As a natural food store, it faces different circumstances than most conventional grocery stores. It serves as an excellent example of the "start small and grow" approach to food co-op development.

 

It started as a food-buying club in 1991. Members decided to open a retail outlet in Viroqua, incorporating as a Chapter 185 Wisconsin cooperative. While the new board did not have written a business plan or use professional consultants, it had 5 years' experience operating a buying club of 40 core families. The co-op's incorporation papers established two classes of stock.

 

When the doors opened in September 1995, the store had 600 square feet of retail space and the co-op had 95 members. In 1996, the co-op had $174,330 in gross sales. By 2003, the co-op's gross sales had risen to $1.07 million.

 

The co-op did not take out any commercial or institutional loans to capitalize start-up. About a year or two after opening, it approached NCDF for the first of three small loans to finance equipment and other needs.

 

The co-op currently has 1,000 members representing 635 households, with 82.5 percent of sales going to members. Extremely limited retail space means employees must be constantly stocking shelves.

 

In 2002, a feasibility study looked at moving to a new, larger location and renovating an existing building. Members invested $159,000 for the project. However, the co-op board ultimately decided to build a new store at a cost of $1.6 million. It authorized the sale of $900,000 of new, Class C stock, which, unlike its voting stock or Class A shares, would pay dividends. However, unlike loans with a fixed maturity date, the co-op won't have to return the new equity until people request it.

 

By the end of 2004, the co-op was negotiating a substantial loan with a local commercial lender, using a USDA Rural Development loan guarantee, combined with a subordinate loan from NCDF. The co-op opened a new store in June 2005. The new building is 7,200 square feet, with 4,400 square feet of retail space. In the first two months of operation, sales were running ahead of projections.

 

Tower Foods Market Cooperative--Oneida Nation, Wis.

 

This co-op had the misfortune of representing the only "failure" among the four case studies. The store was located about 5 miles from Green Bay, Wis., a metropolitan area of 226,778 people. Motivation to start a co-op goes back to April 1995, when a non-Native family closed its private grocery in the area.

 

 

Co-ops offer consumers choices

 

http://tinyurl.com/ygxyfv

 

 

Tara Carman/Victoria News

 

Mountain Equipment Co-op, which recenlty opened a Victoria store, has more than two million members around the world. By Tara Carman Victoria News Oct 13 2006

 

Profit isn't driving force behind co-op creation

 

There's more than one way to do business in Victoria. Co-operatives are springing up all over the city, providing services used by thousands of people everyday.

 

Anyone who banks at a credit union, lives in a co-op building or shops at Mountain Equipment Co-op is a member of one of the 66 co-operative enterprises in Greater Victoria. And unlike traditional businesses, co-ops are not all about the money, explained Sol Kinnis of the B.C. Institute for Co-operative Studies.

 

"Co-ops tend to be formed around a particular need and not a desire for profit," Kinnis said.

 

Mountain Equipment Co-op, for example, was started in 1971 by University of B.C. varsity club members who needed an affordable place to buy specialty outdoors gear not carried by most stores. Today, the co-op boasts more than two million members worldwide and retail outlets across Canada.

 

Co-ops may look like ordinary businesses, but the way they operate is markedly different. In a corporation, profits go to the shareholders. In a co-operative, profits are either reinvested in the company to create lower prices or better quality services, or go back to the members as dividends. The voting structure is also different. In a corporation, the number of votes a shareholder has is proportional to the number of shares a voter owns. In a co-operative, it is one member, one vote, irrespective of how many shares a member owns. Often the voting takes place through an elected board of directors.

 

At Mountain Equipment Co-op, this means the main objective is not to make a profit, but rather to serve the membership, manager Dave Rayner said.

 

"With our model, I think that you can be sure when you're being helped by our staff that there is no hidden agenda there. We have no interest in upselling you. All we're trying to do is assess your needs and address them, and that might be by finding a $40 stove for you, or a $150 stove for you, or it might even mean that we think it's in your best interest for us to suggest buying the stove somewhere else."

 

Mountain Equipment Co-op was already something of a household name even before it opened in Victoria in May, with many local residents having already purchased $5 memberships at other stores. But other co-ops that aren't as well known sometimes have trouble making ends meet. The Victoria Car Share Co-operative is one such example.

 

"It's been a really slow growth, because to have been in existence 10 years and still only have 10 cars ... it's been a struggle," said co-op manager Susanna Grimes.

 

The car share co-op has 135 members in Greater Victoria who share those 10 vehicles. Members purchase a share for $500, which is refundable, and pay a usage fee of $2 per hour and 34 cents per kilometre. They also pay a monthly vehicle maintenance fee of $10. Grimes says that is not enough to pay for insurance, parking and vehicles. It also doesn't leave any room for an advertising budget, so most people find out about the co-op through word-of-mouth. The Vancouver car sharing program, which started a year after the Victoria co-op, has 140 vehicles. Notwithstanding the difference in population, Grimes says an initial three-year funding grant was what caused the Vancouver co-op to take off. Grimes has been trying to attract core funding from the federal or provincial government, which she thinks should be forthcoming given the environmental benefits.

 

"Car-sharing is such an obvious possible solution to climate change and urban density problems associated with the automobile," Grimes said.

 

In the last year, however, the co-op has received a boost from some unexpected benefactors - developers. Rather than providing extra parking spaces, which are expensive, some developers have purchased cars for new buildings and bought shares in the co-op. One such example is the Short Street development near Town and Country Mall, with Tuscany Village and Dockside Green soon to follow suit. The arrangement works well because the developer saves money and the co-op gets another car at no cost, Grimes said.

 

editor@vicnews.com

 

 

Co-ops gaining in popularity in several towns (in Wisconsin)

 

More people seek organic foods

 

By Karyn Saemann

Correspondent for The Capital Times

 

Published: October 10, 2006

 

McFARLAND - For 18 months, it has been McFarland's hotspot of liberalism.

 

"We have a lot of progressive meetings here," said Tim Tynan, owner of the News & Brews coffeehouse and book shop that opened in April 2005 at 4840 Larson Beach Road.

 

Of the two Madison daily newspapers, only The Capital Times is sold at News & Brews.

 

And the coffee and everything you might put in it - from steamed milk to chocolate - is entirely organic. Co-ops gaining in popularity in several towns Photo by Henry A. Koshollek/The Capital Times Tim Tynan, owner of the News & Brews coffeehouse and book shop. Co-ops gaining in popularity in several towns Photo by Henry A. Koshollek/The Capital Times Trillium Co-op with Becky Rehl in Mt. Horeb.

 

Tynan said it quickly became clear that his regular customers "are the same kind of people who would go into a natural food co-op." Many already belong to established natural grocers like Madison's Willy Street Co-op. Some are heavily involved in the local farmers' markets.

 

"Many of them are looking for organic, or at least ethical, food items," Tynan said.

 

Tynan and his wife are also big advocates of the Slow Food Movement, an international effort to safeguard the link between culture and food and to discourage the global blurring of tastes by mass marketing.

 

Last spring, Tynan asked customers to sign a clipboard if they might be interested in forming a grocery co-op in McFarland. Five-hundred signatures later, the idea took flight.

 

This summer, 55 respondents to a community survey backed the notion. At an Oct. 1 organizational dinner, 29 people paid either $55 for an individual membership or $90 for a family one. Three more have since joined, for a total of 32.

 

Tynan said talk of a storefront can begin if membership reaches 50. Applications are available at his store and at other village businesses. At this pace, Tynan said a storefront could be a reality by early 2007.

 

About a dozen McFarland residents have already formed a buyers club, a loose version of a co-op without a storefront. They purchase organic products in bulk through the coffee shop's distributor and pick them up at News & Brews.

 

Statewide trend: A generation after natural foods co-ops emerged in wide numbers in the 1970s, Wisconsin is seeing a new surge in interest, said Anne Reynolds, assistant director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives.

 

A group in Stoughton has formed to consider establishing a co-op. Many of the Stoughton exploratory group's members were regular customers of the Main Street Market, an alternative grocery store that closed earlier this year in Stoughton.

 

Other communities are also testing the waters.

 

Since opening in 2004, Barneveld's Harvest Market Cooperative has grown to 410 members who paid $100 to join. The rented storefront at 101 S. Jones St. was previously a traditional grocery store.

 

Harvest Market manager Brenda Evans said she believes the greatest draw is the desire to shop locally to support the community, which continues to grow after a 1984 tornado that devastated this small Iowa County village.

 

A 2006 report by University of Wisconsin researchers showed the number of cooperative grocery storefronts in the state rose by just one between 1999 and 2005, up from 30 to 31.

 

The numbers of members soared, however, up 43 percent from 61,248 in 1999 to 87,485 in 2005. The number of full-time grocery co-op employees - a strong indicator of business success - more than quadrupled in those years, up from 262 to 1,271. And gross sales more than doubled, up from $165 million to $424 million.

 

"We take in new members every week. It's mind-boggling, really," said Becky Rehl, manager of the Trillium Natural Foods Community Co-op at 517 Springdale St. in Mount Horeb. The co-op formed in 2001 and now has 220 members.

 

Existing co-ops are lending newcomers a hand. A recent organizational meeting in Stoughton drew not only representatives from the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, but also the Willy Street Co-op, who said it would help in any way short of actually founding and operating a store in Stoughton.

 

Reynolds attributes the resurgence to a desire by people to have grocery stores that are grounded in the community. Unlike a large chain, a grocery co-op owned by members won't suddenly pick up and leave, she said.

 

Healthy eating: Highly publicized scares like the recent, nationwide e-coli contamination of spinach have opened people's eyes, Reynolds added. There is "an increasing awareness of not only eating more healthy food, but also having some idea of where it came from," she said.

 

Part of the growth in membership in Mount Horeb, Rehl said, is simply due to population. Since 1980, the number of village residents has doubled to 6,400.

 

But Rehl also agreed that people are looking for food grown close to home.

 

"I think there is more consciousness that it really does matter where our food comes from, and how far it has come," Rehl said. "There are some great Wisconsin products, and we try to carry them."

 

"There is also an increasing awareness that it really does matter what you put in your body," Rehl continued. "More people are making healthy choices and they are seeking us out as a resource."

 

In addition to stocking local produce, Rehl said Trillium has cheese from local cheese factories. When Trillium's distributor stopped carrying a certain cheese made in Green County, Rehl said she and her husband began personally driving there to pick it up.

 

Trillium also has local milk in glass bottles and locally made yogurt. Since last year, in response to customer requests, it has offered local meat.

 

Breads from local bakeries "are sometimes still warm, in paper bags," Rehl said.

 

There's also a limited selection of frozen dinners and other organic convenience food and an increasing supply of things geared toward special diets, like gluten-free bread. And, as with most co-ops, they do carry daily needs like toilet paper.

 

Since 2001, when Trillium superseded the Mount Horeb General Store, a more loosely organized natural foods cooperative that Rehl and others had run as volunteers since the 1970s, it has shed its "hippie" image.

 

"One of the biggest hurdles we have had over the years was the perception that the General Store was a hippie crowd, a bunch of people smoking pot," she said.

 

They've have come a long way, Rehl said, from the days when General Store volunteers babysat each other's children so they could take turns at the counter.

 

Today, Trillium has paid employees and has joined the Mount Horeb Area Chamber of Commerce "to try to connect with the more respectable, business part of the world," Rehl said.

 

And she said its natural remedy selections and vitamin supplements have garnered more interest as mainstream doctors become increasingly comfortable with referring patients to them.

 

Venezuelan Ministry of Popular Economy Pilots Social Currency

 

Tuesday, Sep 19, 2006

Pablo Navarrete - Venezuelanalysis.com

 

"Welcome to the 4th Popular Economy Fair" "Welcome to the 4th Popular Economy Fair"

 

Rosa Mendoza and Paula Lopez Rosa Mendoza and Paula Lopez Credit: Pablo Navarrete

 

Caracas, Venezuela, September 19, 2006—Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Economy (MINEP) piloted the use of social currency at a 3-day fair, inaugurated last Friday by MINEP’s new head, Pedro Morejón. Morejón, a representative of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s MVR party in the Venezuelan National Assembly, replaced Olly Millan as MINEP’s head last Thursday.

 

Ahead of the 4th School Fair for Popular Economy held in Caracas, employees of MINEP and four government bodies that form part of the ministry who have children at school were given printed color paper notes bearing the face of Latin American independence hero Francisco de Miranda. The mirandinos (‘little mirandas’) could be used to buy goods from any of the 270 government sponsored cooperatives from around the country present at the fair. The cooperatives then exchanged the ‘mirandinos’ for real money through MINEP.

 

Speaking to Venezuelanalysis.com, Rosa Mendoza and Paula Lopez, two members of the Las Arañitas textile cooperative in San Felipe, state of Yaracuy, said, “Everything has gone really well, the facilities have been first-rate and we have managed to sell a lot.”

 

Morejón said that the social currency pilot would be evaluated with a view to expanding its use to other government bodies. He added that the plan was to set up a system of barter and exchange with cooperatives, in order to work towards the establishment of socialist cooperatives. Since early 2005 the government has framed it polices in the context of working towards what it terms “socialism of the 21st century.”

 

Reinaldo Iturriza, head of MINEP’s communication unit, told Venezuelanalysis.com, “The use of social currency at this fair constitutes one of the first attempts at alternative forms of commercial exchange. For us the most important thing to bear in mind is that our horizon is governed by the need to transform the capitalist economy into one that puts people first.”

 

From the Political to the Economic Revolution

 

MINEP was created in September 2004, and is, according to MINEP literature, the body that will coordinate Venezuela’s transition from a capitalist economic model to a “social and sustainable economy.” To this end, MINEP is responsible for coordinating Mision Vuelvan Caras , a government program founded in January 2004 to combat unemployment and, more generally, poverty, and that is seen as key in providing the workers that will form the basis for this “social” economy. Lanceros, as participants in the program are known, receive support and training in a range of jobs in the area of production and services, with an emphasis on working within cooperatives. In addition, the government has funded the creation of over 130 NUDE (‘nuclei of endogenous development’), which are centers that house these new cooperatives, as well as other government welfare programs in areas such as health, education and food.

 

The number of cooperatives in Venezuela has increased significantly since Chávez came to power in 1999. According to Sunacoop, the government body attached to MINEP that oversees the cooperative sector, in 2005 there were over 100,000 registered cooperatives, with over 1.5 million members – about 10% of the country’s adult population. This represents an increase of over 1,200% in comparison to the 800 registered cooperatives in 1998. Earlier this month, at a public rally to welcome Chávez home following an extensive world tour, Chávez announced that, should he be re-elected in December’s presidential elections, his government would follow seven strategic lines. One of these lines is the expansion of the socialist productive model, by which it is understood that he was referring to the ‘social’ economy, comprised largely of cooperatives.

 

 

Rwanda: Consumer Cooperatives - Indigenisation of the Retail And Wholesale Business

 

The New Times (Kigali)

 

OPINION September 11, 2006

Posted to the web September 11, 2006

 

Gilbert Okoye Kigali

 

In the last two years the promotions of cooperatives, especially savings and credit and agricultural production cooperatives have taken centre stage in the entire country. The types of cooperatives that have been formed include SACCOS, Coffee, Rice, Grain Growers, Dairy and Mining Cooperatives. Time has now come when we need to think about the promotion of Consumer Cooperatives in the country. What is a consumer cooperative, and how does it work?

 

A Consumer Cooperative is a cooperative where members come together and decide that they will contribute money in the form of shares and membership fees so that they could purchase, stock and sell consumer goods of all types to its members in its area of operation. In the ideal situation the members are also the customers, but when the area of operation is big, non-members are normally allowed to purchase from the consumer shops. Members of an existing cooperative, for example, a Coffee Growers' Cooperative, can form consumer cooperative. It means there will be two cooperatives with the same members

 

The advantages of a consumer cooperative are many, but the most important advantage is that it allows the indigenous people to participate in the wholesale and retail businesses in their country. Secondly, the members of a Consumer Cooperative are entitled to the patronage or bonus dividends at the end of the year. Thirdly, the members are also entitled to normal dividends. If you are wondering what Patronage or bonus dividends are, then you should understand that patronage or bonus dividends are dividends paid at the end of the year to a member in proportion to the volume of his individual trade with the consumer cooperative.

 

The following example will illustrate what patronage or bonus dividends are: A consumer cooperative has 100 full members. At the end of the year the purchases from members is 120 million francs, and the profit realized by the cooperative is 650 million francs. The cooperative will then decide that 300 million francs is going to paid as patronage or bonus dividends while he remaining 350 million francs will be paid as normal dividends. The basis for distribution of the patronage dividend is the proportion of the volume of a member's trade with he cooperative against the total volume of trade by members. If member (A) total purchases for the year is 60,000 francs then he is entitled to (60,000/120,000,000 x 300,000,000) which is 150,000. The same calculation will be made to all members depending on their volume of trade with the consumer cooperative.

 

The above member will still be entitled to the normal dividends depending on his shares in the cooperative.

 

The most successful consumer cooperatives in Africa are found in Botswana where before 1980, all wholesale and retail businesses were owned by foreigners. Today, the indigenous people of Botswana own chains of wholesale and retail stores serving the big cities in the countries. The introduction of consumer cooperatives has increased the turnover of money in the Africans' hands. When the wholesale and retail business is in the hands of foreigners, the number of times money turns over in the local peoples' hands is reduced because the African will earn the monthly salary, pay a landlord who may still be an African, but the landlord has to take it to the stores owned by foreigners to purchase consumer items. So the money earned by the indigenous person passes only once to another indigenous person who has to surrender it to a foreign person who owns a supermarket. Relevant Links Central Africa Economy, Business and Finance Rwanda Food, Agriculture and Rural Issues

 

The starting of consumer cooperatives did not fare well in countries like Kenya and Tanzania due to some technical and ethical constraints. The technical problems came in the form of lack of accounting and control procedures, absence of a well formulated management and operational procedures, and lack of storage and distribution procedures. Besides, the question of integrity of the officials and workers fell short of what was required.

 

In the Rwanda situation with its nascent consumer sector, it would be more appropriate to have consumer cooperatives at regional levels, with headquarters at the centre. This will position the indigenous people to control this sector of trade before it is flooded by outside entrepreneurs. Further advantage for consumer cooperatives in this country is the fact that teething problems experienced in other countries have been streamlined after the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) set up a Consumer Cooperative Consultancy Unit. Now we have enough literature in terms of manuals and guidelines that could prove useful for those who are starting. Besides, we have a wealth of expertise in the region

 

Mr Okoye is a Cooperative Expert with MINCOM

 

 

United boss in call for single co-operative

http://tinyurl.com/ortxb (Manchester Evening News)

 

 

Thursday, 7th September 2006

Chris Barry

 

The boss of United Co-operatives has reiterated his call for a mega-merger of UK co-operative retailers in a bid to take on the supermarket giants.

 

Peter Marks spoke as he unveiled a strong set of half year figures for the Rochdale-based society, which employs around 5,000 people in the north west.

 

Having made his call at the Co-operative Congress in Manchester this year, he said the movement would continue to lose ground to other major retailers until it unifies. Advertisement your story continues below

 

While there are many smaller regional societies, a marriage of the big two, United with the Manchester-based Co-operative Group would be the most significant by far.

 

Mr Marks said: "Eventually I have no doubt there will be one organisation, it makes sound commercial sense. The quicker we get on with it the better.

 

"We'll compete better in the long term if we are a single organisation, and it is a tough battleground in food retailing.

 

"Our competitors are not sitting on the sidelines while we get our act together.

 

" The movement generally has lost market share over the years and we have got to win it back. Certain societies have done well, but, collectively, we could do much better."

 

Solid

 

Turning to United's first half figures, which showed profits rising by 34 per cent to £27.9m on turnover 8.6 per cent higher at £1.11bn, Mr Marks said: "We are very pleased - we have had a solid start to the year in all our businesses. Food has been particularly good and healthcare has performed exceptionally well.

 

"We've had some issues in our travel business, where everything that could go wrong has gone wrong - the terrorist activity, problems in Turkey, but still managed to grow."

 

In the society's food group, sales for the half year rose 16 per cent from £437m to £507m, with like-for-like sales up 5.4 per cent, ahead of the industry average of 3.4 per cent.

 

Turnover in the travel business - buoyed by its business travel arm - rose from £291m to £294m.

 

In its healthcare business - which United has grown by buying smaller chains of chemist's shops - sales rose from £93m to £131m.

 

Mr Marks said: " We are still looking to continue to grow our healthcare business. In the last three years, we have gone from 129 to 230 and we'll soon have 300.

 

"Pharmacies fit very well with our brand, with our ethical credentials and with our community strategy - they are as much a part of communities as are convenience stores.

 

"We have spent £140m so far this year, that's three times more than we spent in the whole of last year. We've continued to invest in the business very strongly."

 

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© Copyright 2006 Manchester Evening News. If you wish to use this article for commercial purposes please contact our syndication department.

 

NC's electric cooperatives' Line Crews Restore Power to Thousands of Members

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060901/clf059.html?.v=28

 

Friday September 1, 4:12 pm ET

 

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- North Carolina's electric cooperatives continue rapid response to power outages caused by Tropical Depression Ernesto. The storm left some wind damage and flooding in NC's electric co-op territories near the state's coastal plain.

 

Line crews restored power to a significant number of homes and businesses affected by power outages throughout the day. Fewer than 2,500 power outages remain from a peak of 17,000 this morning.

 

Following heavy rainstorms, standing water, flooded roads and washed-out bridges pose a hazard to our members. Do not drive vehicles until water on roads has subsided.

 

North Carolina's electric cooperatives serve approximately 2.4 million members in 93 of the states 100 counties.

 

 

Source: North Carolina's electric cooperatives

 

New direction unveiled for the Co-operative Group

http://tinyurl.com/pblx2 (Daily Post)

 

Aug 29 2006

 

THE Co-operative Group unveiled a new identity and details of a profits-share scheme covering its 3,000 high street and village outlets yesterday.

 

Around 2m members will receive a share of profits based on their level of trading with the group's range of businesses, which stretch from food retailing and funerals to banking, insurance and pharmacy services. All the operations will use the same branding, The co-operative.

 

The Co-op Dividend was a feature of life until the 1960s and 1970s, when a number of societies phased out the initiative because of the cost and time involved.

 

A spokesman said technology now made it easier to introduce a similar profits-share operation in place of a previous loyalty-type scheme.

 

Cardholders will have the opportunity to provide support for local projects by electing to donate all their share of profits to the group's community dividend scheme, which distributes grants to community groups. The cost of becoming a member of the Co-operative Group is £1. Under the terms of the new scheme, members will earn points on trade with all group businesses, including the Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance (CIS).

 

Chief executive Martin Beaumont said: "At a time when communities are becoming increasingly dominated by a handful of large and impersonal businesses, we want to show UK consumers that there is a better alternative, one which is ultimately owned and controlled by them."

 

The Co-op has 2m members but hopes this figure will double by 2010, partly as a result of its ethical trading.

 

 

Venezuela Oil Tax Used to Develop Cooperatives

 

Big Cooperative Push in Venezuela

Incentives are helping to spur the wealth-sharing business model. Some question its viability.

 

By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer

August 21, 2006

 

MARGARITA ISLAND, Venezuela

. . .

 

"Before we had a boss. Now we are the bosses," said Hermogenes Garcia, a longtime maintenance man at the Guaiqueri.

 

The hotel is among 100,000 cooperatives formed in Venezuela in the last two years that are the centerpiece of President Hugo Chavez's new socialist model to create jobs and redistribute this oil-rich country's wealth. They now employ 7% of the country's workforce, a number that could grow to 30% in a few years, government officials say.

 

Chavez is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and tax revenue on the cooperatives. Although there have been allegations of gross inefficiency and graft, cooperatives have become a powerful part of the economy and society.

. . .

 

"Before this was just a job. Now you feel the hotel is yours," said Robert Carreno, head of housecleaning at the 40-room Hotel Kamarata, another hotel on Margarita Island that recently converted to a cooperative. "I have to give much more of myself now."

 

At Mango de Ocoita, some 80 miles east of Caracas on Venezuela's steamy Caribbean coast, Pedro Venegas gets emotional at the mention of Hugo Chavez. The cocoa farmer credits him for membership in a worker-owned farm cooperative and the use of a $7-million cocoa processing plant going up nearby.

 

Venegas hopes the cooperative and factory will revive his industry after years of stunted prices for cocoa beans. The plant will enable him and 3,000 other farmers in the cooperative to produce cocoa butter, powder and liquor that they can export directly to foreign customers, instead of selling raw beans into what for years has been a buyer's market.

. . .

 

Skeptics inside and outside Venezuela question whether the cooperatives, heavily dependent as they are on government subsidies, can survive the first serious drop in oil prices, whose increases have been buoying the nation's economy and increasing consumer spending.

 

Dan Hellinger, a political scientist at Webster University in St. Louis, said the cooperatives would take "one or two generations" to prove themselves. Although he lauds Chavez's bid to make cooperatives the "main strategy for economic development," he wonders whether oil prices and the president's socialist ideology will endure that long.

 

Venezuela's embattled business groups say the cooperatives, in addition to other Chavez measures such as price and currency controls, are killing private investment and the growth of skilled jobs. The strategy, they say, will leave the country's economy vulnerable to the vagaries of oil prices.

. . .

 

Down the street, Carreno and 52 other employees of the Hotel Kamarata say occupancy is up since its cooperative was formed last year with a $500,000 loan.

 

David Pinto, a government official who oversees the finances of some

25 cooperatives on Margarita Island including fisheries and construction companies, says the cooperatives must run a viable business or face replacement by another cooperative.

 

"This is not some pinata given by President Chavez. If they don't make a go of it, the government will step in," Pinto said.

 

Carreno says cooperative members realize that "this is a great opportunity, one that may not come again."

 

FULL AT http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q2836199D OR <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-coops21aug21,1,3609004.story? page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1>

 

 

Co-operative Group Shows Others the Way on Managing Climate Change

 

News Release Friday 18 August 2006, 9:09 GMT

 

MANCHESTER, England, August 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Co-operative Group announced today, (18th August 2006) that it is the first major retailer in the UK to switch all its outlets to green electricity.

 

Energy for all the Group's mainland sites, from more than 3,000 retail shops to its headquarters complex in Manchester is now sourced from renewable energy.

 

The move re-inforces the Group's green credentials and reflects its position as an outspoken corporate campaigner on the problems of climate change.

 

The Group has signed a three-year agreement with Scottish Power that guarantees supplies of green electricity for all its smaller sites, which include: retail stores, pharmacies, farm, travel, and funeral outlets. All the Co-operative Group's major sites and distribution centres, which are subject to a separate arrangement, also use green power, as does Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), which includes The Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance (CIS).

 

The green electricity is produced from renewable sources, such as wind and water, as opposed to brown energy, which comes from non-renewable sources. The contract with Scottish Power includes energy generated at the Coldham wind farm in Cambridgeshire - a joint venture business owned by the Co-operative Group and Scottish Power, which is also built on Co-operative Group farmland.

 

At the Group's Manchester head-office complex, work is now complete on cladding the service tower of the 400 ft CIS building in solar panels, the largest photo-voltaic project of its kind in Europe. The Group has also created the biggest inner-city micro wind farm that involves 19 micro-wind turbines at another of its office sites in the city.

 

Group Chief Executive Martin Beaumont said: "Our customers and members expect us to take a leading position in tackling climate change impacts. By choosing this approach we want our customers to benefit from a high quality shopping experience, which also addresses much wider environmental issues.

 

"All businesses need to undoubtedly address their impacts on climate change, but for a member-owned co-operative it's an imperative."

 

Countering the effects of climate change is one of the major elements of the Group's social goals strategy. To this end various products including mortgages from The Co-operative Bank and motor insurance from CIS have a degree of carbon offset built into them, and the Group is looking to extend carbon offsetting to other parts of the business. In addition it is looking to implement other renewable technologies, which will make its operations even more environmentally friendly.

 

Notes to Editors

 

ISDN facilities are available for broadcast media interviews.

 

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Co-operative Group

 

PR Newswire Europe Ltd.

209 - 215 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NL Tel : +44 (0)20 7490 8111 Fax : +44 (0)20 7490 1255 E-mail : info@prnewswire.co.uk

 

 

Homegrown values cultivated at Belfast Co-op

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=76681

 

By Tanya Mitchell

Staff Reporter

 

BELFAST (Aug 10): The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

Such is the case for The Belfast Co-op Store, which is slated to celebrate 30 years of being in business with a two-day customer appreciation event starting Saturday, Aug. 12 2006.

 

As it was when the Belfast Co-op was founded, the customers, many of whom have an ownership of the store as members, are the lifeblood of the business.

 

The Belfast location, which has since grown to become Maine's oldest and largest co-operative store, has moved throughout the downtown area over the years. Truxton Hulbert rented The Belfast Co-operative its first space, an 800-square-foot storefront at 16 Upper Main St. that opened in 1976 (the store was incorporated in 1979).

 

The opening of that first storefront, recalled founding member and former store manager Vernon LeCount, resulted from an increased desire within the community for healthy, local food choices. "I got involved with the pre-order co-ops in the Montville area, where neighborhood people would get together to buy in quantity by pooling their money," said LeCount.

 

As community interest in supporting local farmers and finding healthier food alternatives steadily grew, said LeCount, so did the need for a central location to operate. "Rents were cheap in the early ’70s," he said.

 

Pre-order activity steadily attracted new customers to the Co-op, so the store stayed open for business every day. During that first year, The Belfast Co-op grossed $38,000 in sales with three full-time staff and many volunteers.

 

It wasn't long before the business outgrew its original space, as more and more shoppers perused the increasingly crowded aisles.

 

With sales climbing into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, The Belfast Co-operative voted to move to a second location in 1985 — a 2,500-square-foot space at 67 Lower Main St. The new location allowed the co-op to add to its existing product lines and increase the staff to eight full-time employees. The store's volunteer labor system, which then offered discounts to customers for hours worked, continued to grow. "We bought our first cash register, at that point," recalled LeCount.

 

Belfast Co-op General Manager Ron "Goldy" Goldstein has been involved with the co-op movement since the early 1970s, beginning with his work with both Hungry Chuck's in Waterville and the Unity Co-op.

 

Goldstein was managing a hardware store in Belfast, and was a regular shopper at The Belfast Co-op. As the co-op grew, Goldstein sought out employment with the health food store, where he has remained for the last 13 years. "I wanted to become more involved in supporting the local organic community," said Goldstein.

 

The Lower Main Street location served its purpose effectively until 1993, when the Belfast Co-operative voted to move the store to its current spot at 123 High St. "As we started seeing more customers and as the membership grew, people wanted to see more products, they wanted to move through the store more easily and they wanted a place to talk," said Goldstein. "They wanted a cafe."

 

Renovations began at the High Street location in the spring of 1993, and the expanded store opened in November. In making this move, The Belfast Co-op grew into 6,000 square feet of retail space, with downstairs storage, a receiving/loading area out back and full parking lot up front.

 

The store houses a deli and a cafe that seats 40 people. It also boasts expanded produce, grocery and meat departments, and a wide selection of beer and wine. There's an in-house herbalist to guide shoppers through the Health and Beauty Aids department.

 

Gross sales are more than $3 million per year, according to The Belfast Co-op website (belfast.coop). The store employs about 45 people, and is open seven days a week.

 

Founding member and self-proclaimed co-op booster Doug Van Horn said Belfast and Waldo County are ripe for a natural food store. The continued presence of WERU public radio, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and Unity College have demonstrated a desire within the community to learn more about the environment, sustainable living and supporting local farms.

 

Van Horn noted The Belfast Co-op has survived, even after larger co-operative efforts have failed. "Waldo County is an unusual place in that regard," said Van Horn. "For The Co-op, this is just the right town."

 

Ways the community has maintained involvement have evolved. "When we first got started, people had more time than money," said LeCount. "So they would volunteer to be members."

 

Whether people are members or not, Goldstein said, "All Are Welcome," as the sign in front of the store proclaims. While volunteerism is encouraged, the store gets much of its financial support through a new system wherein members make an equity investment and pay a small annual fee.

 

The Belfast Co-operative Board of Directors meets at 6:30 p.m. the fourth Thursday monthly at Senior Spectrum, at which time there is a section of the meeting dedicated to member comments.

 

A variety of committees assist in governing the co-op that range in focus from environmental affairs to long-range planning and charitable giving.

 

The store also offers an educational component through a series of workshops, wine tastings and cooking classes. The workshops focus on topics such as genetically engineered and organic foods, and ways to maintain a gluten-free diet. A regular newsletter keeps members abreast of ongoing events, and members are also offered special sales throughout the year.

 

"We have customer comment books that we take very seriously," said Goldstein of the notebooks kept in various departments. "We also have an informative staff that can answer questions and participate in helping people make a healthy food choice."

 

A new generation is discovering the co-op -- some of whom are the children of those who founded the co-op.

 

"I see Doug's two kids in here all the time, and my two children have also worked here," said Goldstein. "There is a new generation here, learning about the values behind the co-op movement — and it is a movement ... Hopefully, they'll be able to carry that on."

 

Those values will also be the foundation for what the co-operative aims to achieve in the future, said LeCount, including ways to keep food distribution costs down. "With energy costs the way they are now, it's going to be a real big challenge for Maine; we're at the end of the pipeline for food," he said. "The Co-op would be in a better position to develop good relationships with those local farmers."

 

An expanded cafe is also planned, as is a greater emphasis on alternative medicines in response to the high cost of pharmaceuticals. "Right now, there are people who are choosing between their medicine, their heat and their food," said Goldstein. "Maybe there are lower-cost alternatives."

 

LeCount, Goldstein and Van Horn agreed the most important aspects of the store have remained the same over time. "We still carry good-quality food," said LeCount.

 

Van Horn said whether customers are long-standing members or brand-new shoppers, they are all important to The Belfast Co-op. "The Co-op Store exists because of its customers," he said.

 

The annual customer appreciation event will be a weekend-long celebration to celebrate the store's anniversary. Included in the schedule of events are free musical performances, children's activities, a benefit yard sale, guest speakers and a scavenger hunt.

 

For more information, call The Belfast Co-op Store at (207) 338-2532.

 

 

Based in Belfast, Staff Reporter Tanya Mitchell can be reached at 207-338-0484 or by e-mail at tmitchell@VillageSoup.com.

 

 

Venezuela's Cooperative Revolution An economic experiment is the hidden story behind Chávez's 'Bolivarian Revolution.'

 

(This article is from the July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine.)

 

By BETSY BOWMAN AND BOB STONE

 

This article is from the July/August 0706toc.html">July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice available at http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0706bowmanstone.html

 

This article is from the July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine. issue 266 cover

 

Zaida Rosas, a woman in her fifties with 15 grandchildren, works in the newly constructed textile co-op Venezuela Avanza in Caracas. The co-op's 209 workers are mostly formerly jobless neighborhood women. Their homes on the surrounding steep hillsides in west Caracas were almost all self-built.

 

Zaida works seven hours a day, five days a week, and is paid $117 a month, the uniform income all employees voted for themselves. This is much less than the minimum salary, officially set at $188 a month. This was "so we can pay back our government start-up loan," she explained. Venezuela Avanza cooperativistas have a monthly general assembly to decide policy. As in most producer co-ops, they are not paid a salary, but an advance on profits. Workers paying themselves less than the minimum wage in order to make payments to the state was, Zaida acknowledged, a bad situation. "We hope our working conditions will improve with time," she said.

 

To prepare the co-op's workers to collectively run a business, the new Ministry of Popular Economy (MINEP) had given them small scholarships to train in cooperativism, production, and accounting. "My family is a lot happier—I've learned to write and have my 3rd grade certificate," she said.

 

Zaida is now also part of a larger local web of cooperatives: her factory is one of two producer co-ops, both built by a local bricklayers' cooperative, that, along with a clinic, a supermarket co-op, a school, and a community center, make up a so-called "nucleus of endogenous development." These nucleos are at the core of the country's plan for fostering egalitarian economic development.

 

U.S. media coverage of Venezuela tends to center around the country's oil and the—not unrelated—war of words between President Hugo Chávez and the White House. Chávez, for example, likes to refer to George W. Bush as "Mr. Danger," a reference to a brutish foreigner in a classic Venezuelan novel. Somewhat more clumsily, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently compared Chávez to Hitler. While this makes for entertaining copy, reporters have missed a major story in Venezuela—the unprecedented growth of cooperatives that has reshaped the economic lives of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans like Zaida Rosas. On a recent visit to Caracas, we spoke with co-op members and others invested in this novel experiment to open Venezuela's economy from the bottom up. Explosion of Cooperatives

 

Our first encounter with Venezuela's co-op movement was with Luis Guacarán, a taxi co-op member who drove us to the outskirts of Caracas. Settled into the rainy trip, we asked Luis what changes wrought by the Chávez government had meant for him personally. Luis replied that he now felt that as a citizen he had a right to share in the nation's oil wealth, which had always gone to an "oligarchy." The people needed health, education, and meaningful work; that was reason enough for Chávez to divert oil revenues in order to provide these things. Two of Luis's five sons are in the military, a daughter is studying petroleum engineering, another has a beauty shop. All were in vocational or professional studies.

 

Almost everyone we met during our visit was involved in a cooperative. The 1999 constitution requires the state to "promote and protect" co-ops. However, it was only after the passage of the Special Law on Cooperative Associations in 2001 that the totals began to skyrocket. When Chávez took office in 1998 there were 762 legally registered cooperatives with about 20,000 members. In 2001 there were almost 1,000 cooperatives. The number grew to 2,000 in 2002 and to 8,000 by 2003. In mid-2006, the National Superintendence of Cooperatives (SUNACOOP) reported that it had registered over 108,000 co-ops representing over 1.5 million members. Since mid-2003, MINEP has provided free business and self-management training, helped workers turn troubled conventional enterprises into cooperatives, and extended credit for start-ups and buy-outs. The resulting movement has increasingly come to define the "Bolivarian Revolution," the name Chávez has given to his efforts to reshape Venezuela's economic and political structures.

 

Now MINEP is trying to keep up with the explosion it set off. While pre-Chávez co-ops were mostly credit unions, the "Bolivarian" ones are much more diverse: half are in the service sector, a third in production, with the rest divided among savings, housing, consumer, and other areas. Cooperativists work in four major sectors: 31% in commerce, restaurants, and hotels; 29% in transport, storage and communications; 18% in agriculture, hunting, and fishing; and 8.3% in industrial manufacture. Cooperativism is on the march in Venezuela on a scale and at a speed never before seen anywhere.

 

Most cooperatives are small. Since January 2005, however, when the government announced a policy of expropriation of closed industrial plants, MINEP has stood ready to help workers take control of some large factories facing bankruptcy. If the unused plant is deemed of "public utility," the initiation of expropriation proceedings often leads to negotiation with the owners over compensation. In one instance, owners of a shuttered Heinz tomato processing plant in Monagas state offered to sell it to the government for $600,000. After factoring in back wages, taxes, and an outstanding mortgage, the two sides reached an amicable agreement to sell the plant to the workers for $260,000, with preferential loans provided by the government. In a more typically confrontational example, displaced workers first occupied a sugar refinery in Cumanacoa and restarted it on their own. The federal government then expropriated the property and turned it over to cooperatives of the plant's workers. The owners' property rights were respected inasmuch as the government loaned the workers the money for the purchase, though the price was well below what the owners had claimed. Such expropriated factories are then often run by elected representatives of workers alongside of government appointees.

 

There are strings attached. "We haven't expropriated Cumanacoa and Sideroca for the workers just to help them become rich people the day after tomorrow," said Chávez. "This has not been done just for them—it is to help make everyone wealthy." Take the case of Cacao Sucre, another sugar mill closed for eight years by its private owners, leaving 120 workers unemployed in a neighborhood of grinding poverty. The state's governor put out a call for the workers to form a co-op. After receiving training in self-management, the mill co-op integrated with the 3,665-strong cane growers' co-op. In July 2005, this large cooperative became the first "Social Production Enterprise." The new designation means that the co-op is required to set aside a portion of its profits to fund health, education, and housing for the local population, and to open its food hall to the community as well.

 

With only 700 plants on the government's list of closed or bankrupt candidates for expropriation, cooperativization of existing large-scale facilities is limited, and so far a bit slow. Unions are identifying more underproducing enterprises. But there is a long way to go.

 

Cooperatives are at the center of Venezuela's new economic model. They have the potential to fulfill a number of the aims of the Bolivarian revolution, including combating unemployment, promoting durable economic development, competing peacefully with conventional capitalist firms, and advancing Chávez's still-being-defined socialism. Not Your Grandfather's WPA

 

Capitalism generates unemployment. Neoliberalism aggravated this tendency in Venezuela, producing a large, stable group of over-looked people who were excluded from meaningful work and consumption. If not forgotten altogether, they were blamed for their plight and made to feel superfluous. But the Bolivarian revolution is about demanding recognition. In March of 2004 Chávez called Venezuelans to a new "mission," when MINEP inaugurated the "Misión Vuelvan Caras" program—Mission About-Face. Acting "from within themselves and by their own powers" to form cooperatives, the people were to "combat unemployment and exclusion" by actually "changing the relations of production."

 

In Venezuela, "vuelvan caras" evokes an insurgent general's command to his troops upon being surrounded by Spaniards in the war of independence. In effect: stop playing the role of the pursued; turn and attack the enemy frontally. The new enemy is unemployment, and the goal of full employment is to be achieved by groups—especially of the unemployed—throwing in their lot with each other and setting to work together. Vuelvan caras teaches management, accounting, and co-op values to hundreds of thousands of scholarship students. Graduates are free to seek regular jobs or form micro-enterprises, for which credit is offered; however, co-ops get priority for technical assistance, credits, and contracts. But the original spark—the collective entrepreneurship needed for cooperativization—is to come from the people. Over 70% of the graduates of the class of 2005 formed 7,592 new co-ops.

 

Vuelvan Caras seems to be paying off. Unemployment reached a high of 18% in 2003 but fell to 14.5% in 2004, and 11.5% in 2005. MINEP is planning a "Vuelvan Caras II," aiming to draw in 700,000 more of the jobless. But with a population of 26 million, Venezuela's battle against structural causes of unemployment has only begun. Economic Development from Within

 

Cooperatives also advance the Chávez administration's broader goal of "endogenous development." Foreign direct investment continues in Venezuela, but the government aims to avoid relying on inflows from abroad, which open a country to capitalism's usual blackmail. Endogenous development means "to be capable of producing the seed that we sow, the food that we eat, the clothes that we wear, the goods and services that we need, breaking the economic, cultural and technological dependence that has halted our development, starting with ourselves." To these ends, co-ops are ideal tools. Co-ops anchor development in Venezuela: under the control of local worker-owners, they don't pose a threat of capital flight as capitalist firms do. Democracy: Economic and Political

 

Alongside the co-op movement, Venezuelans are engaged in building a new form of local political democracy through so-called Communal Councils. Modeled on Brazil's innovative participatory budgeting process, these councils grew out of the Land Committees Chávez created to grant land titles to the many squatters in Caracas's barrios. If a community of 100 to 200 families organizes itself and submits a local development plan, the government grants land titles. Result: individuals get homes, and the community gets a grassroots assembly.

 

The councils have budgets and make decisions on a range of local matters. They delegate spokespersons to the barrio and the municipality. Today, a few thousand Communal Councils exist, but within five years the government plans to bring all Venezuelans into local counsels. In conjunction with cooperativization in the economy, the Community Council movement may portend the creation of a new decentralized, democratic polity.

 

The need for endogenous development came home to Venezuelans during the 2002 oil strike carried out by Chávez's political opponents. Major distributors of the country's mostly imported food also supported the strike, halting food deliveries and exposing a gaping vulnerability. In response, the government started its own parallel supermarket chain. In just three years, Mercal had 14,000 points of sale, almost all in poor neighborhoods, selling staples at discounts of 20% to 50%. It is now the nation's largest supermarket chain and its second largest enterprise overall. The Mercal stores attract shoppers of all political stripes thanks to their low prices and high-quality merchandise. To promote "food sovereignty," Mercal has increased its proportion of domestic suppliers to over 40%, giving priority to co-ops when possible. Venezuela still imports 64% of the food it consumes, but that's down from 72% in 1998. By cutting import dependence, transport costs, and middlemen while tapping local suppliers, Mercal aims to wean itself from its $24 million-a-month subsidy. Displacing Capitalism and Building Socialism

 

Another reason the architects of the so-called "Bolivarian revolution" are vigorously pushing the co-op model is their belief that co-ops can meet needs better than conventional capitalist firms. Freed of the burdens of supporting costly managers and profit-hungry absentee investors, co-ops have a financial buoyancy that drives labor-saving technological innovation to save labor time. "Cooperatives are the businesses of the future," says former Planning and Development Minister Felipe Pérez-Martí. Not only are they non-exploitative, they outproduce capitalist firms, since, Pérez-Martí holds, worker-owners must seek their firm's efficiency and success. Such a claim raises eyebrows in the United States, but a growing body of research suggests that co-ops can indeed be more productive and profitable than conventional firms.

 

To test whether co-ops can beat capitalist firms on their own terms, a viable co-op or solidarity sector must be set up parallel to the securely dominant capitalist one. Today Venezuela is preparing this "experiment." More than 5% of the labor force now works in cooperatives, according to MINEP. While this is a much larger percentage of cooperativistas than in most countries, it is still small relative to the size of a co-op sector that would have a shot at out-competing Venezuela's capitalist sector. Chávez's supporters hope that once such a sector is launched, cooperativization will expand in a "virtuous circle" as conventional workforces, observing co-ops, demand similar control of their work. Elias Jaua, the initial Minister of Popular Economy, says, "The private sector can understand the process and incorporate itself into the new dynamic of society, or it will be simply displaced by the new productive forces which have a better quality production, a vision based much more on solidarity than consumption." One could claim that MINEP's credits, trainings, and contracts prejudice the outcome in favor of co-ops. But Vuelvan Caras graduates are free to take jobs in the capitalist sector. And MINEP's policy of favoring employee-owned firms is not that different from U.S. laws, subsidies, and tax benefits that favor investor-owned ones.

 

Finally, by placing the means of production in workers' hands, the co-op movement directly builds socialism. Cooperativization, especially of idle factories occupied by their workforces, promotes "what has always been our goal: that the workers run production and that the governments are also run by the workers," according to Labor Minister Maria Cristina Iglesias. Co-ops, then, are not just means to what Chávez calls "socialism for the 21st century": they actually constitute partial realizations of it. Managing the Experiment's Risks

 

Cooperativization is key to achieving the aims of the Bolivarian revolution. But the revolution's leaders acknowledge that a long struggle lies ahead. Traditional capitalist enterprises still dominate Venezuela's economy. And even if all of the country's current cooperativization programs succeed, will that struggle—and it will be a struggle—result in socialism? Michael Albert of Z Magazine grants that co-ops may be more productive, and he strongly supports Venezuela's experiment. But in the absence of plans for de-marketization, he has doubts that it will reach socialism. For the effect on cooperatives themselves of "trying to out-compete old firms in market-defined contests may be to entrench in them a managerial bureaucracy and a competitive rather than a social orientation," leading to a market socialist system "that still has a ruling managerial or coordinator class." Albert's concern is well founded: the history of co-ops from the Amana colonies of Iowa to the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Basque country shows that even when they start out with a community-service mandate, individual co-ops, or even networks of co-ops, tend to defensively re-internalize capitalist self-seeking and become indistinguishable from their competitors when made to compete alone against an array of capitalist firms in a capitalist economy.

 

Disarmingly, members of Chávez's administration acknowledge these risks. Juan Carlos Loyo, deputy minister of the popular economy, noting that community service has been part of the cooperative creed since its beginning, asks for patience: "We know that we are coming from a capitalist lifestyle that is profoundly individualistic and self-centered." Marcela Maspero, a national coordinator of the new, Chavista UNT labor federation, acknowledges "the risk of converting our comrades into neo-liberal capitalists." In Venezuela's unique case, however, construction of a viable co-op sector is the goal of a government with considerable financial resources, and its aim of thereby building socialism is also a popular national project. In Venezuela, success is therefore a plausible hope. A loose analogy would hold with May 1968 if both the de Gaulle government and the French Communist Party had been in favor of student-worker demands for "auto-gestion" or self-management.

 

There are problems, of course. Groups may register as "phantom co-ops" to get start-up grants, then simply walk away with the money. And since co-ops are favored in awarding government contracts, there is a significant amount of fraud. "There are cooperatives that are registered as such on paper," Jaua, the former head of MINEP, reports, "but which have a boss who is paid more, salaried workers, and unequal distribution of work and income." SUNACOOP admits that its enforcement is spotty. Many of the new cooperatives have also suffered as a result of inadequate self-management training. Government authorities are attempting to address these problems by increasing visits to local co-ops, augmenting training and support services, and decentralizing oversight to local councils.

 

Despite the obstacles, the new co-ops, with government support, are building a decentralized national movement with its own momentum and institutions. This May, the National Executive Cooperative Council (CENCOOP) was launched. The council is made up of five co-op members from each of Venezuela's 25 states, elected by their State Cooperative Councils, which are in turn elected by Municipal Councils composed of local cooperativists. CENCOOP will represent Venezuela at the International Cooperative Alliance—the global body embracing 700 million individual members in hundreds of thousands of cooperatives in 95 countries.

 

The pre-Bolivarian co-op movement at first felt left out, and criticized hasty cooperativization. But its advice was sought at each stage of the planning for CENCOOP, and it finally joined the council, sharing its valuable experience with the new movement. The new state and municipal co-op councils are part of a plan to decentralize MINEP's functions. Having helped organize CENCOOP, MINEP Superintendent Carlos Molina says his office will adopt a hands-off approach to assure the cooperative movement's increasing autonomy. Today, however, many of the new co-ops remain dependent on MINEP's support. A Movement's Opponents

 

Whatever success cooperativization achieves carries its own risks, both internal and external. So far, the Chávez government has compensated capitalists for expropriations and has targeted for co-op conversion only firms that are in some sense in trouble. But at a certain point, workers in healthy firms, seeing their cooperativist neighbors enjoying newfound power in the workplace and a more equal distribution of income, may want to cooperativize their firms too. And having for years had profit extracted as a major portion of the value their labor has created—in many cases enough to cover their firm's market value many times over—won't they have grounds to demand transfer without compensation? In short, to further expand and strengthen revolutionary solidarity before new counter-revolutionary efforts take root, won't the revolution have to start a real redistribution of productive wealth—to cooperativize firms directly at the expense of Venezuela's capitalists? Sooner or later, Venezuela's cooperative experiment will have to address this question.

 

After joining in the World Social Forum in Caracas in last January, we caught some glimpses of the "Bolivarian revolution" moving at full speed, and we've followed it since then. We are convinced that for those around the world who believe "another world is possible," the stakes of this experiment are enormous. Predictably, then, it faces genuine external threats. The short-lived coup in April of 2002 and the destructive strike by oil-industry managers that December were the works of a displaced and angry elite encouraged by the United States at every step. And the campaign continues: State Department-linked groups have been pumping $5 million a year into opposition groups that backed the coup. Yet the democratizing of workplaces proceeds relentlessly, bringing ever more Venezuelans into the revolutionary process. This inclusion is itself a defense since it expands, unites, and strengthens the resistance with which Venezuelans would greet any new effort to halt or divert their revolution.

 

Betsy Bowman and Bob Stone are on the editorial collective of GEO. They are among the cofounders of the bilingual Center for Global Justice in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where they serve as research associates, and are co-authors of many articles on Jean-Paul Sartre. They thank Steve Ellner for comments and invite dialogue through www.globaljusticecenter.org.

 

SOURCES Many valuable articles have been collected at www.Venezuelanalysis.com, including: C. Harnecker, "The New Cooperative Movement in Venezuela's Bolivarian Process" (from Monthly Review Zine) 5/05; S. Wagner, "Vuelvan Caras: Venezuela's Mission for Building Socialism of the 21st Century," 7/05; "Poverty and Unemployment Down Significantly in 2005," 10/05; F. Perez-Marti, "The Venezuelan Model of Development: The Path of Solidarity," 6/04; "Venezuela: Expropriations, cooperatives and co-management," Green Left Weekly, 10/05; M. Albert, "Venezuela's Path," Z-Net, 11/05; O. Sunkel, Development from Within: Toward a Neostructuralist Approach for Latin America (L. Rienner Publ., 1993); H. Thomas, "Performance of the Mondragón Cooperatives in Spain," in Participatory and Self-Managed Firms, eds. D. C. Jones and J. Svejnar (Lexington Books, 1982); D. Levine and L. D'A. Tyson, "Participation, Productivity and the Firm's Environment," in Paying for Productivity: A Look at the Evidence, ed. A. Blinder (Brookings Inst., 1990); D. Schweickart, After Capitalism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002); M. Lebowitz, "Constructing Co-management in Venezuela: Contradictions along the Path," Monthly Review Zine 10/05; Z. Centeno, "Cooperativas: una vision para impulsar el Desarrollo Endogeno," at www.mci.gob.ve.

 

 

Biggest coop pleads for easy credit

http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS2006081171483.html

 

By MELODY M. AGUIBA

 

The Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC), Philippines’ biggest alliance of cooperatives, is pressing for easier access to credit of the country’s smallest registered business unit even as it asks government to scrap stringent formalization of credit monitoring policies for cooperatives.

 

Asserting that government is making financing even harder for the poorest in the society, the PCC indicated that an amendment to Republic Act (RA) 3938 (which created the Cooperative Development Authority) imposing numerous regulatory monitoring systems for cooperatives will further burden the smallest of poor rural workers.

 

The proposed amendment to RA 3938 seeks to professionalize monitoring of credit activities of cooperatives. This audit system will impose on cooperatives to employ on a full-time basis professional managers, certified public accountants, and bookkeepers.

 

While the move appears to be favorable, it is apparently impractical if not unreasonable for small cooperatives which hardly have access to formal credit systems.

 

"Many will not be able to comply with it. These cooperatives are composed of small farmers, fishermen. These are those who do not have access to credit from banks, " said Ben-Hur P. Amador, PCC officer and PRESCO Cooperative Education chief executive officer, in a press briefing.

 

An amendment to RA 3938 particularly seeks to mandate cooperatives’ application for a permit to engage in credit and savings after obtaining a CDA registration.

 

"That will be doubled requirement for cooperatives, another bureaucratic procedure," said Danny R. Ang, PCC summit coordinator.

 

PCC Chairman and former Agriculture Secretary Senen Bacani said in a statement that government should strengthen support to cooperatives by making financing more accessible to them since they can be powerful instruments in poverty eradication.

 

"The continuing poverty is due to the absence of critical support services as well as policy and market bottlenecks," he said. "The enormity of the challenges raises the need for government to rely, more than ever before, on the voluntary and active participation of the people as organized in cooperatives in every community."

 

At present, majority of cooperatives automatically engage in credit and savings as allowed by prevailing policies.

 

Lawyer Arcelio Felizar said the employment of a professional financial staff will involve major financial constraint for most microentrepreneurs who normally put up cooperatives in order to find financing for very small start-up businesses that do not even have collateral for credit.

 

"Most of their people just gain the acumen, the experience in credit and savings system. But we should let them grow first," he said.

 

PCC is set to hold Eight National Cooperative Summit on Oct. 4 to 6, 2006 in Palawan to advance national awareness on the need to beef up capacities of cooperatives.

 

Bacani said government needs to expedite programs on agrarian reform, fast-track resolution of the coconut levy fund suits, increase access to low-cost production loans, relax loan requirements, and lower interest rates on loans to cooperatives.

 

Currently the Philippines’ biggest group of cooperatives, the PCC is composed of 15 national cooperative organizations, eight regional groups and 13 major primary cooperatives nationwide. Cooperatives are classified as primary (with individuals as members), secondary (with primary cooperatives as members), tertiary (with secondary cooperativemembers), and apex (with tertiary cooperative members).

 

PCC claims to have an apex status.

 

Among its members are the Cooperative Union of the Philippines, Cooperative Insurance System of the Philippines, Cooperative Education and Development Center, Coop Life Mutual Benefit Services Association, Federation of Free Farmers’ Cooperatives, Federation of People’s Sustainable Development Cooperatives, and Katipunan ng mga Kooperatibang Pansasakyan ng Pilipinas.(MMA)

 

 

Calgary Co-op Opens Gas Bar in Okotoks

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2006/17/c7473.html

 

CALGARY, July 17 /CNW/ - The Calgary Co-operative Association Limited will celebrate the grand opening of its new gas bar and convenience store in the town of Okotoks, (No.111, 31 Southridge Drive) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. at that location.

 

This is Calgary Co-op's first venture location into Okotoks. The new gas bar offers gas, diesel, and propane, including full and self-serve options for convenience. There is also a 1,500 square foot convenience store and a state of the art laser car wash at this new location. Calgary Co-op has gas bars at most of its grocery store locations, as well as stand-alone gas bars at Heritage Towne Centre, Copperfield and the Eastfield area of Calgary, as well as Strathmore and Cochrane.

 

Locally owned and operated, Calgary Co-op is one of the largest retail co-operatives in North America with 405,000 members, 3,600 employees, assets of $288 million and annual sales of $815 million.

 

Now in its 50th year of operations, Calgary Co-op has 20 retail shopping centres, 24 gas bars, 11 travel offices and 14 liquor stores in Calgary, Airdrie and Strathmore, Alberta. Two new food centres will also open in Calgary in late 2006.

 

For further information: Ken McCullough, Chief Executive Officer, Calgary Co-operative Association Limited, 2735 - 39 Ave NE, Calgary, AB, T1Y

7C7, Telephone: (403) 219-6025; Donna Burn, Vice President, Member and Public Relations, Calgary Co-operative Association Limited, Telephone: (403)

219-6025, ext. 6258

 

 

Food co-op ahead in top trophy race

http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=384385

 

Published on 30/06/2006

 

A WEST CUMBRIAN food co-operative has beaten major brands such as Kelloggs to scoop two prestigious national awards.

 

The Rural Regeneration Unit (RRU), which has its head office in Workington, is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to tackle poverty and support local food producers by creating co-operative networks across the UK.

 

Local communities are encouraged to come together to bargain for cut-price quality foods from local farmers and suppliers.

 

Co-op members are taught the importance of healthy eating, given cooking tips and advised on health issues.

 

The aim is to steer families away from junk food while supporting the local economy and providing a balance to the increasing dominance of supermarkets.

 

The scheme, headed by former Allerdale councillor Dan Dempsey, began in West Cumbria and has spread to Wales, the East Midlands and London.

 

Mr Dempsey was at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, last Thursday to pick up a Food North West Award for the company which was giving the greatest contribution to rural or urban community regeneration in the North West.

 

Earlier in the week, he collected the Nationwide Building Society’s voluntary endeavour award for the unit’s Bryn Gwalia food co-operative, based in North Wales.

 

Mr Dempsey said: “This is a high value award and one we are very proud to receive.

 

“It has been a hard 12 months and to be recognised alongside companies like Kelloggs and Rose County Foods is a major achievement.

 

“This a huge boost for the firm and it will play a key part in winning future contracts, taking trophies from the big boys will certainly raise our profile.”

 

One of the RRU’s first co-ops, which has since folded, was launched on Workington’s Frostoms estate, which was recently named among the most deprived in the UK by the Government.

 

Mr Dempsey is in the process of bidding to Allerdale Council to run similar schemes across the district.

 

The RRU is funded by charities and the Government, as well as private donors, including Sir Christopher Wates, chairman of the Wates construction firm.

 

 

Small farmers urged to build on strong Co-operative network

http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=26480

 

Web Posted - Thu Jun 22 2006 By Regina Selman

 

The challenges facing small farmers in a small society, such as Barbados, will be magnified in the face of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). However, the Co-operative concept, philosophy and practice can provide answers and very definitive benefits for those who seek to utilise them.

 

This was the word coming from Management Consultant, Maxine McClean, as she spoke recently to small farmers and others in the farming community at a special lecture hosted by the St. George Farmers Marketing Co-operative Society Limited, on CSME and Globalisation, at the Valley Resource Centre, St. George.

 

According to McClean, Co-operatives offer significant benefits to members. In the case of Farmers Co-operatives, these can provide members with the opportunity to sell their produce directly to the consumer, effectively eliminating the middle man or distribution intermediary; thus enabling a basis for competing with large producers, who may have greater negotiating clout. Co-operatives also function as a form of vertical integration for small farmers, who might otherwise be marginalised or intimidated. And they also act as a mechanism by which small farmers can obtain or increase market power, since it is believed that they can face unfair conditions in their dealings at times, McClean stated.

 

In looking directly at the impact of CSME on small farmers, McClean acknowledged that while there are threats, there are also many opportunities. In most of the other CSME member countries, she said, the cost of production is expected to be lower than in Barbados, due to size and scale of farms. However, she advised local farmers to find better ways of marketing their produce.

 

You have to find a way to say to people, my produce may be a bit more expensive, but I am guaranteeing you freshness, probably a minimum of pesticides etc. Part of the process is engaging the public in proper ways to eat and the long- term benefits of spending a bit more money and keeping local businesses and yourselves employed she suggested.

 

In further exploring opportunities within the CSME and also in the globalised international economic arena, McClean also suggested that Barbadian farmers consider embracing opportunities outside of Barbados, by identifying counterparts in other countries and also identifying ways in which farmers can get involved in joint opportunities, which take the same co-operative model.

 

For many years, it has been recognised that Barbados, because of size, soil and other critical inputs such as labour costs, will face higher production costs than its sister countries in the region. There is scope, however, for local farmers to explore business opportunities in some of these countries, she admonished.

 

There exists in the region, a very strong Co-operative movement, with institutionalised arrangements for collaboration. While this is strongest with the financial co-operative sector, that is the Credit Unions, it is a network on which local farmers can build, she advised.

 

 

Venezuela’s Cooperatives Take First Steps Towards National Cooperative Movement

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1739

 

Friday, May 26, 2006

 

By: Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com

 

The weekend of May 19 to 20, cooperative members from across Venezuela celebrated the first meeting of the National Executive Cooperative Council (CENCOOP). The Cooperative Councils have the difficult task of attempting to articulate and integrate Venezuela’s thousands of cooperatives into a united cooperative movement. "Cooperative Councils, leaders of the growing social economy army." Credit: Silvia Leindecker

 

The weekend meeting was held in Caracas at the Catia offices of the Frente Francisco Miranda and was attended by approximately 140 cooperative representatives from across Venezuela; Cooperative Superintendent (SUNACOOP), Carlos Molina; Minister of Popular Economy, Oly Millan; Technical Secretary of the Specialized Reunion of Cooperatives of MERCOSUR, Daniel Bentancur; Executive Director of the Americas office of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), Manuel Mariño; various SUNACOOP state facilitators and employees of the Ministry of Popular Economy.

 

CENCOOP is composed of a council of 5 cooperative members from each of Venezuela’s 25 states, elected from their State Cooperative Council to represent their region. Members of the State Cooperative Council are elected by the Municipal Councils, which are composed of any cooperative member from that municipality interested in participating. Over the past year, SUNACOOP facilitators have been working with cooperative members across the country to organize the cooperatives from each state and to elect their state councils in preparation for this event.

 

According to SUNACOOP, the Cooperative Councils have two “complementary goals”: “1) Ethical-Political goal of integrating and recuperating the direction of the cooperative community. 2) Political-Technical goal of planning future projects of the cooperative movement.” Members of the CENCOOP Commission on Institutional Relations debate next steps. Credit: Silvia Leindecker

 

At the plenary talk on the Cooperative Councils, SUNACOOP Superintendent Carlos Molina explained, “The cooperative councils are a methodology for the construction of participatory democracy that is utilized by the people organized in cooperatives in order to achieve the autonomy and consolidate Venezuelan cooperativism as a social movement, capable of transforming the socio-economic reality.”

 

“CENCOOP is the Executive Branch of the Cooperative Councils” he continued, “and this, of course, is subordinated to the Assembly in the same way that the State Cooperative Councils are subordinated to their State Assemblies. It is a relationship of an inverted pyramid. It is a process of networking and it has given a very particular characteristic to the integration of cooperativism in Venezuela.”

 

The first National assembly of Cooperative Councils was held in the State of Cojedes in January, where more than 600 cooperative members from across the country met to discuss the first steps in the creation of the embryonic Venezuela cooperative movement.

 

Although SUNACOOP has, until now, been involved in the organization and promotion of the Cooperative Councils, Molina was explicit in explaining that each step of the way, they will be taking more of a hands-off approach, in order to give more autonomy to the cooperative movement. Carlos Molina, SUNACOOP Superintendent Credit: Silvia Leindecker

 

“In this moment, the creation of CENCOOP is the transfer of the power to the people themselves” said Antonio Galiffa, representative from the state of Falcon, and member of a worker-cooperative, which is initiating the steps to manufacture corn-flour pasta which will be entirely produced in Venezuela. “This step that we are taking today is historic for the cooperative movement in Venezuela, because it is going to assume its own control, and its own destiny, and we are going to know who we are and where we are headed.”

 

On the second day of the meetings, CENCOOP members broke into five “work commissions,” through which various proposals were (at times intensely) debated. Among the proposals, were the possibility of a national cooperative bank, a national cooperative education plan, and further involvement in international conferences, such as the ICA reunion in Peru this summer. Members of the Commission on Institutional Relations expressed interest in building ties with foreign cooperative movements, particularly with cooperatives in the United States.

 

The CENCOOP meetings ended without a signed document, but with the election of a “provisional commission” that will meet next weekend in the state of Aragua to discuss the proposals from the various work commissions. It is still unknown when the next general CENCOOP meeting will be held, but according to various representatives it will most likely take place within the next three months.

 

“Look, we achieved something absolutely important, which is a national and international organizational structure,” said Elba Torres, a representative from Lara state, who was elected to the provisional commission. “We are going to continue working with this proposal, and this ‘intermediary commission,’ which is going to work in function for the states.”

 

The presence of two members from international organizations of cooperative integration highlighted the international importance of the event and the possibilities for building “bridges” between Venezuela and other cooperative movements.

 

“CENCOOP is the bridge of communication- of relation- with the rest of Latin America and the world,” explained Molina, “that’s why the weight and the significance that we give to the National Executive Cooperative Council, is so important, because it is the extension of cooperativism in Venezuela with the rest of the world… and it is a structure that is formed by the cooperativistas themselves … and we hope that Venezuelan cooperativism is a valuable force of integration of Latin America and in particular MERCOSUR.”

 

Manuel Mariño is based out of Costa Rica and is the director of the Americas office of the International Cooperative Alliance, which reports to have “700 million individual members worldwide organized in hundreds of thousands of cooperatives in 95 countries.” Mariño attended the meetings and expressed that he was impressed by the “great participation” from the cooperative members, but he still has a lot of questions and it appears that the councils still have a long way to go.

 

“What is going to be the role of the cooperative councils and CENCOOP?” he asked, “How are you going to finance the cooperative councils? Are they going to be financed from the State, or are the cooperatives themselves going to finance this institution? If they are going to finance it, but they don’t have any judicial standing, well what do you do with the money? And afterwards, it’s important to define what are going to be the functions of the councils in order not to duplicate or interfere… so they still need to do a lot of work. It appears that the cooperatives councils can be good, but you have to define a lot more.”

 

Mariño also expressed his doubts for the sustainability of the present Venezuelan Cooperative boom, because of the “huge capacity” necessary to attend to all of the cooperatives.

 

According to SUNACOOP’s last official count, there are 108,000 cooperatives in Venezuela, and this number is growing by the hundreds per week. In fact, Venezuela can now boast of being the country with the most coops in the world and over 99% of these coops have been formed since President Hugo Chavez took office 7 years ago. SUNACOOP director, Carlos Molina, declared on Friday that because of this cooperative boom, 6% of the employment in the country is now within the cooperative sector, with an approximate 600,000 individuals.

 

The present cooperative boom is largely as a result of a very clear Venezuelan state policy of cooperative promotion in the form of financing, preferential taxation, state-contracting, and cooperative education and job-training programs.

 

“Why cooperativism?” asked Molina in an interview with Venezuelanalysis in March, “because cooperativism is a means of social and economic organization that posses some values and principles that interpret very adequately and very close to the spirit of this Bolivarian project.”

 

However, with overwhelming government support mostly going to the new cooperatives and largely ignoring the traditional Venezuelan cooperative sector, this has created tension between the traditional and “Bolivarian” cooperatives. Fortunately, the CENCOOP members at this weekend’s meetings constituted a fairly well represented cross-section of the Venezuelan cooperative movement (traditional and Bolivarian), in what appears to be a new era of cooperation among Venezuela’s cooperatives.

 

See also: The New Cooperative Movement In Venezuela’s Bolivarian Process

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