#International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) I

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2 luglio, " Giornata Internazionale delle Cooperative "

Le cooperative costruiscono un mondo migliore È un’esperienza comune a tutti noi di aver notato nell’intestazione societaria di qualche azienda con la quale abbiamo avuto a che fare la notazione di ‘ Società Cooperativa’ e a volte non ci siamo soffermati abbastanza per entrare nel merito del suo significato. Le Società Cooperative La Società Cooperativa è un’associazione di persone che si…

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#Alleanza internazionale delle cooperative #Giornata internazionale delle cooperative #International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) I #l’hastag CoopsBuildABetterWorld #La ricorrenza del 2022 della Giornata Internazionale delle cooperative #Risoluzione 49/155 dell’Assemblea Generale delle Nazioni Unite #Società Cooperativa

[yourschaotically-blog]

CUBA BLOG II: FIDEL IS FURIOUS, I AM LABELED ENEMY OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

Last week’s blog reported the initiation of our annoying effort to support fourteen small fledgling cooperatives improve their production practices for fruits and vegetables sold locally, managing their operations unfettered by government control and harassment. All other cooperatives in Cuba were tragically unsuccessful government entities, their “members” state employees a la the Soviet Union model. Our injection of democratic principles into rural areas was extremely unwelcome.

Our coup de grace was what we labelled Smugglegate, the insertion into Cuba of some 3,300 tee shirts through our allies in South Florida. The shirts were sorted into batches of almost 500 each, the colors reflecting those of the flag of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) based in England at that time, now in Brussels. It was and is the universal cooperative movement’s version of the UN, if you wish. This apex organization, founded in 1895 and it represents co-ops in 95 countries serving over one billion members. The ICA’s colors on their flag and publications reflect its inclusive philosophy of its universal membership, featuring a rainbow that morphs into doves. The colors were the same for all the shirts:  red, yellow, orange, green, light blue, dark blue and purple.

The co-op principles were the bomblets that infuriated the Cuban bosses. They advertised Voluntary and Open Membership; Democratic Member Control; Members’ Economic Participation; Autonomy and Independence; Education, Training and Information; Cooperation Among Cooperatives; and, Concern For Community. It got worse. Our crowning touch was to feature pictures of normal Cuban people on the back of the tee shirts which tied in with a corresponding ICA principle. For instance, 500 of them featured a Cuban co-op member being assisted at his credit union window. His niche was the Member Economic Participation category– deposit savings in your co-op, earn some interest, take out loans at fair interest rates and terms. We were told by friends that people were popping up everywhere in Cuba wearing the tee shirts – children, grandmothers, males and females. The dictators went ballistic, and I was denounced by name in the government newspaper Granma as an enemy of the Cuban revolution. The article featured a photo of the credit member cited above – well dressed and groomed, nothing elaborate. The article ridiculed the way the member was dressed because it didn’t reflect the garb of typical Cubans. Yikes! Were they confessing that everyone walked around in rags down there?

Finally, some weeks after that blow-up a letter from one of our beleaguered co-op friends down there reached me through our Miami channels. He thanked me/us for the amazing technical materials we sent and our solidarity which boosted their morale in the face of constant government harassment.            

ODDITIES, SETBACKS AND SILLINESS #2: During the unraveling and ultimate demise of the dictatorship in an Eastern European country in 1989, a resistance operative spent cold winter days buried in  large snow drifts in the capital city picking off numerous high-ranking leaders and senior military officers with a long-range rifle. During the daytime babushkas in the neighborhood would sneak hot drinks and food to him, and he spent the nights in their houses. He was never captured. His English was good, he was well educated. We hired him for the post of program manager of our fledgling office soon after the Communist regime collapsed.

Catastrophicallyours

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