Skip to main content

Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Latin America

Image
March 20, 2023

Cuba's Farming Cooperatives

Summary

Cuba’s thousands of agricultural cooperatives are responsible for about 56% of Cuba’s growing land, and employ an estimated 300,000 cooperative worker members. Some observers say the cooperatives more efficient than the state-owned parts of Cuba's agricultural production.

Image
February 16, 2023

Building, Here and Now, The World We Yearn For

Authors
Summary

Cecosesola is established in Barquisimeto, capital of the state of Lara, located in the central-western region of Venezuela, as a cooperative integration organization that has been established since 1967. It is a meeting space where we make active life of more than 50 organizations, integrated into a network for the production of goods and services that brings together more than 20,000 associates from popular sectors. Through this network, we develop a wide variety of activities such as: agricultural production, small-scale agro-industrial production, funeral services, transportation, health services, financial services, mutual aid funds, distribution of foods and household items. We are made up of about 1,300 associated workers who manage daily activities through participation that is open to everyone, without hierarchical positions.

Image
February 9, 2023

'News from Nowhere' – Building Communal Life in Venezuela

Summary

What makes communes and their advances so important? To explain their significance, one has to appeal to something that is not immediately visible: social relations and especially relations of production.

Image
January 9, 2023

Latin American solidarity economies demonstrate the power of the people

Authors
Summary

Solidaristic principles prove great in theory, but how do they hold up in practice? Specifically, in communities facing historical divestment and disenfranchisement, can mutualism and cooperativism serve as building blocks for crafting more equitable, sustainable economies and societies? 

Image
September 26, 2022

Cooperatives as a Strategy in International Food Markets

Summary

How five Latin American producer cooperatives of high-value food products have overcome the hurdles to integration with the international market for their member farmers.

Image
July 21, 2022

Venezuelan Cooperatives

Authors
Summary

Dario Azzellini tells Theresa Alt about Venezuelan cooperatives.

Image
May 23, 2022

CoopCycle in Argentina

Summary

Bringing CoopCycle to Latin America is an exciting development, and one that involved cooperative federations and networks, state sponsorship, universities, NGOs, and co-op financial institutions.

Image
March 24, 2022

Cooperative Finance in Haiti and Grenada

Summary

A report on the widespread use of formal and informal financial cooperatives by the people of Haiti and Grenada.

Image
January 17, 2022

Self-management in Argentina 20 Years After 2001

Authors
Summary

A look back on 20 years of the recovered factories movement in Argentina.

Image
January 10, 2022

Lessons from Venezuela's Social Economy

Summary

Michael Lebowitz shares his perspective on the social economic models in Venezuela and Yugoslavia. Lebowitz highlights the importance of self-actualization through protagonism and how the most successful of these models focused on solidarity over self-interest.