Cecosesola

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Cecosesola ( Central Coperativa de Servicios Sociales del Estado Lara ) is a non-hierarchical, solidarity association of cooperatives in Venezuela , with a focus on the cultivation and distribution of food as well as health care.

Numbers and History

The management of the cooperatives for social services in the state of Lara was founded at the end of 1967. Cecosesola's first project was a funeral home . It is the largest in the region today; 20,000 families pay small contributions here every month. The institute operates its own coffin production.

Over fifty grassroots organizations with a total of 20,000 members (employees and users) are affiliated with the association. 1,200 cooperativistas work as “full-time employees” (trabajadores asociados) and receive their maintenance directly from the overall network. This means that they pay themselves a weekly amount, which is called an "advance payment" (anticipo) as a distinction from the wage labor. The amount is roughly double the state-set minimum wage . This advance is based on needs, so it is not the same for everyone. Who z. B. Has children, gets more. In 2010 the turnover of all companies was 430 million bolivares - 100 million US dollars at the official rate.

Projects

  • Lara is located in western Venezuela. The capital is Barquisimeto with a million inhabitants. Cecosesola runs three weekly markets here , where 55,000 families - around a quarter of the city's population - buy fruit, vegetables and groceries every week. 450 tons of fruit and vegetables are sold weekly. The prices are on average 30 percent below those of privately operated markets. There is also a home appliance and furniture store where members can buy the products in installments without the usual high interest rates.
  • 190,000 treatments are carried out per year in the six health care projects. In 2009 the newly built CICS health center was inaugurated. Alternative treatment methods such as acupuncture and massages are offered here, but also surgical interventions as well as laboratory and X-ray examinations. The prices are 60 percent below those of private clinics. Certain treatments are free for members of the cooperatives.
  • The association continues to include farms: Twelve organizations in the federal states of Lara and Trujillo with more than 200 small farms (2–3 hectares) supply the markets. On some farms, attempts are being made to replace agrochemicals with biological crop protection. Small manufacturing cooperatives produce food that is sold in the markets. Bread, wholemeal pasta, cereal flakes, tomato sauce, herbs, spices, honey, fruit pulp, etc. There is also a savings bank and other financing and solidarity funds.

Working method

Externally, there is a high level of participation from customers, whose needs are discussed with them again and again. Some of the customers are also involved in the cooperatives.

Inwardly, the most striking thing is the abandonment of hierarchical posts. “All members can participate at all levels with the same rights at any time. Decisions are made by consensus and put up for discussion again if someone retrospectively declares their disagreement, regardless of whether the person was involved in the decision or was absent. In 2011 around 3000 of the weekly meetings took place in individual cooperatives and projects, as well as 300 overarching assemblies. "

There is no longer a governing body, no managing director and no supervision. One tries to make sure that the meetings do not become a substitute for the management or the managing director. Each person or group should take responsibility for decisions that have to be made in everyday life. For the members, consensus means something other than unanimity. All members of a group or organization must be present for unanimity. That corresponds to a vote in which everyone is in favor. A decision is consensus when it corresponds to 'we', i.e. H. the criteria one shares at that moment - regardless of whether this decision was made by a person, an informal group or an assembly. “Obviously, this way of making decisions can lead to chaos and missteps, which can lead to major economic losses. But all economic losses are compensated many times over by the flexibility and dynamism that arises in the organization, by freeing ourselves from the cultural shackles that limit our capacities and creative potential. "

Cecosesola tries to replace power and the assertion of personal interests with an opposing process: dismantling hierarchies, making information accessible to everyone, building relationships of trust and basing one's own identity on the collective energy of solidarity. "The experiences of Cecosesola can with different concepts are explained:

  • The productive force " cooperation " leads to an increase in efficiency.
  • The way of working together increases the motivation and cohesion of the employees.
  • The establishment of network structures based on trust and cooperation supports the long-term survival of the cooperatives.

The ways in which people relate to one another point beyond the sphere of work and production. Perhaps it is more about a different way of life that does not need justification based on efficiency criteria. “If we succeed in living self-organization with respect for the other and the other, we will gradually make this dynamic our own, and our behavior will be in harmony with the process of life. This opens up the possibility for us to go beyond the dutiful ecological behavior that only wants to preserve a nature that is in the service of man for reasons of usefulness. We have the opportunity to become ecological from the ground up, since nature will then no longer be something separate from us: we will all become nature. Maybe we are just faced with the decision for a way of life. A choice that demands of us to overcome the hierarchical relationships of power over others who are part of our cultural property. A choice where it is clear that taking power cannot be an alternative to changing the world ..... "

criticism

Some left groups criticize "the anti-union hostility and the spiritual ideology of the cooperative" as well as "many praises of flexibility ... in times when companies have managed to implement brutal flexibility" .

literature

  • “Cecosesola - On the Way” , edited by Georg Wolter, Peter Bach and Alix Arnold, Die Buchmacherei Verlag, Berlin 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ( "Cecosesola - On the Way", Verlag Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2012 - foreword p. 10/11 )
  2. ↑ ( "Cecosesola - On the Way", Verlag Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2012 - foreword p. 11 )
  3. ↑ ( "Cecosesola - On the way", Verlag Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2012, p.127 / 128, translation from a brochure by Cecosesola from 2009: "Hacia un cerebro colectivo? De reuniones ... a espacios de encuentro" )
  4. ↑ ( "Cecosesola - On the way", Verlag Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2012, p. 104, translation from a brochure by Cecosesola from 2007: "Construyendo aqui y ahora el mundo que queremos" )
  5. ↑ Peter Nowak : With Factor C to Utopia . Jungle World No. 30, July 26, 2012