International Summit of Cooperatives
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (2014)
The process that created the statement, Cooperate to Transform Society, involved an autonomous and unsanctioned group of youth gathering in the basement of the building where the International Summit of Cooperatives was being held. While the statement is more general in tone, it is clear that much of the suggested actions are outgrowths of event-specific critiques. The vision presented in the statement is to transform society from capitalistic to cooperativistic, and to do so, the Cooperative Movement must -
- “not emulate capitalism’s institutions, look to its leadership and theory for guidance, or [staff] the management teams of our cooperatives with subscribers to neoliberal philosophy;”
- center the perspective and leadership of those most impacted by economic recession, climate change, and political instability;
- be a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, movement; and
- revise global event formats to reflect the people-led, anti-capitalist Cooperative Movement youth believe in, as most current events do not mirror this reality.
Speaking directly to event formats, the statement names greater participation of frontline communities - or those that will and are experiencing the harms of exploitative and unsustainable societal systems - as absolutely essential, and the call is made for the movement to fund the travel and attendance costs of those attendees. Further, the statement urges less use of presentation and “banking” style education - in which information or knowledge is deposited in the student or attendee - sessions. Instead, the statement encourages greater use of more participatory and accessible forms of group engagement - such as ad hoc affinity groups and open space skillshares. Finally, the statement asks for the events to focus on the cooperative philosophy and how it can be manifested with integrity in the contemporary context, rather than how to compare or assess our cooperative performance relative to that of capitalist enterprise.
The statement also calls for the redistribution of Cooperative Movement wealth to fund the following specific items: an online communication platform for coopyouth, coopyouth entrepreneurship awards, and the creation of more educational resources (e.g. curricula). In closing, the autonomous group of youth authors committed to continuing to push for these ends via the International Cooperative Alliance’s Youth Committee (formerly Global Youth Network). By providing more exacting criticism and incredible precise requests, Cooperate to Transform Society presents a clearer youth voice and more actionable agenda than that of its predecessor from the UN Closing Ceremony. While the statement is also more antagonistic than the previous, it does not have a pejorative tone and expresses desire to continue working within the movement it also critiques. It is worth emphasizing the closing commitment to further engagement on the named issues via the Youth Committee, as it is both a show of respect for the brader movement, as well as marking the beginning of an important transition of self-organized youth efforts into formal movement infrastructure.