Henry Veltmeyer — Professor Emeritus, IDS-SMU
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Camila Piñeiro Harnecker — Professor, Centre for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana
PARTICIPANTS
Wendy Holm — CME and Coordinator, Cuban Co-op Index Project .(National Association of Cuban Small Farmers and CME, SMU)
A SSHRC-Connection Workshop • Halifax, N.S. • 28–29 April 2016
Marcelo Vieta — Professor in Workplace Learning for Social Change at the University of Toronto
Workshops
Sonja Novković — CME / Economics-SMU; Chair, International Cooperative Alliance Research committee
Marie J. Bouchard — Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES), Université du Québec à Montréal.President of the Ciriec International Commission on Cooperatives and Social Economy
Milford Bateman — Independent consultant on local development; adjunct professor, IDS-SMU.
Introduction
Tom Webb — Adjunct Professor, SMU; co-founder of the Co-operative Management Education (CME) Program,
Chair of the Board of the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for
Co-operatives (CEARC), SMU
Cliff DuRand — Research Associate, Centre for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Hugo Pons Duarte — Special Advisor to the President; with ANEC’s Latin American Cooperativism (SCC) network
Beatriz Díaz — Senior researcher at FLACSO-Havana, Cuba
Isaac Saney — Director, Transition Year Program; Senior Instructor, Black Studies, Dalhousie University
Participants
Olga Fernández Ríos — Instituto de Filosofía, University of Havana
Dean Sinković — Professor, Juraj Dobrila University-Pula, Croatia
Grizel Donestevez Sanchez — Professor, Universidad de Las Villas, Cuba
Background
Larry Haiven — Director, Masters Management-Cooperatives / Credit Unions program, SMU
2:15pm–3:30pm
Cooperatives as an agency of
social transformationModerator: Errol Sharpe
Speakers: Sonja Novković
Isaac Saney
11:00pm–12:30pm
The public policy framework and social impacts of economic reformsModerator: Gavin Fridell
Speakers: Beatriz Diáz
Olga Fernández Ríos
1:00pm–2:15pm
New cooperativismModerator: Milford Bateman
Speakers: Marcelo Vieta
Wendy Holm
1:30pm–3:15pm
Cooperatives and cooperativism in the Cuban modelModerator: Cliff DuRand
Speakers: Grizel Donestevez Sanchez
Camila Piñeiro Harnecker
AGENDA
Loyola Building, Room 296
3:15pm–4:30pm
The importance of local institutional support for cooperative development in Cuba: policies, programs and pitfallsModerator: Sonja Novkovic
Speakers: Milford Bateman
Dean Sinković
9:15pm–10:15am
Cooperativism and the challenges facing Cuba todayModerator: Joseph Tharamangalam
Speaker: Hugo Pons
3:30pm–5:00pm
Closing panel
Whither cooperativism? Where does Cuba go from here?
Moderator: Sonja Novkovic
Thursday - April 28
Cuban cooperativism today – developments and challenges
9:00pm–9:15amWelcome / Introduction
10:15pm–11:00am
Cooperativism and development in the current conjuncture Moderator: Isaac Saney
Speaker: Henry Veltmeyer
Friday – APRIL 29
Cooperative practice
9:00am–10: 30am
Cooperativism, social innovation and local development
Moderator: Marcelo Vieta
Speakers: Cliff DuRand
Marie-J. Bouchard
10:30am–12:00pm
Co-operative government and management challenges
Moderator: Karen Miner
Speakers: Larry Haiven
Tom Webb
BACKGROUND
PAPERS
The cooperative movement in Latin America and the current contextHenry Veltmeyer
Solidarity coops as a model of socialist developmentSonja Novković
Cooperativism as a model of socialist development: Contradictions and prospectsIsaac Saney
Descargar el PDF (Lineamientos 2011)
Cooperatives and globalizationTom Webb
Cooperatives and local development in Latin AmericaMilford Bateman
View all background papers & reports
The Human Development Nexus in Cuba: The role of the UNDPErnan Sarmiento Vento
Solidarity economics and cooperativism in CubaBeatriz Díaz
Auditorías evidencian problemas en aplicación de Lineamientos en empresas cubanas
CubaDebate.cu
Cooperative management issuesLarry Haiven
El cooperativismo agropecuario en el nuevo modelo agrario
Grizel Donestevez Sanchez
Quebec’s social economy model – a social innovation systemMarie J. Bouchard
Resolution on the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution (April 2011)
Cuba.cu
The new non-agricultural cooperativesCamila Piñeiro Harnecker
Local development and participatory democracy in CubaCliff DuRand
The workshop presentations (from 20 to 30 minutes) will make reference to a series of background and working papers prepared for the event. Subsequently these papers, each with a maximum word count of 8-9,000 words will be reworked and formatted into chapters edited for inclusion in a book on the workshop theme. The book will be published as a part of a Critical Development Studies series with Routledge (UK).
The Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, scheduled April 16-19, will discuss six important documents, including an evaluation of progress in the updating of the country’s socio-economic model
Granma.cu
The ‘new cooperativism’ as a viable alternative for CubaMarcelo Vieta
Agricultural coops and ANAPWendy Holm
Lineamientos de la política económica y social del Partido y la Revolución
EcuRed
Following the Special period in the 1990s the Cuban government in 2011 issued a series of Lineamientos, highlighting the key policy directions for transformation of Cuba’s socialist economic model and the decentralization of decision-making.
Co-operatives are taking centre stage in this transformation, although Lineamientos envision a mixed economy with state enterprises, foreign direct investment, franchises, small private enterprises, and self-employment among the enterprise forms. The challenge in this vision is to preserve the unprecedented advances in human development granted by the socialist model, curb income inequality that is on the rise with market liberalization, and maintain socialist values as the base of Cuba’s socio-economic model.
What is the role of cooperatives and cooperativism in both capitalist and socialist development? What role can cooperatives play in the current conjuncture of Cuba’s socialist development? What is the impact of cooperativism on Cuba’s new economic model and on other forms of economic enterprise? What policy initiatives and frameworks relate to co-operative practice in the Cuban economy five years after the release of Lineamientos? Do co-operative values and principles play a role?
A SSHRC-Connection Workshop
Halifax, N.S.
28–29 April 2016