COPAC - Co-operative and Policy Alternative Center
COPAC Description
The vision of this website is to promote the cooperative idea, worker cooperative movement building and cooperative sector development in South African society and on the African continent.
Our mission is to provide the necessary information, technical tools and capacity building resources to achieve this.
This photo shows the leadership of one of the most successful producer cooperatives in South Africa. It is the Highveld Organic Rooibos Tea Cooperative. This cooperative is based in Nieuwoudtville on the border between the Western Cape and Northern Cape. It produces and exports 60 tons of organic Rooibos tea. The leadership together with the membership (51 farmers) owns and works in their cooperative.
News
At the 1st South African international solidarity economy conference COPAC will launch a grass roots activist guide to build the solidarity economy movement from below. The solidarity economy and movement is an alternative to the top down and financialised BEE led approach to cooperatives in South Africa.
COPAC has supported the call for solidarity with local struggles against neoliberalisation and with the Occupy Wall street movement. In this context it has called on the Minister of Finance to enter a dialogue about the space and role of the solidarity economy movement in South Africa.
COPAC has recently launched a new initiative in South Africa amongst the poor and workers to build a solidarity economy movement. This initiative is based on ten years of grass roots practice in township communities and five years of comparative research of the most exciting grass roots movements advancing alternative political economies.
New publications and policies
This is the first solidarity economy mapping report conducted in a township community. The survey covered households and enterprises that make up Ivory Park township. It also focused on the local solidarity economy cooperative movement. The report mapped the different issues facing households, the community, solidarity and non-solidarity economy enterprises.
This is a study of 20 cooperatives that have been in existence in the rural Eastern Cape. The case studies identify various factors limiting the growth and development of the cooperatives. Central in the regard is the role of the state.
This publication provides an important literature survey of cooperative experiences from different parts of the global South. It includes insights into cooperative development from Venezuela, Cuba and Ethiopia.
Upcoming Events
26 October, 2011 - 10:00 - 28 October, 2011 - 13:00
WITS University
COPAC will be hosting the 1st international solidarity economy conference in South Africa. Participants include leading solidarity economy activists and thinkers from Brazil, Argentina, USA, UK and Italy. This conference will provide a platform for local movements and activists to engage in a comparative dialogue and learning process.