Cooperative Alternatives to Capitalist Globalisation

From the 8^th to 10^thJune 2006, at Devonshire Hotel, Johannesburg, the Co-operative and PolicyAlternative Center (COPAC) in partnership with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundationco-hosted an international conference. This conference was entitled: Co-operativeAlternatives to Capitalist Globalisation – Building Human Solidarity to SustainLife. The conference wasmotivated and informed by various considerations.

In particular we recognised thefollowing:

§       The policy process for the development ofco-operatives had entered a new phase in South Africa with the passing of a newCo-operatives Act in 2005 and the formulation of a new Co-operatives Policywithin the Department of Trade and Industry. It was felt the conference couldprovide a platform to dialogue around the implementation challenges of suchprogressive legal and policy reform and draw on lessons that could be learntfrom an international dialogue;

§       A need to share international experiencesof people centred co-operative movements and initiatives and how they haveengaged with the current wave of globalising capitalism and neo-liberal policyprescriptions. We hoped to use the conference platform to participate in an ongoingdialogue and search on the African continent for alternatives to capitalistglobalisation through the Africa Social Forum process especially the morerecent Bamako Appeal.

We invited many international guests -from Brazil, Ireland, Germany, Mauritius, India, China, Jordan andinternational co-operative movement organisations like CICOPA - to participatein the dialogue. We also invited a cross section of South African organisationsinvolved in the co-operative movement and sector, including government atvarious levels.

This document captures a record of theconference. It includes the problem statement, written inputs submitted byinternational and national guests, an overview of outcomes and a contact listfor all attendees to the conference. We are hoping the latter document would beutilised to continue the networking and solidarity building work begun at theconference.

Cooperative Alternatives to Capitalist Globalisation.pdf [4.2 MB]