CUBA IS IGNORING AN I.L.O. INITIATIVE AND ALSO A.U.N. AGENDA, BOTH SUPPORTING LABOR CO-OPERATIVISM.

Miami, September 24, 2000 (GACIC)

The International Labor Organization (ILO), months ago, sent a questionnaire to all member countries based Resolution 127, concerning labor relations within co-op associations in order to prepare a final resolution that should be sanctioned in one year, and then to be ratified by the United Nations (UN) in the year 2002.
Up to June 30^th, only 29 out of the 200 recipient countries have completed the questionnaire. Cuba is among those countries delaying the process of ratification, as reported by Dr. Roberto Rodrigues, President of the International Alliance of Co-ops (ACI) during his presentation at the “Cooperatives 2000” Seminar held in Buenos Aires, Argentina last July.
The ILO has requested the ACI’s assistance in contacting the reluctant governments and to make them more sensitive to the issue, otherwise this non-action will imply that those governments are considering co-operativism as not important in their agendas.
Last year the United Nations in New York sent a message to this body’s General Assembly in support of the co-op movements around the world. It is still without approval because a unanimous vote is required. Only there countries are holding up the agenda: Cuba, Egypt and Algeria.
Evidently the Cuban government does not have a positive and clear vision of free co-operativism, as they don’t follow a coherent policy with the co-operative international movement. Despite any government position, the co-operatives, as economic-social organizations, have the right to participate in al world initiatives supporting co-operativism. Therefore the Cuban co-operativism farmers under the guidance of the National Alliance of Independent Farmers(ANAIC) are supporting the ILO initiatives as well as the statements of Dr. Roberto Rodrigues President of the International Alliance of Co-Ops (ACI)