Venezuela’s cooperative movement, which has increased a thousand fold since President Hugo Chavez’s first election in 1998, fosters development of the individual, but not “individualism”, through economic and social community building. This change in human relations is essential to throwing off the ideology and mechanism of capitalism which has so corrupted our human community.
In a recent article in www.venezuelanalysis entitled “Cooperatives in Venezuela Promote Solidarity, Equality and Dignity” (April 12, 2011), the radio collective, Radio Al Reves interviews some members of successful cooperatives currently active in Venezuela wherein cooperative members describe the impact of their cooperatives on their lives.
In the words of a cooperative member, Gustavo Salas:
Development of the individual but not of individualism, which are two different things. There is a saying that goes: we are not individualists nor are we collectivists, because we are trying to develop a collective environment where we are growing all of the time, and each of us developing as people. It’s a balance that’s not easy. You have to continually build it.