Economia baseada na cooperação

Descubro no Twitter, onde se descobre imensa informação interessante, este artigo do Shareable sobre uma das regiões mais ricas de Itália, em que 30% da sua economia se baseia nas cooperativas:
"The Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy is one of the richest in Europe, known for its high-end car manufacturing. While Emilia-Romagna is one of the most economically successful regions in Europe, it is also one of the most cooperative regions in the world. Nearly two of every three of its 4.5 million citizens are members of a cooperative. Cooperatives support around 30% of the region’s GDP, making it a stellar example of a large-scale cooperative economy. ..."

O artigo liga-se a outros artigos, um dos quais sobre a importância da cooperação na economia actual:
"The United Nations has named 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, and indeed, co-ops seem poised to become a dominant business model around the world. Today, nearly one billion people worldwide are cooperative member-owners. ...
Além de cooperação, outras palavras-chave para a economia do séc. XXI: novos modelos de negócio, crescimento sustentável, benefício da comunidade.
Um dos exemplos mais inesperados de cooperativas bem sucedidas é o de Madragón em Espanha:
What has allowed Mondragon to grow steadily without abandoning its cooperative principles? For one thing, it has embraced innovation, and worker-owners have repeatedly chosen to reinvest in the future of the corporation. It's also based in the Basque community, known for its strength and cooperative nature. ... "
Portanto, já temos aqui mais palavras-chave: inovação e relativa autonomia.
Há outra implicação social a reter neste tipo de economia baseada na cooperação:
" In 2000, poverty expert Barbara Peters visited the town of Mondragón. She labeled it a “town without poverty” -- and also noted the absence of “extreme wealth.” ...

As restantes palavras-chave são partilha, responsabilidade e futuro:
"Ultimately, the key to equal employment and fair wages may be as simple as taking control of our own economic realities, stepping up and sharing the responsibility for our future. ... Cooperatives have been around in one form or another throughout human history, but modern models began popping up about 150 years ago. Today’s co-ops are collaboratively owned by their members, who also control the enterprise collaboratively by democratic vote. This means that decisions made in cooperatives are balanced between the pursuit of profit, and the needs of members and their communities. Most co-ops also follow the Seven Cooperative Principles, a unique set of guidelines that help maintain their member-driven nature. ... While 20th-century corporations were good at making money, the 21st century finds humanity in need of new business models that value sustainable growth and community benefit. The UN stands behind cooperative models, and in 2012 will dedicate its efforts to raising awareness of co-ops, helping them grow and influencing governments to support them legislatively. ..."

Daí a importância de todo um trabalho de sensibilização política de modo a criar legislação adequada. E muito importante: " ... Mondragon benefited from that governmental support, without governmental interference in the company's autonomy. ..."
Precisamente, o inverso do que se verifica actualmente na Europa e mais acentuadamente ainda nos States, as enormes desigualdades sociais, o que reflecte um modelo económico desequilibrado e insustentável.

Destaco aqui um vídeo, Together - the documentary, do CECOP - Cicopa Europe, sobre a capacidade de resistência à crise das cooperativas:

O que podemos aprender com a partilha?

Quando descobri este filme dos anos 40 no youtube, The More The Merrier, fiquei de imediato fascinada. Cresci com os filmes americanos que passavam na televisão e esse fascínio permaneceu.
Ontem, num passeio pelo Twitter, e a propósito desta notícia no Shareable, lembrei-me do filme.
Na verdade, foi a primeira parte do filme que me fascinou: inicia-se em forma de documentário, uma cidade que cresce de repente, Washington DC, à volta de escritórios governamentais sobretudo, e com tudo o que vem agregado: sub-aluguer de apartamentos, restaurantes improvisados, transporte partilhado com horários definidos.
Reparem na partilha dos terraços dos prédios, só possível em prédios de altura mediana: a criançada e os adultos podem apanhar sol à vontade.
Reparem igualmente no design do carro, o transporte partilhado, de linhas onduladas tão actuais.
O que me interessou reter do filme:
- o espaço pode ser aproveitado pelo grupo, partilhado pelo grupo, gerido pelo grupo;
- o transporte pode ser partilhado com vantagens evidentes para todos.

Ontem também fiz outra descoberta nesse passeio pelo Twitter e igualmente através do Shareable, e vale a pena ler. 
Nos anos 30 chamaram-lhe Reciprocal Economy e iniciou-se em movimentos cívicos e muita criatividade, pragmatismo e respeito pelo trabalho e por cada indivíduo. Tudo começou em 32 com a UXA (Unemployed Exchange Association), no essencial um movimento de cooperativas que se replicaram pela California e outros estados. Nunca tinha ouvido falar de Rhodehamel mas esta personagem merece um filme.
Este texto de John Curl, já na década de 80, termina neste tom:
"...
If the government had not undercut the cooperatives, would they have become a permanent part of the economy? What if EPIC had won: could it have actually ended poverty and unemployment? Rather than speculate about what might have been, let us instead note that around us today is a situation in many ways reflecting that of 1932, and consider what might yet be.
Rhodehamel stressed that a primary reason that cooperatives were needed was that a growing body of people were being permanently displaced by technological changes. The ranks of the unemployed in the thirties, like today, were filled with highly trained and skilled people who would never find a job in their fields again, particularly middle-aged people. Today that process has accelerated; we are being told continually to prepare ourselves for a permanent situation of high unemployment. As America changes from a production economy to a "service economy" and production shifts to multinational firms with factories in Asia, a "permanent" underclass of unemployed, underemployed, and never-employed is being formed. Unemployed associations and self-help cooperatives are the natural organizational forms that spring from people in this situation, just as labor unions are natural for the employed.
Will the unemployed settle for "permanent unemployment"? Or might the unemployed rise again in a social movement? Could there be a new version of EPIC and the UXA?
Perhaps the final curtain on the Self-help movement has not yet been dropped."