Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-12-10
Cooperatives Take
Initiative

The part that the cooperatives
of Latin America will play in
further developing and strength
ening the Good Neighbor policy
in postwar years is well brought
out in the following release from
Worldover Press.
Supporters of the movement
believe that the program will
give smaller and poorer coun-
tries more equal chance with
their large and prosperous neigh
borS, and will also act as bal
ance wheel to offset any sudden
change of policy on the part of
the United States later on.
The article is reprinted here
with:
gained inter-American cooperative
movement would be the surest guar
antee of the continuation and fur
Their development of the Good Neigh
Dor policy after the war, no matter
what administration were in office
in Washington, Cooperative centers
in Colombia and Venezuela have
taken the initiative to link the var
iouS cooperative societies in the Latin
American countries in a strong fed
Grafton and to join them to the move
ment in the United States and Cam
ada.
The plan they are working on was
first proposed by Professor A. Fabra
Ribas, director of the Institute for
Cooperative Study at Cauca, Colom-
bia, in an article entitled: The Co.
operative Movement in Latin Amer
lea and its Significance in Hemisphere
Solidarity, published by the School
of Inter-American Affairs of the Uni
versity of New Mexico.
Main proposals of the plan, which
have been approved by the two
largest cooperatives centres in Col
ombia and by the Centre for Co.
operative Study in Caracas, and
which are now being considered by
the principal cooperative societies in
10 other countries, are as follows:
Q) Organize chain of centres died.
icated to the study and teaching of
cooperation, beginning with those
already in existence in Colombia,
Peru and Venezuela. (2) See that
these centres maintain the closest
possible relations with similar or
CARNATIONS existing in the other Latin
American countries. 60 Carry out
the necessary steps to establish con-
tact with cooperative societies and
centers of cooperative study in the
United States and Canada
The significance of this develop
ment of international cooperative
collaboration in Latin America may
not be at once apparent to those in
the United States who are accus-
toned to the multitude of non-gov-
ernmental organizations in their
country which have always been
closely linked to similar groups in
foreign lands, and have worked across
national boundaries for a common
aim. But in Latin America there
has been little non-governmental &C
tivity involving large-scale popular
participation which brought people
of different countries together for a
common purpose. Therefore this
move on the part of the Colombian
and Venezuelan cooperatives is of
primary importance.
The initiating groups believe that
this program for cooperative solidar-
ity in the Americas comes in response
to profound actual need to insure
that the new continental economy,
which is being thrust upon the hemis-
phere by the war, will be one in
which the small countries and the
poor countries can live with dignity
and decency beside their large and
prosperous neighbors. 1t comes also
to reassure those who fear a sudden
change of policy on the part of the
United States later on. Although a
large majority of Latin American
people, including those in Argentina
and Chile, have their hearts in the
Allied cause and desire a United
Nations victory, there are still many
among them who fear that the poll
cies now being carried out toward
their countries by Roosevelt, Wallace,
Hull and Welles may change abruptly
with a change of administration, per-
haps after the war.
Those who have initiated this move
ment realize that they are in mani
testify inferior position when it comes
to applying modern techniques to
agriculture, industry and commerce
They understand the urgent necessity
of bringing their countries up to