Loomio
Mon 31 Jan 2022 4:09PM

Solidarity Economy Principles

SF Sean Farmelo Public Seen by 109

Hi all,

I thought I would share these principles which are being worked on at present by North American co-operatives, I wonder what people think of them and whether anyone sees any scope for contributions to the drafting process. Personally I was thinking that something to do with climate, approaches to value and degrowth would be a good addition, and that these sort of more developed principles could be something useful to worker co-operatives in the process of developing their secondary rules. https://solidarityeconomyprinciples.org/about/

PC

Philip Coulthard Mon 7 Feb 2022 10:34AM

I welcome this discussion on a coop federation. I have for some time been advocating the work of Stafford Beer yet it became contentious with this group so I backed off. Since that time on my own journey I became aware of the systemic nature not only of organizations but that of our biology, cancer, nature and lately that of our own psychology. Carl Rogers brought science to his findings as a psychotherapist for self actualising man, in his existential state of "becoming".

So may I ask this group, does nature and our own psychology not show the way, one where we are not tied to the dogma of principle? As we become aware through the whole organism of our feelings, could the existential man ( woman ) naturally chose that right thing to do, whether at the biological, individual or recursive higher levels. Could it be that Beer and Rogers match the challenges of our enviroment through the VSM variety of the self actualizing individual and is this then the "Heart of Enterprize"?

Is compassionate love the glue? Just a collection of thoughts which I hope will stimulate further discussion.

SBH

Simon Ball (Blake House) Mon 7 Feb 2022 3:48PM

I think you have it interestingly right, and it opens up infinite new interesting pathways of discussion. (although i would have to spend a bit of time reading up on the ideas to have a contribution)

It's interesting to suppose that there is a natural 'right' way, and the person encounters many different distractions/abstractions deterring them from 'the way'. it certainly helps then frame the cooperative principles as some form of baseline articulation of natural behaviour to open up the doors of possibility in the casual observer (at least in my experience).

PC

Philip Coulthard Mon 14 Feb 2022 10:28AM

Thanks for the reply Simon. Just a quick comment on the "compassionate love" bit. We had a recent bereavement in the family and that person seemed to have that gift. She affected everyone she came in contact with in such a loving way. The science however according to Carl Rogers holds for unconditional positive regard and for congruence, i.e. being real in our interactions with others. That brings me to the subject of principals. My comment on the "dogma of principle" may be too harsh as I found myself reacting to the idea of one list versus another i.e. does it matter who has the longest list? Surely what matters given the hypothesis that Beer and Rogers are on the same page is that the principles reinforce the need for unconditional positive regard and congruence. So yes, I agree, to a casual observer becoming interested in coops, knowing that the psychology holds with the principles which support "unconditional positive regard " would enrich an organization upholding them.