Ariel Guarco

We want an organization with more members, but at the same time closer to the needs of each community.

We want an autonomous organization, but with stronger links with international organizations. We want a cooperative movement that is concerned about having a real impact in terms of production, work, services to the community (consumption, credit, social services, housing, education, among others), innovation, while taking concrete commitments to respond to economic concentration or the degradation of our environment. And the keys to achieving this are in the work of each of the cooperatives we represent - with pride I preside the Electric Cooperative of my city - in building strong national, regional and sectoral organizations that are the real protagonists of an International Cooperative Alliance that is close to the needs of each cooperative.

Priorities for the next 4 years

The 2017-2021 four-year period is at the end of the Cooperative Decade. We must consolidate an Alliance that interprets and reproduces in an authentic way the meanings of the cooperative movement that grow day by day in each cooperative and which, in turn, must be amalgamated in each regional or sectoral organization.

1997

May 14

Coronel Pringles Coop

(President) "I come from Coronel Pringles, a small Argentine town, basically rural, where cooperation has been the key to meet our families’ needs. I was literally raised inside a cooperative; my mother has worked in the Electric Cooperative of my town for 50 years, reason why I first went to the cooperative inside her womb and I eventually was raised there, sharing multiple experiences with workers and members and learning from an early age the cooperative principles and values that from that period onwards have been guiding my life."

2008

October 1

Fedecoba

(President) "Our challenge and commitment must be aimed at making each cooperative a real driver of local development, from the democratic participation and social commitment of each of its leaders. That is why I invite you to feel militants of a process of social transformation, to feel happy and blessed to be leading actors in building a fairer, more equitable, more inclusive society. "

2011

July 8

Cooperar

(President) "To be able to be protagonists in Argentina, we have had to significantly strengthen our organizations in two main aspects: increase the number and sectoral diversity of its membership, and bring the apex organization closer to the cooperatives’ needs in every community. That is what allowed for the Cooperative Confederation of the Argentine Republic to have 72 associated federations to date, the biggest number in all its history, while building up a working agenda attempting to meet the needs of more employment, more production and more development that the cooperative movement has been felt across the country."

2014

November 12

Coop Americas

(Vicepresident) "We have to establish and build ourselves into a political, economic, social and cultural subject that, together with other sectors of humanity, build a world for all and not for a few. Integrating our organizations at the continental level is a fundamental task to consolidate this subject. It is about forming an Alliance that strengthens the Region in and out of our movement."

2015

November 4

International Co-operative Alliance

(Board member) "The International Co-operative Alliance should coordinate development initiatives as a direct agent of concrete projects, but only those of global relevance; the Alliance should not be seen as an NGO but as a global representative organization, with a complex matrix, that works as a forum for debate, exchanges and development for the co-operative movement."

2017

November 17

International Co-operative Alliance

(President) "As I have done since my beginnings in the cooperative movement, I will work with commitment and strength. Understanding that all leadership is a collective construction, and that it must therefore be managed collectively. I am absolutely convinced that the inspiring force of cooperative principles and values is the basis for achieving our goals."

Our movement worldwide

Around one billion people are linked to some cooperative worldwide. Can we imagine the power of a movement of this magnitude if it is well represented by its global leaders?