Co-op News November 2022

"We cannot wait for the system to be the solution.
World problems are severe and worsening, yet we
still look to governments for the answers instead
of making the change [as citizens].
"We must help each other to act now. We do
not need permission to act from national
politicians or global authorities. We must create
the changes we need and use these changes to
help bring about the deeper systemic reforms the
world urgently needs."
The CEO of the new co-operative is Markus
Va.ha.la. "I believe this is what the world needs at
the moment: a network of people and trust, which
is values-based, and works on the street level," he
says. "To support this momentum, we needed a
new platform to bring together the people excluded
in life and communities."
He describes how the co-op will be providing
training, education and support, and how
technology will be a key part of this: "We see the
real potential of technology serving people, to
bring inclusion to people in society."
Also involved in the project is professor Iiro
Jussila of Skillmotor Finland, founding editor
of the Journal of Co-operative Organisation and
Management (JCOM / Elsevier) and founding
member and a member of the Supervisory Board of
Citizen Network Osk, who helped create the rules
surrounding what the co-op is, how it acts and how
it can scale.
"It is often said that co-ops are a tool for societal
and systemic change through reaching markets
and democracy," he says, "but if you consider
change that is sustainable in terms of economy and
society, the interaction happens between the co-op
and citizens. It is also a mechanism to combine and
accumulate capital - human, technological, and
economic capital - to create impact. In our case,
global impact.
He sees real change happening through the
neighbourhood democracy movements. "Everyone
is somewhere!" he says. "And if we make citizenship
real, we make neighbourhood democracy real.
The key to co-operation is about changing things
''
This era is made for co-ops
and people empowerment
but somehow it seems like
co-ops are being massively
misused. They are an
invisible giant We want to
help make them visible"
for the better [ ... ] We will be organising meetings
around core challenges looking at how to create a
world where everyone matters - firstly by people
recognising other people around as people too, and
seeing how we can help them."
One of the challenges to this, he says, is collective
global burnout. "Often the most interesting things
are being done by people who are lonely - they are
often working in areas and sectors and projects
that are high risk, with little validation. They feel
vulnerable, people are tired."
The co-operative aims to provide a level of
networking and peer support to these people, and
has a goal to reach millions of people in the next
few years.
"We want to be a powerful force for progressive
change around the world," says Jussila. "This era
is made for co-ops and people empowerment, but
somehow it seems like co-ops are being massively
misused, and also underuse their main business
advantage. They are an invisible giant. We want
to help make them visible."
Find out more about the co-operative at citizennetwork.org/
about/ Membership is currently only
open to organisations, with individual
membership launching in a few months' time.
24 I NOVEMBER 2022