#2030agenda : “Super-Co-Ops for Decent Life”.
Global goal: "Super-cooperatives for a decent life".
Cooperative values and principles for people's corporations.
Every first Saturday of July the world community celebrates the International Day of Cooperatives.
Today, it is clear that the pioneers of the cooperative movement, such as the workers of Rochdale, or Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and their comrades, have set the right course for a better future.
A real confirmation of the viability of the idea of cooperation to achieve personal and common goals is the global turnover of three hundred of the world's largest cooperatives, which reached more than $2 trillion.
Among them: Cr;dit Agricole Group (France), Rabobank Group (Netherlands), DZ Bank Group (Germany), Nationwide Building Society (UK), Raiffeisen Bank Group (Austria) and others.
But most importantly, millions of cooperatives are a plentiful (and sometimes a single) source for improving the lives of nearly a billion cooperative members in 100 countries and with them billions of their partners around the world.
Of course, the weavers who created the first consumer cooperative “The Rochdale Society of Fair Pioneers” in 1844, and comrade F.W. Raiffeisen who founded the first cooperative credit bank, couldn’t foresee how people would appreciate their ideas and works through the centuries.
They also could not foresee:
that the UN General Assembly on the eve of the centenary of the International Cooperative Alliance will establish an annual celebration of the International Day of Cooperatives;
that each year the activities of the International Day of Cooperatives will be devoted to such vital themes for humanity as “The progress of cooperatives in the third millennium”, “Cooperative enterprises build a better world”, “Cooperative movement for achieving sustainable development for all”, “Cooperative values and principles for social responsibility of corporations";
that 2012 will be declared by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Cooperatives.
Neither they nor their comrades could have foreseen that their small local cooperatives would be the first gold nuggets of the inexhaustible bonanza of cooperation for the sake of each and every people.
Naturally, they could not imagine all this.
They were neither prophets nor utopian dreamers.
But they were able to find a "Golden mean" between dream and reality: and dreams came true.
They were able to find in their far from heavenly life and implement such an idea of a just life arrangement, which is the closest to the commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself".
I am sure that this ever-relevant principle of fair cooperation, which is the basis for joint activities, has become the key to the inevitable success of the cooperative movement in all times for all peoples.
The symbol of the banks named in honor of F. W. Raiffeisen, are crossed horse heads (Giebelkreuz - a traditional element of the German architecture, placed on the roof to avoid hazards). It has also become a symbol of association in cooperatives for joint protection against social and economic dangers.
It is very likely that the wise words about “the universal energy of love” were not written by A. Einstein in a letter to his daughter:
“To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation. If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
…If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer”.
But these thoughts are really brilliant and worthy of development.
So, I propose the formula of "the universal energy of love and cooperation”:
E = lc2
where E is energy, L is love, C2 is cooperation between people and cooperation between humanity and the world, i.e. love multiplied by the square of cooperation.
And this formula, in my opinion, quite correctly expresses the essence of “Cooperation via Cooperatives” and could become a formula of the cooperative movement.
The role of the cooperative movement is highly and deservedly appreciated all around the world.
For example, you can read the following confession on the UN website:
«The importance of cooperatives as associations and enterprises is generally recognized.
Cooperatives are a form of organization of associations and enterprises through which citizens can provide self-help and take responsibility for certain objectives, which include not only economic but also social and environmental objectives, such as poverty eradication, productive employment and the promotion of social integration."
It should be emphasized that the UN highly appreciates and recognizes not only the important role of cooperatives in the past and present, but also the key importance of the idea of cooperation for building a better future:
"Despite the fact that cooperatives operate at the local level, the positive effect of their economic and social model is felt by all people of the planet. Globalization must be based on values, on those values that are on base of the cooperative movement. Otherwise, globalization will create inequality."
As a brilliant begins to sparkle with new colors when viewed from different angles, so the brilliant idea of cooperation takes on new meaning in the light of the inevitable coming of Globalization and the Era of Robotics and Automation.
That is, the role of the cooperative social and economic model will grow immeasurably in the Era of Robotics & AI (#EraRA including #4IR and #Society5.0) and "Globalization for the sake of a human" (i.e. "all-inclusive globalization for a Human" - all-inclusive globalization for the benefit of every human being - "Globalization with a human face"): #LeaveNoOneBehind
Interesting thoughts about the need to go beyond the boundaries of the "Familiar world" and a breakthrough to a New picture of the world, which should be clearly depicted the prospect of the true way of humanity in the anthropocene, can often be found in the articles of many authors.
Thus, the Director of the UN Information center Alexander Gorelik in the article "Global cooperative" for the magazine "International life" in October 2015 shared his personal opinion about the role of the UN in the world:
"But in any case, the UN is not a 'world government'.
...Maybe the optimal view for the UN is as a global "cooperative".
Indeed, according to the generally accepted definition, a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons who have united on a voluntary basis to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and have established a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
Add only the term "political" to the list of needs - and all be the same.
There are a voluntary basis and jointly owned enterprise (through the shares in budgets), and democratic control by member-states.
Except that "profit", unlike the cooperative, does not money, although the maintenance of peace and socio-economic progress are highly valued - in the interests of all mankind".
But such original and profound judgments are usually presented in an almost utopian light or as a reality, but in a very distant future.
Meanwhile, the most incredible utopia in the modern, and even more so in the future progressive and humane civilization will be unfounded promises of politicians and scientists to save or increase jobs for citizens in their countries.
The policy of conservation of #HandEcon (including through guaranteed jobs programs as not a temporary measure but as a strategic goal) and combating the "smart economy"/ #HeadEcon seems in a 21st century as a reincarnation of the "luddism" and leads to regression of not only the economy but also society (detailed in "the Future: the Main Aim and Options":
http://www.proza.ru/2019/02/03/794 ).
Advanced and responsible leaders of the world community clearly see the threat of a global humanitarian disaster, which will cause the 4th Industrial Revolution, if robotics and automation, artificial intelligence and other scientific innovations will be introduced into our lives massively and spontaneously, based only on the private interests of big business to the detriment of public interests.
Authoritative international consulting company McKinsey in 2017 gave a forecast that by 2030, 800 million people in 46 countries, or about a third of the workforce, may lose jobs due to robotics and automation.
It should be noted that not only such outstanding thinkers and scientists as N.Chomsky, D. Attenborough, J. Stiglitz, T. Piketty see this great problem but also the richest people in the world: W. Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, who initiated the creation "The Giving Pledge" Fund, which today unites their like-minded - more than 200 billionaires-philanthropists from around the world.
It was the good idea of "The Giving Pledge" that inspired me to launch the action "Vow to the World", the participants of which, like the mythical Titan Atlas, but here and now are ready to hold up the World on their shoulders with the help of "the universal energy of love and cooperation, both between people/P2P/ and between mankind and the World/ M2W ".
And only such a human attitude to each other and all together to the planet Earth will help us to solve all problems: from such global, as climate change, to local conflicts.
I said many times that "technological progress without morality turns into a guillotine for humanity".
But obviously, "if in ancient not heard the voice of man crying in the desert, now do not hear the voice of human crying in the sea of fake news".
And first of all, despite the abundance of fake facts, we have no right to forget, especially on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the WWII, in what high-technical, but terribly immoral bloodshed were drawn peoples of the world.
But, as they say, "let's return to our sheep", and in our example - to fish.
I, like many people, highly appreciate the human and entrepreneurial qualities of the participants of "The Giving Pledge" and other faire billionaires and millionaires who donate big sums of money to charity.
Brilliant entrepreneurs are as rare as brilliant scientists or artists. It is very likely that other people have other talents: some are fast runners, some are brilliant thinkers. But not all people can be brilliant entrepreneurs and managers.
It's not enough if you grant to people fish sometimes. It's not enough if you give fishing rods to people but you impossible to teach them catch the fish so efficient as you doing that business. Conclusion: fair leaders who really want to end of poverty should understand that it is best to give to people a "fishing network", but it is necessary that brilliant top-managers participate in the management of "fishing".
Moreover, it is necessary to use the "fishing net", in which the number of cells is equal to the number of citizens in the country and each citizen owns one cell.
Moreover, robots and artificial intelligence will fish by means of this fully automated "network", but the income from the catch gets every citizen.
And this is not a fantasy, but a Super-Co-Ops business-model that can be realized in the near future.
Thanks to worldwide and/or nationwide super-cooperative-corporate networks:
1. The economy will become a "full-circular economy" - that is, a "circular economy" in which not only raw materials, waste and energy circulate, but, very importantly, financial resources circulate.
After all, the registers of owners of shares of production and trade, credit and consumer "super-co-ops" will largely coincide with the lists of buyers of their goods and services, which will ensure a constant circulation of money of every citizen "from my pocket to my pocket".
2. In the same way, the sharing-economy will not become one-sided (only share consumption), but "complex sharing".
3. In the distribution of income, along with the current system of "trickle down" will operate a system of income (I propose to call it) "drip irrigation", in which "a drop", or share of income will constantly come to every citizen of the country and/or the world in the form of "Human income"("Hi").
Moreover, to harmonize the "human income" with the profits of the super-co-op it is necessary to apply the principle of "flood-tide".
Because the profits will increase with the growth of productivity not owing of the intensive work of people but thanks to an increase the degree of robotics and automation.
Therefore: an upcoming Era of Robotics & AI (ERARA) isn't a threat for Humanity but a hope on an Era of Eden (ERARAJ).
The rising tide raises all the boats, but the tide raises the small boats first, then the small ships, and finally - the big ships.
In accordance with the principle of "rising tide", the boats of the poorest should be raised first, and the yachts of the billionairs will be raised the last.
That is, with the low profitability of super-cooperatives, dividends can be received only by those members of the cooperative whose total income from all sources is lower than the statistical level of "decent life".
Citizens receive from reserve funds "basic income" as the floor income while "low-tide" period, i.e. during of low profit period of super cooperatives.
The circle of recipients of dividends expands up to a maximum while profits increase ("high-tide" period).
4. It will be launched and gain power so to speak, "the economy of abundance" i.e. "the economy of Eden"/ "Eden-Econ"/ "eden-econ", in which the continuity of the cycles of solvent demand and their respective proposals will turn into an endless "Mobius tape".
While until now, the "economy of abundance" was in principle impossible because of the regular "overproduction crises" caused by the low incomes of the masses of "Their Majesties the End Consumers".
5. The problem of mass unemployment due to robotics and automation will be "passed over".
6. Private and public interests will be harmonized, which will help to solve social, environmental, political and other problems, will open the way to continuous improvement of human, humanity and the world.
Any correct mathematical model that correctly takes into account all social and economic factors will show the logic and realism of these conclusions. The peak of profitability of "super-cooperatives" in the form of "people's corporations" will come with a high degree of automation and robotization of human activity (i.e., in the heyday of the EraRA - Era of Robotics and Automation as a result of the 4th industrial revolution).
However, "the obvious is often unnoticeable".
About what sometimes unexpected, but inevitable changes in the life of society causes scientific and technical progress, the article "Communism, which no one built..." by Sergei Fedorin in the magazine "Forbes" from 25.6.2009.
"Communist mantra "from each according to his abilities, for each according to his needs" suddenly worked in the heyday of the era of developed capitalism. It laid the foundation for a new type of economy, "the Sharing economy", which has an estimated capacity of hundreds of trillions of dollars."
Such an introduction by the author probably shocked the part of Forbes readers who do not regularly follow world trends.
And further.
"At the beginning of the XXI century in the economic history of the world there was a surprising event: in the depths of capitalism has grown what a hundred years ago was called a model of collective consumption. It is based on the sharing of goods and services, barter or rent instead of sole ownership and private property. All this is realized within the virtual community through Internet platforms and special applications.
At its core, the Sharing economy is an IT-reincarnation of the idea of collective economy in an absolutely market and pragmatic environment.
...The sharing economy challenges core values of the society of Hyper-consumption, offsetting the philosophy of enrichment and undermining the triumph of private property.
The explosive growth of the sharing economy cannot be stopped... today there are thousands platforms for sharing resources, working in almost all sectors of the economy around the world”.
Sergey Fedorin concluded that the sharing economy has excellent prospects for development in Russia because "Russian people are in principle characterized by social community and the concepts of "sharing" and "sharing" are close in spirit to Russians".
This desire for "cooperation" manifested itself in Russian artels from 13-14 centuries, and since 1865 in the cooperative movement in Russia.
In 1912, the cooperative "Moscow People's Bank" was established. In 1916 in Russia there were more than 16 thousand credit cooperatives with a total number of shareholders more than 10 million.
I am sure that the time has come for the revival of the "conciliar spirit" and the powerful rise of the renewed cooperative movement in Russia through the creation of National People's Corporations (NPC) on the basis of cooperative values and principles.
In Russia can start with the transformation of modern Russian state-owned corporations into NPC and the merger of several big state-owned banks into a Super-Co-Op "All-Russian People's Bank", in which an equal share of ownership should be obtained by every citizen of Russia who has the right to vote on civil elections (about 108 million people).
These Super-Co-Ops should be "Too Big to Fail".
If the National projects of Russia (in which tens of trillions of rubles from state funds, i.e. from all-citizens, will be invested) will be realized with the active participation of super-co-ops, it will inevitably increase the welfare of citizens (108 million shareholders of every super-co-operative).
But we must also recognize that "sharing" and "cooperation" are close in spirit not only to the French, Germans, Austrians, Italians, whose largest cooperatives are now successfully operating in their countries, but also to billions of cooperative members and supporters of the cooperative movement in many countries of the world.
For example, the Raiffeisen Movement today includes more than 900,000 cooperatives and almost 500 million shareholders in 100 countries.
Objectively, the most ready for an idea of nationwide super-co-ops are the countries-leaders of scientific and technological progress with sustainable democratic traditions, such as Israel, Switzerland, New Zealand, Austria, Japan, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and others…
But the idea of nationwide super-co-ops is really universal.
The "spirit of cooperation" is close to the American, Canadian, Chinese authors of interesting articles about the high adaptability of the cooperative business model to the high-tech of today and the future.
Conference at the European Economic and Social Committee, Brussels “Towards a fair sharing economy: The role of cooperative platforms” correctly identified the challenges:
“Digital platforms are powerful tools for matching needs, cooperation and sharing information, but they also raise property, governance, democracy issues. Can we try to control the situation or, even better, go one step ahead? What kind of solutions can we find relying on ‘commons’? Can social and solidarity economy (SSE) “collective” organisations (cooperatives, mutualities, associations…)
contribute to fairer solutions and be a part of a new European political project?
At the conference, activists of the commons and the social and solidarity economy will give examples of how fair and sharing platforms can be created and show the variety of models, the opportunities and challenges they represent for legislation and society. Regulation of the practices, needs for support and public policies will be discussed”.
Such “Sharing of Ideas” will allow a robust exchange of national experiences and new ways of thinking that can contribute to achieving the development of the cooperative model of doing business.
In my opinion, many of the answers to these questions are contained in an article posted on Hong Kong Free Press website by Dr. Yanto Chandra on July 15, 2018.
Let me introduce: Mr. Yanto Chandra is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong. The opinions represented here are the author’s own.
I find it very interesting and therefore almost completely present his article:
“We are in the midst of the platform-based economy. From Uber and AirBnB to TaskRabbit and Etsy, platforms allow the so-called “sharing” of un- or under-utilised assets, or resources or people’s time, in a way that generates economic (and sometimes social) value.
Hence, the “sharing economy”, also known as the gig economy, or digital labour economy. But how much sharing is really taking place in today’s sharing economy?
Is the sharing economy genuinely about sharing with all its benefits as pundits claim it to be? How should we all -- ordinary citizens -- react to the recent craze in sharing economy?
Evidence: research by Trebor Scholz -- a professor from New York’s The New School -- reveals that the notion of “sharing” in sharing economy is more of an utopia, or more precisely a gimmick, than actual sharing. This sharing economy is driven by a force worse than the current capitalistic system, deep rooted in the shareholder-driven principle.
It’s a “trickle up” not “trickle down” economic model. It boils down to two points: a lack of fairness to the sharing economy workers (unfair wages, unemployment insurance etc.) and threats to the traditional service sectors (think of the global movement of taxi drivers around the world against Uber). In other words, the workers are merely a tool of the platform capitalists.
Protests in response to perceived unfairness as well as threats posed by the sharing economy have mushroomed around the world.
…An answer to the problematic platform-based sharing economy manifests in the rise of the so-called platform cooperativism -- cooperatives (co-ops) that run on and in online platforms owned by the workers. In the past few years, platform cooperatives are popping up globally.
Examples include Stocksy, a Canada based artist-owned cooperative where contributing artists receive 50% of a Standard Licence Purchase and 75% of an Extended Licence Purchase – and every single co-op member receives a share of the company.
Another example is Fairmondo, a Germany based online supermarket coop that adopts a 4/4 profit distribution model, where 1/4 is shared among members according to their shares, 1/4 is shared through a points system for members, 1/4 is given to nonprofits, and 1/4 is kept for future expansion.
GreenTaxi, based in the US, is a co-op alternative to Uber, while FairBnB, based in Netherlands, is a co-op alternative to AirBnB -- and there are many more platform co-ops in various categories: online newspapers, data services, food, home services, music, consulting, web services and financial services.
Platform cooperatives are essentially social enterprises, which enable a genuine sharing economy. Sharing here means the fruits of shared assets or time or resources trickle down to those who need them the most: the majority of workers and those marginalised from the mainstream labour market.
What’s interesting is that platform cooperatives take the social enterprise concept to the next level, by allowing all workers as co-owners (not as mere employees), to have a voice in determining (or voting) how the platform should work or contribute to the workers’ lives and how it can improve its business model.
It operates based on two logics: the logic of commons (where many people participate and become owners) and the logic of business (where innovation and business are tools to achieve commons’ welfare).
Platform cooperativism is in itself a social innovation, in that it seeks to harness innovation and business to create societal value for all stakeholders, not just a tiny number of shareholders.
There are existing infrastructures for social innovation and social enterprises globally and in Hong Kong. Efforts can be made to champion platform cooperatives within the social innovation sector as well as the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors.
Taxi drivers, food deliverers, estate owners, digital workers (from students, photographers, authors, to journalists) and any self-employed individuals can now collectively organize themselves in a platform cooperative.
They can create an alternative economic sphere that is more just, and where the substantial sum of the fruits of economic labour trickle down to all workers.
Imagine if platform cooperatives can make housing more affordable for members, convenience goods cheaper and more reliable, and all kinds of services from air travel to room sharing, taxi and food delivery improve our living standards.
It would be exciting to see the world’s 99% own 99% of the world’s wealth -- a utopian dream which may one day become a reality.
Platform cooperatives may be an effective way to achieve this “shared prosperity”. This will be capitalism at its best: where prosperity is shared by the majority and everyone is an owner and thus a winner”.
This is a very fruitful thoughts. Why don't we all work together in a "cooperative spirit" to develop and implement this cooperative idea of the 21st century?
We will do that.
We will do this most successfully if Nobel laureates, fair billionaires and common fair people share with us their ideas about the best model of "floodgate from perspiration to inspiration" to "pass over" from HandsEcon to HeadsEcon - NooNomics.
We hope that the article “Progressive Capitalism Is Not an Oxymoron” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, NYT, 04/19/2019 is the first step to cooperative brainstorm.
Nobel laureate Mr. Stiglitz wrote:
…”Progressive capitalism is not an oxymoron; we can indeed channel the power of the market to serve society.--A progressive capitalism based on an understanding of what gives rise to growth and societal well-being gives us a way out of this quagmire and a way up for our living standards”.
In the powerful modern world impulse to a fair society and economy we can find the "Russian trace".
If you do not go back centuries, it should be noted that in the 1990s, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.S. Nersesyants developed in framework of Libertarian theory of law the concept of "Civilizm", the basis of which is "the ideal share of each citizen in the common property of all citizens."
"Civilizm" is post-capitalism and post-socialism, because the new civil property on a qualitatively new level harmonizes the right of private property of citizens and public (national and global) interests.
In the same time, I independently developed the socio-economic concept of a “Sharism” based on an idea of "shared ownership of citizens in the national wealth" (an analogue of Civilizm) and the program of its implementation through People's Corporations.
The Book "The Transfiguration of the World: from the self-will of Power to the Headship of Spirit ". The Basics of Goodwill and Sharism. G. Yu Zherebilov, 2003, in Russian, can be found in the Russian state library ).
Later this concept was refined to the concept of "All-Inclusive Society and Economy" based on #HoneycombProperty which I presented in Bonn at #SDGglobalFest on May 2, 2019.
As a visionary and practitioner, I see the key role of super-cooperatives of a new type - national (nationwide) and global (worldwide) scale - in the global peaceful "transit of the twenties of the twenty-first" (20s years of the 21st century) to "all-inclusive society and economy" in 2030.
In my concept of “All-inclusive Society & Economy” super-cooperatives of a new type are called National (NPC) or Global People's Corporations (GPC, not to be confused with TNC).
It is quite normal that global and national people's corporations as a new form of organization cannot be fully squeezed into the existing organizational and legal forms, and the corresponding form will be developed and improved.
But today they have neither legal, nor financial or technical obstacles to success. (Articles describing the social and economic model of people's corporations in Russian: )
People's corporations best meet the motto: "Cooperative values and principles for social responsibility of corporations" and largely meet the Definition of Cooperative developed by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) for cooperatives.
It is only necessary to remember that state assets do not belong to state officials, but state assets belong to every citizen of the country.
Therefore, it is very important to overcome the de jure and de facto alienation of property from each citizen, so that the property owned by all citizens would in the near future be transformed into property in which equal shares belong to every citizen of Nation and/or World (for example, in honeycomb Property ).
In accordance with the concept of "All-inclusive society and economy", global and national cooperatives of a new type with the support of #UN , #G20 and, we believe, billionaires-philanthropists (the #FairBillionaires , "The Giving pledge") can be created within the framework of #2030agenda of UN and on the initiative of the ICA, ILO and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), as well as become the Goal of Sustainable Development (SDG) / #GlobalGoal 2030.
The web-site of UN informs:
“About the International Day of Cooperatives
In 2019 the theme of the International Day of Cooperatives is “CO-OPS 4 DECENT WORK”
Why this theme?
Given today’s widening inequality, increased job insecurity and high unemployment levels, particularly among youth, the 2019 #Coopsday theme was chosen to support Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 “Inclusive development and decent work.”
As people-centred enterprises and key development actors, cooperatives have an important role to play in the creation of decent jobs and the social and economic empowerment of local communities.
The second International Cooperative Principle, “Democratic member control,” enables communities to own and govern cooperatives jointly through democratic control that brings about inclusive and sustainable growth, leaving no one behind.
During this celebration, the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), UN Ambassadors and government representatives and representatives of cooperatives engage in an interactive debate on the role of cooperatives and how to further enhance their developmental impact”.
And one more:
“12 March, 2019.
“Harnessing the Power of Cooperatives to achieve Sustainable Development for All”:
In the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, Member States recognized the important role of cooperatives, stating that: “we acknowledge the role of the diverse private sector, ranging from micro-enterprises to cooperatives in the implementation of the new Agenda.”
The United Nations has also consistently called for the promotion and development of cooperatives as inclusive and socially responsible enterprises with a huge potential for growth”.
Therefore, I propose only to update SDG #8 - “inclusive development and decent work”, calling it - “inclusive development and decent life”.
This small correction of the text makes a lot of sense and will be a powerful impetus to accelerate the movement of mankind to a just world.
Because co-operatives of all types from small to global will allow, with the growth of robotics and automation, seamlessly move members of cooperation from the role of employees to the role of co-owners.
That is, we pass over from sources of income in the form of wages to sources of income in the form of profits from their ownership shares in cooperatives.
I am sure that after the topic for 2019 - "Cooperatives for decent work", next year the topic will be super-actual: "Cooperatives for decent life", i.e. for a decent life in prosperity for everyone.
It can be argued that the combination of high-moral cooperative idea and high-tech progress will give a Grand synergistic effect, which will dramatically accelerate the achievement of Global Sustainable Development Goals of the world community.
In 2018, the advanced public celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of F. V. Raiffeisen.
In 2020, under the auspices of the UN, the world community will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the International Cooperative Alliance.
I propose to celebrate the 125th anniversary of ICA by worldwide discussion in order to solve the main world problems via the creation of new forms of cooperative business model and to organize "various activities aimed at the exchange of national experiences and new ways of thinking that can contribute to the development of cooperative business model and allow to find new ways to use their contribution to SDGs"
I propose to consider this article an appeal to the UN and support the initiative of declaring 2020 as "The International Year of Cooperation."
We could to start the discussions from this moment until the adoption of the resolution "Cooperation via Co-operatives" on the International Day of Cooperatives in 2020.
This important historical milestone encourages me and many people around the world to re-evaluate the merits of the founding fathers of cooperative activities, whose greatness and magnitude are especially clear visible to us from position of the 21st century.
A pioneer can be compared to an icebreaker. A first mover paves the way, breaking the age-old ice of ignorance and lies. And if into clear water no hurry followers a channel again blocked blocks of ice.
That is especially hard to pioneer. But after a time, new seekers of truth come and clear the way again and again.
So, great persons go via life, passing over obstacles and disbelief, holding up on their shoulders our world.
And, of course, to the great cohort of these people - "Holders of World" belongs Robert Owen as the forerunner of the idea of super-co-ops and the founder of the cooperative movement.
"Rich people usually transfer capital to their heirs. Geniuses leave ideological heritage to followers - future generations."
Robert Owen was defeated in terms of the profits and losses balance.
But the centuries-old success of his followers and the brilliant prospects of the cooperative movement in the future fully confirm the truth of his belief in cooperatives as a means to create a better world.
The launch of the "Noonomy" (an economy of the Noosphere) i.e., the "economy of abundance" ("Eden-Econ") via the creation of super-co-ops is an ambitious but achievable "global goal" with the use of big-data, block-chain, Internet-platforms, robotics, artificial intelligence and other high-tech innovations.
But the main goal is the creation of a saving layer of the Noosphere in the Era of Human - Anthropocene. That is - the creation of a powerful layer of Noosphere or in other words - the creation of "global protection against the fool" ("global foolproof"), which can be compared with layer of ozone.
Thus, by creating national and global Super-Co-Ops, we are building bridges for a peaceful and wise “Pass over” from the Past to a new "Wow-World".
In current time, when there is an acute shortage of just and friendly cooperation between people, between countries and also between global civilization and the environment, the cooperative principle of "Cooperation Via Cooperatives" could become the cornerstone of a better World.
Forward to the Fair World!
Our future is in our hands.
People are Holders of the World.
Let's "Vow to the World": love the World as ourselves!
(See "Vow to the World. Proem":
http://www.proza.ru/2019/06/25/1161 ).