All Things Co-op: Lessons from Venezuela's Social Economy

Jan 4, 2022

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ6fpNfoO0g

In this episode of All Things Co-op, Larry, Kevin, and Cinar talk to Michael Lebowitz about his perspective on the social economic models in Venezuela and Yugoslavia. They speak about the creation of the social economy, the experience of Chavismo in Venezuela, and the differing goals of some cooperatives and traditional trade unions. Lebowitz highlights the importance of self-actualization through protagonism and how the most successful of these models focused on solidarity over self-interest.

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About our guest: Michael A. Lebowitz is a professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada and the author of several books including The Contradictions of "Real Socialism" and The Socialist Imperative. He was Director in the Program in Transformative Practice and Human Development at the Centro Internacional Miranda in Caracas, Venezuela from 2006 to 2011. References: https://monthlyreview.org/2016/10/01/...