As of May 2016, Praxis Peace Institute completed its seventh seminar and tour of the Mondragón Cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. These seminars have had a profound effect on the state of cooperatives in the United States and on the education about cooperatives. Before 2008, very few Americans, including economists and business people, had ever heard of the Mondragón Cooperatives. Today, thanks to Praxis Peace Institute’s efforts in bringing more than 140 people to Spain in order to study this model, the word Mondragón starts more conversations and elicits fewer blank stares.
From our first seminar at Mondragón in 2008, it was clear that the driving force behind the cooperatives and their success was an ethic, a system of values, a code of respect that permeated their businesses, research and development, a university system, social welfare, and financial institutions. We were introduced to this ethic directly when visiting Baketik, the Basque Peace Center, located on the property of a 500-year-old Franciscan Monastery in Aranzazu. In 2013, this ethic was further enhanced by the formation of the Basque Department of Peace within the Basque Parliament.
As the largest consortium of worker-owned businesses in the world, Mondragón has a culture of cooperativism that is an important part of its success. Mondragón’s Ten Core Principles (included in this report) are the embodiment of this culture. At the center is Education, which is essential for the emergence of social and personal change. In the outer circle is Social Transformation, a systemic approach to their ever-evolving model of cooperativism.
The interviews and essays contained in this report are examples of what people have accomplished with the knowledge gained at Mondragón. Many were on full or partial scholarships, and their contributions to the cooperative movement in the US have been particularly notable. For seven of these seminars, Praxis received generous donations from the Massena Fellowship program. That foundation has dissolved and we hope, with the demonstration of this program’s success, to continue the scholarship program with the help of new funding sources and individual contributions.
Praxis Peace Institute is actively seeking donations to the Praxis/Mondragón Scholarship Fund and/or a donor-based fellowship program to make scholarships available for deserving workers in the cooperative movement. Please contact me at Praxis Peace Institute if you are interested in contributing to this important fund.
In Peace and Solidarity,
Georgia Kelly, Founder/Director Praxis Peace Institute 707-939-2973 – www.praxispeace.org