Economies of the Future: Cecososela is Anarchy in Action
A 57 year experiment in self-management in Venezuela
The origin story of Central Cooperativa de Servicios Sociales del Estado Lara (Cecosesola) has somewhat of a legendary tone to it. According to its members, it was founded in 1967 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela when a member of a local cooperative died. With the family in mourning and unable to afford a funeral, ten cooperatives came together to make a funeral home. Nearly 60 years later, the organization claims around 25,000 families joined together in a collective fund to provide funeral services for up to 9 family members for a weekly contribution of 20 cents.
On its own, that would be a nice story of mutual aid: people coming together to meet their own needs unmet by the government and market. Cecosesola went further. In the 70s, members took part in demonstrations against unaffordable bus ticket prices. In 1976, they took over the management of Barquisimeto’s bus network, setting the fare at half price compared to their competitors, and receiving feedback from the community through neighborhood assemblies. This was the beginning of their trademark collective decision making process, as they made decisions through the assemblies and moved towards worker-led management.
Unlike their competitors, however, the local government refused to provide them with a subsidy. Cecosesola led the community in frequent demonstrations, which led to the government not only denying the request, but demanding they raise fares to match the other bus services. As the organization was building up debt, they decided to call a bus strike, which led to the police confiscating their buses. This led to months of social unrest, culminating in a court-ordered return of the confiscated property, most of which was damaged or destroyed.
After the recovery of the buses, the assemblies of Cecosesola were no longer sceneries for power struggles. Voting disappeared progressively and made way for an open participation on equal grounds regardless of who had voting rights. Thus, with time, assemblies took on characteristics of informal get-togethers without moderators. However, due to legal obligations that were in place until 2002, it was necessary to maintain the requirements of a quorum and a previously elaborated agenda…
After the approval of the new Special Law for Cooperative Associations (2001), the Administrative Council and other departmental councils were eliminated from our statutes since they had become totally unnecessary — Cecosesola
Periodic worker meetings, councils, and information sharing had made supervisors, managers, and coordinators increasingly superfluous. However, the unusual organization style, staggering financial issues, and civil unrest created friction among the workers and organizations, some of whom had even supported the seizure of the buses. There was a mass exodus from Cecosesola, now bankrupt and overwhelmed by debt. In order to cope, the remaining workers started up a food fair at the “El Triunfo” Cooperative and adapted buses to transport and sell food across the city, kicking off the Family Food Fairs Program that now serves up to 40% of Barquisimeto’s population.
In stark contrast to the plight of millions fleeing Venezuela, Cecosesola’s work has allowed many people to remain — 2022 Right Livelihood Award
Around the same time in the mid-80s, Cecosesola essentially eliminated the division of labor and began providing all workers with an equal salary, with adjustments based on need, family size, and bonuses. This was the beginning of the current system, whereby nearly all employees occupy informal rotating positions, volunteering for work that suits their interests and abilities, and taking responsibility for their own decisions rather than expecting a manager to delegate responsibilities for them. This decision making process is facilitated by the frequent and informal meetings taken between workers and community stakeholders.
I work in our health center and do massages and hydrotherapy. I take care of bookkeeping and staff scheduling. Sometimes I update the website or work at one of the markets on weekends. It’s free-flow rotation, not fixed in advance. I might be working in the office one day, mopping the hallways the next, and cooking the third. Who does what and for how long depends on people’s preferences, skills, and the needs at any particular time. — Noel Vale Valera, member of Cooperativa El Triunfo since he was 15
Unsurprisingly, Cecosesola experienced behavioral issues from members who took advantage of the libertarian collective structure. According to Cecosesola, meetings were initially ineffective at maintaining discipline, because people feared retaliation or jeopardizing their friendships. At first, only the most well-respected members got involved. Then, a disciplinary committee with rotating membership was formed. Over time, people got more used to the idea of calling out anti-social behavior and the committee was phased out. One of the benefit of having members rotate positions and work at different cooperatives is that there is a constant transmission of information, so organizational values are spread throughout and cliques are unable to form.
[Since] there is no hierarchy, then there is a power vacuum. And this vacuum here, nothing is filling it. We take care of this vacuum with collective discipline. And there is no necessity for bosses, we need to be the guardians of this discipline. — Cecosesola worker, interviewed by Aurélie Soetens
Aurélie Soetens, a researcher who spent three months working at the organization in various areas, staying at the houses of four different member families, points out some downsides related to this style of collective discipline. On the one hand, she argues that workers discovered through practical experience that failing to “denounce” misbehavior regularly would lead to consequences for the organization like slacking, backstabbing, and theft. On the other hand, this process amounts to severe peer pressure that may “fiercely punish individualistic behaviors and suppress dissident views.” The process of self-correction involved means avoiding finger-pointing and being solution-oriented, but also constant dedication to reflection, communication, and better conforming to the values and interests of the collective.
It helps the stability of Cecosesola that workers are essentially self-selecting for dedication to the cause. People join the cooperatives because they want to be a part of something greater, to do meaningful work where their initiative is recognized, and manifest egalitarian values in their daily being. Based on reporting it behaves more like a volunteer organization than a business, with resources being reinvested into supporting community needs rather than self-enrichment. Workers compare their work at Cecosesola to a marriage, working extraordinarily long hours (ten to fifteen hours a day!!!) and sacrificing their personal lives. Missing a meeting or leaving early requires explanation in front of the whole group. The literature doesn’t mention burnout, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t fairly common. It’s like everyone has to be an entrepreneur all the time.
I use the term entrepreneur intentionally here, because Cecosesola’s collective governance structure fails if it is run by drones. Workers must be highly self-motivated, creative, and independent to keep the process running. Workers who do not take initiative and make their own decisions are seen as questionable. Decisions must be consensual in the sense that they correspond with common values and decisions reached at the meetings, but ultimately the organization is composed of autonomous actors taking matters into their own hands and holding themselves responsible for the outcome. Cecosesola is constantly changing and adapting, and it’s this flexibility that has allowed it to survive.
This sense of independence naturally extends to the organization itself. Members have learned from hard-earned experience that they cannot depend on the government or financial institutions to support them. When they decided to build a health center in 2009, they raised the money themselves through their own sales and financial services, alongside support from the community and independent cooperatives. Nowadays they claim to perform up to 1,700 surgeries annually at a price roughly half that of private hospitals through health centers in seven communities. All of these operations are self-financed.
This is where we encounter some of the challenges faced by Cecosesola. For one, their doctors operate effectively outside of the self-management structure. They are offered much higher salaries and do not rotate positions. This is an inevitable result of their expertise. Only a limited number of highly trained people can fill their role, so the community has to accommodate those professionals who aren’t particularly interested in their ideological project. Because they don’t rotate positions, they don’t see the rest of the structure and don’t become invested in the project over time.
Another major issue is replicability. They have initiated worker exchange programs with cooperatives in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Egypt, Germany, France, and the United States to “help support communities in creating true cooperatives.” Despite these exchanges and efforts by local organizations to emulate their structure, it doesn’t seem to catch on. For example, the Olympia Food Coop in Washington still has an elected board of directors, with formal committees and specialized fixed positions despite their exchange in 2012. They do not appear to have succeeded at seeding new cooperatives in places like Egypt either.
I think the reasons for this failure are fairly obvious. For one, Cecosesola developed their institutions over a long period of time as a matter of necessity. They are adapted to a specific institutional culture within a peculiar set of historical, political, and social conditions. The United States has a rigid and well-enforced regulatory structure that probably makes this level of experimentation impossible for a legal business. Egypt has a corrupt, oppressive, neo-liberal economy and a government that will happily crush any labor movement outside of state control. Venezuela is a failed state ideologically committed to cooperative economics. There’s no place like it in the world.
For as cool a project as Cecosesola is, I don’t think I could work there. I like my free time and my privacy, and I can’t stand meetings. While rotating positions, a strong community, and building something truly meaningful sound like a dream, I’m deeply invested in my own personal projects and fundamentally want a job where I put in 8 hours and check out. It sounds like it takes an incredible amount of work to be a member of Cecosesola, and I don’t imagine most people are willing or even capable of putting that much work into something that isn’t necessary for survival or otherwise already woven into the fabric of their lives.
Cecosesola is not a blueprint to be copied by other organizations. Rather, it’s an inspiration for what’s possible and how it can be accomplished. Their experience demonstrates that institution building is a process, and we must be resilient and flexible when finding ways to serve our communities. The most important thing when it comes to forming the future is never giving up on living in accordance with our values.
