Proposals for the Annual Meeting for Co-operatives in Northern Syria

This is a translation of an Arabic article that appeared on Ronahi on 12 October, 2018

The Federation of Northern and Eastern Syrian Co-operative Societies held their annual meeting in Qamishlo to discuss the current situation of co-operatives in the region, and many suggestions were made to develop the work of the co-ops.

Proposals included:

  • Organise training courses for all administrators in co-operative societies.
  • Form an inspection and monitoring committee that will also study the projects.
  • Reorganise the Centres of Co-operatives.
  • Try to include ideas of co-operative societies in the school curriculum.
  • If a co-operative fails, the administration of the co-operative should take responsibility, and not the Centre of Co-operatives.
  • Try to include all the administrators in co-operatives, and all of their financial needs and legal rights should depend on the co-operatives.
  • Distribute flyers that explain the aim of co-operatives.
  • Expand the Federation throughout Northern and Eastern Syria.
  • Change the name of ‘the lands of the movement’ into the lands of ‘common property’.
  • Try to encourage the formation of internal transportation co-operatives.
  • Make a contract with the beneficiaries of agricultural land, and the right to make a decision in case of infringement.
  • Change the part of the Internal System of Co-operatives that addresses issues of kinship in land ownership.
  • Improve media, and create programs that explain the ideas of co-operative societies.

Decisions about the trade cooperatives

  • Reorganise Hevgirtin and specify the numbers of members.
  • Strengthen relationships with all the co-operatives.
  • Market the products of other co-operatives.

The agricultural co-operatives and their new decisions

  • Specify the number of the agricultural co-operatives, according to the size of agricultural land.
  • Encourage and expand livestock co-operatives everywhere in the region.
  • Classify the members of agricultural land that belong to the co-operatives that have expired contracts, and organise them in the name of the federation to strengthen their budgets.
  • Give some of the agricultural land to livestock co-operatives, according to their needs.
  • Lend seeds to all agricultural land in common property.
  • Fix all the groundwater wells in all the agricultural land.
  • Bind all the agricultural co-operatives with the agricultural scheme of the cantons.
  • Work on regulating the farmers’ agricultural land into co-operatives.