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This document has been made available in electronic format
by the International Co-operative Alliance ICA 
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                         December 1997


            57th International Co-operative Day
                Saturday, 7th July, 1979

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Message from the International Co-operative Alliance
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Dear Co-operators,

The World Co-operative Movement has been greatly encouraged by
the United Nations General Assembly's review of the Report by
its Secretary General on National Experience in Promoting the
Co-operative Movement, stating:

`...The Co-operative Movement has responded to global issues,
emphasising the international solidarity of the movement and
the significance of its work in developing countries, in
active collaboration with the United Nations and its
specialised agencies...'

On the occasion of this 57th International Co-operative Day, I
would urge our 346 million members:

-    to request their Governments to continue to support and
     collaborate fully with the United Nations in its efforts
     to bring about world peace, thus providing conditions for
     accelerated economic and social development;

-    to provide full support for ICA's Buy a Bucket of Water
     campaign, which is our contribution to 1979 - the UN
     International Year of the Child;

-    to ensure that their representatives to the Central
     Committee, which meets this year in Manchester in
     October, make the fullest contribution to the debate on
     Co-operatives and Leisure, a subject of increasing
     significance to modern society.

Our Congress in 1980 will discuss Co-operatives in the Year
2000, which we hope will chart the direction and growth of the
Movement in the coming decades. I send you all my warmest
thanks for the support you have given us in the past, and I
look forward to your continued guidance and loyalty in the
future, that we may face the new challenges which lie before
us.

With co-operative greetings,
S.K. Saxena
Director

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Declaration of the ICA
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It is therefore now time:

-    to call for action, on a co-ordinated world-wide front,
     for the development of co-operatives in order to
     accelerate social and economic growth;

-    to challenge co-operative movements in the developing
     countries to formulate more clearly their short and long-
     term needs for assistance;

-    to stimulate governments of donor nations to work more
     closely with their own co-operative movements in
     assisting the developing countries;

-    to encourage voluntary organisations (civic groups, trade
     unions, etc.) to contribute to the promotion of co-
     operatives; and

-    to urge the United Nations and its agencies to co-
     ordinate their programmes concerning co-operatives, not
     only with each other but also with the International Co-
     operative Alliance and with bilateral assistance
     programmes sponsored by governments by co-operative
     programmes."