Cooperatives Featured in Conference Beginning Today in Cuba

HAVANA TIMES, April 24 — The Eighth International Conference on Agricultural Law begins today in Havana and is dedicated to “cooperatives as an engine of social development,” reported the Prensa Latina news agency.

The forum is attracting judges, lawyers, notaries, registrars, teachers, university students and other national and foreign specialists who will discuss topics such as credit, insurance, marketing, development and the effectiveness of cooperatives.

Non-official left sectors on the island have promoted debate around the cooperative forms of organizing work, which — although included in the reform guidelines of the Communist Party that were adopted last year — so far have not received the same governmental support as efforts around private “self-employed workers.”