COG- RORAC.

For three years, Rorac has being working intensively in the country side, to help Ejidatarios to keep their land as their property. Since 1993, when the communal land called Ejido, and its division by parcels (from ½ to 6 or seven hc.) became a private property of the peasants, and as such, they can sell them, or get mortages on them. We started studing and working the ways in which this property could be preserved.

Our work, is not how to get a new ownership. But how to keep the property they already have. Mexico is a special case in Latin America, where usually there are huge large farms. In Mexico, the Ejido Land, is divided in small parcels owned by peasants, as a fruit of the Mexican Revolution.

This property is now threatened. So our action is to preserve the ownership of hundred of thousands of pour and sometimes ignorant peasants.

The problem is that this peasants are pushed to sell their lands. To have a sum of money at hand is very attractive for them, even if it is not fairly paid.

The reason why they sell, is that ussually they don’t have the means to make it productive. They get a ton and a half of corn, a year, by hectare and sometimes even less, with that doesn’t live a family.

RORAC’S PROJECT goes in this way. Make the ejido parcels, and small property productive, so that campesinos, can keep the ownership of the land, have a way of living for their family and give employement to two or three more persons.

Our Project is worked at the east side of Mexico City metropolitan area: in between the Volcanoes and D.F. Here we have 12 municipalities, and about 50 rural communities, from 2,000, to 10,000 inhabitants; this makes a media of ½ million people. The way of living of the third of this population is the ejido land. This land is also root of families and communities, where people is known and respected, with a centenary history and tradition, that they would loose if they have to emigrate looking for a job, maybe as beggars in a big city.

If we consider COG, we can see how we share objectives.

The Capital Ownership Group was established to:

Create a coalition that promotes broadened ownership of productive capital;

Reduce inequality of income and wealth and increase sustainable economic growth;

Expand opportunities for people to realize their productive and creative potential; stabilize local communities by improving living standards; and enhance the quality of life for all.

And entering into the Transnationally discusion, we specially note, how international agencies can encourage broader employee ownership:

4. The United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the ILO:

Where Do They Stand?

Part of the scope of work for this group has been to explore how international agencies might be able to encourage broader employee ownership. There has been a great deal of concern that the policies of agencies like the IMF and the World Bank have actually been contributing forces in the growing inequality of income and wealth throughout the world. However, new initiatives by this group of international agencies seem to more fully recognize the reality that inequality of income and wealth is one of the major characteristics of the global economy and that such inequality must be successfully addressed before it gets even worse. In that sense, they seem to have more in common with the mission of The Capital Ownership Group than they did

just a few short years ago.

The just released (September 12, 2000) World Bank report World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty recommends mobilization behind three priority areas:

Opportunity: Expanding economic opportunity for poor people by stimulating economic growth, making markets work better for poor people and working for their inclusion, particularly by building up their assets, such as land and education;

Empowerment: Strengthening the ability of poor people to shape decisions that

affect their lives;

Security: Reducing poor people’s vulnerability to sickness, economic shocks, unemployment, etc.

It is not very much of a stretch to see that there is a place for the promotion of employee ownership within these World Bank initiatives. Employee ownership provides employment, empowerment and because with participative employee ownership it has been shown that such enterprises are more productive, an increased level of security.

These statements are like the general objectives of our own project in Rorac.

The specific objectifs are the strategies to make the land productive, so that campesinos can keep the land’s ownership:

1. To organize people in working and reflexive groups. In order to think and solve problems in commun, reduce production costs, have a financial source, and get education and training.

2. To solve the fundamental problem, in our zone, water. In this zone, it rains 5 months a year with a considerable precipitation. In our research work, we have discovered and probed a new technicque to construct water retainers 4 times cheaper than the conventionals with steel, and cement. Instead of 1 crop, we can have two or three crops a year gathering the rain water.

3. To train people to cultivate vegetables, and organic vegetables. To have fruit trees, perennials, and animals. It means to have a small agroecological farm.

4. Finnancing. Rorac has a regional revolving fond, of saving and credit. The campesino group starts its meetings entering to this Fond. Every week, they have to save small amounts of money, so if they are resposable with their savings, they become subjects of credit, and start the construction of their water retainer.

Summarizing, our strategies to keep the campesino ownership are:

Regional, and communitarian organization: organization for campesino producers, trade organization, financial organization, social and educational organization, women organization.

Technical trainning for the work we are suppposed to do.

Integral human education, that gathers the community’s values, traditions, and history and develops a dialogue centered in three modules: person-community, nature-cosmovision, project-history.

Roberto Oliveros Rivas A.C. (RORAC)

Baja California 26

Temamatla Edo. de México.

México 56650.

Tel. (5) 98 856 28 FAX (5) 98 857 98

E-Mail <rorac@laneta.apc.org>

Mtra. Ma. Adela Oliveros . Presidenta.

Mtro. Alvaro Salgado. Coordinador General.