Building
on a long tradition of East Coasters traveling to the West Coast
to teach about co-operatives, Dr. Greg MacLeod came to the University
of Victoria 1 March to give a series of lectures on how people living
in various settings have organised co-operatively, and in doing
so how they have regained control over their economic destiny.
In the 1930s, the Maritime's Norman MacKenzie, and Alexander
MacIntyre traveled to British Columbia to offer courses at UBC's
Extension Department on how to form their own co-operatives. These
courses played a large role in BC's first large scale co-operative
movement, resulting in the formation of dozens of co-operatives
and credit unions in the province.
Now, nearly seventy years later, Dr. MacLeod, who is also a
Maritimer with a love for co-operatives, spoke in a series of
lectures to students, researchers, community and co-op developers,
business people and scholars. His first talk was at the second
annual Co-operatives in Victoria luncheon. There he described
the formation of New Dawn Enterprises, a community-owned development
corporation organised along co-operative principles. Formed in
1976, New Dawn now boasts assets in the tens of millions of dollars
and has created many jobs in and around Sydney, Nova Scotia. MacLeod
was one of the founding members of New
Dawn, and he remains influential in the Community Economic Development
(CED) movement in Nova Scotia.
MacLeod's second presentation, 'The Idolatry of an Economic
System,' which he gave as part of the Centre for Studies in Religion
and Society's lecture series.
MacLeod's third lecture was to students of History 265A, the
History of Co-operatives. In this venue he spoke about the historical
development of the Antigonish movement, his work with New Dawn,
and his association with co-operatives and community groups in
Mexico.
Finally, MacLeod spoke at a luncheon hosted by CEDCO Victoria.
He discussed the practical ways he has found in which CED can
take place, relying largely on the ingenuity and capabilities
of people within communities, not primarily upon external assistance.
During his visit, Greg MacLeod also took time to speak with
individual students and researchers interested in co-operatives
and CED.
Dr. MacLeod wears many hats. In addition to being a Catholic
priest, he is Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the
Tompkins Institute for Human Values and Technology at University
College Cape Breton. The mandate of the Tompkins Institute is
to '[investigate] the impact of technological change on society
in general and, more particularly, on the Cape Breton community.'
MacLeod is also recognised as one of Canada's most respected CED
leaders. He is also the author of From Mondragon to America: Experiments
in Community Economic Development, which discusses the development
of the Mondragon Experiment in Spain's Basque region. Mondragon
links 'businesses, university and research institutes into one
operational organism, with their own cooperative bank.... [It]
has created a synergy which has been extremely effective in generating
new businesses and jobs.'
Dr. MacLeod will be speaking in Victoria again at the end of
May, at the 'Co-ops Mean Business' conference, 31 May-2 June,
2001.
For information on the Tompkins Institute, or to contact Dr.
MacLeod, visit http://faculty.uccb.ns.ca/tompkins/.
