A round birthday full of meaning, the one he celebrates in 2024 Legacoop Tuscany, the association representing cooperatives in the region. For this reason it was decided to celebrate it together with the citizens, on 23, 24 and 25 May in Florence. A three-day event with free entry Piazza Santissima Annunziata with stands, initiatives and an exhibition that traces the history of Legacoop Toscanafrom 1974 onwards, and of the participating cooperatives, which reminds us how the cooperative movement has always been a protagonist in the current events of our society.
«We are happy to share such an important moment with the members of our cooperatives, but also with all the Tuscan citizens who will come to visit us in the square – states the vice-president Irene Mangani -. There is great pride in telling a piece of our history and showing how the daily work of our members produces important results for society. We would also like this to be an opportunity to open ourselves up to those who do not yet know the Tuscan cooperative movement and cooperative culture in general.”
The exhibition
Historical photos, original documents, posters, testimonies of how the history of cooperation in Tuscany goes hand in hand with the history of civil society. Faces, places, events and encounters immortalized to restore the relevance of a history with deep roots to the contemporary world.
The exhibition, in its five sections, also reconstructs the efforts of the cooperative movement to always be alongside citizens and ready to react to crises in the shortest possible time. There are photos of the restart after the Second World War, with many cooperatives created by the will of former employees of companies that had closed.
There are images of the 1966 flood and the response of cooperation, especially consumer cooperation, to that moment of need, with the majority of shops reopened already on 7 November, when a meeting was held at Legacoop to take stock of the situation. Finally, there are the more recent images of the dramatic days of Covid and the lockdown.
Furthermore, posters from the 70s and 80s will be on display which testify to the political positions taken in that period of turmoil.
Let’s meet in the square
The demonstration begins on May 23rd at 4pm with the inauguration of the exhibition at the Museo degli Innocentibut from 3pm the square will be animated by exhibition-market of agricultural cooperatives members of Legacoop Toscana, which will offer tastings told by the producers themselves, by one library space and workshops for children and teenagers. They will be there too refreshment points and a Coop.fi baralways open.
Among the events, on the central stage, again on the first day at 5pm, the debate on “Legality and work” with Maurizio Landinigeneral secretary of the CGIL. The T-Bone & The Hollywood Party concert will follow at 9.30pm.
The May 24thin the morning, a meeting dedicated to high school and university students and regional civil service volunteers on the project will be held “Until one day”, book published by Librì – educational projects in collaboration with Fondazione Noi-Legacoop Toscana, which was distributed to the Tuscan schools that requested it. The author will be on stage Lia Celi and the illustrator Lucio Schiavonas well as some cooperators who will tell their stories to the kids in the square.
At 9pm Walter Veltroni will speak from the stage about his latest book, The sentence.
Stands and refreshment points will also be active on Saturday 25th, until 3pm, while the exhibition will remain open and can be visited for free until 3 June.
The programcontinuously updated, is available on the Legacooptoscana.coop website
