“La Cooperation in Festa” kicks off tomorrow afternoon, the three-day event organized by Legacoop Toscana in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The event, with free entry, includes meetings, tastings, workshops, book presentations and music.
The Lega Regionale Toscana Cooperative e Mutue was established in 1974 as a regional branch of the Lega Nazionale Cooperative e Mutue. The first Congress was held in Florence, at the Palazzo dei Congressi, on 30 and 31 January 1974. Today Legacoop Toscana has 2 million members and over 700 associated cooperatives, distributed in the sectors of Consumption, Production and Services, Welfare, Agri-food and fishing, Culturmedia , Other cooperatives.
“This celebration is an opportunity to retrace fifty years of history, fifty years of commitment by cooperative workers to change our community for the better and to imagine together a future still marked by those ideals – states the president of Legacoop Toscana Roberto Negrini –. On the first day we will talk about work with important guests. Work is the constitutive element of cooperatives and today it is increasingly poorer, increasingly precarious, too often without rights and without rules. We must restore value to work to ensure people’s dignity and safety, while respecting the law.”
“Cooperation in Festa” will kick off at 4 pm with the inauguration of the photographic exhibition “Cooperation, an idea of society” at the Museo degli Innocenti, in the presence of the President of the Regional Council Antonio Mazzeo and the Councilor for the Budget and the productive activities of the Municipality of Florence Giovanni Bettarini. The exhibition, curated by Martina Lopa and open until 2 June, traces through historical photos, images and direct testimonies the main stages that have marked the history of the cooperative movement in Tuscany from its origins to the present day: the first diffusion of the ideas of the pioneers” of Rochdale – the workers of a textile factory who in 1844 founded the first cooperative in history in England -, the Second World War, the rebirth and the economic boom, the flood, the 70s, up to the pandemic and the economic crisis of recent years. It is divided into five sections: From the origins to the Second World War; Second after war. Rebirth and economic boom; The movement between political instability, economic crisis and mass participation; The end of the short century and cooperative expansion; The new millennium: from the economic crisis to the post-pandemic.
Following this, at 5 pm on the main stage, the meeting “Legality and work” will be held, moderated by Roberto Negrini, with speakers from Maria Grazia Gabrielli, CGIL confederal secretary, Simone Gamberini, president of Legacoop Nazionale, Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence , Colonel Alfonso Pannone, head of the Dia of Florence, Riccardo Nencini, president of Cooplat and Assunta Astorino, head of the Legacoop Toscana Welfare Department.
In the square there will be free tastings organized by Tuscan agricultural cooperatives (by reservation) and workshops for children and teenagers organized by social cooperatives (also by reservation). There are also two refreshment points: the Coop.fi bar and the “Tuttibuoni” foodtruck. At the bookshop space Ilaria Rossetti will present “The girls’ factory” (6.30 pm). In the evening, a concert by T-Bone & the Hollywood Party is scheduled at 9.30pm.
INFO AND TIMETABLES “Cooperation in celebration”
May 23rd 4.00pm – 11.00pm
May 24th 10.00am – 11.00pm
May 25th 10.00am – 3.00pm
Free admission
Program, updates and links to book tastings and workshops on: https://legacooptoscana.coop/50-anni-legacoop-toscana/
