Emulation Tours
The 8th Emulation Tour incorporating the Second International Symposium on Cooperatives in Havana, Cuba was co-sponsored and organized by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) and Human Agenda. Half of the 16 participants gave presentations on “The U.S. Cooperative Movement” including the President of the Board of the USFWC. Highlights of the tour included visits to 7 cooperatives, cultural activities, and lectures on the history, economy, political system, Cuban leadership, and sexual education. In the past two years, Emulation Tours has also visited worker-owned cooperatives in Mondragon, Spain (“the Mother of all Cooperatives”) and the Plataforma Agraria in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras.
Upcoming Emulation Tours to Cuba for 2025:
Emulation Tour to Honduras | September 12- 17, 2025
From September 13 to September 17, 2025, Human Agenda and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives led and co-sponsor our Third Emulation Tour to Honduras, where we celebrated the life of water defender Juan Lopez, visited and heard testimony from agricultural, housing and food cooperative members, visited the land reoccupation by the Garifuna (Afro-Honduran) community on the Caribbean coast, and visited with mayoral candidates for the upcoming November national elections.
Located in the Bajo Aguan Valley, we visited the Plataforma Agraria collective of 20 agricultural cooperatives in the municipality of Tocoa. There indigenous communities have been struggling to protect their natural resources, like the Guapinol River, from multi-national African palm harvesting corporations and iron oxide mining interests. Under constant threat by narco- and multinational corporate thugs, they have lost over 175 defenders of coops and land. In Tocoa we celebrated the life of martyred water defender Juan Lopez, who was an outspoken community leader and water defender.
8th Cuban Emulation Tour | November 9-17, 2024:
Worker-owned cooperatives have been part of the Cuban Revolution since Day One. We visited agricultural, gastronomic, and furniture and ceramics cooperatives and participated in the 4-day 2nd International Symposium on Cooperatives at the University of Havana with co-op leaders from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, and other nations. This tour included lectures and dialogue on the history, economy, and political system including the effects of the 6-decade US blockade and the achievements and challenges of the Cuban Revolution. The participants in the tour had a major impact at the Symposium, where they: received lectures on the history of Cuba, the economy, Cuban cooperatives, the political system, and cooperatives (or communes) in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States; ate at 12 different restaurants or locations, including three coop restaurants; visited two agricultural cooperatives, two production cooperatives, and three service cooperatives (the restaurants); gave eight presentations during the 3-day Second International Symposium on Cooperatives at the University of Havana; visited CENESEX, the national sex education center, and the Fidel Castro Center; enjoyed cultural visits to Fusterlandia, Callejon de Hormel, the Canonazo; evening dancing to the rhythms of Cuba; experienced old Havana (Havana Vieja) with a Walking Tour; shopped, went to the beach, and enjoyed Cuba; and held three reflections with analyses, highlights, concerns, and hopes for Cuba and the participants.
Emulation Tour to Honduras | August 26-September 2, 2023:
LA PLATAFORMA AGRARIA in the Bajo Aguán Valley region has led the struggle against Dinant and other palm oil multinationals for three decades. They have lost many compañeros in their struggle to keep their land and cooperatives. Our delegation visited agricultural cooperatives, including El Chile, which has been established on reclaimed land in the Bajo Aguán, and La Mariposa Cooperative, composed of powerful Garifuna women in Tela. We met with local City Councilperson Juan Antonio Lopez in Tocoa, the largest city in the Aguan, to learn about the Honduran political system; visited Guapinol water defenders who have lost family members in their struggle to protect the environment; visited Macuelizo and their Partido LIBRE Mayor who is opposed to neoliberalism and is seeking alternatives; we demonstrated alongside campesinos in the capital Tegucigalpa to recall the attorney general and participated in an intercambios, where we and Honduran coop members shared experiences to create a better world.
