UN Year of Cooperatives 2012 Launched Amidst Paradigm Crisis of Capital

On October 31 2011 the United Nations launched the International Year of Cooperatives 2012. The launch of this initiative comes at a time of increasingly severe economic crisis - what Carlos Heller referred to yesterday at the UN as a "paradigm crisis" - in many parts of Europe and beyond.

It is increasingly clear that the cooperative model provides an integrated solution that places human capital above financial capital, and offers an approach that should be highly attractive to those who are caught up in the current perfect economic storm.

The central aim of the International Year of Cooperatives, which will see thousands of events take place around the world over the coming 12 months, is to raise awareness of the cooperative model and increase the visibility of the cooperative movement as a powerful positive force for people-centred economic development. dotCoop is supporting the 2012 programme by enabling every cooperative in the world to register and use its own .COOP domain name totally free of charge.

If your cooperative has yet to realise the benefits of using .COOP to identify your organisation as a cooperative, apply now to register your preferred domain name free of charge for 12 months.