Bread and Roses Credit Union Newsletter
Periodical profile published 1980
Publisher: Bread and Roses Credit Union Newsletter, Toronto, Canada
Year Published: 1980
Pages: 10pp Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number: CX2153
Abstract:
Bread and Roses calls itself a financial cooperative for social change. It makes loans to individuals and groups engaged in alternate economic or social endeavours which aim for a more just and democratic society.
This issue of the newsletter begins with a description of the most recent membership meeting when a loan interest refund from 1979 earnings was approved. The meeting also engaged in a lengthy but unresolved debate about whether the credit union should operate by consensus or by majority vote. The issue of whether Bread and Roses should loan money to "progressive" political candidates was also argued.
In his column, the manager argues that the credit union should clarify its position on a number of philosophical and practical points if Bread and Roses is to meet the challenge of an increasingly polarised society. More and more alternate organizations, facing financial pressures, appear to want to break out of their past isolation by creating new opportunities for financial cooperation.
The newsletter also presents the pros and cons of offering RRSP's - Bread and Roses is currently considering this question - "Are these a healthy way for individual saving, avoiding paying for government profligacy and strengthening the credit union or (are they) a hopelessly class-ridden dodge which ultimately shifts the tax burden even more to the poor who cannot save?"
The author of one article comments that such debates within the membership indicate that Bread and Roses is aware that its own practice must be consistent with its goals and the goals of its constituency in promoting social change, all the while trying to operate responsibly within a financial system that inhibits social change.
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