Last month, NCBA CLUSA published an open letter asking candidates running in the 2020 Presidential Election to recognize the cooperative business model as a tool for the economic success and self-determination of their constituents. Already, we are in conversation with six campaigns. To help raise awareness of the letter and get more candidates on board, we launched a Letter to the Editor Campaign!

With the 2020 Presidential Election on the horizon, the #CoopsFor2020 Campaign is an opportunity to embrace a nonpartisan issue every voter and every candidate can rally around: using cooperatives to build stable, sustainable businesses and communities. We believe the voting public deserves to know that co-ops are a powerful policy solution and integral part of rising to meet challenges that range from rural connectivity and clean energy to affordable housing, food access and financial security.

This week, we’re highlighting a Letter to the Editor submitted to the Los Angeles Times by Co-op Weekly reader Shirley Aldana. Check out her letter below, and consider submitting your own. Customize our sample letter template, or craft your own message like Shirley did. After you submit your letter, follow up with NCBA CLUSA by sending a note to advocacy@ncba.coop so we can help spread the word.

Access all the #CoopsFor2020 campaign resources.

Dear Editor,

As a subscribed reader of the LATimes.com, a professional macro systems social worker, and as an Industrial and Organizational Psychology doctorate candidate at Adler University, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to publish the open letter proposed by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA). The open letter is asking presidential hopefuls to recognize the cooperative business model as a tool for the economic success and self-determination of their constituents. 

The letter can be found online on the NCBA CLUSA website: https://ncbaclusa.coop/blog/co-ops-should-be-on-the-policy-platform-of-every-presidential-candidate-ncba-clusa-says-in-open-letter/ 

The digital age has allowed consumers like myself to be aware of the social economic footprint and social justice impacts of organizations, and become discriminatory of the products we buy or businesses we support. 

The digital age has allowed consumers like myself to be aware of the social economic footprint and social justice impacts of organizations, and become discriminatory of the products we buy or businesses we support. 

While everyday working-poor Americans like myself may not have the economic impact of large corporations in political campaigns, it is important that presidential candidates be aware that B Corps, and triple P businesses—People and Planet before Profits—are on the rise and more and more people will be able to make large scale impacts in organizations, businesses, and hopefully one day political candidates. One day I hope we will have enough political representatives who will be courageous to dismantle systems of oppression that have economically disenfranchised black and brown communities of color by a large part in this country, and who in large [part] have been impacted by environmental disasters. 

One day I hope we will have enough political representatives who will be courageous to dismantle systems of oppression that have economically disenfranchised black and brown communities of color. 

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I for one will continue to promote and patronize businesses that have prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in their strategic business plan by creating an executive position that seeks to promote a sustainable and inclusive work environment that takes into account individuals lives impacted by the environment, socioeconomic and geopolitical issues in their communities. 

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration of this important issue, and I hope we can both be on the same page, and right side of history moving forward. 

Best regards,
Shirley Aldana