Javier Salaberría, CICOPA President from 2005 until 2011, sadly passed away on Saturday 26th July and the movement received this news with great sorrow. Javier will remain a fundamental figure in the memories of all those who worked alongside him, as well as in the history of CICOPA and the worker cooperative movement.
President of the International Co-operative Alliance, Dame Pauline Green, said: "I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of Javier Salaberria. He has been a huge co-operative personality in Spain but also worldwide and I know that his enthusiasm, commitment and expertise will be very much missed. On a personal level, I have some wonderful memories of a warm, engaging and delightful co-operative colleague. I shall remember with joy, the delight of hearing his beautiful tenor voice singing some of the greatest opera arias across the dining room and in happy competition with another good colleague Janusz Paszkowski singing Polish folk songs - it was the best of times! My thoughts go to his family and all his many friends - a great loss to us all."
Javier’s election as CICOPA President in 2005 was a decisive event for our organisation. Before then, CICOPA was still effectively an embryonic organisation. He was the first President of CICOPA, which had just become a stable organisation, therefore he has been a real pioneer, making a political mark on CICOPA. He equally assured coherence in the statutes between CICOPA and the new bodies created (notably CICOPA Americas, CICOPA North Americas and CICOPA Mercosur), and with the existing regional organisation (overseeing statutory modifications in CECOP-CICOPA Europe in 2006). Between 2007 and 2009, he represented the global sectoral cooperative organisations to the Board of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and his contribution was fundamental, particularly during the final negotiation concerning the status of sectoral organisations within the ICA in June 2008.
A graduate of Law, he developed his entire professional career in cooperative enterprises. He participated in the drafting committee for the Bill of law 4/1993 on Basque Cooperatives. Javier was President of Fagor Electrodomésticos (electrical applicances), Vice-President of the Fagor group within the Mondragon group, and President of Konfekoop, (Confederation of Basque Cooperatives). He had a long career and considerable experience in institutional representation. To name just a few among his many attributes he was an Advisor to the Federation of Basque Worker Cooperatives (currently ERKIDE), of CEPES (the Spanish Enterprise Confederation of Social Economy), CCACE (on the basis of which Cooperatives Europe was eventually established), and CEP-CMAF (currently Social Economy Europe).
We in the CICOPA team will remember the overflowing energy that Javier deployed as well as his inner sense of cooperation, his legendary good mood and his love of life; a cooperator, a singer and a very humane President. Working with him has been extremely inspirational.
His funeral will take place this Wednesday 30th July in San Sebastian, (Basque Country, Spain) at 19h30 in the San Vicente church.
