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Conforme aumentava o grupo de parlamentares que apoiavam as propostas do setor, as cooperativas reformavam o chamado corpo a corpo. Roberto Rodrigues lembra que, durante a Assembleia Constituinte, ia todos os dias ao Congresso, sendo, muitas vezes, confundido com deputado. Para estreitar a ligação entre os parlamentares e as cooperativas, a OCB contratou como assessor parlamentar o gaúcho Virgílio Perius, que trabalhava junto à Organização das Cooperativas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Ocergs).
Como parte da estratégia de mobilização, o movimento coo- perativista passou a promover jantares com parlamentares em Bra- sília, nos quais oferecia produtos das cooperativas. Em certa oca- sião, foram distribuídos vinhos de uma cooperativa gaúcha, cujos rótulos estampavam as cinco propostas do cooperativismo. "O coope- rativismo passou a ser conhecido na Constituinte pela maneira leve como fazia lobby, uma maneira diferente, acadêmica, sem barulho. Fazendo lobby por um negócio conceitual, doutrinário", observa Ro- berto Rodrigues.
Just as Congressional support for credit unions grew, credit unions gave new meaning to the so-called one-on-one method
of obtaining support. Roberto Rodrigues remembers that during the Constituent Assembly, he would go to the Congress every day, often being mistaken for a deputy. In order to bring members of Congress and the credit unions closer together, the OCB retained a gaucho (southern Brazilian),Virgílio Perius, who worked with the Organization of Credit Unions of Rio Grande do Sul (Ocergs) as a congressional advisor.
As part of its activist strategy, the cooperative movement began to arrange dinners with Congressmen in Brasília, at which products from the cooperatives were distributed. On one occasion, wine from a southern Brazilian cooperative was given out, with labels stamped with cooperativism’s five proposals. “Cooperativism came to be known in the Constituent Assembly for its easygoing approach to lobbying
– a different approach, academic, without making much noise. Lobbying for a business concept, a doctrine,” observes Roberto Rodrigues.
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