The United Nations lists 22 global issues that need immediate attention (Global Issues Overview, 2020)—the magnitude is unprecedented in severity and pace. Yet, and one needs a yet in life, there is the thought posed by many, including the United Nations (2020) that cooperatives can provide some hope and even much clarity to what is achievable regarding our future.
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) defines a cooperative as “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise (1995).”
The ICA also notes that cooperatives are “people-centered enterprises.” They unite people in a democratic and equal way and act together to build a better world through cooperation (ICA, 1995). Cooperatives also put “fairness, equality, and social justice at the heart of the enterprise” and allow people to “work together to create sustainable enterprises that generate long-term jobs and prosperity.” Birchall and Ketilson (2009) argue that cooperatives “aggregate the market power of people who on their own could achieve little or nothing, and in so doing they provide ways out of poverty and powerlessness.” According to Davis (1995), the purpose of a co-op is “to unite and involve its members in an economic and social community to provide countervailing market power and access to economic and social resources that as individuals the membership would not be able to accumulate for themselves.” In the simplest yet most powerful way, cooperatives allow people to take control of their future.
Why Cooperatives Matter
This project started with a robust task in mind. Sit down and talk about cooperatives in a format that would cover multiple topics with different people with different roles. This exploratory project, which consists of a series of podcasts, collectively formed the data that allowed me to pull three themes that resonated between all interviews on the statement Why Cooperatives Matter.
The questions that were posed during the podcasts were meant to be interpreted by the guest to the best of their knowledge of how co-ops are involved in meeting specific needs. The definition alone of a cooperative is open to interpretation. The guests, therefore, could also interpret how and if a need has been met. Though I was talking to people whose cooperative journey started some over 40 years ago, my only goal was to share honest conversations about cooperatives with these individuals on why they thought cooperatives are necessary across different sectors.
The Limitless Possibilities of Cooperatives
If one searches the internet about cooperatives, there are always common keywords associated with cooperatives. Long-term sustainability, community, social justice, values and principles, to name a few. There are also a staggering number of articles and journals on cooperatives today (a quick search in Saint Mary’s University the Patrick Power Library yielded 872, 687 results) that would start with something along the lines similar to those of Therodaros Rakapoulous’s (2023) thoughts on cooperatives:
Cooperatives are a main means of organization for economic activity, generally operating on principles of equal membership and members’ democratic control of their means of livelihood. Co-ops have developed as modern institutions aiming to tackle problems created by contemporary capitalism and its associated dependency on wage work. Co-ops operate and interact in context, mobilising ways of human contact that anthropologists usually study (kinship, community, ethnicity, and local belief systems).
However, to think outside of the box on cooperation, I will focus on a theme that repeatedly came up in discussions about how one can build an alternative economic model. That word was limitless. This idea that cooperatives, guided by principles and values, can be creative and limitless in how this movement can meet the community's needs resonates with all the guests.
Time and time again, cooperatives arise to transform. A prime example of that is how we saw cooperatives handle the pandemic. Whether digital innovation or inter and intra-cooperation, cooperatives rose to the occasion.
In 2021, Patrick Develtere and Georgia Papoutsi wrote a paper for the Expert Group Meeting on the role of cooperatives in economic and social development: Recover Better from The Covid-19 Pandemic titled Rebuilding and realizing a resilient global society through cooperatives. They noted the need for a crisis to be dealt with through a collective effort and highlighted how cooperatives arose.
And as is the case with every crisis, ironically, it is also a challenge, and it also produces opportunities. Individual cooperatives and the cooperative movement as a whole have reacted in that sense. They have, as always, tried to correct the current harsh situation for their members and their communities. But they have also tried to provide prospects for an alternative way of organisation and mobilisation that make people and communities more resilient to potential future identical or similar crises. Cooperatives also help to redress the malfunctioning of the health system in this acute crisis and are key actors to re-orient health care policies, so that they are better prepared for future pandemics. (Develtere & Papoutsi, 2021)
They further note the cooperative’s goal of wellbeing for all. They highlight that “this is exactly what cooperatives are striving for… social protection for all… Social protection, health and the environment have often been viewed as external costs on the economy and for society. Cooperatives have always tried to reconcile economic objectives with the well-being and the quality of life of people and communities (2021).”
Friedrich Raiffeisen, during the 1860s depression, quickly realized that it wasn’t emergency food aid that was needed but instead “credit to help them to modernise their methods and gain access to markets for their produce (Birchall & Ketilson, 2009). This led to a new type of financial cooperatives that paved the way for promotion of supply and marketing cooperatives. In the US, the Great Depression saw agricultural cooperatives being formed. Quickly farm supply purchases grew from US$76 million in 1924 to US$250 million in 1934 (2009). The consumer cooperative was established by the Rochdale Pioneers so textile workers would not succumb to “emigration or starvation” (2009).
Cooperation Amongst Cooperatives and Beyond
Another theme that resonated between all guests was the belief that no one was in this alone. Adam Trott (2023) stated:
We do not have to fight; we do not have to be individually figuring this out. We do not have to be separated. We do not have to power hoard, we do not have to compete, we actually can collaborate, share power, build leadership, and we will all thrive.
To Trott’s point on cooperatives associations and collaborating to increase our impact, the Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles by the ICA, mentions that together and with the economic work of the cooperatives, we can construct a “global co-operative commonwealth” and allow cooperatives to fully manifest Cooperation Amongst Co-operatives (1995). Bonnie Hudspeth, with excitement in her tone, also notes how cooperatives can build an integrated cooperative economy.
There's no limit to the amount of creative ways that a co-op can transform a community. And I love this vision of this integrated cooperative economy, where there are tons of co-ops and they're all investing in each other and supporting each other. Cornelius Blanding, incredible cooperator and Executive Director for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, he shared this concept of like, what if? You know us to imagine what if cooperatives owned community infrastructure? Like don't limit yourself at just grocery stores or or financial institutions like credit unions. What if our farms were cooperatively owned? What if our schools were cooperatively owned? What if our daycares? What if our eldercare? What if our funeral services were cooperatively owned, and there are examples of all of these in our country. And so with that, you know, when there's that connected cooperative economy, people are in this space with shared values and shared principles that are putting people before profit and putting the planet before profit. (Hudspeth, 2023)
Barker’s Project Everyone Welcomed? Narratives Personal Narrative about Race and Food Co-ops was a combination of twenty food co-ops, along with National Co+op Grocers, Columinate, and the Cooperative Development Foundation, coming together to be part of the conversation depicting the challenges of racism and social dynamics in our cooperatives across the US. The project brought to light the leadership that cooperatives had to take in on addressing problems that all our societies grappling with and build off each other’s narrative (2023).
Additionally, the Italian Cooperative sector is a great example how cooperatives have been able to successfully compete in the global and grow a successful network of cooperatives. This success is highlighted in Piero Ammirato’s book Growth of Italian Cooperatives: Innovation, Resilience and Social Responsibility (2018). It notes how cooperative are an “an ideal model for the equitable redistribution of wealth between capital, labor and the community.” Also, that cooperatives “can over-come the persistence of inequalities between people and communities. Ammirato’s notes that part of Italian co-operatives success is the concept of mutuality, “it affirms that people cooperate to solve problems or to get a benefit that they were not able to obtain on their own (2018). Italian cooperatives also encourage the joining of the cooperative movement at “all levels so that they can provide services, educate the public and media and represent cooperatives vis-à-vis governments (2018).” In 2011 the Italian cooperative sector included 79,949 registered cooperatives, employing 1.3 million people and equaling 7.2 percent of the Italian workforce and 8.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (2018).
Agenda for Change and Resilience
The most compelling theme that came out of these conversations and why I would argue that at least 12% of humanity (ICA, 1995) stand behind the cooperative movement is that belief and even hope slash excitement that cooperatives can better the current landscape of the world today, across various sectors and at the global, national and local levels. The most recent pandemic was merely the catalyst that made our failures rise to the top once again.
Prunty stated,
I think that co-op’s play and will play an essential part in having an impact on changing things. I think we show a different way to do business that's focused on people and the planet. You know, the community..it's not all about profit for shareholders at all. You know, our goal is to make things work for our community. And that type of business and focus of business is what will change the world and co-ops are the ones that are doing that. (Prunty, 2023)
In my conversations with Jade surrounding racism, one thing that we both acknowledged was how being involved in cooperatives has created a safe place for both of us to have discussions with others on racism. As a person of color, over 40 years of age, and having experienced racism against myself and my family for as long as I can remember, this is incredibly meaningful. Moreover, as difficult as those conversations are, leading those conversations in our community and with our fellow friends and cooperators is how we can shift the needle. Jade Barker, during her talk on cooperatives and addressing racism, shared her excitement about sharing and continuing to learn and grow.
“I'm very excited right now, about the idea of people bringing themselves fully to their engagement with their co-ops, like not having this, this is a business here, and my life is over here. But the ability to bring their whole selves into the enterprises that we're doing together, because that excites me…I feel like that's been one of the things that has kept racism, sexism and classism going and maintain that was that inability to or the discouragement of bringing one's full self into a workplace or a business. So, I'm excited to learn more about myself and other people, and to be, to just be a better human, from being able to learn about the shared experiences and the non-shared experiences…That's for the betterment of our communities, at our planet. And that's what I feel like, it's like intrinsic to co-ops. We understand we're an association of people joined together to meet our needs and our aspirations. And I love working with other people to do important stuff and those are the people I want to hang out with and get to know and and change and learn and grow with. So, I do see a lot of that coming from these race conversations. That's where I think it's the juicy, the juicy part of you knows, there's some difficult stuff there for us all to address and addressing it together. I feel it brings a level of connection. (Barker, 2023)
At a global level, the role of cooperatives in driving change is also an agenda of the United Nations and The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). On numerous occasions, the UN has illustrated several important elements of the cooperative model:
Cooperatives remain one of the best kept secrets in the Sustainable Development Goal toolbox. Cooperative enterprises are based on ethics, values, and a set of seven fundamental principles that keep people, rather than profit, at the centre of their businesses. Cooperatives can be a self-help tool for people to create their own economic opportunities through the power of the collective and pull themselves out of poverty. They re-invest in the communities in which they operate, securing not only the livelihoods of their members but also increasing the wealth of the community as a whole. By being sources of decent work, spaces for democracy and peace building, and an economic force, cooperatives are truly a partner in transforming our world. (UNDESA, 2017)
In Relative to the landscape: Producer cooperatives in native food sovereignty initiatives by Becca Dower and Jennifer Gaddis (2021), they highlight how the cooperative's food sovereignty movement has led to reclaiming Indigenous food systems, cultural practices, and economies by using cooperatives principle that were at work the U.S. prior to colonization. Cooperatives, they note are a “particularly viable organizational structure since Indigenous food systems historically depended on community cooperation and collective use of land and other resources (2021).”
Further, when you think back to the global financial crisis in 2008, Rana Mitra, author of Cooperatives: A Democratic Instrument of Human Empowerment, emphasizes how cooperatives fight back.
Cooperatives were and have been great effective weapons for the common people to fight out the attack of capital on their lives. Today when the world has advanced in many directions with unprecedented growth of productive power with the effective harnessing of science and technology, the basic issue of economic divide of capitalist society remains the same - markets, fuelled by asymmetric information, serve only the interest of few who have been amassing astronomical wealth, thereby contributing to increasing poverty of very large majority.
When researching African Americans and their relationship with cooperatives in its history in the US, it is with resounding force that cooperatives are highlighted as the strategy to pursue because capitalism had failed them. W. E. B Du Bois pushed forming cooperatives to form a group economy for control and strength to fight back (Ifateyo, 2014). Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s book Collective Courage: A history of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice gives a riveting recollection of this hidden history.
“African Americans have a long, rich history of cooperative ownership, especially in reaction to market failures and economic racial discrimination. However, it has often been a hidden history and one obstructed by White supremacist violence. When there is a narrative, the history is told as one of failure. The challenges have been tremendous and have often been seen as insurmountable. The successes are often anecdotal and isolated, little understood and even less documented—particularly as part of an economic development strategy and a larger economic independence movement. My research suggests that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefitted greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the history of the United States, much like their counterparts around the world.”
Conclusion
Cooperatives are built from unmet needs. Cooperatives, as a movement, rests on shared values and solidarity. Cooperatives are hardwired for sustainable development. They are guided by principles and values that Novakovic (2008) believes defines the cooperative difference.
“Applying the co-operative principles implies networking, teamwork, participatory management, democratic decision-making, transparency, and information-sharing, that all contribute to increased probability of social innovations and social entrepreneurship.”
Further, and perhaps the most compelling aspect of cooperatives is that they succeed by emphasizing that the success of one does not need the detriment of another. They do not risk people for the planet, profit for people, or planet for profit or people. Instead, cooperatives create a balance between the three.
That is to say that I do not believe that cooperatives alone should be responsible for changing the world. That is something that should fall onto everyone that inhabits it. As MacPherson (1996) argues,
“Co-operatives, by themselves, cannot be expected to entirely resolve such issues, but they can contribute significantly to their resolution. They can produce and distribute high quality food at reasonable prices. They can, as they often have, demonstrate a concern for the environment. They can fulfil their historic role of distributing economic power more widely and fairly. They can be expected to enhance the communities in which they are located. They can assist people capable of helping themselves escape poverty. They can assist in bringing people with different cultures, religions, and political beliefs together. Co-operators have much to offer to the world simply by building upon their traditions of distinctiveness and addressing efficiently the needs of their members”
There are also challenges within the cooperative movement, as mentioned by Bonnie, Jade, Adam, and Rochelle. The topic of leadership as challenges arose and a lack of education on cooperatives. In the keynote address given at the 4th Annual Co-op Impact Conference of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), originally titled “The Challenge of Achieving Racial Equity in Co-ops.” Jessica Gordon Nembhard (2020) says,
“Co-op education is too often seen as something that happens inside a co-op and not connected to co-op development, and not connected to training generations of potential cooperators so that we can increase the knowledge about and interest in co-ops and economic transformation. Co-op education is missing in public schools and universities. So, co-op information is kept inside the movement and remains mostly white.”
I'll end my capstone with two quotes. One from Bonnie Hudspeth’s podcast (2023) because this excitement is what drives myself to work in cooperatives and attend schools like Saint Mary's University for three years (while working full-time!). It's why I wake up and think, 'I might not have all the answers, but what I am doing is being a part of the vehicle that is driving change.'
“I'm really excited to think about really looking at the role of our co-ops as hubs. And you know, we know that our co-ops are community hubs, we know that there are places in our community that are gathering for dialogue. I think they've been and should be places to continue building connections and re-humanizing each other. Because there has been so much dehumanizing, especially in the United States, that I think it's really a part of our co-op's purpose, to remind each other that our connections, our interpersonal connections, is a base of everything. With that in place, anything is possible, because that can lead to unfettered imagination and creativity. Which is going to be necessary for the dumpster fire that we're currently living in. We're gonna need all of us, to unleash all our creativity. And that means knowing each other, that means trusting each other. And that means loving each other. And I think that's, not to get, woowoo, but we got to stop hating each other. And I do think co-ops bring people together. I've witnessed it every time I shop at a food co-op, I'm amazed over the credit union. I'm amazed by just pausing and looking at who's coming through the doors. It's a big diversity across the community of who uses coops because they're so fricking useful. And they're designed because they're serving a need that no other businesses are serving in the community in the same way. ” Bonnie Hudpseth
The second one from Ella Jo Baker (2014). Everyone, anywhere in the world, deserves a decent life. Further, they have the right to health, education, water, food, and fairness. Any movement that can support that is meaningful and matters. It might not happen overnight but if cooperatives can keep working together, I remain hopeful.
Courage: Every great movement started as we have started. Do not feel discouraged because in our few months of life we have not rivaled some long-established Co-Operative venture. Each successful Co-Operative enterprise has taken much time and energy and sacrifice to establish. Nothing worth accomplishing is ever achieved without work.
— Ella Jo Baker (1931d, 2)
References:
Ammirato. (2018). The Growth of Italian Cooperatives : Innovation, Resilience and Social Responsibility (First edition.). Taylor and Francis.
Barker, Jade and Cumbie, Patricia. (2017) Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race AND Food Co-ops. Columinate Co-op
Becca Dower, Jennifer Gaddis. (2021).Relative to the landscape: Producer cooperatives in native
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Birchall, & Hammond Ketilson, L. (2009). Resilience of the Cooperative Business Model in Times of Crisis. International Labour Organization.
Davis, P. (1995). Co-operative management and co-operative purpose: Values, principles, and objectives into the 21st century. Discussion papers in management studies, 95/1 (pp. 1–22). Management Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leicester.
Develtere, P., & Papoutsi, G. (2021, June). Rebuilding and realizing a resilient global society through cooperatives. Un.org.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2021/06/Delvetere-and-Papoutsi_Paper.pdf
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Gordon-Nembhard, J. (2020). Racial Equity in Co-ops: 6 Key Challenges and How to Meet Them. Paper presented at the Co-op Impact Conference, Washington DC. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/racial-equity-in-co-ops-6-key-challenges-and-how-to-meet-them/
ICA. (1995). Cooperative identity, Values & Principles. ICA. https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity
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Ifateyo, A. N. (2014). Black Co-ops Were A Method of Economic Survival: An Interview with Professor Jessica Gordon Nembhard. Grassroots Economic Organizing: Catalyzing Worker Co-ops and the Solidarity Economy. https://geo.coop/story/black-co-ops-were-method-economic-survival
Latour, N(Host). (2023, May) Why Cooperatives Matter Bonnie Hudspeth Episode 1 How do we leverage our potential?. [Audio podcast episode]. In Why Cooperatives Matter.
Latour, N(Host). (2023, May) Why Cooperatives Matter Adam Trott Episode 2 Cooperative associations, are they the answer?. [Audio podcast episode]. In Why Cooperatives Matter.
Latour, N(Host). (2023, May) Why Cooperatives Matter Rochelle Prunty Episode 3 How do our cooperative values and principles create resilience and sustainable livelihoods in communities?. [Audio podcast episode]. In Why Cooperatives Matter.
Latour, N(Host). (2023, May) Why Cooperatives Matter Jade Barker Episode 4 How are cooperatives addressing racism? [Audio podcast episode]. In Why Cooperatives Matter.
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