Despite the global proliferation of transnational corporations and the economic dominance of these companies over the world, local and national responses to this form of production, distribution, and service providing in the form of agricultural, consumer, housing, media, energy, and insurance co-operatives have provided an important and sustainable democratic alternative to corporate institutions.
Properly defined, co-operatives are modern institutions which emerged in the
wake of the industrial revolution and in an era of economic liberalism and individualism,
as well as a reaction against the negative effects of the international market
economy and a means for modernization and adaptation to that economy. As a response
to the oppressive characteristics of early capitalist development, co-operatives
became a means of socially sustainable development in the hands of the working
class – the most notable example of these are the Rochdale Pioneers of
1844 in England and the creation of the co-operative principles.
In the twentieth century we see the highly successful example of Mondragon,
a dynamic cooperative business group located in the Basque region of Spain made
up of 218 organizations, which is not only composed of industrial and financial
co-operatives, but also employs co-operative principles to education and progressive
social development. Canada’s experience with co-operatives has amounted
to many such organizations nation-wide – for instance, the Wheat Pools
and the Pubnico Co-operative, which is the oldest formal worker co-operative
in the country. Currently, co-operatives must face the increasing pressures
of globalization in terms of its economic, social, and political consequences.
More radical tendencies within the co-operative movement can also be seen in
the form of community gardening, protest villages, the Mondragon Coffeehouse
and Bookstore in Winnipeg, and the Karnataka State Farmers Association.
Mondragon Coffeehouse (Canada)
Karnataka
State Farmers Association (K.K.R.S.)
Loyola Student Union for Democratic Communication
http://www.luc.edu/orgs/lsudc/pamphlet.html
Email: mmclaug@luc.edu or dbaran@luc.edu
Pacifica Radio Foundation < http://pacifica.org/>
National Office: Pacifica Foundation National Office
1925 Martin Luther King Jr Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
510 849-2590
EnviroSense Internet Cooperatives http://es.epa.gov/cooperative/
Saskatchewan Co-operative Association
<http://www.sask.coop/sca/our_members.htm>
Email: sca@sask.coop
Telephone: 306-244-3702
Fax: 306-244-2165
Mail: 301 - 201 21st Street East
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
S7K 0B8
Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation http://www.canadianworker.coop/
Executive Director’s Office:
#104, 402 - 30th Ave. NE
Calgary AB T2E 2E3
Tel/Fax: (403) 287-2069
Executive Director e-mail: hazel@canadianworker.coop
Mondragon Co-operative http://www.mondragon.mcc.es/ing/index.asp
We Are Everywhere http://www.weareeverywhere.org/
British Columbia Institute for Co-Operative Studies
http://web.uvic.ca/calendar2004/CAL/Rese/BCInfCS.html
Centre for the Study of Co-operative at the University of Saskatchewan
http://coop-studies.usask.ca/Links/index.html
For the most part co-operatives attempt to balance sustainability with democratic
organization within their groups. While they do function in the market place
and attempt to remain competitive, significant attention is given to the distribution
of profit, accountable directors and managers, and social development. Radical
forms of co-operatives are more critical of these market-based initiatives since
many of these groups are acting in response to private property and capitalist
exchange.
Fairbairn, Brett (1990) ‘Social Bases of Co-operation: Historical Examples
and Contemporary Questions’ in Murray Fulton (ed) Co-Operative Organizations
and Canadian Society: Popular Institutions and the Dilemmas of Change. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Fairbairn, Brett et al. (1991) Co-operatives & Community Development: Economics
in Social Perspective. Saskatoon: Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Fairbairn, Brett (1994) The Meaning of Rochdale: The Rochdale Pioneers and the
Co-operative Principles. Saskatoon: Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Fairbairn, Brett (2003) The Role of Farmers in the Future Economy. Saskatoon:
Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Fulton, Murray (ed) (1990) Co-Operative Organizations and Canadian Society:
Popular Institutions and the Dilemmas of Change. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press.
Fulton, Murray (2001) New Generation Co-operative Development in Canada. Saskatoon:
Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Meek, Christopher B. and Woodworth, Warner P. (1990) ‘Technical Training
and Enterprise: Mondragon’s Educational System and its Implications for
other Co-operatives’ in Economic and Industrial Democracy Vol. 11:4, 505-528.
Notes from Nowhere (2003) We Are Everywhere: the irresistible rise of global
anticapitalism. London: Verso
Shufang, Zhu and Apedaile, Leonard P. (1998) Co-operative Organization in Rural
Canada and the Agricultural Co-operative Movement in China: A Comparison. Saskatoon:
Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Quarter, Jack and Wilkinson, Paul (1990) ‘Recent Trends in the Worker-Ownership
Movement in Canada: Four Alternative Models’ in Economic and Industrial
Democracy Vol, 11:4, 529-552.