Cooperativism is the movement that is responsible for promoting the activity of cooperatives.
Cooperativism is the movement and doctrine that promote the promotion and organization of cooperatives : autonomous societies whose members seek to satisfy a common need.
Different principles govern cooperativism. These are values that this type of society and its members must respect, which are also found universally among all people, since they are ethical values of responsibility and cooperation. One of the most important is mutual support , since the purpose of a cooperative is to act together to pursue the resolution of common problems.
Principles of cooperativism
Let's look at other principles of cooperativism below:
* direct democracy in the decision-making processes related to the management of society itself, which must be collective and include all associates through protagonism and participation;
* own effort , understood as the willpower and motivation of the members, always with an eye toward achieving the planned objectives;
* equity in the distribution of benefits . Surpluses must be distributed fairly and equally among the members of the association;
* responsibility , a level of performance that allows carrying out the proposed activities to achieve common goals, driven by an unwavering moral commitment to the rest of the members;
* equality among members, who have the same rights and obligations and are free to join and leave the association whenever they wish;
* Solidarity can also be mentioned as a pillar of cooperativism. These associations must serve to solve problems of their members and their families, but also of the community in which they are inserted.
Cooperativism must promote these principles and any ethical value that it places on transparency, honesty, commitment to the community and social responsibility .
Cooperativism is based on a series of principles.
Historical origin
The history of this movement has a documented start date, October 24, 1844, but more than one precedent that goes back almost a century before. In 1769, for example, the consumer cooperative Fenwick Weavers' Society was founded in Scotland. On the other hand, there are also exceptions, both practical and theoretical, in the form of utopian socialism , a group of socialist thinkers prior to Marxism.
Going back to the date on which cooperativism actually began, we are in England, when a woman and twenty-seven men who worked in the textile industry in Rochdale, a city located in Greater Manchester, founded a company they called the Equitable Society of the Rochdale Pioneers , with a contribution of 28p each. These people had lost their jobs after participating in a strike.
These pioneers presented to the House of Commons a list of rules that are considered the basis of the aforementioned principles. Some of the points to highlight of these general guidelines, established by the founders of cooperativism, are the following: religious and racial freedom; limited interest on capital; continuing education.
Organization and promotion of cooperativism
The International Cooperative Alliance is the institution that brings together and represents cooperatives from almost a hundred countries . Among the functions of this entity created in 1895 is the dissemination of cooperativism.
It is important to keep in mind that cooperatives belong to the so-called third sector or social economy , which combines issues from the capitalist economy and the public sector. Cooperativism, in this framework, constitutes a current that goes beyond capitalism , since it is not based on the generation of profits (profit), but on the satisfaction of people's needs.