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Worker cooperative

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A worker cooperative is a productive enterprise owned and democratically managed by its workers.

History of worker cooperatives[edit | edit source]

Historically, worker cooperatives rose to prominence during the industrial revolution as part of the labour movement. As employment moved to industrial areas and job sectors declined, workers began organizing and controlling businesses for themselves. Workers cooperative were originally sparked by "critical reaction to industrial capitalism and the excesses of the industrial revolution." (Adams et al. 1993: 11) The formation of some workers cooperatives, such as those of the Knights of Labor in 19th century America, were designed to "cope with the evils of unbridled capitalism and the insecurities of wage labor".[1]

In France, workers' associations were legalised in 1848 and again in 1864. In 1871, during the Paris Commune, workshops abandoned by their owners were taken over by their workers. In 1884 a chamber of workers' cooperatives was founded. By 1900 France had nearly 250 workers' cooperatives and by 1910 500. The movement was to rise and fall throughout the twentieth century, with growth in 1936, after the Second World War, between 1978 and 1982 and since 1995.

In 2004 France had 1700 workers' co-operatives, with 36,000 people working in them. The average size of a co-operative was 21 employees. More than 60% of co-operative employees were also members.[2] French workers' co-operatives today include some large organisations such as Chèque Déjeuner and Acome. Other cooperatives whose names are generally known include the magazines Alternatives Economiques and Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, the driving school ECF CERCA and the toy manufacturer "Moulin Roty".

In Britain the worker cooperative was traditionally known as a producer cooperative and, while it was overshadowed by the consumer and agricultural types, made up a small section of its own within the national apex body, the Cooperative Union. The 'new wave' of worker cooperatives that took off in Britain in the mid-1970s joined the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) as a separate federation. Buoyed up by the alternative and ecological movements and by the political drive to create jobs, the sector peaked at around 2,000 enterprises. However the growth rate slowed, the sector contracted, and in 2001 ICOM merged with the Co-operative Union (which was the federal body for consumer cooperatives) to create Co-operatives UK, thus reunifying the cooperative sector.

Spain hosts the largest worker cooperative in the world, Mondragon Corporation with approximately 81,000 active members.

Some workers' cooperatives follow the Rochdale Principles and values, a set of core principles for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, in 1844.

Karl Marx on worker cooperatives[edit | edit source]

In Karl Marx's view, worker cooperatives were bound to be far from ideal workplaces, especially at first, because of the strong impact on them of the surrounding capitalist society; but he nevertheless regarded them as a step forward:

“The cooperative factories of the labourers themselves represent within the old form the first sprouts of the new, although they naturally reproduce, and must reproduce, everywhere in their natural organization all the shortcomings of the prevailing system. But the antithesis between capital and labour is overcome within them, if at first only by way of making the associated labourers into their own capitalist, i.e., by enabling them to use the means of production for the employment of their own labour.” — Capital, Volume III, chap. 27.

International organisations[edit | edit source]

International organisations include CICOPA, the International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers’ Cooperatives.

The International Co-operative Alliance deals with consumer and agricultural cooperativs as well as worker cooperatives.

In 2008 Co-operatives UK launched The Worker Co-operative Code of Governance. An attempt to implement the ICA approved World Declaration.

Dilemmas[edit | edit source]

In practice, worker co-operatives have to accommodate a range of interests to survive and have experimented with different voice and voting arrangements to accommodate the interests of trade unions,[3] local authorities,[4] those who have invested proportionately more labour,[5] or through attempts to mix individual and collective forms of worker ownership and control.[6]

Political philosophy of workers' cooperatives[edit | edit source]

The advocacy of workplace democracy, especially with the fullest expression of worker self-management, such as within workers' cooperatives, is rooted within several intellectual or political traditions:

Workers' cooperatives are also central to ideas of Autonomism, Distributism, Mutualism, Syndicalism, Participatory economics, Guild socialism, Libertarian socialism as well as others.

See also[edit | edit source]

Workers' cooperative thinkers[edit | edit source]

Videos about workers' cooperatives[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Frank Adams and Gary Hansen, 1993. Putting Democracy To Work: A Practical Guide for Starting and Managing Worker-Owned Businesses. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, San Francisco, USA
  2. ↑ CGSCOP
  3. ↑ Whyte, W. F., Whyte, K. K. (1991) Making Mondragon, New York: ILR Press/Itchaca.
  4. ↑ Paton, R. (1989) Reluctant Entrepreneurs, Milton Keynes: Open University Press
  5. ↑ Ridley-Duff, R. J. (2002) Silent Revolution: Creating and Management Social Enterprises, Barnsley: First Contact Software Ltd. ISBN 1-904391-01-X
  6. ↑ Holmstrom, M. (1993), The Growth of the New Social Economy in Catalonia, Berg Publishers.

Further reading[edit | edit source]

  • For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, PM Press, by John Curl, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60486-072-6
  • Créer en Scop, le guide de l'entreprise participative, Ed Scop Edit 2005 (disponible gratuitement sur le site de la CG SCOP) (in French)
  • Histoire des Scop et de la coopération, Jean Gautier, Ed Scop Edit, 2006 (DVD) (in French)


External links[edit | edit source]

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