It was snowing the day modern cooperatives were born. A dozen kilometers from Manchester, in the city of Rochdale, 181 years ago Sunday, twenty-eight men came together to, once and for all, find a solution. The world was changing, restlessness and insecurity were general, and those men, most of them weavers, did not have the money to make their Christmas similar to that of the privileged. They arranged to meet at one of their stores in Toad Lane, now transformed into a museum that celebrates the day when determined workers invented a new world.
Each of them was on the margins of an industrial revolution that was being announced, each of our “founding fathers” revolted on that cold and snowy night against exploitation, but not against the market. They wanted to be less exploited, but not less capitalist. On that almost Christmas day, it wasn’t just that cooperativism was born, it was a possible way for capitalism to have a human face, so that enterprising men could join forces based on their needs, so that these could be transformed into opportunities.
Rochdale’s pioneers created a model that allowed them to buy food and products at fair prices, establishing principles of mutual aid, equity and full democracy. They had no recourse to credit, the market was too far away, the future seemed a distant place. But the future is never a distant place when you believe in and respect the cycle of life.
Mind you, they met each other a few days before Christmas, but that’s not the most important thing. What is impressive is the fact that they gathered in the middle of the Winter Solstice, when the night is the longest of the year, when all the harvests have already been collected. Those men mark the day of the revolution so that no more time is wasted, so that the cycle of life can restart under a new order. For them, it was decisive to work so that, on the Equinox of that coming March, when light threatens to overthrow the darkness and life is born again in the fields, their families would have a better future.
Maybe they didn’t realize that it wasn’t just their families, but thousands and thousands of families all over the world. And in this very complex time, in which we are plagued by new uncertainties and unpredictable revolutions, it is important to come together again so that what is truly essential and distinctive about us is not lost. When people ask me what my battle is, the answer is simple. This is it. That of joining forces, that of talking about the snow in Rochdale when twenty-eight men couldn’t accept their fate.
Cooperativism is the business model of those who hate poverty, social exclusion and lack of opportunities and I love the market as a more robust, meritocratic solution to economic problems.
It is not bearable that cooperative members do not know what cooperativism is. May it be bearable for some, here and abroad, that the cooperative model betrays the seven principles of the foundation, that they believe that they can grow without good governance, without democratic management, without equity or fraternity, without combating individualism, without defending true proximity.
Being in a cooperative means being part of a whole. Accept that we all control and that this is the first and most effective regulation, that we are close to everyone, that we share everyone’s interests. Being a cooperative means respecting the cycles of life. We must never forget that capitalism can and must be humane, this is more important today than it ever was. It is not acceptable that administrators or presidents can earn ten, twenty or sixty times more than the lowest paid worker, this is a betrayal of our spirit. And also at Christmas.
To everyone with a fraternal hug.
President of the Torres Vedras Mutual Agricultural Credit Bank
manuel.guerreiro@ccamtv.pt