ACFA: Question About Cooperative. No 9

Question 9:Why do we conclude that cooperative society, mostly the farmers cooperative group is for those in the grass-root?

Answer: The founders of Rochdale were of course poor compared to their social superiors. They lacked real economic or political power, or high social status. And the poverty and misery surrounding them in Rochdale were undoubtedly a large part of their motivation for creating a co-operative. It is, therefore, reasonable to say that the forces of poverty and need inspired the formation of the Rochdale co-operative. 

But they did so somewhat indirectly, mediated by the agency of idealism and critical social thought, and by the activists of Owenism, Chartism, and other social movements. The Rochdale Pioneers did not rise spontaneously from need, but were organized consciously by thinkers, activists, and leaders who functioned within a network of ideas and institutions. The same can probably be said of all successful co-operatives in all times and places: they arise from need—when some activists, institutions, or agencies consciously promote and organize them. Also, while co-operatives have frequently been tools for the relatively poor or marginalized, there is evidence that (just as in Rochdale) they are rarely led by the very poorest.

            The founders sorts for a mutual self-help organization that would advance their cause and serve their social objectives through concrete economic action. They called their new association the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, a name that rang with overtones of Owenism. “Equitable” had been one of Robert Owen’s favourite words—as in his plan for Equitable Labour Exchanges that would allow workers to exchange goods and services directly with each other, bypassing employers and middlemen. To Owenites, “Equitable” signified a society that would eliminate capitalist-style exploitation, and that would exchange goods and reward labour fairly according to Owen’s ideas. The word “Pioneers” might have been inspired by the newspaper The Pioneer, which had been the organ first of the Operative Builders’ Union, an early trade union, and later of Owen’s Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. To choose a name like “Equitable Pioneers” in 1844 was a social and even political statement, and 6 Bonner (1961), p. 45, discusses these questions concisely. See also Cole (1944), pp. 59-60. 7 Bonner (1961), p. 45. The Meaning of Rochdale 5 implied that the Pioneers were consciously taking a place in the movement for social reform and the advancement of the working class and its interests.