Everything for Everyone

1. Cooperation is a powerful economic tradition with deep historical roots

"Cooperation is tradition and innovation, homegrown yet foreign to the ways of the world around it."

Ancient origins. The cooperative tradition has roots stretching back to early human societies and religious communities. Medieval monasteries and guilds provided models of shared ownership and governance. The Diggers in 17th century England advocated for common ownership of land. These early examples demonstrate that cooperation is not a modern invention, but a rediscovery of age-old human practices.

Diverse manifestations. Throughout history, cooperative principles have manifested in various forms:

• Religious communities practicing shared ownership
• Craft guilds organizing urban economies in the Middle Ages
• Mutual aid societies providing insurance and social services
• Agricultural cooperatives enabling small farmers to compete
• Consumer cooperatives giving members control over goods and services
• Worker-owned enterprises democratizing the workplace

Ongoing relevance. While often overlooked, cooperative models continue to play a significant role in modern economies. They offer an alternative to both state control and unfettered capitalism, providing a way for people to meet their needs through democratic self-organization.

2. The Rochdale Pioneers created a sustainable model for cooperative enterprise

"The Rochdale store implemented a specific concoction of the cooperative practices that had been swirling around in different combinations for years."

Breakthrough model. In 1844, a group of weavers in Rochdale, England, established a cooperative store that would become a template for modern cooperatives worldwide. Their innovation was combining several key practices:

• Democratic member control (one member, one vote)
• Open membership
• Limited return on equity
• Distribution of surplus in proportion to trade (patronage dividend)
• Political and religious neutrality
• Cash trading
• Promotion of education

Scalable success. The Rochdale model proved both financially viable and replicable. It spread rapidly across Britain and internationally, demonstrating that cooperative enterprise could succeed at scale. The Rochdale principles formed the basis for the International Cooperative Alliance's Statement on Cooperative Identity, which continues to guide cooperatives globally.

Lasting impact. The Rochdale Pioneers showed that ordinary working people could successfully own and manage businesses democratically. Their model has been adapted to various sectors, from retail to finance to housing. Today, over 1 billion people worldwide are members of cooperatives based on Rochdale principles.

3. Cooperatives played a crucial role in electrifying rural America

"The domains of the new lords are virtual, and through the virtual clouds they own and control, their reach is far beyond what feudalisms of the past could have imagined."

Rural empowerment. In the 1930s, when private utility companies refused to extend electricity to sparsely populated rural areas, farmers formed cooperatives to bring power to their communities. With support from the New Deal's Rural Electrification Administration, these cooperatives rapidly expanded access to electricity across the American countryside.

Enduring legacy. Today, rural electric cooperatives:

• Serve 42 million people in 47 states
• Own and maintain 42% of the nation's electric distribution lines
• Provide power to 75% of the U.S. land mass

Ongoing innovation. Many rural electric cooperatives are now at the forefront of adopting renewable energy and smart grid technologies. They demonstrate how cooperatives can provide essential infrastructure and adapt to changing needs over time.

4. Economic disruptions often spur the growth of cooperative movements

"As in the monasteries, the Digger cosmology presumed a God who created everything for everyone; while the Diggers waited for the world to recognize this, they began practicing it in microcosm, through a cooperative community of their own on a pathetic piece of land."

Crisis and opportunity. Throughout history, economic upheavals have often catalyzed the formation of cooperatives:

• The industrial revolution sparked the growth of consumer cooperatives
• The Great Depression led to the expansion of credit unions and agricultural co-ops
• The 2008 financial crisis renewed interest in worker-owned businesses

Survival through solidarity. Cooperatives offer a way for people to pool resources and meet needs collectively when traditional economic systems fail them. They provide resilience in the face of economic uncertainty.

Innovation from necessity. Disruptions force people to reconsider existing economic models and experiment with alternatives. Cooperatives often emerge as creative solutions to pressing problems, driven by the ingenuity of those directly affected.

5. The digital age presents new opportunities and challenges for cooperation

"The internet could no longer claim to be a postpolitical subculture; it had become the empire."

Collaborative potential. Digital technologies enable new forms of cooperation:

• Open-source software development
• Peer-to-peer file sharing and collaborative consumption
• Crowdfunding and distributed finance
• Online marketplaces and platforms owned by users

Corporate capture. However, much of the internet's collaborative potential has been co-opted by large tech companies that extract value from user-generated content and data. These platform monopolies centralize control while presenting themselves as facilitators of sharing.

Renewed cooperativism. In response, a new wave of "platform cooperativism" seeks to create genuinely democratic alternatives to corporate-controlled digital platforms. These initiatives aim to harness the network effects of the internet while distributing ownership and control to users.

6. Platform cooperativism offers an alternative to exploitative tech giants

"For the first time, the technology underlying Bitcoin made possible a secure, decentralized, open-source financial network."

Democratic platforms. Platform cooperatives are online businesses owned and governed by their users. Examples include:

• Stocksy United: A stock photography platform owned by contributing photographers
• Up & Go: A cleaning services platform owned by worker cooperatives
• Resonate: A music streaming service cooperatively owned by musicians and listeners

Technological tools. New technologies like blockchain and distributed autonomous organizations (DAOs) offer ways to implement cooperative governance at scale in digital environments. These tools can enable transparent decision-making and equitable distribution of value.

Challenges remain. Platform cooperatives face significant hurdles in competing with well-funded tech giants. They must overcome issues of scale, user acquisition, and access to capital while maintaining democratic principles.

7. Cooperatives can provide economic empowerment for marginalized communities

"Co-ops tend to take hold when the order of things is in flux, when people have to figure out how to do what no one will do for them."

Historical precedent. Cooperatives have long been a tool for economic self-help among disadvantaged groups:

• African American farmers forming agricultural co-ops in the Jim Crow South
• Immigrant communities establishing mutual aid societies and credit unions
• Women organizing cooperative childcare and housing

Contemporary examples. Cooperatives continue to serve as vehicles for economic empowerment:

• Green Taxi Cooperative in Denver, owned largely by immigrant drivers
• Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi, building a network of worker-owned businesses in a low-income community
• Cooperative Home Care Associates in New York, the largest worker co-op in the U.S., employing mainly women of color

Structural change. By giving members ownership and control over their economic activities, cooperatives can help address systemic inequalities and build community wealth.

8. The cooperative model faces ongoing tensions between idealism and pragmatism

"Cooperative enterprise can be as old as you want it to be, and a lot of the basic ideas go back as long and far as human economies in general."

Balancing act. Cooperatives must navigate between:

• Maintaining democratic principles and member engagement
• Achieving financial sustainability and competitiveness
• Preserving their distinct identity while adapting to market pressures

Compromise and evolution. Successful cooperatives often find ways to balance these tensions:

• Adopting professional management while preserving member control
• Developing hybrid models that combine cooperative and conventional business elements
• Creating federated structures that allow for both local autonomy and economies of scale

Ongoing debates. The cooperative movement continues to grapple with questions of:

• How to maintain cooperative values in large, complex organizations
• Whether and how to collaborate with conventional businesses and governments
• How to measure success beyond purely financial metrics

9. Education and culture are essential for sustaining cooperative movements

"The cooperative movement—even its most bureaucratic participants refer to it as a 'movement'—is no theoretical or utopian phenomenon."

Cooperative literacy. For cooperatives to thrive, members must understand and actively participate in cooperative governance. This requires ongoing education about:

• Cooperative principles and practices
• Financial and business management skills
• Democratic decision-making processes

Cultural reinforcement. Cooperatives often cultivate distinct cultures that reinforce cooperative values:

• Emphasizing mutual aid and solidarity
• Celebrating cooperative history and achievements
• Developing rituals and practices that build community

Intergenerational transfer. Sustaining cooperative movements requires passing knowledge and values to new generations through:

• Youth programs and internships
• Cooperative education in schools and universities
• Mentorship and leadership development within cooperatives

10. Cooperatives offer a middle path between unfettered capitalism and state control

"Cooperation, however, cannot be claimed as the purview of any one political outlook or party—neither in my grandfather's time nor today."

Economic democracy. Cooperatives provide a way to democratize ownership and control of economic enterprises without relying on centralized state planning. They offer an alternative to both corporate dominance and government bureaucracy.

Diverse applications. The cooperative model can be applied across various sectors:

• Finance (credit unions, cooperative banks)
• Agriculture (farmer-owned cooperatives)
• Retail (consumer cooperatives)
• Housing (cooperative apartments and land trusts)
• Utilities (rural electric cooperatives)
• Technology (platform cooperatives)

Political bridge-building. Because cooperatives combine elements of private enterprise with social responsibility, they can appeal to people across the political spectrum. They offer common ground between those concerned with economic justice and those who value local control and self-reliance.

Last updated: November 16, 2024