What is Cooperative?

Cooperatives are people-centered enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for
their members to realize their common economic, social, and cultural needs and
aspirations.

Cooperatives bring people together in a democratic and equal way. Whether the
members are the customers, employees, users or residents, cooperatives
are democratically managed by the 'one member, one vote' rule. Members share
equal voting rights regardless of the amount of capital they put into the enterprise.

As businesses driven by values, not just profit, cooperatives share internationally

agreed principles and act together to build a better world through cooperation.
Putting fairness, equality and social justice at the heart of the enterprise, cooperatives
around the world are allowing people to work together to create sustainable
enterprises that generate long-term jobs and prosperity.

Cooperatives allow people to take control of their economic future and, because they
are not owned by shareholders, the economic and social benefits of their activity
stay in the communities where they are established. Profits generated are either
reinvested in the enterprise or returned to the members.

The cooperative movement is far for being a marginal phenomenon, at least 12%
of humanity is a cooperator of any of the 3 million cooperatives on earth.

Read the Statement on the Cooperative Identity which contains the definition of
a cooperative, the values of cooperatives, and the seven cooperative principles here.
The beginning of the modern cooperative movement:

The earliest record of a cooperative comes from Fenwick, Scotland where, in March
14, 1761, in a barely furnished cottage local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal
into John Walker's whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a
discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers' Society.

There are a plethora of records of cooperatives started out as small grassroots

organizations in Western Europe, North America and Japan in the middle of the
nineteenth century, however, it is the Rochdale Pioneers that are generally regarded
as the prototype of the modern cooperative society and the founders of the Co-
operative Movement in 1844.
The Rochdale Pioneers are regarded as the prototype of the modern co-operative
society and the founders of the Cooperative Movement.
The Rochdale Pioneers

In 1844 a group of 28 artisans working in the cotton mills in the town of Rochdale,
in the north of England established the first modern cooperative business, the
Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society. The weavers faced miserable working
conditions and low wages, and they could not afford the high prices of food and
household goods. They decided that by pooling their scarce resources and working
together they could access basic goods at a lower price. Initially, there were only
four items for sale: flour, oatmeal, sugar and butter.

The Pioneers decided it was time shoppers were treated with honesty, openness and
respect, that they should be able to share in the profits that their custom contributed
to and that they should have a democratic right to have a say in the business. Every
customer of the shop became a member and so had a true stake in the business. At
first the cooperative was open for only two nights a week, but within three months,
business had grown so much that it was open five days a week.

An independently formulated co-operative model developed in Germany by

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and Franz Hermann Schultz-
Delitsch. Raiffeisen and Schultz-Delitsch originally formed credit unions in 1862.
Since then the model has grown into other sectors and inspired the growth of
financial cooperatives across the world.