Celebrate Cooperatives: The Spirit of Togetherness

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Celebrate Cooperatives The Spirit of
Togetherness

• A Credit Union Day Program

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Here is a collective effort for mans collective
good - a financial institution founded upon
character, a demonstration of self-help on a
large scale. Edward A. Filene, New York
American, September 18, 1932
The principles of credit union philosophy and
operation are grounded in the cooperative
principles of the Rochdale pioneers. One member,
one vote, member ownership, cooperation,
education are all essential parts of the credit
union ideal. In celebrating Credit Union Day and
week during cooperative month, credit unions
honor their cooperative roots.
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Robert Owen, Father of Cooperatives
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Report to the County of Lanark contains the basic
statement of Owens economic and social
philosophy. (1821)
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All for One, One for All Motto of the
Owenite Cooperatives
The Cooperative Movement - Robert Owen
(1771-1858) Robert Owen, Welsh social reformer,
pioneered cooperative ideas in the British Isles.
As head of the New Lanark cotton mills in
Scotland, Owen used his cooperative ideas to
improve working conditions for his employees and
to develop a cooperative store. In 1821, he
published his experience with cooperative
communities in a report of Lanark County. He
dreamed of creating these communities all over
England. In 1827, he took these ideas to the
United States where he established his ideal
community at New Harmony, Indiana. Owen's
communities did not endure, but his ideas were
central to the cooperative movement.
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William King, English cooperative pioneer
1786-1865Editor of The Cooperator.
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Knowledge and union are power. Power, directed
by knowledge is happiness. Happiness is the end
of creation. From above the masthead of The
Co-operator
Dr. William King and The Co-operator Robert
Owen influenced many social reformers in England,
among them Dr. William King of Brighton. Dr.
King established a cooperative store in Brighton
and published The Co-operator as a vehicle for
promoting cooperative ideas and enterprises. The
paper was only published from 1828 to 1830, but
it was circulated widely and had a strong
influence on the growth of the cooperative
movement. In a time of great social unrest, it
served as an educational sheet and a unifying
force to scattered cooperative groups.
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Front page of the first issue of Dr. William
Kings periodical The Co-operator, which
stimulated growth of cooperatives.
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Print of Rochdale in 1780s
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Group of Rochdale Cooperators
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And the humble cooperative weavers of Rochdale,
by saving two pennies when they had none to
spare, and holding together when other separated,
until they had made their store pay, set an
example which created for the working-classes a
new future. George J. Holyoake.
Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society - 1844 The
cooperative movement developed in response to the
social ills of the early part of the 19th
century. Child labor, long working hours under
terrible working conditions, poverty, the
displacement of cottage industries by the
industrial revolution, and the famine years of
the 1840s produced conditions ripe for
revolution. Cooperation was the answer to some
of these ills. Rochdale lies near the heart of
industrial England, not far from Manchester and
along the main route through the Pennines into
Yorkshire. Many of the displaced cottage workers
in Rochdale were weavers and other artisans.
They viewed the consequences of industrialization
with alarm. The growth of towns like Manchester
and Birmingham and the oppression of the working
classes seemed to threaten a whole way of life in
this part of the country.
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Charles Howarth became the Societys second
president and led it through the period of
establishing the shop.
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The moral miracle performed by our
Co-operators at Rochdale is that they had the
good sense to differ without disagreeing to
dissent with each other without separating to
hate at times, and yet always to hold
together. George J. Holyoake
In 1844, a group of 28 Rochdale weavers and
artisans formed The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers'
Society to establish a cooperative store. The
hope of the Owenites who dominated the group was
to establish a cooperative community along the
lines of Owen's experiments in Scotland.
Together, the pioneers laid down the principles
of the Society and the rules for operating the
store. The Rochdale Society was formally
established with the election of officers on
August 11, 1844. The executive committee
included Miles Ashworth as president, James Daly,
secretary and John Holt, treasurer. In addition
to these officers, there were three trustees and
five directors, all elected annually from among
the members. Officers held quarterly meetings to
give an account of their performance.
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THE ROCHDALE PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION
? Open voluntary membership ? Democratic
control. ? Limited return, if any, on equity
capital. ? Net surplus belongs to user owners. ?
Education. ? Cooperation among cooperatives.
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The weavers of Rochdale who founded modern
cooperative enterprise balanced independence with
interdependence, self-interest with good will,
and action with foresight. Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Greetings to Rochdale, 1944
The Shop on Toad Lane On December 21, 1844, the
store opened at 31 Toad Lane in Rochdale. Two
rooms on the ground floor with bay windows
fronting on the lane were the rooms where the
cooperators conducted business. Flagstone floors
and white-washed walls and ceilings provided a
bright interior. The store was sparsely
furnished with benches and a small desk.
Commodities sold included butter, sugar, flour,
oatmeal and tallow candles. At first, the store
was open only on Saturday and Monday evenings,
but eventually, it opened every evening but
Tuesday. At the end of the first year of
operation, the Society had 74 members, sales of
710, capital of 181 and a profit of 22, a
modest beginning, but the store survived and
grew. It became a model for other cooperative
ventures. The Toad Lane building is now a museum.
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Toad Lane Museum
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This post box beside the shop in Toad Lane was
erected in 1866 and is still in use. It is the
only post box in the United Kingdom surmounted by
a street lamp.
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Scenes from Rochdale MuseumThe Rochdale shop was
spare and simple. The pioneers used only
rudimentary furniture and offered few goods for
sale.
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Scenes from Rochdale MuseumScales and desk used
by the pioneers in 1844.
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Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society Store as it
appears today.
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1st Rochdale Cooperative, an urban electric
co-op, was established at 465 Grand Street in New
York in 1939. Still operating to keep down
energy costs.
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What does self-help mean to the poor oppressed
population now suffering the greatest privation?
If someone were in a deep hole and could not
possibly escape from it, should we not lower a
rope so he can work his way up? This is exactly
the position of the helpless members of the
credit unions. We must refer them resolutely to
the principle of self-help. Friedrich W.
Raiffeisen
The Credit Unions Social conditions, similar to
those that produced the cooperative movement in
England, also produced the Raiffeisen and Schulze
societies in Germany. Poverty, poor working
conditions, low wages, famine and ultimately
active revolution inspired Friedrich Raiffeisen
in rural districts, and Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch
in an urban setting, to organize credit unions
among rural farmers and urban workers. Credit
Unions eventually became a vital part of the
cooperative movement.
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Margaret Llewelyn Davies and her assistant in the
office of the Womens Cooperative Guild.
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Membership card of the Womens Cooperative Guild
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Annual Congress of Womens Co-operative Guild in
Burton-on-Trent, England, 1908.
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The spirit of co-operation which binds the Guild
into one united whole in purpose and action, and
gives to the shopping baskets of its members a
great power to lift the ordinary commerce of
daily existence into a movement for social
betterment, is also the spirit which can
regenerate the world. Catherine Webb, The Woman
with the Basket
Womens Cooperative Guild - 1883 By the
mid-nineteenth century, women were embracing the
cooperative movement. On April 14, 1883, Alice
Acland and Mary Laurenson formed the Women's
Cooperative Guild in England to promote
cooperative activity among women and to achieve
rights for them in a culture they helped to form.
Mrs. Acland wrote a column, "Women's Corner,"
for The Co-operative News in which she urged
women to seek education and to become involved in
alleviating the social problems. In 1889,
Margaret Llewelyn Davies became General Secretary
of the Guild, and under her leadership, the Guild
raised the social consciousness of women and
worked to achieve better working conditions,
voting and other rights for women. In 1922, she
became the first woman president of the
Cooperative Congress. Annual congresses were
held in various parts of the country to discuss
issues and assess progress. The Guild eventually
merged with other cooperatives, but its
achievements were substantial. It was the first
cooperative group for working class women and a
training ground for women in public service and
politics.
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) brought cooperative
ideas to the United States.
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The first Credit Union Day was celebrated on
January 17, 1927, the anniversary of Benjamin
Franklins birthday.
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A penny saved is a penny earnedBeware of little
expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.A
man may, if he knows not how to save, keep his
nose to the grindstone. Benjamin Franklin, Poor
Richards Almanack
Credit Union Day Benjamin Franklin is credited
with bringing cooperatives to the United States.
In 1752, he helped form the first mutual
insurance company, "Philadelphia Contributionship
for the Insurance of Houses from Losses by Fire."
It still exists today, the oldest cooperative in
the country. In 1926, at the annual meeting of
the Credit Union League of Massachusetts, two
employees of the Boston Post Office Employees
Credit Union, John L. Laverty and James Sullivan,
suggested credit unions celebrate a National
Credit Union Day on the anniversary of Benjamin
Franklin's birthday, January 17, 1937. The
suggestion was received with great enthusiasm,
and the League passed a resolution declaring
January 17 Credit Union Day on that day. From
1927 through 1932, there were celebrations in
many parts of the country. In 1948, Charles F.
Eikel, Jr. suggested making Credit Union Day a
permanent celebration for credit unions to be
held on the third Thursday of October,
cooperative month. Gurden P. Farr, president of
Credit Union National Association issued a
proclamation declaring "October to be credit
union month and the third Thursday of October to
be credit union day, and that this month and day
be so observed annually from this time
henceforth.
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With our neighbors in the cooperative movement,
it is well for us to celebrate the principles
that have guided our progress for more than a
century. Thomas W. Doig
BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS Blaszak, Barbara J., The
Matriarchs of England's Cooperative Movement A
Study in Gender Politics and Female Leadership,
1883-1921. Westport, CT Greenwood Press,
2000. Elliott, Sydney R., The English
Cooperatives. New Haven, CT Yale University
Pressm 1937. McCabe, Joseph, Life and Letters of
George Jacob Holyoake. London, England Watts
Co., 1908. Melnyk, George, The Search for
Community From Utopia to a Co-operative Society.
New York, NY Black Rose Books, 1990. Thompson,
David J., Weavers of Dreams Founders of the
Modern Co-operative Movement. Davis, CA
University of California Center for Cooperatives,
1994. PERIODICAL/BROCHURE The Bridge, 1927,
Boston, MA Credit Union National Extension
Bureau, 1927. Toad Lane Museum Souvenir
Brochure. Manchester, England Holyoake House,
1980. Kirkpatrick, Gabriel, Celebrate
Cooperatives The Spirit of Togetherness, 2001.