International Co-operative Alliance
The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) is an independent, non-governmental organization that unites, represents and serves worldwide cooperatives . It was founded in 1895. Today there are 222 member organizations from 88 countries organized in the ICA, which are active in all sectors of the economy. These cooperatives represent the interests of more than 800 million individuals worldwide.
history
The organization, which was mainly shaped by the example of the Rochdal pioneers at the time of its founding, was intended to promote and secure cooperative values and principles and has so far formulated these three times: in 1937, 1966 and 1995 in official documents. Traditionally dominated by the European, initially the British and French. later the Scandinavian consumer cooperatives , the ICA has increasingly focused on Asia in recent years. Although the principles formulated by the ICA were not in full agreement with those of the Soviet-type cooperatives, the period after 1947 ( Cold War ) did not result in a split in the international umbrella organization. The history of the ICA is closely intertwined with that of the international labor movement .
International Cooperative Bulletin
The London-based International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), founded in 1895, published a monthly information sheet in the so-called congress languages English, French and German. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the French and German editions were discontinued. In the spring of 1915, the Central Association of German Consumer Associations (ZdK) in Hamburg, with the help of the Cooperative Association of the Neutral Netherlands, contacted the management of the IGB and London and agreed to have the German edition published again. In order to be able to finance the translation and printing costs, the ZdK organized an advertising campaign with which it managed to increase the number of subscribers to an adequate 1,500. The editing of the paper was in the hands of IGB Secretary Henry J. May. The English edition was sent to Hamburg via Amsterdam, translated into German, printed and sent to German-speaking subscribers, month after month and even retrospectively from January 1915.
The name of the organization is abbreviated differently in different countries:
- IGB in German ( International Association of Cooperatives )
- ACI in Spanish ( Alianza Cooperativa Internacional ) or French ( Alliance coopérative internationale )
- MKA in Russian ( Международный кооперативный альянс )
Values and principles
The cooperatives around the world live the values of self-help, personal responsibility, democracy, equality, justice and solidarity.
To put these values into practice, they follow seven principles:
- Voluntary and open membership
- democratic membership control
- economic participation of the members
- Autonomy and independence
- Education, training and information
- Cooperation with other cooperatives
- Providing for the community
They were adopted in 1995 by the International Co-operative Alliance.
literature
- Henry Faucherre: 60 years of international cooperative association , Basel VSK 1960
- Rita Rhodes: The International Co-operative Alliance in War and Peace , Geneva ICA 1995
- William Pascoe Watkins: The international cooperative movement , Frankfurt / M., DGK 1969
- Wilhelm Kaltenborn : Roots and perspectives of the international cooperative movement in: Critical Intervention, No. 9, Global Resistance against Capitalism, Offizin.Verlag, Hannover 2006, ISBN 3-930345-41-2 .
- Internationales Genossenschafts-Bulletin, Reprint, Volume 1: 1915, publisher: Heinrich-Kaufmann-Stiftung, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-7725-3
- Internationales Genossenschafts-Bulletin, Reprint, Volume 2: 1916, publisher: Heinrich-Kaufmann-Stiftung, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-9124-2
- Internationales Genossenschafts-Bulletin, Reprint, Volume 3: 1917, publisher: Heinrich-Kaufmann-Stiftung, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-9609-4
- Internationales Genossenschafts-Bulletin, Reprint, Volume 4: 1917, publisher: Heinrich-Kaufmann-Stiftung, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7448-4585-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Internationales Genossenschafts-Bulletin, Reprint, Volume 1: 1915, publisher: Heinrich-Kaufmann-Stiftung , Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-7725-3
- ^ Eric Viardot, The role of cooperatives in overcoming the barriers to adoption of renewable energy . Energy Policy 63, (2013), 756-764, p. 757 doi : 10.1016 / j.enpol.2013.08.034 .
- ^ International Co-operative Alliance: Statement on the Co-operative Identity