Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers
The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers ( English for the society of the honest pioneers of Rochdale ) was a consumer cooperative and a savings cooperative, which was founded in December 1844 by 28 weavers from Rochdale .
The evolution of the movement
It goes back to the early English socialist and entrepreneur Robert Owen , who founded a convenience store in his Scottish model settlement New Lanark, among other things, in order to provide the residents with cheap and good food. Owen campaigned for the creation of productive and consumer cooperatives to alleviate the plight of workers in the early days of industrialization. From him comes today's definition of a cooperative as "an association of a special kind, which is based more on people than on capital , has not only a financial but also a moral goal".
Owen hoped that the workers with cooperatives, i.e. with self-organized production facilities and shops , could offer an alternative to the exploitation by the capital owners, which was clearly evident at the time . He urged them: "You have to become your own merchants, your own manufacturers, so that you can supply yourself with goods of the best quality and the lowest price".
In the so-called “enthusiastic phase” of the cooperative movement, which followed these suggestions, several cooperative shops emerged, followed by a “socialist phase”, in whose tradition the Rochdale pioneers stood. This movement emerged from a strike by flannel weavers who wanted to strengthen their economic independence with their newly founded cooperative in the face of the consequences of the strike. It was not only about making food cheaper, but also about spreading and strengthening the cooperative idea, which should be applied to society as a whole. However, the principle of political and religious neutrality ( Rochdale neutrality ) was one of the principles maintained by the new cooperative.
In the course of time, the English cooperative movement became more and more liberal and bourgeois, emphasizing the principle of neutrality, especially the distribution of dividends . Unlike in other countries, the English cooperative movement was able to avoid a split into a liberal and a socialist wing; by 1914 it had developed into a mass organization with a turnover of several billion pounds and several million members.
Rochdal principles
There was no cooperative statement of principles in Rochdale. What is meant by the Rochdal principles had not been clearly stated for almost a century. With reference to George Jacob Holyoake and his story published in 1878 , Erwin Hasselmann names the following unsystematically listed principles :
- Principle of the purity of goods - purchase and delivery only of unadulterated goods
- cash payment
- Distribution of the surplus according to the purchase in the cooperative ( reimbursement principle )
- Limitation of the return on capital
- Principle of accumulating surpluses, combining savings and consumer cooperatives
- Promotion of the pursuit of education
- Democratic administration - one man, one vote
Since 1937, something very specific was understood by the term Rochdal principles or Rochdal principles , especially in the area of the consumer cooperative movement. Since the Congress of the International Union of Cooperatives ( ITUC ) in Paris in 1937, the following seven principles have generally been understood:
- Open membership - voluntary and open door
- Democratic election, (one vote per member)
- Reimbursement based on the purchase amount
- Limited return on capital
- Political and religious neutrality
- cash payment
- Promoting education
These cooperative principles were modified by the ITUC in 1966 and 1995.
literature
- Emil Vandervelde: Neutral and Socialist Cooperative Movement , Stuttgart 1914
- Erwin Hasselmann : The Rochdaler principles through the ages , publications of the Deutsche Genossenschaftskasse Volume 4, Frankfurt am Main 1968
- Friedrich Heeb : From the machinists to the honest pioneers - To the centenary of the founding of the Rochdale cooperative in 1844, facsimile reprint, published by the Heinrich Kaufmann Foundation Hamburg, Norderstedt 2012, Books on Demand, ISBN 978-3-8482-0896-8
- Self-Help by People - From the poorest circumstances to the world organization, reading book on the occasion of 175 years of Redliche Pioneers von Rochdale, publisher: Research Association Development and History of Consumer Cooperatives (FGF), Vienna 2019, self-published.
- George Jacob Holyoake : History of The Righteous Pioneers of Rochdale , Nabu Press 2011, ISBN 978-1-272-08233-8
Web links
- Günther Ringle: Cooperative principles in the field of tension between tradition and modernity , Wismar discussion papers, issue 01/2007, online edition ( online , PDF)
- The Rochdale Pioneers Museum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Erwin Hasselmann: The Rochdaler principles in the course of time , publications of the Deutsche Genossenschaftskasse Volume 4, Frankfurt am Main 1968, page 9
- ↑ Cf. Erwin Hasselmann: The Rochdaler principles in the course of time , publications of the Deutsche Genossenschaftskasse Volume 4, Frankfurt am Main 1968, page 11 f
- ↑ Cf. Erwin Hasselmann: The Rochdaler principles in the course of time , publications of the Deutsche Genossenschaftskasse Volume 4, Frankfurt am Main 1968, page 13