Re: Beyond Communism and Capitalism?

[HANLY@xxxxxxxxxxx]

     Recently Justin wrote:
3. Complaints that workers have never taken up the idea of cooperatives or
worker ownership in their mass movements, and that this shows that these
are alien ideas imposed on the working class and useless to its struggle,
are ill founded. Depending on the political context, coopertaives and
worker ownership have been more or less popular among workers. In Europe
they are more popular and successful than in the US. Of course in the US
unions themselves have hardly been successful among workers, whether or
not they are popular.
      COMMENT: Note that co-operatives are of various kinds:
         Producer co-operatives--as Dairy Producers a giant dairy producer with
a large part of the market in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
There is also a very large dairy co-op in Quebec-Agros I believe it is called.
These are co-operatively owned by producers.
       Marketing co-ops. B.C. fruit growers is again a huge co-op. I expect in
the US there are similar large co-operatives. The Inuit have a successful
producer and marketing co-op for Inuit crafts. On the Prairie there are
oodles of what are called POOL elevators owned by the Wheat Pool. This is
a marketing co-operative owned by farmers. By the way, farmers successfully
lobbied to have monopoly marketing of some grains such as wheat. All wheat is
sold through the board. Now individualist farmers are trying to break the
monopoly so as to have the right to sell privately on the US market.
      Worker owned co-ops. I can't think off hand of any large one's in
Canada. Isn't Lincoln Welding a co-op?
There is a small Metis manufacturing co-op I know of in Manitoba
but I am sure there are some. We also have a few co-op farms on the prairies.
      Housing co-ops. These are housing units, usually multiple unit dwellings
that are not individually owned. Typically instead of a down payment a certain
number of shares must be bought to move in. Unlike a corporation each
shareholder has only one vote. Monthly payments are set simply to pay expenses
including depreciation. The directors of the co-op are elected by the members,
again unlike a corporation. Usually there are community facilities included
in the plan. For example each apartment building
in a complex built by a co-op, Aspen
Woods,  of
which I was president, had a room large enough for dances, parties, shows,
etc and had a kitchen and bar facilities. The whole complex is three fair sized
apartment buildings overlooking the city and several rows of duplexes each
having a ground floor, second floor and undeveloped attic space. As well as the
multiple units we had a single unit specially designed for a handicapped
person. Unfortunately, since funding is subsidized by government we had
to alter our plans to fit bureaucratic regulations and as a result we could not
build units with more than two bedrooms. With seven children my wife and I were
unable to move into a unit! The success of our project prompted another group
to build a second complex, and later a group of seniors bought a city nursing
home for a song and built a third co-op. There are large co-ops of this sort in
Winnipeg, Calgary, and in Quebec there are scads of housing co-ops. In Quebec
they are often single family dwellings as well as multiple units.
       Another type of housing co-op involves co-operative building of
individual houses, but this culminates in individual ownership I understand
(I believe this was pioneered by people from St. Francis Xavier at Antigonish
perhaps Peter Burns knows about these.)
Consumer co-ops: These are retail stores owned by the customers. THere are
two basic kinds: direct charge and conventional co-ops. The theory behind
conventional co-ops is to sell at market prices and then return the surplus
as patronage dividends. These dividends are based upon the amount of
goods bought. As in other co-ops there is only one vote for each member and
the board of directors is elected by the members. These types of co-op
are still the dominant type of retailer in rural western Canada. At least
in terms of lumber and petroleum supplies they are also prevalent in
states such as North Dakota and Minnesota. Direct charge co-ops are less
prevalent, but are in many ways superior to conventional co-ops. The governance
is the same as conventional co-ops, member elected directors and one share one
vote, however members pay a set fee each month, or week, to belong and
the co-op typically will sell below market and there is no surplus to
distribute. The surplus goes to the customer at point of sale. One advantage
to this type of co-op is that members are encouraged to buy from the co-op
for two reasons: goods are usually at or below prices in regular stores,
and it since a weekly or monthly fee is charged people must buy to at least
recoup their fees. With a large family I found this type of co-op quite
good. We started one here that worked at first with each members contributing a
certain amount of labor but then later we found a few older people who were
willing and able to work for an honorarium. (We never incorporated and
functioned outside the legal corporate framework) In about ten years we
accumulated about 15 thousand bucks that we were going to use to find
better facilities etc. Unfortunately, one of the women who had worked for
us for years for a pittance was found to be helping herself to a few groceries
on the side. The moralists-not me I think we should have agreed to give
her grocery pilfering money in addition to her honorarium-
 on the board had a falling out with her and she
quit.New board members decided we should be a legitimate corporate body
get new premisses, hire workers on government work projects. I disagreed
with the direction things were going and opted out. Within two years the
co-op dissolved with no surplus.
   Credit Unions. These are quite active competitors to banks. In Brandon for
example, a city of about 45,000 there are two credit unions one of which has
two branches within the city and several other branches outside. These offer
full financial services and are member owned. As in conventional co-ops
surpluses are returned to members, sometimes as lump sums but often
as rebates on loan interest as well. Again in many rural areas you will not
find a bank in a given town but a credit union.
    All of these institutions were created as alternatives to capitalist
suppliers, banks, and individual home ownership.
Since the businesses operate within an overall capitalist structure
they are constrained by it. Local consumer co-ops have on occasion had labor
troubles with unionized staff.
         I digress. My main point is that co-ops and other alternatives to
individual owned business, and housing, are alive and in many cases quite well,
and I expect that at least in the prairie sections of the US the same is true.
It seems to me in the US there are also a number of co-op electrical suppliers.
The ideas only seem alien in certain parts of North America, and in particular
larger urban centres in the east. By the way in Quebec la caisse populaire
abound. These are credit unions.
 Cheers, Ken Hanly



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