#12 The Principles of Co-operation
The Co-operative Difference, which creates the Co-operative Advantage, results from the creation of the Co-operative Principles. The Principles have been with the Co-operative Movement since the success of Rochdale Society of Pioneers. Most of us know the story, after several attempts to create an ethical market enterprise; the organizers of Rochdale tried a different tactic. They created a set of rules that would govern the co-operative. Among these included the prohibition of credit to consumers and other tactics used by markets to control consumers and workers. Many of these principles and practices (such as food at meetings) have passed through the generations to our co-operat

#11 Caring for Others
This is the last of the ethical values and the last part of the identity statement that was added to the set of familiar “Rochdale Principles” in 1995. As such, it wraps up the concepts that have gone before. It acts as a bookend with the first value of self-help. We can’t help others if we can’t help ourselves. We can’t be only about ourselves. In thinking about this entry, I couldn’t help but remember the scene from Hair in which a women confronts the father of her child who is otherwise a hip cat trying to change the world: Cooperatives are a social movement, an economic movement, and an educational movement. As a result, caring for others takes us be

No More Social Clubs–Thoughts on the Steelworkers
It’s been a couple of weeks now since the groundbreaking announcement of potential collaboration between Mondragon and the US Steelworker’s Union. The press conference occurred just as, Bernard, an author on this blog and the host of Jasecon posted some thoughts about the role of Mondragon in US Development on this site. The announcement set a lot of us into action. Andrew McLeod posted some follow-up work while he was in the

#10 Social Responsibility
In my office, I have the Identity Statement posted where I can easily refer to it (along with Union Cab’s vision, mission and core values). I have a version that is based on the background paper, but includes other co

#9 Openness
What does openness mean? At one level, it is an ethic that relates directly to the first principle of co-operatives (voluntary and open membership). At another, it suggests a way of being and communicating with each other. Perhaps deeper still, openness suggests transparancy in all of our actions within the co-operative. I think that all of these senses should be part of the co-operative meaning of openness. If members engage in hidden agendas they aren’t being very open. If members engage in hidden vested interests, they aren’t being very open. Finally, and this might be a very tender point, if people engage in hidden relationships (real or imagined), they aren