Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
Robert Owen (1771–1858) fathered the cooperative movement. A Welshman who made his fortune in the cotton trade, Owen believed in putting his workers in a good environment with access to education for themselves and their children. These ideas were put into effect successfully in the cotton mills of New Lanark, Scotland. It was here that the first co-operative store was opened. Spurred on by the success of this, he had the idea of forming "villages of co-operation" where workers would drag themselves out of poverty by growing their own food, making their own clothes and ultimately becoming self-governing. He tried to form such communities in Orbiston in Scotland and in New Harmony, Indiana in the United States of America, but both communities failed.
Source: Wikipedia
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (May 3, 1818, Hamm - May 11, 1888, Heddesdorf, currently known as Neuwied, Germany) was a German cooperative leader. He was mayor of several towns: from 1845 he was mayor of Weyerbusch/Westerwald; from 1848 he was mayor of Flammersfeld/Westerwald; and finally he was mayor of Heddesdorf from 1852 until 1865. Raiffeisen conceived of the idea of cooperative self-help during his tenure as the young mayor of Flammersfeld. He was inspired by observing the suffering of the farmers who were often in the grip of loansharks. He founded the first cooperative lending bank, in effect the first credit union in 1864. Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich (RZB), founded in 1927 is an international co-operative bank based and founded in Austria and currently one of the largest banks in the country. It was named after Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen.
Source: Wikipedia
Torre Bela (1975): directed and written by Thomas Harlan. Plot summary: The rise and fall of a revolutionary cooperative movement established in the largely abandoned Alentejo land of Portugal, from March to December 1975. In direct speech, sometimes to the camera, sometimes among themselves, the uneducated rural workers expose their misery, their suffering, their hopes, and ultimately their despair - when a socialist government orders the restitution of the land to their primitive owners, and these transform the land into a hunting reserve.
Source: IMDb
In Japan retail co-ops alone had a combined turnover of 2.519 trillion Yen (21.184 billion U.S. Dollars) in 2003/4. Around 1 in 5 of all Japanese households belongs to a local retail co-op and 90% of all co-op members are women. Nearly 6 million households belong to one of the 1,788,000 Han groups. These consist of a group of five to ten members in a neighbourhood who place a combined weekly order which is then delivered by truck the following week.
Source: Wikipedia
Co-op California by Malachi Crunch
See lyrics
Salat Gezer (Kibbutz Carrot Salad)
See recipe
The Cooperator was a monthly periodical founded by Dr William King, the first edition of which appeared on May 1, 1828. It gave a mixture of co-operative philosophy and practical advice about running a shop using cooperative principles. King advised people not to cut themselves off from society, but rather to form a society within a society, and to start with a shop because, "We must go to a shop every day to buy food and necessaries - why then should we not go to our own shop?" He proposed sensible rules, such as having a weekly account audit, having 3 trustees, and not having meetings in pubs (to avoid the temptation of drinking profits).
Source: Wikipedia
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. (Alexander Graham Bell)
One of the weaknesses in the cooperative is that it has never been sufficiently leavened by the imagination. This is a quick-silver faculty, and likely to be a cause of worry to any collective settlement. (Edward Dahlberg)
The commune movement is part of a reawakening of belief in the possibilities for utopia that existed in the nineteenth century and exist again today, a belief that by creating the right social institution, human satisfaction and growth can be achieved. (Rosabeth Moss Kanter)
Source: Creative Quotations
The world's largest worker cooperative: Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (Spanish: Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa - MCC) is a group of manufacturing and retail companies based in the Basque Country and extended over the rest of Spain and abroad. The MCC is now the Basque Country's largest corporation, the seventh largest in Spain. It is considered the world's largest worker co-operative. In 2002 the MCC contributed 3.7% towards the total GDP of the Basque Country. MCC now constitutes over 150 companies, with important manufacturing and engineering interests, as well as retail, financial and educational arms. Its supermarket arm, Eroski, is the largest Spanish-owned retail food chain and the fourth largest retail group in Spain.
Source: Wikipedia
Where the cattle stand together, the lion lies down hungry. (African)
Just as a bamboo cane forms a round jet of water, so taking counsel together makes men of one mind. (Malawian)
A trouble shared is a trouble halved. (Traditional)
Advising is easier than helping. (German)
Source: Creative Proverbs
| 
