Co-operatives in the United Kingdom - The success of the Rochdale pioneers in the mid-1800s led to the growth of co-operatives in various fields of life in the United Kingdom. By the early 1900s, co-operatives were so widespread and well organised that they formed the Co-operative Party to represent members of co-operatives in Parliament. Today, the Co-operative Party has a permanent electoral pact with the Labour Party, and some Labour MPs are Co-operative Party members. UK co-operatives retain a significant market share in food retail, insurance, banking, funeral services, and the travel industry in many parts of the country.
One of the world's largest consumer co-operatives is in the UK: the Co-operative Group [www.co-op.co.uk] has a variety of retail and financial services. In reality the Co-operative Group is actually something of a hybrid, having both corporate (other cooperative businesses) and individual members.
Credit unions are also established in the UK. The largest are work-based, but many are now offering services in the wider community. The Association of British Credit Unions Ltd (ABCUL) represents the majority of British Credit Unions.
Credit unions in Europe - Important European banking cooperatives include the Crédit Agricole in France, Migros and Coop Bank in Switzerland and the Raiffeisen system in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Spain, Italy and various European countries also have strong cooperative banks. They play an important part in mortgage credit and professional (i.e. farming) credit.
Cooperative banking networks, which were nationalized in Eastern Europe, work now as real cooperative institutions. A remarkable development has taken place in Poland, where the SKOK (spóldzielcze kasy oszczednosciowo-kredytowe) network has grown to serve over 1 million members via 13,000 branches, and is larger than the country's largest conventional bank.
Social co-operatives in Italy -
In Italy, there are about 7,000 examples of a particularly successful form of multi-stakeholder co-operative - called social cooperatives. One type of social cooperative is made up of providers and beneficiaries of a social service (like health or education). The other main type brings together permanent workers and previously unemployed people (for example, with physical or mental disability, drug addiction, or a prison record) who wish to integrate into the labour market.
These co-operatives involve about 270,000 members, 223,000 paid employees, 31,000 volunteers and 24,000 disadvantaged people. Combined turnover is around 5 billion euro. The average size is 30 workers.
Consumer co-operatives in Japan - Japan has a very large and well-developed consumer co-operative movement with over 14 million members. About one in five of all Japanese households belongs to a local retail co-op and 90% of all members are women. The common form of co-operative are Han groups - five to ten members in a neighbourhood who place a combined weekly order for groceries and consumables, which is then delivered by truck the following week.
In addition to retail co-operatives, there are medical, housing and insurance co-operatives for consumers. There are also co-operatives in the workplace, in schools (school teachers) and in universities. In recent years, Japanese consumer co-ops have seen the growth of community-supported agriculture where fresh produce is sent direct to consumers from producers without going through the market.
Credit unions in North America - In North America, the caisse populaire movement started by Alphonse Desjardins in Quebec, Canada pioneered credit unions. Desjardins wanted to bring desperately needed financial protection to working people. In 1900, from his home in Lévis, Quebec, he opened North America's first credit union, marking the beginning of the Mouvement Desjardins.
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