1.
COOPERATIVE
MANAGEMENT
MODULE 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF COOPERATIVE THOUGHT AND PRACTICE

2.
LESSON 2:ORIGIN OF COOPERATIVES

3.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, the students will learn about:
• Narrate the story of how cooperative started
• Discuss the contribution of cooperatives to national development.

4.
HISTORY OF COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
• Co-operative can trace their roots to a few determined social reformers who
sought the deliverance of the people from the excesses of capitalism during
the first industrial Revolution in Europe.
• Twenty eight (28) impoverished men and women put this reform
agenda into action in the small town of Rochdale in England in 1844.They
established the first successful co-operative that exist up to this day (under the
umbrella of The Co-operative Group Limited, UK) and became the model for
modern co-operatives that we see today.

5.
HISTORY OF COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
• The Rochdale Pioneers not only succeeded in establishing a successful
enterprise. They also succeeded in promoting an alternative economic
system that today exists side by side with investor-owned and
government-owned enterprises. As shown in developed economies, co-
operatives have democratized ownership of capital and spread the
benefits of economic growth to many people, who otherwise would
have remained marginalized in an economy driven only by the
insatiable desire for profit and the pursuit of individual interest.

6.
HISTORY OF COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
• Again, Brett Fairbairn wrote: “The plan laid out in the statutes of the
Pioneers was one of active progress toward the vision of a new kind
of society. Economic success, efficiency, accumulation of surpluses,
amassing of capital: these things were all clearly necessary, but were
merely steps toward the much larger goal of a comprehensive co-
operative system.”

7.
Before the twenty-eight (28) Rochdale Pioneers established the first consumer co-operative in
1844, all previous attempts to organize co-operative in Europe failed.
They succeeded in establishing the first co-operative that became the model for present-day
co-operative because they set up “practical rules” that ensured that they succeeded as a
business enterprise and as an organization with a clear social purpose. These rules are
encapsulated in the Co-operative Values and Principles that guide all co-operatives today.
Aside from satisfying economic needs, the pioneers fostered fundamental change in society,
aimed at establishing a new economic and social order where people worked and lived in
dignity and were free from all kinds of exploitation and injustice.
Early on, the Rochdale Pioneers differentiated their business from other profit-oriented
business when they positioned the co-operative as values-based and actively contributing
to the transformation of the national economy and society as a whole.

8.
LEARNING TASKS
• List three (3) lessons you learn from the story. From
the lessons you learn, explain how does it affect
your perception about cooperatives (50-100
words).