Being cooperative, more than a simple decision associated with a concrete need, is a citizenship option. Indeed, a cooperative is the projection of the highest values of a society, as are equality, democracy or solidarity. I recognise that for many, perhaps with a thought skewed by poorly told stories about the role of cooperatives at certain times in recent history, it may not be easy to understand the importance of this model of economic and social organisation. Not for me. I am from a land, Peniche, where cooperatives have an unavoidable history, ranging from the resistant role of the cultural cooperative HUMUS, which provided gatherings with great people like Zeca Afonso, Adriano Correia de Oliveira or Mário Viegas, to the historic cooperative movement of fishermen who, for reasons that are not relevant herein, unfortunately all but disappeared in the end. I myself usually talk about my own cooperative journey, perhaps a little inconsequential because it is determined by reasons of context and circumstance, but still relevant. Since I was a kid I would go buy pieces of soaked cod or tuna from barrels at two stores that were originally cooperatives: Flor de Maio and A Social. Later on I was linked to a project to create a film club in the cooperative form. I bought a house in a cooperative and this ended up being a substantial part of my professional career linked to social solidarity cooperatives, specifically Fenacerci and Cercipeniche. That is why I embrace this cause with pride and passion. 

In these days, as we were and are faced with immense challenges, cooperatives were able to affirm the cooperative model as a successful economic and social alternative to capitalist models, taking on innovative proposals and proving remarkably resilient in the most difficult moments of the crisis brought about by covid-19. Social solidarity cooperatives, for example, deployed and organised around Fenacerci and Confecoop, were an example of commitment and dedication, overcoming difficulties and taking a responsible and constructive posture. And because in the history of cooperativism there are many examples of dedication and courage, perhaps it is important to revisit history, not to be ecstatic with the time that has passed, but to be even more inspired by the courage and wit that is part of the ADN of this big family that we belong to.

In fact, December 21st 1844 is remote in time but not in meaning, the day when a group of weavers from Rochdale, a small town in the Manchester Region, decided to take on the challenge of facing problems arising from the expected advent of the heyday of the industrial revolution. In those bygone days, twenty-eight textile workers sowed the seed of a cooperative idea of joint efforts that would germinate as a new understanding of economic and social participation: cooperativism. Never, as in these distant times, has the sense of an alternative path to the economy of capital become so clear, from a solidary vision built with reference to the intrinsic and centralising value of the person. About the same time on our side, Caixa Económica de Lisboa was created, which many see as the first cooperative initiative in our country. And it is worth retaining some moments of history.

The Cooperative Congress and the Congress of Northern Cooperatives, held in 1894 and 1898, are now seen as moments of cooperative differentiation from the rest of the associative movement and attempts to create a spirit of cohesion and identity. The First Republic, for historically understandable reasons, welcomed cooperativism with open arms, quintupling, in sixteen years, the number of existing cooperatives, with particular focus on consumer cooperatives. With the Estado Novo, in particular after the Second World War, cooperatives began to prove an economic alternative, built on solid foundations of freedom and democracy. The edition of the Cooperative Bulletin in 1851, the holding of the Great Cooperative Meeting and above all the solidity and acceptance of António Sérgio’s ideas made Salazar tremble, forcing him to draft laws to stop the growing autonomy and strength of the cooperative movement. With April and the freedom that the revolution returned to us, cooperatives gained new space, constitutionally enshrined and, at least in speeches, successively seen as critical by the political powers that alternately governed us. Of the approximately one thousand cooperatives that existed in 1974, the reality today shows a number that has multiplied over the years, to reach 2,343 cooperatives, responsible for more than 24,400 direct jobs and 604 million euros in gross value added. 

Still, are we satisfied with this growth? No, because there are still many challenges to be met. In 2004, the II Congress of Portuguese Cooperatives outlined a set of guidelines that we all know. They advocated, for example, increase in training education and lifelong education as a strategy for change, creation of a National Cooperative Fund to support promotion of the sector, reinforced inter-cooperation, inclusion of measures to increase and boost cooperatives in the new community frameworks, among other guidelines. The question we must ask ourselves is whether this has actually been achieved and, given the obvious answer, we must understand where we are failing. That is why one cannot be happy with the evolution of cooperativism in Portugal, not because of the much that has been done by the cooperatives in recent years, but because of all that remains to be done, which is just as much. For a long time, we were almost always the same discussing the same things. Today, above all with a clear commitment from some academic sectors to deepen the cooperative path, new people are beginning to appear and willing to innovate. Even so, if we want to wage seriously on the growth of the cooperative sector, we must introduce new awareness and information strategies, to take cooperative ideas to early school cycles, give the public a correct idea of the meaning of cooperative intervention and value its intervention, underlining what must be the basic rule of any cooperative: to serve effectively and in proximity with transparency and democracy.

Today, cooperativism has to be thought and assumed on a broader level, that is, as part of that reality that we have agreed to call Social Economy, where we share the space for reflection and construction with other families, such as mutual societies, misericórdias, foundations, IPSS or associations. Cooperatives are body and soul into this great collective project where they want to affirm their own identity, which is why they immediately embraced the creation of the Portuguese Confederation of Social Economy. But there is a long way to go until Social Economy becomes effective as a whole.

As Rui Namorado would say, cooperativism remains a constellation of hope. And returning to my land, I would add, an Ocean of opportunities. Today, there is much talk, for example, of globalisation and the harmful effects it has on the destruction of cultural identities and the promotion of economic and social exclusion. But as much as some contest it, the process of globalisation of economies is also, at the outset, a generator of wealth and, regardless, it is an inevitability that we must face, namely bearing in mind the negative side of the process, that is, the injustice and exclusion it promotes, as it appeals to large-scale responses that, inexorably, literally swallow up small economic structures, leaving thousands and thousands of people unanswered, all over the world. The phenomenon of globalisation is associated with a new phenomenon much more recent and, perhaps, more perverse, that of relocation, which causes companies that deploy large amounts of labour to relocate with greater profits and support from international economic spaces, fostering unemployment and, thereby, worsening the quality of life and increasing the likelihood of social exclusion. Some States have responded to these problems, namely, by reinforcing policies to increase the cooperative sector, aiming through solidarity processes to find sustainable, credible and alternative solutions to other models of economic organisation. Unfortunately, States do not always understand, in a practical sense, the real economic and social importance of this sector of the economy and, perhaps because of that, it takes time to consolidate concrete proposals that expand the size and economic impact of cooperative responses, to the actual extent of the importance of the role they play for country and people. I also leave a note of hope regarding the review of the Social Economic Tax Statute, which we hope will enshrine the positive differentiation that the organisations that form this sector of the economy deserve.
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In a time of challenge, cooperatives must know how to turn them into opportunities. The future also involves having more and more people realize that cooperative thought promotes equality, solidarity, social justice and progress and development. It is critical to take this message to schools, so that the new generations of citizens learn to see cooperativism as an option of modernity. And if they do, I have no doubt that we will be a better country with happier people.

















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