THE ICA Centennial Congress in 1995 in Manchester ad-opted the Statement on the Cooperative Identity that includes the definition, basic values and the reformulated universal cooperative principles. The first of the seven principles is the voluntary and open membership principle.

The 1995 ICA Congress reaffirmed the universality of the voluntary and open membership principle which was an original Rochdale principle adopted by the first ICA Congress in 1895.
It was preceded by two reviews and affirmations by the ICA Congress, first in the 1937 ICA Congress in Paris, and second in the 1966 ICA Congress in Vienna. There, a more diverse and representative body of delegates restudied the 1937 principles and reaffirmed the principles that had remained universally applicable even in the light of the big technological and structural changes in the socio-economic arena that demanded a firmer intellectual and moral foundation for the cooperative movement.

Preparatory to the 1995 reformulation of the cooperative principles, two ICA Congresses deliberated on the basic cooperative values that should guide the interpretation and application of the principles. In the ICA Stockholm Congress in 1988, ICA President Lars Marcus reported for consideration the eight Basic Values that form the foundation of the Coop Principles: the self-help values, mutual-help values, non-profit interest values, democratic values, voluntary-effort values, universal values, education values and purposeful values. The voluntary-effort values, according to the report, include commitment, creative power, independence and pluralism; the universal values include global perspectives and openness.

Also in 1988, Sven Ake Book of the Swedish Cooperative Institute wrote the Cooperative Development and Cooperative Values. Ake Book said that voluntary-effort and universal values are among the “concept-determined” values and therefore “should apply to all kinds of cooperative development.” The discussions in 1988 were followed by the 1992 Congress in Tokyo that debated the results of a study Cooperative Values in the Changing World conducted by an ICA commissioned-team headed by Ake Book. This study “largely provided the theoretical context out of which the Statement on the Cooperative Identity was derived.” (ICA: 1995)

1895: Open membership, political and religious.

1937: Voluntary membership and neutrality.

1966: Membership of a coop society should be voluntary and available without artificial restriction or any social, political or religious discrimination, to all persons who can make use of its services and are willing to accept the responsibilities of membership.

The Voluntary and Open Membership principle, according to the Background Paper on the 1995 ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity, “is arguably the most powerful but often the most underrated of all principles.”

The power and “underrating” of this principle can be explained and understood in many ways, by the successes and setbacks of past and present cooperatives. They are reflected in the rich experiences and invaluable lessons learned from actual involvement in the cooperative movement, in this “social project” of cooperators worldwide. A lot has been heard and written ab-out this. Countless stories more have yet to be shared— including those of the Metro Manila cooperative leaders.

Cooperative formation in the Philippines started in the 1890’s although the first law that legalized the organization of rural credit cooperatives—the Rural Credit Law—was passed only in 1914. Today, the Philippines is said to be one of the countries that have the highest number of registered cooperatives.
The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) placed the number of registered cooperatives as of midyear 2002 at more than 60,000 (5,000 of these cooperatives were in Metro Manila). Majority of these cooperatives have relatively small memberships. A number of progressive urban and rural-based cooperatives are gaining greater foothold in the socio-economic lives of their communities. But there are al-so many existing cooperatives whose organization and business operations are beset by stagnation or decline.

The encouraging successes as well as the high mortality and “morbidity” rates recorded by the country’s cooperative movement, the coop leaders agreed, are related to a host of factors. One of them is the membership factor—having a membership of desired quality, quantity or size, diversity and mixture facilitated by programs, internal policies, decisions, and activities aligned with the cooperative goals and principles.

Cooperatives are a social project; a cooperative people is one of a cooperative’s main components. These assertions by Sven Ake Book uphold the uniqueness of cooperatives and the cooperative movement’s philosophy of Cooperation that goes beyond promotion of individual members but the progress and welfare of humanity (ICA: 1966), and believes that full individual development can take place only in association with others (ICA: 1995).

Translated as member’s self-responsibility, a cooperative expects from each member not just one’s monetary and business participation but more importantly one’s altruistic commitment, creativity, mutual concern, caring for others and independent freewill to be a cooperative person. As a member, one is responsible for maintaining internal harmony in a cooperative that continuously grows and reaches out.

Without members enlightened on such personal tasks, cooperatives shall not prove effective as a social project. A cooper-ative’s effectiveness is viewed “not just from its business efficiency but also from its contribution to the moral and social elevation of human life.” (ICA Report: 1966).

These aims and beliefs make voluntary and open elements of the first principle decisive. The open membership is “a generous, non-discriminatory and a reaching out” principle that says there is equal chance for as many people as the movement can reach, to belong and be cooperative persons.

The principle has both historical and philosophical roots. The pursuit of equal opportunities and access to world’s resources is a historic struggle against discrimination and marginalization as consequences of the people’s economic status, gender, color and beliefs. The founders of the Rochdale Pioneers were fighters for the poor’s representation in the parliament and equal voting rights regardless of property and gender.

The 19th century cooperators started the tradition of fighting for women rights. The Rochdale Pioneers were among the first cooperatives, if not the first, to invite the wives to have investments of their own in the organization. The non-discriminatory strength of open membership springs from the rightness of mutuality, equality, equity, and justice that should govern relationships between and among human beings in general.

The voluntary principle insists that such basic right should be exercised freely and without external compulsion. No matter how noble cooperativism’s aim may be, a person cannot be “made” a cooperator (ICA: 1995).
One can be a true cooperator by personal choice. Once one chooses to be in, one has to accept the self-responsibility for putting one’s mind and heart in harmony with others, whether business is going good or bad.

David Thompson, in his book Weavers of Dreams,2 resonates how the voluntary will and determination of this coop’s founding members changed the story of the cooperative movement:

The loyal members (of Rochdale Pioneers) stood inside the shop huddled together for warmth and companionship. They shuffled their wooden clogs on the cold flagstone floor, watching their breath float across the candlelight. The windows were... damp, so no one could see outside. The sound of clogs clattering along the cobbled streets was their only guide to the arrival of the customer. All too often the sound of those clogs rushed past the store and disappeared into the distance like a passing train. Yet a few brave and loyal souls ventured through the door, and their humble purchases helped make history. Spirit furnished the members’ capital, hope provided their inventory, hearts nurtured community, while their minds focused on their future.

Cooperators shall always be reminded and inspired by the spirit of voluntariness and openness lived for others.
__________

¹Rochdale, Manchester, UK is the birthplace of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society more popularly referred to as the Rochdale Pioneers, known in the history of the cooperative movement as the first successful cooperative and model of modern Cooperation.

2Published in 1994 in commemoration of the 150th founding an-niversary of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society.

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