A Message from the Chair - by Marilyn Porter
Human beings are essentially cooperative. People see the advantages of working together towards common goals; of sharing the hardships and the benefits and protecting weaker members. Throughout history and across the globe, within families and societies, we find people sharing with each other, performing countless acts of kindness and working together. Inequality and injustice mar all societies, but it is only comparatively recently, in our own rapacious form of capitalism, that we have seen societies where gross inequalities and the exploitation of the many by a few is the organising principle of society. When 19thcentury capitalism was forcing millions into poverty and exploited labour, the injustice of it prompted some people to suggest that co-operation made more sense and was certainly more just. Thus the 19th century forebears of today’s co-operatives developed a model in which they could protect their members from the worst hardships of the dominant capitalist system.
These “co-operative societies” were marked by their practical solutions to sharing labour and benefits and providing a safety net for its members but also for the values on which they were based. They emphasised the fundamental nature of co-operation to human society, the drive towards justice and a concern with weaker members of society, based on principles of equality and resistance to the evils of exploitation and violence. While co-operative efforts take place all over the world, our own co-operative system derives from the co-operative societies founded in the UK in the 19th century. Some of these, like Robert Owen’s largely self-sufficient “model” community at New Lanark in Scotland, enabled its members to live outside the boundaries of capitalism http://www.robert-owen.com/ . But the majority of co-operatives concentrated on alleviating the worst effects of the system through economic cooperation between their members. They founded producer co-ops (such as farming and fishing) and consumer (or retail) co-ops (which reduced their members’ expenditures by buying goods in bulk, as in the cooperative stores).
They also became more organised so as to provide support to co-operative ventures of all kinds and engaged in other projects and campaigns around specific issues. For example, the Women’s Cooperative Guild under its fearlesss leader Margaret Llewellyn Davies campaigned for maternity benefits and minimum wages, and vociferously opposed the First World War and its appalling slaughter.
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, co-operatives are legally recognised businesses organised under the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Cooperatives and governed by the Cooperatives Act. They are “established by groups of individuals, privately owned businesses and/or community based organisations to provide a wide range of needed services” and apart from producer and retail co-operatives there are also worker co-operatives, community service co-operatives and multi-stakeholder co-operatives. We have over 90 co-operatives and credit unions, with 57,000 members. Their aims and activities cover a huge range and exemplify the co-operative principle of people working together for their common and shared benefit. Examples include the Petty Harbour Fishermen’s Co-operative, the Western Newfoundland and Labrador Developers Co-operative, the Fogo Island Co-operative, the Ocean Spray Co-operative, the North Shore Central Ambulance Co-operative and the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Co-operative.
However, all these co-ops deal in concrete goods and services and so it is clear how co-operation spreads the risk and increases the benefits to all the members. A Social Justice Coop is somewhat different. We do not deal in such tangibles as vegetables or even credit. But social justice is just as real as those things, if harder to measure or manage. We believe that social justice is a “good” like any other and that it must be developed like any other good and shared as equally as possible.
As many of our readers will know, the SJCNL arose out of the ashes (unfortunately, literally) of the local Oxfam. When, as a result of severe cutbacks and a change in its policy, Oxfam Canada took the decision to withdraw its presence from the province and close what had been a valuable community resource since the 1970s there was outrage in the wider community and especially among those many people who had been committed to social justice both here and overseas for many years. We needed a new organisation to step into the void left with Oxfam’s departure and a new way to continue the project of speaking out for social justice, connecting the local with the global and developing public education and advocacy. It was this activist thread, and our conviction that we could not operate inside the current constraints on non-governmental organisations (especially within the revised ‘Corporations Act’) that led us to form a cooperative.
No sooner had we founded our Social Justice Co-op under the shelter of the Cooperatives Act (with all its formalities and constraints) than we realised the deep need for such an organisation as ours. Neo-conservative politics and especially the Harper government’s economic policies are increasing inequality. Worldwide a recent Oxfam report found that the 85 richest people in the world hold the same amount of wealth as all of the people in the bottom half of the world’s population. Closer to home Newfoundland and Labrador is getting more unequal and its policies, especially its tax policies, are making things worse. It already has the second lowest rate for taxing high earners, and unlike other provinces, which are increasing their ability to tax the very rich, Newfoundland and Labrador is moving in the other direction, with tax cuts that benefit the high earners. Despite our economic growth, we have seen devastating cuts in the public sector. Of those in work at least half are earning less than they used to and in real terms 60% of families are worse off than their parents were. While the population shifts to St John’s and the North East Avalon, housing becomes more expensive (the average cost of a house is rising by 29%) and for those – the elderly, the disabled, the out of work, the young – getting access to acceptable and affordable accomodation becomes more and more difficult. All the other social and economic indicators point in the same direction: Newfoundland and Labrador is moving away from social equality and justice, not towards it.
Our Mandate reads:The Social Justice Co-operative has, as its core commitment, to advance the cause of social, economic and political justice for the people of Newfoundland & Labrador. Our vision of “Social justice” is that everyone in society should be afforded the same economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Our Objectives (listed below) indicate the range of activities that will help us fulfil our mandate.
We believe that our community contains limitless potential for social justice, but that it, like the other “goods” in our society, is currently shared most unequally. It is our job to articulate where the inequities are and to identify sources of social prosperity; to bring to light the injustices in our society, to advocate for equality and justice and to work with like minded groups to develop co-operative projects and initiatives that will increase social justice in our communities . The Social Justice Co-operative of Newfoundland and Labrador is still in its infancy and we have much maturing to do.We are a small group with few resources – but we have an abundance of talented and experienced volunteers in many fields, with more joining us every day. We can’t solve all the problems ourselves, but we can keep the light shining on aim of social justice for all and the barriers that stand in the way.
Please join us and bring us your ideas, enthusiasm and commitment. We already have several projects in the making, including the development of the Open Space concept to encourage ideas and concerns ‘from the bottom up’ and producing an Alternative Economic Budget in collaboration with our partners in the Labour movement. But there is need for much more action on more areas of concern. For social justice to spread to every corner of our province, we need more members, more voices, more actions.
These “co-operative societies” were marked by their practical solutions to sharing labour and benefits and providing a safety net for its members but also for the values on which they were based. They emphasised the fundamental nature of co-operation to human society, the drive towards justice and a concern with weaker members of society, based on principles of equality and resistance to the evils of exploitation and violence. While co-operative efforts take place all over the world, our own co-operative system derives from the co-operative societies founded in the UK in the 19th century. Some of these, like Robert Owen’s largely self-sufficient “model” community at New Lanark in Scotland, enabled its members to live outside the boundaries of capitalism http://www.robert-owen.com/ . But the majority of co-operatives concentrated on alleviating the worst effects of the system through economic cooperation between their members. They founded producer co-ops (such as farming and fishing) and consumer (or retail) co-ops (which reduced their members’ expenditures by buying goods in bulk, as in the cooperative stores).
They also became more organised so as to provide support to co-operative ventures of all kinds and engaged in other projects and campaigns around specific issues. For example, the Women’s Cooperative Guild under its fearlesss leader Margaret Llewellyn Davies campaigned for maternity benefits and minimum wages, and vociferously opposed the First World War and its appalling slaughter.
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, co-operatives are legally recognised businesses organised under the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Cooperatives and governed by the Cooperatives Act. They are “established by groups of individuals, privately owned businesses and/or community based organisations to provide a wide range of needed services” and apart from producer and retail co-operatives there are also worker co-operatives, community service co-operatives and multi-stakeholder co-operatives. We have over 90 co-operatives and credit unions, with 57,000 members. Their aims and activities cover a huge range and exemplify the co-operative principle of people working together for their common and shared benefit. Examples include the Petty Harbour Fishermen’s Co-operative, the Western Newfoundland and Labrador Developers Co-operative, the Fogo Island Co-operative, the Ocean Spray Co-operative, the North Shore Central Ambulance Co-operative and the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Co-operative.
However, all these co-ops deal in concrete goods and services and so it is clear how co-operation spreads the risk and increases the benefits to all the members. A Social Justice Coop is somewhat different. We do not deal in such tangibles as vegetables or even credit. But social justice is just as real as those things, if harder to measure or manage. We believe that social justice is a “good” like any other and that it must be developed like any other good and shared as equally as possible.
As many of our readers will know, the SJCNL arose out of the ashes (unfortunately, literally) of the local Oxfam. When, as a result of severe cutbacks and a change in its policy, Oxfam Canada took the decision to withdraw its presence from the province and close what had been a valuable community resource since the 1970s there was outrage in the wider community and especially among those many people who had been committed to social justice both here and overseas for many years. We needed a new organisation to step into the void left with Oxfam’s departure and a new way to continue the project of speaking out for social justice, connecting the local with the global and developing public education and advocacy. It was this activist thread, and our conviction that we could not operate inside the current constraints on non-governmental organisations (especially within the revised ‘Corporations Act’) that led us to form a cooperative.
No sooner had we founded our Social Justice Co-op under the shelter of the Cooperatives Act (with all its formalities and constraints) than we realised the deep need for such an organisation as ours. Neo-conservative politics and especially the Harper government’s economic policies are increasing inequality. Worldwide a recent Oxfam report found that the 85 richest people in the world hold the same amount of wealth as all of the people in the bottom half of the world’s population. Closer to home Newfoundland and Labrador is getting more unequal and its policies, especially its tax policies, are making things worse. It already has the second lowest rate for taxing high earners, and unlike other provinces, which are increasing their ability to tax the very rich, Newfoundland and Labrador is moving in the other direction, with tax cuts that benefit the high earners. Despite our economic growth, we have seen devastating cuts in the public sector. Of those in work at least half are earning less than they used to and in real terms 60% of families are worse off than their parents were. While the population shifts to St John’s and the North East Avalon, housing becomes more expensive (the average cost of a house is rising by 29%) and for those – the elderly, the disabled, the out of work, the young – getting access to acceptable and affordable accomodation becomes more and more difficult. All the other social and economic indicators point in the same direction: Newfoundland and Labrador is moving away from social equality and justice, not towards it.
Our Mandate reads:The Social Justice Co-operative has, as its core commitment, to advance the cause of social, economic and political justice for the people of Newfoundland & Labrador. Our vision of “Social justice” is that everyone in society should be afforded the same economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Our Objectives (listed below) indicate the range of activities that will help us fulfil our mandate.
We believe that our community contains limitless potential for social justice, but that it, like the other “goods” in our society, is currently shared most unequally. It is our job to articulate where the inequities are and to identify sources of social prosperity; to bring to light the injustices in our society, to advocate for equality and justice and to work with like minded groups to develop co-operative projects and initiatives that will increase social justice in our communities . The Social Justice Co-operative of Newfoundland and Labrador is still in its infancy and we have much maturing to do.We are a small group with few resources – but we have an abundance of talented and experienced volunteers in many fields, with more joining us every day. We can’t solve all the problems ourselves, but we can keep the light shining on aim of social justice for all and the barriers that stand in the way.
Please join us and bring us your ideas, enthusiasm and commitment. We already have several projects in the making, including the development of the Open Space concept to encourage ideas and concerns ‘from the bottom up’ and producing an Alternative Economic Budget in collaboration with our partners in the Labour movement. But there is need for much more action on more areas of concern. For social justice to spread to every corner of our province, we need more members, more voices, more actions.
