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"The Cooperative Movement Helps Give Globalization a Human Face"
Notes for an address by
the
President of the Privy Council and
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
the Honourable Stéphane Dion
at the opening ceremony of
the
Congress and General Assembly of the International Co-operative Alliance
Quebec, Quebec
August 30, 1999
Just to let you know how pleased I am today to be
representing the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien,
here, in Québec, the city where I was born, on the occasion of the 32nd
convention of your association, the International Cooperative Alliance, allow me
to tell you a true story.
You know that, across the river, in Lévis, there
is the head office of one of the most successful cooperatives in the world --
the Mouvement Desjardins. Now, your 32nd convention, the first one to be held in
North America, kicks off the festivities marking the centenary of the founding
of the first caisse populaire in Lévis. My story shows that the fact that these
events are taking place simultaneously is more than a coincidence intended by
the organizers of the conference, it is a fitting nod at history because your
association helped found the Mouvement Desjardins.
From 1892 to 1917, Alphonse Desjardins worked in
Ottawa as a French-language stenographer in the House of Commons. This meant
that he could very easily observe Canada's economic and social situation and
frequent the Library of Parliament, where he read numerous books on savings and
credit. In April 1897, he heard a speech in the House of Commons delivered by
Michael Quinn, MP for Montréal-Ste-Anne on usurious practices. It was a speech
which made a lasting impression on him. Because Alphonse Desjardins was
convinced that in order to provide economic levers to French-Canadians, to the
farmer, to the labourer, and to the tradesman to protect them from the usurious
practices that were rampant at the time, credit had to be made accessible.
Shortly after hearing Mr. Quinn's speech, Mr.
Desjardins came across a book, People's Banks, that inspired him greatly. The
author, Henry W. Wolff, was, at the time, president of the ICA. Alphonse
Desjardins decided to write to him in London, in 1898, and thanks to Mr. Wolff's
assistance, he was able to make contact with the heads of savings and credit
cooperatives in Belgium, Italy, France and Switzerland. As historian Yves Roby
has noted, those years of study, discussion and regular correspondence with
Europe greatly helped Alphonse Desjardins adapt foreign experiments to our
reality.
And this is how the Desjardins caisses populaires
became the forerunner of North America's credit unions and caisses populaires.
The moral of the story is this: from the
beginning, the cooperative movement found international cooperation to be one of
its essential strengths. And your association has played a key role in this
cooperation.
The cooperative movement is both a very local
reality, with deep roots in local communities, and very international,
responding to the needs of human beings, regardless of where in the world they
may be. This explains its phenomenal growth during the 19th and 20th century.
This is why the small group of roughly 20 people in Rochdale, England, in 1844,
who launched the first successful cooperative -- a consumer cooperative --
started one of the most spectacular movements in economic history.
Spectacular, indeed. But just how big is the cooperative movement today? The ICA
tells us it is the largest international non-governmental and non-denominational
organization in the world, with 242 member organizations from 93 countries, from
every continent. Over 749,000 cooperatives, boasting a total membership of 725
million people, are affiliated with these organizations.
In Canada, our 10,000 or so cooperatives comprise
15 million members and employ upwards of 150,000 people. They are present
throughout the country. I spoke to you earlier about our gem here in Quebec, the
Mouvement Desjardins. But I could go on at length about other success stories in
the Quebec cooperative movement, or about the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the
largest grain handling enterprise in the country, or about the Antigonish
movement in Atlantic Canada, or about the growth being experienced by
cooperatives in Canada's North.
We are very proud of the role that the Canadian
Cooperative Association and the Conseil canadien de la coopération are playing
within your association. Here again, it is indeed entirely fitting and another
nod at history that the Canadian cooperative movement as a whole is being
represented on the ICA Council by the President of the Mouvement Desjardins, Mr.
Claude Béland.
If the cooperative movement has enjoyed such
growth in Canada, in your countries and, indeed, throughout the world, it is
because the movement responds to the same need everywhere: reconciling social
justice with economic growth, by means of mutual assistance and democracy. In
the 19th century there was no talk yet of globalization, but the excesses of
unbridled capitalism and unemployment caused by the Industrial Revolution led to
the creation of the first cooperatives. One needs to recognize that the creation
of the first cooperatives was made possible by the freedom of association that
comes with political liberalism.
Whether by giving access to credit or housing,
helping people save and reinvest in the community or making staple goods more
accessible, cooperatives help counter poverty in all its forms and contribute to
the sustainable development of our communities.
A veritable school of democracy, cooperatives
give their members the opportunity to learn how to negotiate, to lead, to assume
responsibilities, to work as part of a group, to cast an equal vote, one
person-one vote, with no regard to sex, race, religion or age.
Today, globalization -- with its attendant
economic concentration -- is obliging cooperatives to face competition within
their sector from firms that have taken on mammoth proportions. What we're
seeing here in Canada, as well as in your own countries, is these cooperatives
regrouping and establishing strategic alliances with partners outside the
cooperative movement. The challenge for them will be to remain competitive while
at the same time respecting cooperative ideals. They will meet this challenge
and thus help put a human face on globalization.
The UN is fully aware of the situation. As you
know, this year it will be discussing a report on the legislative and
administrative measures various countries have taken to provide cooperatives
with a favourable legal framework.
Canada too is aware of the role cooperatives must
play in relation to globalization. That is why Canada's new legislation on
cooperatives, given assent on March 31, 1998, provides cooperatives with greater
flexibility in accessing capital, while respecting their particular
characteristics, including the democratic control exercised by members.
Anglophone and Francophone cooperatives from all over Canada worked hand in hand
for years to see this new law enacted.
This is also why the Canadian International
Development Agency, CIDA, has used the cooperative model in many of its aid
projects throughout the world. One of CIDA's most important partners is the
Mouvement Desjardins. The two agencies maintain a close relationship to the
extent that CIDA is now a major funding partner of Développement international
Desjardins.
A new three-year contribution agreement was
reached in April with CIDA's traditional partners, including Développement
international Desjardins which will receive $14.2 million.
In conclusion, for more than a century, the
cooperative movement has succeeded in balancing social objectives with
considerations of profitability. In our global society, it is becoming more
important than ever that this success continue, along with the values on which
the cooperative movement is based -- community spirit, social inclusiveness and
democracy.
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