So we are in the middle of the Emancipendence period, as Emancipation Day was this past Tuesday and Independence Day will be celebrated this Monday, August 7, since August 6 this year is a Sunday. Today, I will look at the role of co-operative enterprises in the liberation of the ex-slaves in the post-Emancipation period, in the struggle for political independence, and since political independence in 1962.

Indeed, a great part of the nationalist movement that started in the mid-1930s was the co-operative movement. The purpose of co-operatives has always been to liberate the oppressed and downtrodden by allowing them to control their own destinies. Having possessions, by itself, does not liberate anyone if one is either dependent on others for employment to pay bills or repay loans for goods and services. It is the ownership and control of employment, whether individually or collectively, that empowers people to take charge of their own destinies.

In the time of the apprenticeship period (1834-1838) and afterwards, the Baptist Church established free villages where peasant farmers were taught to work together in informal co-operatives. This was where the day-for-day concept was developed when everyone in the free villages worked on one person’s landholding for a day and moved around until everyone’s holding was worked on.

After Emancipation, indentured labourers came to Jamaica. Many Jamaicans know about Indian, Chinese, Germans, and Portuguese indentured labourers. But very few know that there were African indentured labourers who also came here.

And these indentured servants coming from the Yoruba tribe in Africa introduced the “pardna” system, where everyone saves with the ‘banker’ each week or month, and every week or month one member of the “pardna” gets his or her ‘draw’.

In the 20th century, Marcus Mosiah Garvey also established many co-operative enterprises with his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) but many of these were overseas. Then there were the Jamaica Banana Producers Co-operatives and its offshoot Jamaica Welfare Limited (now Social Development Commission).

Jamaica Welfare was founded by Norman Washington Manley in 1937, more than a year before the establishment of the People’s National Party, of which he was its first president. Then there were the credit unions, which were established, for the most part, in the early years by the Roman Catholic Church.

In the 1940s Jamaica Welfare and the Roman Catholic Church provided training for co-operative members to understand how they are supposed to work and that they are totally democratic with the annual general meeting being the final authority.

Norman Manley was the lawyer for the Jamaica Banana Producers Co-operative. A banana disease destroyed the industry in the 1930s and there was need to plant another species of banana that was immune to the disease. But by the time this was sorted out most peasant farmers, needed to plant banana trees, had fled to the towns in search of jobs after the decline of the banana.

In 1937 an endowment for the banana workers was created by Samuel Zemurray of the United Fruit Company (UNIFRUCO) on the advice of Norman Manley. One penny was given by UNIFRUCO for every bunch of bananas placed on a UNIFRUCO ship. Out of this endowment (Jamaica Welfare) came all sorts of development programmes for peasants in rural areas, including co- operatives. Co-operators worked for themselves in a collective way and took charge of their destinies.

Later would come the credit unions. In 1941 a peasant Jamaican could not get a loan in a bank. They could only get loans from loan sharks who wanted 75 per cent interest. For the most part, peasants in 1941 were illiterate and therefore signed, without understanding, that the papers gave the loan sharks the right to seize their small landholdings if they were not paid back with 75 per cent interest.

These conditions caused the Young Men’s Sodality of Holy Trinity Cathedral to meditate on what could be done in light of Roman Catholic social teachings. Out of the suggestion by their moderator, American Jesuit, the late Father John Peter Sullivan, came the first credit union. And the Sodality Credit Union went on to establish other credit unions throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica. They also played a role in establishing co-operatives for fishermen.

Co-operatives have worked in many countries. They have also worked here, although not in such great numbers. Credit unions have certainly worked very well, and so have the informal co-operatives, known as ‘pardnas’.

Israel is known for its kibbutzim and moshavs, while Spain is known for the large co-operative known as ‘Mondragon’.

And, by the way, within the capitalist United States of America and Canada there are many co-operatives. Indeed, many of the models used in the early days, especially with respect to credit unions, came out of Canada. It is these that we should partner with to defend ourselves against the excesses of international capitalism.

There should also be established an International Co-operative Fund that helps to advance the empowerment of co-operative members in the Third World.

One big struggle over the years has been to teach co-operators in Jamaica to work and live together. Worse, still, people with their own interests have joined the credit unions, got themselves elected to the boards, and have stopped the education of co-operators. This means that the members, for the most part, no longer know their rights and understand why they should attend all general meetings, where the real power is, and because of this we have returned to the days where people, although co-operators, are no longer in control of their own destinies because they do not know their rights.

We must resist the attempts being made to reduce the democracy in co-operatives. The move to stop nominations from the floor is anti-democratic and not in the spirit of co-operatives. It must be stopped.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com