Co-op News (August 2019)

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CO-OP CULTURE IN LONG LIVE C0-OPERATIVES Mussolini could not kill the co-ops BY DaViD THOMPSON In April 1945, during Mussolini’s final days, he was hunted from town to town until he was seized, summarily executed and hanged publicly. His two decades in power had given him a long time to hone his murderous strong-arm tactics, which he used to rid himself of his enemies. Italy’s co-operative movement was among those to suffer his attacks: as beacons of democracy, self-help and communal economy – aligned with socialist, communist, Catholic or republican groupings – they were a strong voice with values that fascism wanted to wipe out by force. Whether at the hand of the Blackshirt Fascisti squadristi street gangs or, later, the courts, police and army, the co-ops of Italy were destroyed by the regime. At rallies such as in Udine in 1921, Mussolini called for his followers to “demolish the entire social-democratic superstructure”. Everything the co-ops owned was seized and turned over to the Fascisti government. Rome or Death: The Story of Fascism, a contemporary account from 1923 by US writer Carleton Beals, depicts physical intimidation and the systematic destruction of democracy and civil society – with scores of pages recording the violent takeover of co-ops, with leaders murdered, beaten or intimidated. Not even the Catholic co-ops were safe. One notorious case was the Blackshirt assassination in 1923 of Fr Giovanni Minzoni, a popular priest who organised co-ops in Emilia Romagna and was an early member of Catholic social action party Partito Populari Italiano (PPI). Also targeted was Fr Luigi Sturzo, secretary general of the PPI, who saw rural co-ops as a tool to bring Christian dignity and community to the people and spoke strongly against fascism at the party’s national conference in 1923. Mussolini pressured the Vatican to remove him as head of the PPI; fearing for his life, Fr Sturzo fled Italy in 1924, seeking exile in London and later the USA. Fr Sturzo would become a father of the long-governing post-war Christian Democratic Party in Italy – and the Church now has him on the path to sainthood. On 27 March 1946 – a year after Mussolini’s execution – he signed the editorial of the first issue of Co-operative Italy, published by sector body ConfCooperative. “My wish is that Cooperative Italy is not only the title of the weekly that reaffirms the idea and practice of co-operation between Italians, but the sign for the future of our country,” he wrote. After the war, three national co-op federations re-started; ConfCooperative to serve the Catholic-aligned co-ops, 42 | AUGUST 2019
Legacoop to serve the socialist and communist aligned co-ops, and the smaller AGCI to serve the secular and republican aligned co-ops; all three have worked to build better co-ops – and when they unite on an issue, they have a platform which obtains political support across most political parties. To reverse the fascist eradication of co-ops, the three federations came together in 1946 to reassert their practice and promise. Together, at the start of national reconstruction, they supported adoption of co-ops directly into the new constitution, “as a form of mutual aid devoid of all private speculative intent. The law promotes and encourages the expansion of co-operation by means of the most suitable means, and provides suitable checks designed to guarantee its character and purpose.” Piero Calamandrei, a revered professor of law, spoke about the massive impact of World War II on the formation of the Italian constitution. “If you want to go on a pilgrimage to the place where our constitution was created, go to the mountains where partisans fell, to the prisons where they were incarcerated and to the fields where they were hanged. Wherever an Italian died to redeem freedom and dignity, go there, young people, and ponder: because that was where our constitution was born.” In 1947, the Basevi Law was adopted to regulate the affairs of co-ops and formed an important element in the success of the movement – including housing co-ops, as it legalised indivisible reserves. This allowed co-operatives to transfer the totality of their surpluses to a reserve. Exempt from corporate tax, these reserves have been the main source of capital for co-operatives The new constitution reaffirmed that co-ops were an economic and social form to be protected and supported by the state – a status unique to Italy, with parliament later adding more ground-breaking laws to support them. In 1985, the Marcora Law allowed redundant workers to use accumulated unemployment benefits to buy their old firm as a co-op. This has seen many firms saved as co-ops, and protected numerous jobs. In 1991, a law gave legal standing/ tax status to a new form of social and service co-operative. These co-ops were encouraged to provide services in health, social welfare and public service. Today, they employ over 400,000 people, serve over five million clients and achieve a turnover of €9bn. From 1992, a law required every co-op in Italy to contribute 3% of net profits to a national co-op development fund. There are now two national co-operative funds: Coopfond affiliated with Legacoop, (€440m) and Fondosvillupo affiliated with ConfCooperative (€120m). TOURING ITALY’S CO-OPS At the invitation of Walter Briganti of Unipol (an insurance company majority owned by several Legacoop-affiliated co-ops), I visited co-ops in Rome and Bologna in 1978. I have returned to Bologna and Emilia Romagna on three times, visiting co-ops and meeting leaders. Always at the back of my mind was the over 20-year history of Mussolini’s attack on the sector. In September of 2018, I toured round co-ops in the Lake Como area – which include consumers, workers, beekeepers, olive orchards, dairy farmers, fishermen, social services, health and a local guides’ co-op – Cooperativa Turistica Imago. Tours on its website, wimagolario. com, include one of the locations where Mussolini spent his last hours, on the northwestern shore of Como. It seemed fitting that it was a co-operative which led me to Mezzegra neighbourhood near Tremezzo, where Mussolini was executed. Cooperativa Social Azalea is just a few streets away. Created in 1985, it is a social co-op with 25 working members who create employment for disadvantaged youth and for disabled people. What a different world these new co-operatives seek to build. Italy’s co-operators are to be commended for building a thriving, expansive movement from the ashes of fascism. I am forever grateful to the Italian co-operators who did not let Mussolini kill their spirits or their co-ops. With all their organisational infrastructure, policies, objectives, reciprocity and strategies, the Italian co-operatives are probably the best national model of co-operative development in the world. THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT THAT MUSSOLINI COULD NOT KILL* 70,000 Co-operatives in Italy 13 MILLION MEMBERS of Italian co-ops 1.3 MILLION employees/worker owners (not including co-op insurance companies) 137,000 employees/worker owners of co-operatives in 1951 7% of all Italians work at/for a co-op 136.5 BILLION EUROS Turnover (not including co-op banks and insurance companies) 1 OUT OF 3 Italians buys goods or services from a co-op 1 OUT OF 5 Italians are members of a co-op 1 OUT OF 8 Italians uses a social/ health co-op *2017 STaTISTICS FROM THE ALLIaNCE OF THE ITALIAN COOPERaTIVES. A COMBINaTION OF THE STaTISTICS OF AGCI, CONFCOOPERaTIVE aND THE LEGaCOOP. AUGUST 2019 | 43
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