Cooperative Membership Hits 1 Billion Worldwide

[Dan Clore]

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

http://indiancooperative.com/featured/cooperative-membership-hits-1-billion-worldwide/
Cooperative membership hits 1 billion worldwide
21 March 2012
by Ajay Jha

According to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute, approximately 1
billion people in 96 countries now belong to a cooperative.
The report’s author, Gary Gardner, writes that cooperatives are
low-profile but powerful economic actors, with the world’s 300 largest
ones generating revenues in 2008 of more than $1.6 trillion.

If these businesses were a national economy, they would rank ninth in
the world—ahead of the economy of Spain. The report also reveals that
99% of cooperative businesses operate primarily within seven economic
sectors namely Agriculture/Forestry, Banking/Credit Unions,
Consumer/Retail, Insurance, Workers/Industrial, Health and Utilities.

The report also notes that the cooperative model surpasses the
shareholder model in at least one area: the 1 billion member-owners of
cooperatives worldwide exceed the 893 million direct and indirect
shareholders of corporations.

If direct shareholders, who own stock as individuals, are considered
alone, they are outnumbered three to one by cooperative member-owners.
In fact, 13.8% of the world population is a member of at least one
cooperative, in contrast to the 5% who are direct shareholders. Looking
at national figures, some countries have a very high proportion of
cooperative membership, for example: Ireland (approximately 70% of the
population), Finland (60%), Austria (58%), Singapore (50%), Switzerland
(46%), Sweden (45%), Norway (44%), and Canada (40%).

The report notes that cooperatives are particularly strongly represented
in the financial realm. A 2010 World Bank report found that credit union
branches account for 23 percent of bank branches worldwide and serve 870
million people, making them the second largest financial services
network in the world.

The report goes on to say that cooperatives in the financial sector are
valuable because they offer access to savings, loans, and other
financial services to small and medium enterprises, particularly in
rural areas, which lowers a key barrier to economic development in the
poorest sectors of many economies. In fact, the report shows that 45% of
the branches of financial coops are located in rural areas, compared
with 26% of branches of commercial banks.

By designating 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives, the United
Nations (UN) has placed a spotlight on the cooperative model. The report
concludes by saying that governments and the civil sectors of many
countries are active in promoting the cooperative model. In the United
States, for example, the National Cooperative Development Act was
introduced in Congress in late 2011 to stimulate further development of
the cooperative sector by providing it with seed capital, training, and
resources.


--
Dan Clore

New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_