The Cooperative Movement in Hungary [antikvár]

The Cooperative Movement — As Seen by a Communist Cooperator It is more than a hundred years since good old Europe presented the world with the idea of cooperation and the cooperative society as a form of enterprise. Since then the movement has advanced with great strides, and today the medium of cooperation is in use throughout the world. Europe, of course, is only its place of birth in the geographical sense, for the movement was actually conceived in the midst of liberal capitalist economy. The serious irregularities of an economic order founded on the exclusiveness and omnipotence of capitalist enterprise compelled the theoretical and practical pioneers of the movement partly to protect themselves from capitalism, and partly to set up another and to the masses more attractive alternative to the rule of egoism and profiteering. Since that time the fourth generation has entered the scene of social, political and economic life. Liberalism as an economic system has long been relegated to history. Capitalist enterprises became more concentrated, better organized, and in many spheres great monopolies have come into existence. But the workers and employees are better organized also, the trade unions set limits to the omnipotence of capital, with greater or lesser success they protect the interests ofthe workers, without, of course, breaking the rule of profit. The time has long passed when the state remained in the background of the economic sphere, and the principle of laissez fairé, laissez passer no longer prevails. In the majority of countries capitalism is still the basic principle of production, but in many countries socialism has become predominant in public and economic life. And the cooperative movement? It has not remained free from changes, and it is not exactly what it was once but it exists in every part ofthe world. Perhaps today it lacks its earlier homogeneity and unity—but even so it radiates considerable strength. And as for the practical activities of the cooperatives they may be regarded as perhaps the best proof of the vitality ofthe movement.