The Socialist Conception of Co-operation

Abstract

The Co-operative form a Socio-economic organisation has been supported, rationalised and practised by men and women of diverse countries, philosophies and classes. For the small property owners whose inevitable doom is hastened by the centralising and concentrating power of monopoly capitalism, co-operation is a means through which they can pool their meagre resources and, in the process, acquire a new lease of life as capitalists. For the utopian and/or petty bourgeois socialists of various nationalities, co-operation is a way of life by which society can "PEACEFULLY" (i.e. without struggles between the exploiters and exploited!) move away from inequality and class strife to freedom Equality and Fraternity”. For socialists on the other hand, co-operation is just one. of the means to an end, the attainment of classless society. The Co-operative form is used especially in economically untransformed societies where small commodity production (peasant farms, handicrafts, smitheries, etc.) predominate. Socialists adopt the co-operative from of socio- economic organisation due to their keen awareness that smallscale private producers and traders can not spontaneously go over to socialist production. They need an immediate, preparatory stage co-perative and collectives