by Ben Becker, Newsletter Writer
What is it that distinguishes a cooperative retailer from a conventional corporate grocery store? In our regular shopping trips, the way most of us might answer this question personally relates to our experience as customers. Every owner likely has their own individual reasons. There might be a particular product they can’t find anywhere else. Some may desire access to organic, local, or fair trade products. In that same vein, many are choosing to support a supply chain and producer economy based on healthier foods and just and equitable commerce. Customers may be attracted to the unique programs a cooperative can provide, including classes on meal preparation or support with nutrition access for those struggling financially. Beneath the experiences and participation a cooperative offers, many of us might also choose to patronize this institution because we have some skin in the game; because our shared ownership in such an enterprise means that throughout all the challenges and successes, the organization where we purchase our food continues to be a reflection of us.
Whether our relationship with cooperatives is one of just grabbing ingredients for dinner or one rooted in a dedication to the community and shared principles, there is still more that separates a cooperative from the big box store down the road. Behind the walls of merchandise and beneath the feet of many devoted staff and owners hides a tradition and history oft-forgotten, but broiling with a tradition of conflict and resistance. At the same time, it is also a tradition of striving for social justice, democracy, and inclusion amidst an economy and society less interested in those on the margins.
Rochdale and The Cooperative Principles
Looking back to the early days of the cooperative movement, we can see our own cooperative principles reflected back in the ideals set forth by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. Foremost among such principles is the belief in open and voluntary membership. To be truly open in this sense is to champion inclusion across social distinctions without discrimination based on race, caste, religion, or ethnicity. This equity across social lines alone does not fulfill the cooperative vision, however, as aspirational as open membership might seem. Cooperatives must also upend the broader power structures seen throughout society and other business models by allowing for both democratic member control and economic participation. In creating a system where wealth and profit are not concentrated but distributed across membership with equal say in the utilization of resources, this cooperative model promises a means to disrupt the broader social inequities and consolidation of financial power cemented within the culture at large. While the world around us may not always appear to reflect the vision set forth by the original cooperators, we can still observe the successes along with the shortcomings of those leading the cooperative movement.
Economic Equity and the New Orleans Consumer’s Cooperative Union
One prime example of the cooperative model as a force for equity and inclusion is the story of the New Orleans Consumer’s Co-operative Union (CCU). This integrated consumer-owned grocery store and credit union was inspired by the Rochdale cooperative and successfully operated within its working-class neighborhood from 1941 through 1965. At a time when Jim Crow laws continued to oppress People of Color and enforce segregation throughout the South, the CCU stood as a paragon of inclusion and openness through the participation and leadership of immigrant, Latin-American, Black, and female consumer activists. The founders and leaders of the CCU saw cooperative economic and political institutions as a means to end America’s racial and class inequalities. While the rapid social upheavals of the 1930s struggled against the entrenched Louisiana political machine to gain a foothold for economic cooperation, they would lay the groundwork for progress in the decades to come. Mirroring the anti-poverty efforts in the South, the corporate threat to democratic ideals was also countered in California by the formation of 2,000 cooperatives in 1932 alone. Such efforts did see some successful results in the early postwar era including a shift from sales taxes benefiting large corporations, lower utility rates, the creation of postwar jobs, and higher living standards both for returning veterans and civilians. As the cooperative movement in Louisiana took root, its leaders would go on to use credit unions as a vehicle for thousands of low-income residents to access financial institutions and services. Agents of social change would indeed identify cooperatives as the agents that would invest ordinary Americans with the self-confidence and self-sufficiency needed to lead an economic revolution. They believed that by forming local “non-political, voluntary association[s] of people,” consumers would gradually and organically form a new, egalitarian economy. However, the CCU was not immune to competition from large corporate entities. As in neighborhoods across the country, supermarkets and chain stores consolidated their hold over the retail markets of New Orleans. The middle- and working-class urban demographics and proximity to streetcar lines attracted three grocery chains that would go on to dominate CCU’s neighborhood by 1944, while a new supermarket, with its vast stock and competitive prices, siphoned off patrons from independent businesses. In response to the need to economize through scale, grocery cooperatives created regional umbrella organizations to compete with large retailers and independent grocers by reducing overhead costs for struggling store owners by sharing warehouses and brokering purchasing agreements. While these practices allowed CCU to remain economically viable in a competitive market, its leadership was continuing to take action against segregation. By fostering direct action, meeting at Black institutions and integrated spaces, granting equal voting privileges to Black members, and electing People of Color to the store’s board of directors, CCU mounted a serious challenge to the entrenched hegemony within the economic power structure while creating a bulwark against accepted notions of racial superiority within the American south. During a time when large swaths of the globe were rapidly falling under the boot of fascist regimes, some believed that sustained economic development in the South would end racism and halt the spread of fascism among southern segregationists. While standing as a notable challenge to Jim Crow by African-Americans and integrated racial justice organizations in New Orleans, the cooperative movement found in the scarcity of the Great Depression and war years an opportunity for not just political change but a for a major political shift as well. By stocking foods that honored its members’ ethnic and racial diversity, CCU helped broaden the definition of American identity. The grocery store supplied local New Orleans staples such as fresh fish, lobster, and picnic hams while catering to immigrant families with imported specialty goods like sardines packed in oil and Pompeian olive oil. The CCU’s delicatessen also targeted ethnic and Black customers seeking organ meats, neck bones, and hot sausage. While the general public long disdained spicy, garlicky foods or mixed stews as hallmarks of an inassimilable otherness, food reformers now hailed immigrant and Black housewives for their food-stretching methods of efficiency that originated in the prewar economic necessity. By celebrating food cultures better suited to such lean times, this movement incorporated previously rejected ideas and recipes into the American identity. Effectively, the CCU’s food selections reflected its belief that a racially and ethnically diverse cooperative could demonstrate civic values while promoting systemic political and economic transformation.
Cooperatives as a Force for Decolonization
While the post-war shift to suburban lifestyles and the resulting urban decline eventually closed the doors of the New Orleans Consumer’s Co-operative Union, the cooperative movement continued as a means of liberation, resilience, and economic transformation throughout the American South and the United States at large. As cooperative enterprises have arisen in various sectors and industries at different periods and places, their impact and meaning have taken different forms. While the New Orleans community found that economic independence through the CCU empowered them to challenge segregation, political corruption, and oppression, other cooperatives have provided opportunities to reconstruct communal identity. As the mid-Twentieth Century witnessed unprecedented activism within the civil rights movement, many of its organizers saw cooperatives as a means to achieve greater freedom. Such visions led to the creation of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. With the participation of agriculture cooperatives within the FSC, including the Freedom Farms Cooperative, Black farmers found opportunities to build both food security and food sovereignty. Their legacy continues today through the work of cooperative organizations such as Indian Springs Farmers Cooperative and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. By engaging in cooperative development at the agricultural level, Black communities have found a means to preserve cultural heritage through food, but also to create resilience in the face of institutional and economic oppression. Such efforts to cooperate and celebrate don’t end with farmers or growers either. Inspired by earlier efforts such as the Freedom Farms Cooperative, Oakland California hosts the Freedom Farmers’ Market. In addition to allowing space for spiritual, psychological, and cultural resiliency, Freedom Farmers’ Market acts as both a gathering place and venue for economic opportunity. More than that, however, it presents an outlet for expression and the exchange of ideas. By providing for community control over access to food, this culturally rooted enterprise also seeks to address issues of hunger and poverty overlooked by the larger food supply chain and economy. The impact of such a cooperative exchange is profound, as the exchange of traditional foods even fosters continued transference of plant knowledge and agroecological stewardship amongst participants.
As older incarnations of cooperative economics such as the New Orleans Consumer’s Co-operative Union may only endure within the yellowed pages of history, their legacy continues to persist and take root. Thanks to early efforts to champion more just, inclusive, and equitable economic systems, the cultural recognition and celebration of cooperative enterprise has gained legitimacy. Even government entities once hostile to the cooperative movement, and to changes in the social status quo, have shifted to embrace and support these vehicles of change. A recent example par excellence is the USDA’s investment in New Cooperative Agreements for Racial Justice and Equity. This federal effort to combat institutional racism and oppression has made up to $50 million available to historically underserved farmers and ranchers, including Native American organizations and tribal governments, working to address climate concerns through agriculture and forest. Through such an investment, the Department of Agriculture seeks to remove financial barriers to producers with limited resources, those transitioning into farming, or those who face social disadvantages. By subsidizing this program, the government also creates an incentive for more environmentally sustainable agriculture. The program provides funds for natural resource conservation practices with the potential to improve soil health, water quality, wildlife habitat, and the viability of farmland. The investment is also intended to “Build and strengthen local food projects that provide healthy food and economic opportunities.”
By taking a broader, historical view of the cooperative movement, both within the food and agriculture sector but also amidst numerous industries, we see the potential of collaborative thinking to not only promote equity, justice, and freedom but also to promote the economic, social and environmental health within our community that the larger corporate model has disrupted. As we approach a future fraught with uncertainty, division, and potential conflict; taking a deep look into our past can not only be illuminating, but instructive. There is much to find in our shared history that is not only inspiring, but that can set an example for what the mission and vision of a cooperative should be. Cooperative pioneers have established for us not only a model of greater equity and social justice but also a legacy for building democracy in the wider community. Yet even with such a rich history, living up to the principles of equity and inclusion that the cooperative movement stands for still proves a challenge for many cooperators in the past and today. Fulfilling our promise and living up to the vision of the cooperative forebears continues to demand not only hard work but a willingness to be open to new ideas and change. The employees of Willy Street Co-op continue to look forward to greater achievement in these areas. As our cooperative will continue to be a reflection of our Owners, our values, and shared principles, we look forward to continued cooperation between our organization and the community-at-large.
Much of the research and inspiration that led to this article owes credit to the writings of UW-Madison professor Monica M. White. For more in-depth information and further reading, check out her book Freedom Farmers, as well as Cooperatives in New Orleans by Anne Gessler and Marie Isabelle Pautz.