Today July 4 is not only American Independence Day. But ironically it is the also the International Day of Cooperatives, in an era where giant transnational corporations are leading the armies of economic neocolonialism to continue the plunder of the resources of the Third World.  

In 1992, in the face of the onslaught by the transnational corporations, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed, the International Day of Cooperatives to be celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July.

The aim of this International Day is to increase awareness on co-operatives, highlight the complimentarity of the goals and objectives of the United Nations and the international cooperative movement, underscore the contribution of the movement to the resolution of the major problems addressed by the United Nations, strengthen and extend partnerships between the international co-operative movement and other actors, including governments at local, national and international levels. 

This year, International Co-operative Day will have the theme,  “Choose co-operatives, choose equality”.

The UN says  the co-operative movement presents a combination of global reach and needs-based business conduct. They play an important role in poverty reduction by widening ownership and by giving people a voice, both inside their organisations and in society as a whole.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon in a message to mark the day says Co-operatives are particularly important to agriculture, food security and rural development. In the finance sector, co-operatives serve more than 857 million people, including tens of millions who live in poverty.

In Sri Lanka the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) was set up in 1949 as a public corporation with the main objective of ensuring the availability of essential consumer items, especially food items in the market at reasonable prices in adequate quantities and of quality. The CWE was also responsible for ensuring food security and to maintain effective control of prices at times of market failures or emergencies.

The co-operative movement, with co-operative stores in almost every town or village got the rightful place when the Panchamaha Balawegaya of SWRD Bandaranaike swept to office in 1956. Playing a key role was the widely respected Minister, Tikiri Banda Ilangaratne who held several portfolios including food, trade and commerce during a political career spanning more than three decades. 

Those were the days when Sri Lankans had a rice ration book whereby each person was entitled to buy two measures of rice at a heavily subsidised price of just 25 cents a measure. Rice and other food items at subsidised prices had to be bought from the area cooperative stores or the ‘Samoopakara’ (meaning helping each other) became popular despite some bureaucratic problems. 

In 1969 the then UNP National Government of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake decided to cut the rice ration. Instead of two measures of rice at 25 cents a measure the government decided to give one measure free. The then SLFP opposition made this its main campaign slogan for the 1970 general election with the then opposition leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike making the famous promise to bring rice even from the moon. The tactics worked and the SLFP won a landslide victory at the July 1970 elections with the UNP being reduced to a few seats. 

Ms. Bandaranaike’s United Front Government including the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party implemented socialist economic policies, such as a ceiling on land ownership and houses. But the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna revolution of April 1971 and the strategies of capitalist forces undermined the government’s policies.  This led to food shortages and long queues at co-operatives and other stores. As a result, the political tide turned the other way and in 1977 J. R. Jayewardene led the UNP to an unprecedented victory with a five-sixth majority in parliament.   

Mr. Jayewardene also imposed the globalised capitalist market economic system which virtually swallowed the co-operative stores and paved the way for the supermarket culture. The new caretaker UNP government and its economic expert Dr. Harsha de Silva are now talking about a socialist market economy and we hope this would also include a revival of the helping each other principal through co-operatives and a more equitable distribution of wealth 
and resources.