Are co-operatives becoming people-centered?

There's an interesting article from the Guardian Social Enterprise Network today which describes the recently published 'Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade' a manifesto from the International Co-operative Alliance who claim that  "by putting human need and utility at the centre of their organisational purpose, rather than profit, co-operatives do not suffer from the same problem of short-termism that afflicts all manner of financial and non-financial firms".

As the article points out, however "there is nothing per se that says a business run for the benefit of its members necessarily has to be any more ethical than a business run for its shareholders' benefit."

Polly Tonybee's justifiable concern is that the clamour for public sector mutuals conceals an agenda for privatisation which will not enhance the ethics of business, as evidenced in the payment of outsourced workers and widespread use of zero hours contracts.    

In 1996, the following statement opened the white paper for People-Centered Economic Development:

"At first glance, it might seem redundant to emphasize people as the central focus of economics. After all, isn't the purpose of economics, as well as business, people? Aren't people automatically the central focus of business and economic activities? Yes and no.

People certainly gain and benefit, but the rub is: which people? More than a billion children, women, and men on this planet suffer from hunger. It is a travesty that this is the case, a blight upon us all as a global social group. Perhaps an even greater travesty is that it does not have to be this way; the problems of human suffering on such a massive scale are not unsolvable. If a few businesses were conducted only slightly differently, much of the misery and suffering as we now know it could be eliminated. This is where the concept of a "people-centered" economics system comes in."

The concept arose from the realisation that from 1971 the fractional reserve banking system had become "paper notes written solely against the 'good faith and credit' of US citizens". This allowed new money to be imagined into existence as debt, with the consequent accumulation of wealth in the hands of a minority. Those least able to compete were in effect rendered disposable. Profit and numbers had trumped people, which meant capitalism had trumped democracy.

The principles of People-Centered Economics was the core argument for a new paradigm which was introduced to the UK and the co-op movement in 2004, with a business plan for stimulating local economies bottom up. This pointed out that 'Traditional capitalism is an insufficient economic model' for today's problems. It would warn of the risk of leaving people in poverty.

"While the vast majority of people in poverty suffer quietly and with little protest, it is not safe to assume that everyone will react the same way. When in defence of family and friends, it is completely predictable that it should be only a matter of time until uprisings become sufficient to imperil an entire nation or region of the world. People with nothing have nothing to lose. Poverty was therefore deemed not only a moral catastrophe but also a time bomb waiting to explode." 

In the broader context of dealing with global poverty, this strategic case is something that will later influence a candidate for the US presidential election in 2008,  Interestingly John Edwards also took a stand against payday lenders and the extremely wealthy 1%   who would later become the focus for the Occupy movement. 

With our focus on children abandoned to state care in Ukraine we argued in 2006 for a 'Marshall Plan' strategy . It would emphasise the core principles of putting people first:

'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. '

This is the new bottom line, of business which makes humanity its primary objective.

In 2009 Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, the President of the United Nations General Assembly offered this in a speech:

“The anti-values of greed, individualism and exclusion should be replaced by solidarity, common good and inclusion. The objective of our economic and social activity should not be the limitless, endless, mindless accumulation of wealth in a profit-centred economy but rather a people-centred economy that guarantees human needs, human rights, and human security, as well as conserves life on earth. These should be universal values that underpin our ethical and moral responsibility.”

There's  no need to wait for this to happen, it could be actioned today were the cooperative movement to engage and collaborate. As the last statement in our manifesto pointed out.

"Each of us who have a choice can choose what we want to do to help or not.  It is free-will, our choice, as human beings."