The Other side of The Cooperative Economy

This book is meant to provide a thorough understanding of the cooperative economy with a view to highlight what worker cooperatives are and its significant in the economy. Zambia is at the verge of erasing the history of cooperatives because of lack proper literature on worker cooperatives. This form of cooperation which is unique and unknown in the Zambian cooperative history after extensive research and according to information obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock website as there are only twenty-three type of cooperatives so far. The people today lack knowledge on cooperatives generally and this calls for individuals with practical knowledge on cooperatives to support the ideals of worker cooperatives as enshrined in the United Nations (UN)-International Labour Organisation (ILO) R193/2002. For the sake of enhancing workers' self-management, the Labour movement and the government should support the creation of worker-owned enterprises through the Industrial development Corporation (IDC) set-up. The cooperatives whether agriculture, housing, credit unions, consumer or worker cooperatives need orientation on business planning, Cooprenuership (entrepreneurship), cooperative development studies as well as effective accounting and management. The issues of cooperative governance and legal aspect of cooperatives should be understood by the general membership and other stakeholders through continuous education and training. What is clear is that worker cooperatives should be founded by workers, funded and managed by the workers and any support from outside should be on partnership terms. The worker cooperatives through the IDC approach are likely to provide relentless struggle against oppression and with some degrees of triumph in refining what dignified work is all about. Furthermore, they also provide a framework for the global struggle of worker self-determination and ownership. The IDC Worker-owned can still be a priceless box into a new path and economic prototype of worker's dignity, mutual aid and trust that can provide tangible inspiration to besieged workers and communities around Zambia in order to make the third generation of cooperatives a reality. The worker cooperatives have a proven history of being resilient to economic recessions and company take-overs given the Zimbabwe and Argentina experiences. Surely worker-owned cooperatives are an alternative to the many closed companies in Zambia after the economic reforms in the 1990s and the book is giving a perspective of the possibility of having such entities established without depending on the government handouts.