The Philosophy of Cooperativism

elective courses

Pre-war cooperativism was a significant intellectual social movement both in Western Europe and in Poland, in which political trends clashed: socialist, popular movement, anarchist and Christian-democratic. It can even be considered as a kind of meta-idea that governed the formation of the world view of the Polish intelligentsia from positivism to the end of the Second Polish Republic. In the period of Fordist capitalism, cooperativism was one of the remedies that the popular classes took to support the struggle for political rights. Unfortunately - referring to the language of Deleuze and Guattari - the reterritorialization of the cooperative movement, which began after the Great Crisis and by means of the device of the state-market after World War II, took away its emancipation skills. Under the conditions of cognitive capitalism "managing life", contemporary forms of self-organization and mutual aid have a chance to create a real economic and political alternative?

Pre-war cooperativism was a significant intellectual current of thought and social movement both in Western Europe and in Poland, in which various social and political trends clashed: socialist, popular movement, anarchist and Christian-democratic. It can even be considered as a kind of meta-idea that governed the formation of the world view of the Polish intelligentsia, engaged from positivism to the end of the Second Polish Republic. Its significant result turned out to be the formation of the consumer cooperative movement, whose ambition was to become a remedy for the living needs of the popular and working masses, and as a consequence, the political emancipation of them. What is more, cooperativism also had community-building ambitions, ambitions to rebuild society and the state in accordance with the ideal of a "cooperative republic", which was to become an independent Poland.

The thinkers and cooperative activists were leading pre-war politicians, e.g. Stanisław Wojciechowski, Stanisław Thugutt, philosophers, historians and representatives of social sciences, e.g. Edward Abramowski, Adam Próchnik, and to some extent also Ludwik Krzywicki, or writers, incl. Maria Dąbrowska and Stefan Żeromski. The latter, although not very active in the field of cooperative activities, was the author of the slogan that today is clearly associated with this movement: Społem! This thriving social, political and economic movement experienced growth at the beginning of the 20th century, after years of the Great Depression, subordinating itself largely to the state, and later, due to the limitation of the democratic nature of the cooperative in the times of the Polish People's Republic and the further weakening of this sector during the transformation, it lost its importance and influence on Polish social and intellectual life.

Today, when the global economic crisis and climate change have triggered (or maybe revealed?) the growing distrust of citizens towards the elite, whose social alienation has led to the undermining of the fundamental principle of European democracy: civic participation in the governing process. This principle, in confrontation with the neo-liberal doctrine, universally recognized as the only proper and true political discourse, turned out to be difficult to maintain. The „economization” of politics based on the fetishism of individualized market activity, narrowly understood private property and treating the criterion of economic efficiency as the only measure of effective action in the public sphere, led to the recognition of the state-market combination as a natural, and therefore the binding model of a community. In the light of the diagnoses often made by sociologists and economists about the crisis of modern economies, individualization or the loss of cooperation skills, which makes a special sense in Poland, a country with still low rates of civic participation, the achievements of Polish cooperativism may prove difficult to overestimate.

During the period of Fordist capitalism, cooperativism - also in Poland - was one of the remedies that the popular classes took to improve the material well-being and support the struggle for political rights. Unfortunately - referring here and further to the language of Deleuze and Guattari - the reterritorialization of the cooperative movement, which began after the Great Crisis and by means of the device of the state-market after World War II, took away its critical skills and political emancipation. Under the conditions of cognitive capitalism "managing life", contemporary forms of self-organization and mutual aid referring to the cooperative ethos have a chance to create a real economic and political alternative?

The most important, in the cognitive sense, aspect of the planned activities is restoration of ideas and concepts whose impact on the social history of Poland is huge, but the memory of them is almost obliterated. The stake of the seminar understood in this way is not only to restore a certain fragment of the cultural heritage, but above all to give it a "current" character. As Gilles Deleuze wrote: "actual is not what we are, but what we become". It is therefore about reintroducing cooperativism into the sphere of academic teaching in such a way that it can be a tool for active analysis and critique of contemporary socio-political reality, an intervention in contemporary culture. The task understood in this way is therefore an attempt to rebuild a certain "ethos" - understood here as a critical reflection on the existing conditions. In a world where the main values prevailing in society are related to concepts derived from the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political liberalism or neoconservatism (private sphere, individual, efficiency, entitlement, profit, competence), treated indiscriminately and dogmatically, cooperativism may constitute an important stimulus for discussion over the communal and participatory aspect of our society. Cooperativism, as an idea based on mutual assistance and self-organization, is contrasted with the axiom of the individual as a client / consumer by Abramowski's "creative subject", economic competition is opposed by cooperation, and technocratic management is opposed by a model of bottom-up, democratic participation in decision making.

Summary of the knowledge obtained by students:

- gain knowledge about the basic assumptions of cooperativism, the history of cooperatives and reciprocal movements, as well as a specific cooperative ontology present under the skin in political thinking to this day. Students should:

- gain knowledge about an important but forgotten paradigm of political thinking, which, commercialized in Western Europe and nationalized in the countries of "real socialism", disappeared from academic and journalistic discussions.

- learn about contemporary alternative trends in thinking about community, cooperation and the emancipatory role of cooperatives.

- learn to properly problematize and interpret the discussed texts.

- learn the model of critical reading, in which attention is paid to weaknesses in argumentation, problematic places in the texts of the authors under discussion.

Presence, participation in discussions, paper, written assignment and interview