Cooperative Movement or Where Does the Profit from My Money Go?
The second evening of Markéta Mráčková and Barbora Šimonová as part of the exhibition Form Follows Money will take place on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, at 7:00 PM in the Prague Gallery VI PER. The lecture evening will focus on the history and principles of cooperativism in the Czech lands within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Czechoslovakia, and the Czech Republic.
The first cooperatives were established to ensure better economic and social conditions for their members. Workers, small entrepreneurs, and farmers joined together in self-help associations based on mutual solidarity (food and consumer cooperatives, savings banks, credit unions, and production cooperatives). The first housing cooperatives aimed to provide affordable housing for workers and employees. Cooperatives were also established to build facilities serving the public interest, culture, and education (National Theatre Cooperative, Petřín Lookout Tower Cooperative, Cooperative for the construction of the local railway Čerčany-Modřany-Dobříš). After the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia, the number of cooperatives grew, their activities expanded, and they were categorized by professional focus, nationality, political affiliation, etc. Associations organized educational and social events, established libraries, social rooms, and founded their own construction cooperatives (Construction Cooperative of the Women's Club of the Czech Republic and its realized building of the Women's Club). The law on the support of construction activities led to the development of construction and housing cooperatives. In the early 1950s, cooperatives were stripped of business opportunities and gradually nationalized. Cooperative ownership and business were perceived only as a precursor to state ownership. A new type of cooperative emerged – housing construction cooperative, and the state provided financial contributions to the members of these cooperatives. There was a quantitative expansion of housing cooperatives. The cooperative housing stock gradually aged, and cooperatives had to focus on repairs and maintenance of buildings. After 1989, cooperativism was wrongly associated with centrally planned economy, and cooperative or collective ownership, despite its undeniable qualities, was seen as an outdated form. Today, cooperativism is beginning to develop again.
The display cases with exhibits were loaned by the Museum of Cooperativism (Těšnov 5, Prague 1) from its permanent exhibition.
The first cooperatives were established to ensure better economic and social conditions for their members. Workers, small entrepreneurs, and farmers joined together in self-help associations based on mutual solidarity (food and consumer cooperatives, savings banks, credit unions, and production cooperatives). The first housing cooperatives aimed to provide affordable housing for workers and employees. Cooperatives were also established to build facilities serving the public interest, culture, and education (National Theatre Cooperative, Petřín Lookout Tower Cooperative, Cooperative for the construction of the local railway Čerčany-Modřany-Dobříš). After the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia, the number of cooperatives grew, their activities expanded, and they were categorized by professional focus, nationality, political affiliation, etc. Associations organized educational and social events, established libraries, social rooms, and founded their own construction cooperatives (Construction Cooperative of the Women's Club of the Czech Republic and its realized building of the Women's Club). The law on the support of construction activities led to the development of construction and housing cooperatives. In the early 1950s, cooperatives were stripped of business opportunities and gradually nationalized. Cooperative ownership and business were perceived only as a precursor to state ownership. A new type of cooperative emerged – housing construction cooperative, and the state provided financial contributions to the members of these cooperatives. There was a quantitative expansion of housing cooperatives. The cooperative housing stock gradually aged, and cooperatives had to focus on repairs and maintenance of buildings. After 1989, cooperativism was wrongly associated with centrally planned economy, and cooperative or collective ownership, despite its undeniable qualities, was seen as an outdated form. Today, cooperativism is beginning to develop again.
The display cases with exhibits were loaned by the Museum of Cooperativism (Těšnov 5, Prague 1) from its permanent exhibition.
Thanks: David Füllsack, Executive Director, Cooperative Association of the Czech Republic; Pavel Černý, Head of the Museum of Cooperativism, Prague.
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