Richard Higginson (2011) offers an interesting perspective on the role co-operatives in his report on a trip to Chile a year after the devastating eathquake of 2010. “Suffering of an extreme kind can provoke the worst in human behaviour (as in the looting and pillage that follow some disasters) and may therefore lead to despair. But a shared experience of suffering can also bring out the best in people, in which case it gives rise to hope.” The juxtaposition of hope and suffering has a strong Christian resonance, and during his visit to wine producing co-operatives in the country he finds evidence of considerable solidarity and mutual support among those affected. Higginson’s idea that the co-operative impulse might arise out of hardship certainly resonates with the origins of the Rochdale Society in 1844, and might also help to explain the success of Spain’s giant co-operative enterprise Mondragon.
Mondragon: a Spanish success story
Mondragon was founded in 1956 by Fr Arizmendiarrieta, a Roman Catholic priest in the Basque region who wanted to do something to address poverty and social injustice in his community following the end of the Civil War. It is named after the town of Mondragón where Fr Arizmendiarrieta and a group of graduates from the local business school began by manufacturing paraffin heaters. It has since branched out into education, finance, other industries and retail, and is now a federation of 289 companies collectively employing 80,000 people[2]. The group company’s full name is Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to MCC). Clive Beed and Cara Beed (2009) consider it to be an exemplary exercise in Christian co-operative principles at work: “The MCC is probably the closest large-scale example of self-owned/self-managed multi-worker firms instigated via Christian principles and still adhering to them implicitly (explicit Christian teaching does not occur). The MCC warrants attention as an indication of how God’s economic preferences might be pursued in the advanced economy.”
David Herrera (2004) examines how the Mondragon co-operative in the Basque region of Spain operates according to Christian principles, particularly those articulated by Pope John Paul II. It looks at how the guidelines of Catholic Social Thought have created an organisation that differs greatly from standard business models.
As a starting point, there is more of a focus on human capital at Mondragon:
There are two Mondragon principles that advocate the dignity of human persons and their work. These are The Sovereignty of Labour over Capital and The Instrumental and Subordinate Character of Capital. At Mondragon, worker-owners are the protagonists of work and capital is a tool to achieve work. (p. 8). And job creation both within the companies and beyond them is a key rationale: