Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice

Chapter 10: Economic Solidarity in the African American Cooperative Movement: Connections, Cohesiveness, and Leadership Development

The economic basis of African life was originally cooperative. . . . Cooperation was one of nature’s more important schemes for survival. —williams (1993, 151) It is the opinion of the writer, based on several years of study of co-operation and having sat in two of the National Co-operative Congresses, that co-operation offers great promise of being the solution for the economic riddle confronting the Negro, just as it has been a way out for other oppressed groups for over three-quarters of a century. —matney (1930, 49) The past three years show us why it is time to consider a different approach to ownership : cooperatives. If more assets and businesses were owned and controlled by the people who use them, our economy could be more stable. —leigh (2011, 1) Almost all African American leaders and major thinkers, from the most conservative to the most radical, have at some point promoted cooperative economic development as a strategy for African American well-being and liberation. We have seen examples of how cooperative economic development provides economic stability, camaraderie, resource and profit sharing, education and training, high-quality goods and services, and community development . W . E. B. Du Bois expressed the sentiments of many when he said that by using cooperative economic development, Blacks could change the paradigm, create African American leadership of a new industrial structure, and enter the “new city” as men and women, not chattel (1933a, 162–63). These sentiments point to the need for African Americans to create their own economic reality, to think outside the box economically, and to use cooperative This chapter incorporates, in heavily revised form, parts of Gordon Nembhard and Haynes 2002; Gordon Nembhard 2004b, 2006b, and 2008d; and Haynes and Gordon Nembhard 1999. 10 economic solidarity in the african american cooperative movement Connections, Cohesiveness, and Leadership Development 214 practices and solutions economics as a way to develop industrial leaders among the race. In many ways, the documentation provided in this book is a history of just that. This chapter focuses on the ways in which the African American cooperative movement has been built around an ideology of economic solidarity. The first section explores the notion of solidarity as it relates to cooperative economics , and especially to camaraderie, networking and clustering, collective financing, and worker sovereignty among subaltern groups, as shown in the first nine chapters of this book. In addition, this chapter reviews examples of youth involvement in cooperatives, past and present, particularly as youth development and engagement in cooperative business ownership point us toward the future. A brief section discussing the importance of leadership development in cooperatives, and ways in which leadership spills over into civic engagement more broadly, follows. The chapter ends with some reflections on the significance of African American cooperative development, particularly for Black communities. Solidarity From Gherardi and Masiero we learn that cooperation is a deliberate and necessary expansion of in-group solidarity and cohesion: “Solidarity regulates cooperation on the basis of shared customs, values and norms. Or else it works through a process whereby actors identify themselves with a social group and create a collective identity. . . . [We define] solidarity as a relational pattern, a form of collective behavior and a networking activity based on trust” (1990, 554). Shipp recognizes solidarity as important to the success of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, for example, where solidarity “was achieved through cultural cohesiveness.” “The importance of culture as a binding agent,” Shipp contends, “explains how disadvantaged groups come together to achieve a common purpose—e.g., to fight against oppression” (quoted in Feldman and Gordon Nembhard 2001, 28).1 The cooperative movement among African Americans has also been strongly influenced by feelings of racial and community solidarity. African Americans have come together to solve their economic problems using their racial and economic identity, religious affiliations, and commonality of need. The ex-slave pension movement used a sense of solidarity and the experience of common exploitation to come together and form a mutual-aid society and launch a political advocacy movement for reparations. The members of the APR Masonry Arts Corporation came together to address marginalization in their union and economic discrimination (see below). Black farmers needed economic solidarity in the cooperative movement 215 collectively to combat land loss, discrimination in credit markets, and limited access to and fairness in product markets. Many new urban cooperatives include in their mission improving...