Cooperative Financial Institutions

Usually, cooperatives are created by people as a reaction to specific, most often local, conditions. Through their joint action individuals show collective or social agency and the conviction that they must work together to pursue their shared interests. In this way, each new cooperative is an experiment and an attempt to change and innovate.

Communities across the world have organized member-owned institutions, both formal and informal, to survive against corporatized financial systems. The most predominant cooperative systems across the world are the Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs).

Ebony Gustave writes about touring several cooperatives in the Hudson Valley as part of the Cooperative Leaders & Scholars Fellowship.

In this study, we survey 1,214 members of Member-Owned Institutions (MOIs) in the state of Kerala, India. Kerala’s MOIs underline the value of citizen engagement and action to improve social provisioning and equity, making it a model for an inclusive economics of global importance.

This talk shares stories of the emergence of solidarity economy movements in Massachusetts. Loh traces how these movements, many of which he has been involved with, have been fighting for and building over the past fifteen years around projects such as worker-owned cooperatives, community land trusts, community investment funds, mutual aid, and more.

This month’s guest is Rob Callender, co-founder of Kin.coop, a platform designed to help people start and manage cooperative savings clubs. What would it look like to organise money collectively? 

Designed to process 15,000 kg of green leaves per day, the Sahya Tea Cooperative generates employment for more than 150 workers, most of them recruited from the agricultural working class and peasantry, while also protecting the interests of the peasants amongst the small tea growers.

This study explores the role of solidarity finance in promoting local development and the empowerment of marginalized communities through financial inclusion and access to community credits. It focuses on how solidarity-based financial mechanisms provide accessible credit with fewer barriers, fostering productive activities and economic resilience.

Focused on 12 Southeastern states, the new institution will offer low-interest loans and technical support to help farmers, landowners, cooperatives, and ag-based businesses start and grow operations.

Meet the Black women organizers defying anti-Blackness to build a Canadian federation of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations.