The Opposite of Oppression: Cooperation

Written By Noemi Giszpenc, CDI’s executive director 

There are a lot of different ways that oppression can look and show up in the world. This past Spring and Summer, the news has brought us face-to-face with pretty much all of them, from systemic and historic injustice priming communities of color to be most impacted by the pandemic, to police violence too frequent to absorb, to calls for “back to normal” and “law and order” that obscure the terror at the heart of the “normal” “order”. 

But what does the opposite of oppression look like? How does liberation show up in the world? At the level of how an organization functions, I would like to suggest that the opposite of oppression looks a lot like cooperation. 

One way of seeing where racism and other forms of oppression show up is through the lens of the five faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. 

When people are exploited, they are forced to pay too much (for example for food or housing), are paid too little (low wages, wage theft, slavery), or their work is taken for granted (care work, emotional labor). In a cooperative, with the principle of Member Economic Participation, all members contribute to the co-op and benefit from the co-op. Any surplus returned to members is given out in proportion to how much members used the co-op. Members participate in decisions about how to set prices and wages, what the budget will look like, how much surplus to keep in the co-op and how much to distribute. 

When people are marginalized, they are pushed outside of participation in society. So instead of getting paid too little, they have no job, or instead of paying too much for housing, they are homeless. Cooperatives, by contrast, include all their members, and members participate in and benefit from the cooperative.

Feeling powerless comes from having so many things decided about you without you that you end up believing there’s no point in speaking up. There are a lot of ways to take power away from people, but the worst is definitely when even the idea of having power seems like a fantasy. In a co-op, each member has the power to participate, vote, and help decide what happens. If the co-op is following all of the principles, including principle 5: Education, Training and Information, then members will have the tools they need to fully, and powerfully, participate. 

Cultural imperialism is about establishing the “norm” and defining everything else as the “other”. It can be pretty invisible, but that just makes it more powerful. Think about how we measure time: time zones were defined from “Greenwich Mean Time” (now called Coordinated Universal Time); years are counted from the estimated birth of Jesus (Anno Domini), now called “Common Era”. The words “universal” and “common” make it seem like Christian England is just naturally at the center. Or how about “Black History Month”? That sounds like the rest of the calendar year must just be for “normal, regular” history. People can form a cooperative to advance their cultural and social needs as well as their economic needs, and thus place their own culture at the center of the co-op. 

The final face of oppression, violence, sadly needs no explanation. It underlies all the other faces, as the ultimate form of enforcement. Even when it doesn’t destroy lives or property, it creates fear, anxiety, and stress and erodes peace and stability. Many co-ops formed by Black Americans to combat marginalization, exploitation, and powerlessness and center Black culture were destroyed through violence (read more in Jessica Gordon-Nembhard’s book Collective Courage). Within a cooperative, disagreements and different interests can be worked out through non-violent discussion, negotiation, and integration of people’s concerns. 

I don’t want to suggest that co-ops are free of oppression. Oppression can easily show up within co-ops, as well as within the individuals who are members and the larger society that co-ops exist in. Co-ops are a way to structurally support efforts to include, respect, and empower everyone. But as always, co-ops are only as good as its members make them. Members have to step up and exercise their right to participate, make their voices heard, and direct co-ops toward greater and even more liberation. 

Co-ops also have an opportunity to encourage their members to exercise their larger societal political rights and responsibilities. For a wealth of resources specifically on supporting voter participation, see vote.coop.