The term inter-cooperation does not have much mystery: it is called inter-cooperative cooperation to be linked to the social economy. The word is not so old, but the idea has come to us almost from the origin of cooperativism as a principle to deal with the difficulties of the cooperative movements of the time.

It all started in Manchester, the cradle and cradle of the First Industrial Revolution. Dyed with powdered coal in the middle of the 19th century, the gigantic metropolis was only a dark side of an economy that lived from the slavery of blacks to America, a meeting point of thousands of people migrated from the villages and stacked in sub-human conditions. Technological developments and industrial electrification further worsened the situation of these precarious workers, with an increase in unemployment and a worsening of conditions. Not far from Manchester, in the city of Rochdale, the looms carried out strong strikes in defense of employment, and in that difficult context the first cooperative society emerged in 1844, made up of 28 partners, called pioneers of Rochdal. In that creation of cooperativism, values and principles were established beyond economic objectives, including mutual support through inter-cooperative integration.

Subsequently, with the creation of the International Cooperative Alliance, this idea was continuously promoted within this organization, but until the congress held in Manchester in 1995 it was not made explicit that one of the key principles of cooperativism was the collaboration of companies among themselves. In the midst of the explosion of the globalization of the 1990s, inter-cooperation was conceived as a tool to meet the challenges that the internationalization of the economy posed to the cooperative movement. Since then, and since before, many organizations and large cooperative groups in the world have tried to “raise awareness of that basic solidarity,” as the Mondragon Corporation said at the 2017 Congress. But intercooperation can have lots of edges and threads, depending on where and where it's going.

Territorial inter-cooperation

What spread market globalisation, paradoxically, has also been stimulated by the need for what is now close. If the pandemic has caused something to emerge, it has been the importance of having a strong and rooted economy in the territory. In fact, they developed this idea of territorial inter-cooperation in Usurbil, at a working session organised by Beterri Saretuz on 11 February. Companies and local agents were part of the programme they have put in place to create an ecosystem of companies based on participation in the Beterri-Buruntza region.

Intercooperation has some characteristics of its own contrary to the current socio-economic model: the primacy of cooperation to competition, solidarity to individuality, or being a compass rather than mere accumulation of growth and capital, the redistribution of benefits and the attainment of people’s habitability. In the Usurbil programme, they stressed that, beyond collaborations in the same sector or related to the market, the creation of networks and joint structures in the same territory has its benefits. For example, it can collectively respond to the challenges of this territory in different areas: bridging the gender gap, ensuring sustainability and protecting the environment, recognizing diversity… Territorial intercooperation fosters the beginning of small transformation and the foundation of society.

On many occasions, although the relationships between companies already existed, the informality costumes are not easily perceived. The members of the companies that approached the session of Beterri Saretuz made them exercise. First, to answer a number of questions: Have you submitted any projects requiring the participation and collaboration of other companies or agents? And applying for subsidies? Have you contacted third parties for any internal management consultation? With whom do you have customer service relationship? What other agents of the region have you worked with in the last year?... It then begins to undress a long list of names under the shell. Then, on a large map, all of these names were crossed, color each of the types of relationships sewn together, until they emerge in the sight of all the complex atlas of territorial intercooperation.

The exercise is not free, it seeks to formalize and institutionalize the collaborations. They believe that inter-cooperation is a strategic key that needs to be nurtured rather than a spontaneous event. Through this structure, shared tools will be created to seize opportunities and face difficulties, such as mutualism projects. This is, for example, one of the lines of the social economy and transformative network OlatuKoop. This interest in mutual support and socialisation gives Community companies a great advantage over capitalist enterprises, especially in times of crisis, both to maintain decent employment and to carry out independent and satisfactory work projects. The motto we have heard many times with Pandemia sums it up well: it just can't, with friends yes.