INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL FOR

PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHIES OF COOPERATIVISM

Part 1

BASIC CONCEPTS IN SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT

Human and Work

Early human beings can survive alone but they cannot live alone for a long time. Thus,
human beings eventually became social being. Unlike other species of animals whose
individual members can live equally in relative isolation, humans are not inherently equipped
with the physical capacity to provide themselves with the material requirements of life. Human
beings live with others and even succeed, as they have learned to subdivide tasks and use
resources by living in groups, tribes and communities.

It was this division of labor and the accumulation of more and better tools (or capital)
that made possible impressive increases in man's control of nature, or increases in our potential
to produce the material necessities of life.

Early Form of Cooperation

The primitive communal society is the first stage of societal development. In this period
of early form of cooperation, the natives, people in general loved communally. People owned
everything and the goods which are available from nature, are owned by everyone. People
helped each other, people work together as co-equals, they support each other, gave each
other protection, and made use of available communal resources around them.

Everybody seems to be happily living in balance with nature. The nature provides the
necessary materials that people need in order to survive. People used what they only need for
the day. The consumption is based on the fruits of their collective tasks. There was no special
privileges. Everybody needs to work in order to survive, most of the men do the hunting, while
the women would have to attend to the households.

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 Women working in farms of kibbutz cooperative-system in rural Israel

Tasks and division of labor was based on hunting, farming, breeding, leading a group of
tribe. These are the stage called “classless society.”

Kibbutz system of Israel is an example of a model of cooperative system founded in the

early 1900s by Jewish pioneers who came to rural areas in Israel and established communal
system as they managed their lands, farms, factoris, housing facilities for all the people in their
communities and farm areas.

The people worked and produced for for the system and cooperative-like Kibbutz
community provides for the needs of the everyone in the community. Everybody shared their
agriculture produce in the cooperative community.

The agriculture and industries of cooperative Kibbutz have progress over the years.

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Stages of Societal Development

The slave society followed the primitive communal stage. The slave societies first
emerged at the ancient civilizations. These societal stages happened as the seat of ancient
civilization from the Mediterranean regions up to China. Examples of this ancient civilizations
are Egypt (4th Millennium, B.C., Assyria, (3rd Millennium B.C.), China (2nd Millennium B.C.)
Greece and Rome (1st Millennium B.C.).

Master and slaves

The slave masters -- the kings and rulers of ancient empires and city states -- were the
rulers under the slave society. Laws were promulgated and the masters of slave had their entire
army to reinforce the law. Ancient Roman lawyer Florentinus said that although slavery was a
human institution that was against the natural law, it was accepted as legal.

One of the highlights of the slave society was the improvement in the methods of
farming and animal raising. Farm products were mainly for own consumption while handicrafts
were made for exchange. These improvement in farming has led to the formation of another
social layer, comprised of peasants, freemen, craftsmen and artisans.
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 These newly created societal layer were not owned by the slave masters, they are better
off than that of the slaves because their so-called capacities allowed them to own small
properties.

The major social divisions have emerged, it is called the “social classes”. The highest
level, or the one’s on top, they are called the masters of the slaves, and then in the middle, the
second layer, the freemen, artisans and craftsmen, and lastly at the bottom level, the slaves.

The feudal era succeeded the ancient slave system starting in the 6th century. In Europe,
feudalism is known as the manorial system. In the Philippines, it is known as the hacienda
system.

The features of the feudal system are: agriculture as main system of production,
ownership of large tracts of agricultural lands that gives the landowners the right to exact land
rents from the serfs or tenants and occupy dominant position in society; further advances in
handicrafts, trade and commerce; emergence of new social divisions such as the landowners at
the top of the social position: the nobles, freemen, craftsmen, artisans, and merchants at the
middle, and the landless serfs or tenants at the lowest.

Among the main forms of socio-economic cooperation from the lowest and middle
sectors of the feudal era, it was the guilds in Europe that were influential in almost all the lives
of people, covering their personal, sociocultural, economic concerns and even religious
concerns.

The guilds of the feudal or the middle ages were categorized as: a) Craftsmen and
artisans guilds who exercised their control over the standards and sales of goods produced or
services rendered. If a person wanted to produce anything or provide service for a fee, he had
to belong to a guild; b) Merchants guild, these are guilds that are well-organized and they
exercised monopoly control on supply and pricing of goods; c)Guild of the apprentice and of the
unemployed --- these guilds served as training ground for those who are not yet skilled enough
to become salaried members of the other guilds; and d) the Religious guilds and peace guilds
that exist in many places in European society.

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 In the Philippines, feudalism by the Spaniards started with the enforcement of the
encomienda system, a territorial area for tribute or the tax collection but not the usage of the
land. Later on the colonizers, the Spaniards strengthened their control over the Filipinos in
terms of control of ownership of land through the land titling and the hacienda systems.

The farmer-tenant and the heavy burden he carries under the tenancy system

The first feudal lords in the country were the encomienderos and the hacienderos were
mostly Spanish friars and soldiers. When the land titling and the hacienda systems were
implemented, tenancy become a social problem. Under the tenancy system, the farmer -tenant
paid rent to the landowner.

High rental of land, lack of technology and dependence on nature resulted to extreme
low income for the tenants-farmers. This system created heavy burden and indebtedness on
the part of the tenants-farmers to their landlord. Furthermore, this tenancy system created a
new level of enslavement, the tenants-farmers to the landowners.