V. I. Lenin

Draft Resolution on Co-Operative Societies from the Russian Social-Democratic Delegation at the Copenhagen Congress {1}

The Congress is of the opinion, 1)that proletarian co-operative societies enable the working class to
better its conditions by reducing exploitation by middlemen, influencing
the working conditions in the supplying firms, improving the situation of
office workers, and so forth; 2)that proletarian co-operative societies are assuming increasing
importance in the mass economic and political struggle, giving assistance
in strikes, lock-outs and in cases of victimisation, etc.; 3)that proletarian co-operative societies, when they organise the mass
of the working class, teach them independent management and the
organisation of distribution, preparing them in this sphere for the role of
organiser of economic life in the future socialist society.

Onthe other hand the Congress is of the opinion, 1)that the improvements secured by co-operative societies are confined
within very narrow limits as long as the means of production and
distribution remain in the hands of the class whose expropriation is the
chief aim of socialism; 2)that co-operative societies, being purely commercial establishments
and subject to the pressure of competitive conditions, have a tendency to
degenerate into bourgeois share companies; 3)that co-operative societies, not being organisations for the direct
struggle against capital, are capable of engendering and do engender the
illusion that they are a means of solving the social problem.

Thereforethe Congress calls on the workers of all countries:

a)to join the proletarian co-operative societies and promote their
development in every way, directing their organisation along strictly
democratic lines (a low entrance fee, one share per person, etc.); b)by untiring socialist propaganda and agitation within the societies
to help to spread the ideas of class struggle and socialism among the mass
of the workers; c)with the growth of socialist understanding in the co-operative
societies, to develop and strengthen organic ties between the co-operative
societies and the socialist party, and also with the trade unions; d)at the same time the Congress points out that producer
co-operatives can contribute to the struggle of the working class only if
they are component parts of consumer co-operatives.

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Notes:
{1}
The International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen was held
from August 28 to September 3 (New Style), 1910. The R.S.D.L.P. was
represented at the Congress by Lenin, Plekhanov, Lunacharsky, and
others. Several commissions were set up by the Congress for preliminary
discussion and drafting of resolutions on particular questions. Lenin
worked in the Co-operative Commission. His draft resolution on the
co-operatives was made the basis of the draft resolution moved in the
Co-operative Commission by the R.S.D.L.P. delegation. On the work of the
Co-operative Commission and the text of the R.S.D.L.P. delegation’s draft
resolution on the co-operatives see Lenin’s article “The Question of
Co-operative Societies at the International Socialist Congress in
Copenhagen” (see pp. 275–83 of this volume).