Federation of Cooperation in Trentino

 

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The Federation of Cooperation in Trentino is an organisation representing, coordinating and protecting the cooperative world in the autonomous province of Trento. It has around 450 cooperative societies with a social basis of 280000 people. The Federation was founded in 1895 under the name of Federation of cooperative Consortia and its first president was don Lorenzo Guetti, pioneer of cooperation in Trentino.

On 20th November 1895 the first federal congress was held in Trento, in the palace of the provincial Council of Agriculture, in the presence of 9 credit institutions’ (casse rurali) representatives and 14 cooperative societies’ (famiglie cooperative) representatives. The assembly, after the refusal of de Mersi, on the advice of the same baron, appoints Lorenzo Guetti as president of the “Federation of credit institutions and cooperative associations in Trentino” which joined 50 cooperatives, among which 28 cooperative societies, 13 credit institutions , 6 agricultural cooperatives and 3 wine cooperatives. Two vice presidents were nominated: Sir Massimiliano de Mersi for the branch of credit institutions and prof. Urbino Colombini for the other cooperative consortia.

Lorenzo Guetti wrote: “The Federation will be a beacon for them that will light up also during the most difficult and rough moments; and at the same time it will become a bulwark that will be able to support them even if they falter somewhere. The Federation won’t work miracles because it’s simply human work but great things will come out for sure, if all of the societies will keep the Christian-Democratic essence by which they were established and which they showed themselves with up to the present.” The years between the foundation and the rise of fascism saw an intense development of cooperation in the area, both through establishing many cooperatives and through their structuring in second degree institutions/cooperative consortia.

 
 

The cooperative movement was restored and lost a lot of its autonomy during the fascist period (in parallel there was the great economic crisis of the thirties of the twentieth century): fascism centralised the cooperative institutions at a state level and imposed a fascist presidency on the Federation, that was divided into two sections, the first included the credit institutions and the second incorporated the cooperatives working in the other sectors. This happened not only in the territory of Trentino but it was a national phenomenon. After WWII and with the creation of the Republic, the Federation was reunited and its renewal and expansion were encouraged thanks to the regional and provincial autonomous legislation.

In 2000 the Federation was additionally merged with Trentino Legacoop, an association founded in 1980 that brought together 40 cooperatives. In 2005, under Diego Schelfi’s presidency, it assumed its current name, Trentino Federation of Cooperation.

The website: www.cooperazionetrentina.it

For more information:
• Andrea Leonardi, La Federazione dei Consorzi Cooperativi dalle origini alla 1° Guerra Mondiale, Franco Angeli, Milano.
•Carlo Borzaga, Alberto Ianes, La cooperazione trentina dal secondo dopoguerra alle soglie del terzo millennio: economia, mutualismo e solidarietà in una società in profonda trasformazione, Edizioni 31, 2003.

L’indice del libro:
Introduzione del Presidente Diego Schelfi
Introduzione del Direttore Carlo Dellasega
Capitolo 1
VALORI E PRINCIPI DELLA COOPERAZIONE di Marina Pancheri
Capitolo 2 LA STORIA. L’EVOLUZIONE COOPERATIVA IN UNA DIMENSIONE GLOBALE di Mattia Granata
La cooperazione nel mondo: alcuni dati significativi
Capitolo 3 LA STORIA. LA COOPERAZIONE TRENTINA E ITALIANA. UN MODO DIVERSO DI LEGGERE E INTERPRETARE L’ECONOMIA E LA SOCIETÀ di Alberto Ianes
Datario della cooperazione
Capitolo 4 IL MOVIMENTO COOPERATIVO TRENTINO OGGI di Michele Dorigatti
Capitolo 5 I SERVIZI DELLA FEDERAZIONE TRENTINA DELLA COOPERAZIONE di Luigi Bassetti

Capitolo 6 LA SOCIETÀ COOPERATIVA: PRINCIPI GIURIDICI E DISCIPLINA NORMATIVA di Vincenzo Visetti Cooperative e fisco di Francesco Odorizzi
Capitolo 7 LA COSTITUZIONE DELLA COOPERATIVA di Renzo Bridi
Capitolo 8 IL SOCIO NELLE COOPERATIVE di Michela Zanolli
Il socio lavoratore di Renzo Bridi
Capitolo 9 GLI ORGANI SOCIALI DELLA COOPERATIVA di Roberta Bernardi
Guardando all’Europa: il sistema dualistico e il sistema monistico di Francesco Odorizzi
Capitolo 10 LA VIGILANZA SULLE COOPERATIVE di Paolo Cristoforetti
Capitolo 11 La cooperazione nell’ordinamento autonomistico del Trentino di Fabrizio Gentilini
Capitolo 12 EDUCAZIONE COOPERATIVA TRA SCUOLA E TERRITORIO di Egidio Formilan Documento IL TESTAMENTO DI DON MENTORE
Bibliografia