Once upon a time... in a little city called Ouro
Preto, in the state of Minas Gerais, there was a
group of civil servants, militaries, and autonomous
professionals who decided to start a consume
cooperative. That was when the frst organization
of the kind appeared in Brazil.
It was in the 19th century, and since then, the
Brazilian history started to count with a new
economic, and of social inclusion alternative. This
cooperative in Ouro Preto has grown, has given
good fruit, and has guaranteed that its founders
and employees have a happy ending. But the
story does not end here.
This movement was called cooperativeness, and,
till today, it continues to guarantee happy endings
to Brazilian people. Maybe, the grubbers of
Minas Gerais did not have any idea of how much
that new business model, based on human and
effcacious principles, could change the life of
millions and millions of Brazilians.
One cannot deny the capacity of cooperativeness
to awake the enterprising spirit and pro- mote
economic development with social justice. It
stands out from the other business’ models,
because it believes in the labor force of the
people, who constitute its greater capital stock.
What’s more, it is a philosophy of life that is not
centered only on fnancial feedback, it also se-
arches for sustainability from the 13 branches of
economic activities represented in Brazilian soil.
We are talking about a rich and diverse
movement, formed around the world by over a
billion men and women of all ages, races and
religions. That is why cooperatives have one
differential: it inserts people into the labor market,
generating business and income opportunities.
In Brazil, they gather more than 10 million
members, and almost 305 thousand employees.
If we include these members’ families, we will
be really talking about something that involves
around 40 million Brazilians.
This “sea of people” eye-witnesses a process of
change that is unavoidable. These are men and
women that managed to transform a problem
into opportunity to improve and grow. They
stopped being supporting actors to take the
lead role in the story of their own lives, stories
full of happy endings.
This is what we want from this book: to tell
these stories. As a whole, we present 366 texts
about cooperatives that have overcome different
obstacles, and have reached success. One text for
each day of the year.
Although we know that to be fair to the importance
of cooperativeness, it would be necessary more
than 1001 days of endless tales, we would like
you, the reader, to be inspired to learn, fnd the
motivation you lack to also write a different story,
with happy ending. Maybe, some day it will also
be told on these pages, who knows?
Cooperativeness:
strength that will change you and the world