1. Richard O’Leary, Greg Patmore and Alberto Zevi National Co-operative Organisations in Australia and Italy

2. Overview of Paper Introduction A Historical Overview – Italy A Historical Overview – Australia The Current Situation – Italy The Role of Representative Organisations – Italy Australian Prospects – Towards National Organisations Conclusions

3. Introduction Both have seen push to national organisations Italy more successful and effective – Six cross sectional organisations Legacoop (1886) Confcooperative (1919) AGCI (1952) UNCI (1971) Unicoop (1999) Ue.Coop (2013)

4. A Historical Overview - Italy Developments in the second half of the nineteenth century Federation of Italian Co-operatives (1886) Cross-sectional organisations Role of Fascism Favourable legal climate - Italian constitution - 1947 Basevi Law - 1992 legislation

5. A Historical Overview - Australia No constitutional provision Focus on state legislation Distinction between credit unions and others NSW CWS Internal divisions (Structure, gender) NSW CWS demise (1979) State organisations (CFWA) Proposed national organisation (World War II) Problems with forming national organisations Contrast with credit unions

6. The Current Situation - Italy Not compulsory for Italian co-ops to join Significance of 1992 law 80,000 co-operatives 1.3 million workers 13 million members See Table 1 for data relating to size of of Legacoop, Cofcooperative, Agci See Table 2 for the composition of Legacoop, Cofcooperative, Agci

7. The Role of Representative Organisations - Italy Supervision of member co-operatives Collection of Statutory Levy (3%) for the promotion and development Ministry of Economic Development Co-operative Consortiums Co-operative Groupings and Mergers

8. Australian Prospects – Towards National Organisations Some significant developments - Co-operatives National Law - IYC 2012 Some institutional developments - Co-operative Food Group - Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals

9. Conclusions Italian strength vs. Australian weakness Informal approach of Italian movement compared to contractual approach of Mondragon Compared to Australia, Italian comparatives have survived the post-war period well The strength of the Italian national co-operative organisation and the lack of significant co- operative organisations may be an important factor