Abdullah Aysu, Kooperatifler, Istanbul: Yeni İnsan Yayınevi, 2019, 136 pp. ISBN: 978-975-2498-97-6.
Abdullah Aysu’s Kooperatifler is a study that examines the historical development and current structure of cooperatives in Turkey, particularly agricultural cooperatives, as well as the opportunities and problems they present for small- and medium-scale producers. Rather than viewing cooperativism merely as an economic enterprise or marketing model, Aysu approaches it as a means through which farmers can organize collectively in the face of traders, industrialists, large landowners, and increasingly powerful agri-food corporations. One of the book’s central questions is how cooperatives can become democratic organizations that genuinely protect the economic and social interests of producers.
Starting from the historical development of cooperativism, the book examines different forms of agricultural cooperatives in Turkey and the transformations they have undergone. Agricultural sales cooperatives and their unions, agricultural credit cooperatives, village development and agricultural development cooperatives, and agricultural producer unions are considered separately, while the influence and tutelage of the state over cooperatives are also questioned. The Köy-Koop experience receives particular attention from the perspective of democratic cooperativism, while forms of organization imposed from above and excluding producers from decision-making processes are criticized. In this way, Aysu demonstrates that the legal form of a cooperative alone is not sufficient to create a democratic organization that serves the interests of producers.
At the heart of the study is the need for small- and medium-scale farmers to gain a greater say and greater control over economic processes from production to marketing. Aysu emphasizes that, within the existing agricultural and food system, intermediary structures between producers and consumers reduce producers’ incomes while increasing the prices paid by consumers. In response, he advocates developing direct relations between producer and consumer cooperatives and enabling producers not merely to remain suppliers of raw materials but to participate collectively and in an organized manner in processing, packaging, and marketing. Such a structure could allow producers to retain a greater share of the value they create while also enabling consumers to know where, by whom, and under what conditions their food is produced.
For Aysu, not every cooperative is inherently democratic or alternative. Throughout the book, a clear distinction is drawn between cooperativism organized under state tutelage or from the top down and democratic, independent, bottom-up cooperativism based on the direct participation of producers. In the sections “What Is to Be Done?” and “How Is It to Be Done?”, this approach is made more concrete through the advocacy of a democratic and federative structure that begins with local producer organizations and develops toward higher levels of organization. Members, it is emphasized, should not merely be people who benefit from a cooperative’s economic activities, but the genuine subjects of its decision-making and oversight processes.
The book also connects cooperativism with the protection of local production, ecological diversity, and food sovereignty. While discussing the importance of small farmers’ production based on local knowledge and experience in the face of corporatized and industrial agriculture, Aysu also considers how healthy and ecological production can be organized. Practices such as Participatory Guarantee Systems, which strengthen direct relations of trust and oversight between producers and consumers, are examined in this context. Food sovereignty, meanwhile, is presented not simply as a matter of access to healthy food, but as a broader democratic issue connected to farmers’ ability to decide what and how to produce, maintain control over production processes, and participate in determining agricultural policies.
In this respect, Kooperatifler is a study that discusses cooperativism not only as a form of economic solidarity among small producers, but also as a question of democratic organization, collective control, and economic autonomy. From the perspective of workers’ control and self-management, the book’s emphasis on bottom-up organization, members’ direct participation in decision-making, collective control over production and marketing, and organizational independence is particularly significant. Aysu’s approach shows that the alternative character of cooperatives derives not merely from cooperative ownership, but from the extent to which members have genuine voice and decision-making power in the management of the organization and its economic activities; at the same time, it provides a comprehensive framework for thinking about democratic cooperativism together with food sovereignty, ecological production, and producer-consumer solidarity.