Antigonish Movement
Encyclopedia
The Antigonish Movement blended adult education
, co-operatives, microfinance
and rural community development
to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritimes
improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Father Jimmy Tompkins
, Father Moses Coady
, Rev. Hugh MacPherson and A.B. MacDonald led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University
(St. F.X.) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia
.
The credit union
systems of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
and PEI
owe their origins to the Antigonish Movement, which also had an important influence on other provincial systems across Canada. The Coady International Institute
at St. F.X. has been instrumental in developing credit unions and in asset-based community development
initiatives in developing countries ever since.
However Coady argued that for practical reasons "we consider it good pedagogy and good psychology to begin with the economic phase … that we may more readily attain the spiritual and cultural towards which all our efforts are directed."
Ordinary Nova Scotians he argued, had only themselves to blame for their poverty
and vulnerability. They had permitted money and business to become mysterious forces outside of their control. Fishers and farmers for example, were exploited by marketing middlemen. Everyone was exploited by moneylenders. If they took the time to understand their circumstances and took the risks of co-operative action, they could achieve economic security and on that foundation greater freedom and self-realization. In a vision that has been renewed today in digital forms of mass collaboration
, Coady argued that "the only hope of democracy is that enough noble, independent, energetic souls may be found who are prepared to work overtime, without pay" in order to shape a free and prosperous society.
go back to a cooperative store in Stellarton, founded in 1861. Co-operative creameries and fruit-growers co-ops were established by farmers to free them from exploitative middleman in the 1890s. Many early co-ops failed due to "poor management, domination by a few individuals and a lack of ongoing education."
However, the British Canadian Co-operative Society, a co-op store in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
, set an example of sound co-operation. By 1917 it has 1,220 members and over $500,000 in sales. That year, it organized a conference on co-ops. The conference, which featured Ontario co-operative pioneer George Keen as keynote speaker, renewed local energy and enthusiasm for the idea.
Adult education was the spirit of the movement, and Coady credits Dr. Hugh MacPherson and Rev. Miles Tompkins at St. F.X. with their early roles as "pioneer extension workers at the University interested in both adult education and economic cooperation."
Father Jimmy Tompkins played a key role in concocting the "intellectual dynamite" that was later set off in almost every village in the Maritimes.
Tompkins began teaching at St. F.X. in 1902. As vice-president of the university he attended the Conference of British Empire Universities in London, England in 1912, and returned filled with ideas for ways that the university could become more involved in solving rural economic problems through adult education. British Workers Educational Associations, the Danish Folk High School
s, and Swedish Discussion Circles particularly interested him. And in Canada, the University of Saskatchewan
's agricultural program, and Quebec's
agricultural colleges and credit unions, caught his attention.
Tompkins had trouble making his case with the university’s administration, and in 1922, St. F.X. sent Tompkins into "exile" as village priest in Canso
, Nova Scotia. This did not slow the determined priest down, however. His approach to adult education
in Canso triggered local action and a series of articles in The Halifax Chronicle which helped trigger a federal commission into the problems of the Martime fisheries.
Beginning in 1924 Tompkins organized the first of a series of annual conferences bringing together farmers, educators, students, priests and rural development experts. In 1928, seeking a more permanent organization, some of the leaders in this group launched a campaign that raised $100,000. This initiative, combined with the report of federal commission on the fisheries in 1928, prompted St. F.X. to support the formation of an Extension Department in 1928.
Moses Coady is generally credited with transforming the vision of his cousin Tompkins into an effective program capable of spreading across the Maritimes.
The defining moment in Coady's career came when he testified before a Canadian government commission in 1927. Drawing on his own experience and that of other movement leaders he maintained that the local economy could be revitalized if the right type of learning was cultivated in ordinary people: especially critical thinking, scientific methods of planning and production, and co-operative entrepreneurship.
The report of the MacLean Commission was catalytic: in late 1928 St. F.X. organized an Extension Department to carry adult education to the people of the province, appointing Coady as its first director. The Canadian Department of Fisheries asked Coady to help the government "organize the fishermen".
Coady also invested considerable energy in catalyzing and strengthening wholesale co-operatives around the Maritimes: including the United Maritime Fishermen, the United Fruit Companies and the Canadian Livestock Co-operatives (Maritimes).
People who heard Coady speak at these meetings described his speeches as "fiery" and "energizing". Coady challenged his audience not to accept their poverty but to take action to understand their situation, and then to think and to plan to change it. As he said many times, "You can get the good life. You’re poor enough to want it and smart enough to get it." He would propose that they set up study clubs, and that those who could read help those who could not.
The leaders and ideas emerging from this process often carried it into the next stage – organizing co-operatives and taking other initiatives to solve local problems.
The Extension Department linked the study clubs together through a network called the Associated Study Clubs, which facilitated information sharing and capitalized on the building momentum.
The program was taught by successful co-operative leaders from around the province. The goal was to reduce the risks of business failure, and to invigorate the momentum in each community with fresh ideas.
The program was taken to the villages by Coady and A.B. MacDonald. Roy Bergengren
, director of Credit Union National of America
, dedicated his book, Credit Union North America to A.B. MacDonald, who he describes as "an extraordinary organizer and an inspired leader who is known in every city, town and fishing hamlet throughout the length and breadth of the province". MacDonald went on to direct the Nova Scotia Credit Union League and then the Co-operative Union of Canada.
.
By 1932 the Extension Department had sparked the formation of 179 study clubs with 1,500 members in Nova Scotia. Over the next six years, during the height of Coady and MacDonald's work in the villages, the number of study clubs rose to 1,110 with 10,000 participants.
By 1938 these study clubs had formed 142 credit unions, 39 co-operative stores, 17 co-operative lobster factories, 11 co-operative fish plants, and 11 other co-ops.
"Perhaps the most important reason why the Antigonish movement was able to have a significant, lasting impact was its promotion of credit unions." The farmers, fishers, and miners who formed the backbone of the movement had little access to credit before the Great Depression
, and lost what little they had as the downturn started to bite. With the help of Roy Bergengren and the American credit union movement, Nova Scotia passed the first sound credit union legislation in English Canada in 1932.
.
For example, by 1936 there were 200 study clubs operating in New Brunswick
, and the legislature passed a credit union law that year. Wilfred Keohan, the New Brunswick Registrar of Credit Unions, wrote in 1939 that "There can be no doubt but that the experience in Nova Scotia had a marked influence as credit union enthusiasm knows no frontiers. The crystallized demand came from such bodies as the New Brunswick Council of Labour, the Trades & Labour Council, the Farmer's and Dairyman's Association, fishermen's organizations and members of the clergy who saw in credit unions an economic regeneration of their flocks." By 1939 ten thousand members were participating in 95 credit unions (including caisses populaires) in the province.
By 1936 Coady and MacDonald were increasingly traveling beyond the Maritimes to Ontario
, Saskatchewan
and British Columbia
, where their speeches and ideas helped ignite local credit union movements. After Nova Scotia passed a credit union law in 1932, New Brunswick and PEI were the next to pass legislation (1936). By 1939 every province in Canada had a credit union movement and a legal framework to guide it.
Bergengren wrote in 1940 that "out of the Nova Scotia experience has come a new and most valuable study club technique that will have a far reaching effect on the whole future of the credit union movement." He credited the rapid expansion of credit unions to other provinces across Canada to the Antigonish movement.
The Board of Governors of St. Francis Xavier University established The Coady International Institute to honour Moses Coady less than six months after his death. The institute has played a role in the emergence of credit unions throughout the world, especially in Africa. Since then, almost 4,000 community development practitioners from over 120 countries have studied at the campus in Antigonish.
By the end of World War II the credit unions and co-operatives of the Maritimes were an acknowledged success, gaining international recognition. The study clubs for which the movement was noted declined however, and attention had shifted from human emancipation towards building stronger, more professional institutions. "Most of the educational attainment in the war and its aftermath focused on training elite managers for the co-operative institutions. Evidence from the co-operative reports of the 1940s indicates clearly that the common people were not participating very much in the life of their institutions."
Like many of the integrated rural development program
s in the developing world today, the Antigonish Movement encountered a grass-roots challenge to its vision in the implementation stage. In the end, the grand vision of fishers and miners appreciating Shakespeare and grand opera seemed to usually lead to one community project: co-operative microfinance
through credit unions.
Dr. Ian MacPherson
, a co-operative historian and theorist, argues that most co-operative movements are dependent for their early impetus on the support of networks of external players like church groups, government departments or wealthy patrons. As the movement begins to transform into a credit union system, "… necessary managerial and technical changes may be inhibited by the “founders”: revered individuals who have made great contributions but who, as they age and the institution they helped found develops, may hold back necessary change and new generations of leadership."
Nova Scotia's credit union system, springing from the centre of the Antigonish Movement, today has a far lower penetration of members (18%) than the systems in neighbouring New Brunswick (41%) and Prince Edward Island (45%).
Coady acknowledged that the credit unions were promoting thrift and household budgeting, and showing members by example how much money they could bring to bear on their communities’ problems through co-operative action. But to him, the main purpose of credit unions was moral. The credit union "makes people honest". "There have been a few instances of dishonest managers and some slow borrowers, but the credit union organization takes care of these cases."
In other parts of Canada, most notably Quebec
, Saskatchewan
and Manitoba
where some of the strongest credit union systems emerged, the movement's early leaders recognized the need to address the practical problems that emerged from the demand for credit unions. Innovations like the Saskatchewan Mutual Aid Board – the first private sector deposit insurance
scheme in Canada – focused on protecting the savings of members. These practical innovations, grounded in addressing the practical needs of members, led to stronger and more sustained institutional growth.
of the United Nations
in 1962, Alexander Laidlaw, a co-operative leader who served as a director at the Extension Department, wrote that:
Antigonish-style study clubs, unlike traditional seminars or workshops, require all members to collectively manage a group process even before they launch a co-operative. Members can take a hard look at each other’s capabilities and weigh their collective prospects with a clear head while they learn the skills they need to launch community ventures.
By the end of World War II a series of leaders from Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen
to Edward Filene
to Alphonse Desjardins
to Moses Coady
had shown that cooperative movements could reach and empower poor populations in a way that deepened the economic gains of capitalism while alleviating some of its undesirable social effects. This prepared the way for a wave of ‘anti-communist’ co-operative development led by the US government in the developing world in the 1940-60s. For precisely the reasons just noted, however, the results of this 'state-led' credit union development were mixed at best.
The philosophy and techniques of Antigonish anticipated some of the key ideas of rural development, including the emancipatory pedagogy of Paulo Freire
, and the philosophy of Robert Chambers
/participatory rural assessment
. However, the Antigonish approach runs into significant problems in oral communities
and those with anti-democratic traditions. This has limited the replicability of the movement, and led to significant off-shoots, such as the self-help group movement in India, village banking
and the ASCA
movement in parts of Africa.
Adult education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
, co-operatives, microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
and rural community development
Rural community development
Rural community development encompasses a range of approaches and activities that aim to improve the welfare and livelihoods of people living in rural areas. As a branch of community development, these approaches pay attention to social issues particularly community organizing. This is in contrast...
to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritimes
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Father Jimmy Tompkins
James Tompkins
Father Jimmy Tompkins was a Roman Catholic priest who founded the Antigonish Movement, a progressive effort that incorporated adult education, cooperatives and rural community development to aid the fishing and mining communities of northern and eastern Nova Scotia, Canada...
, Father Moses Coady
Moses Coady
Rev. Dr. Moses Michael Coady was a Roman Catholic priest, adult educator and co-operative entrepreneur best known for his instrumental role in the Antigonish Movement...
, Rev. Hugh MacPherson and A.B. MacDonald led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University is a post-secondary institution located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The school was founded in 1853, but did not offer degrees until 1868. The university has approximately 5000 students.-History:...
(St. F.X.) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
.
The credit union
Credit union
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
systems of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and PEI
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
owe their origins to the Antigonish Movement, which also had an important influence on other provincial systems across Canada. The Coady International Institute
Coady International Institute
The Coady International Institute is located on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Established in 1959, the Coady International Institute is world-renowned as a centre of excellence in community leadership education. The Institute is named for one of Canada's...
at St. F.X. has been instrumental in developing credit unions and in asset-based community development
Asset-based community development
Asset-based community development is a methodology that seeks to uncover and utilize the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development....
initiatives in developing countries ever since.
Goals
As educators and priests, the leaders of the Antigonish Movement were primarily concerned with human and spiritual development. The title of Moses Coady’s only book – Masters of Their Own Destiny – encapsulates this desire to see ordinary Nova Scotians achieve economic and social freedom.However Coady argued that for practical reasons "we consider it good pedagogy and good psychology to begin with the economic phase … that we may more readily attain the spiritual and cultural towards which all our efforts are directed."
Ordinary Nova Scotians he argued, had only themselves to blame for their poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
and vulnerability. They had permitted money and business to become mysterious forces outside of their control. Fishers and farmers for example, were exploited by marketing middlemen. Everyone was exploited by moneylenders. If they took the time to understand their circumstances and took the risks of co-operative action, they could achieve economic security and on that foundation greater freedom and self-realization. In a vision that has been renewed today in digital forms of mass collaboration
Mass collaboration
Mass collaboration is a form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, often modular in its nature...
, Coady argued that "the only hope of democracy is that enough noble, independent, energetic souls may be found who are prepared to work overtime, without pay" in order to shape a free and prosperous society.
Origins
The origins of co-operatives in Nova ScotiaNova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
go back to a cooperative store in Stellarton, founded in 1861. Co-operative creameries and fruit-growers co-ops were established by farmers to free them from exploitative middleman in the 1890s. Many early co-ops failed due to "poor management, domination by a few individuals and a lack of ongoing education."
However, the British Canadian Co-operative Society, a co-op store in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Sydney Mines is a former town in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Founded in 1784 and incorporated as a town in 1889, Sydney Mines has a rich history in coal production, although mining activity has now ceased.Prior to a permanent settlement being established, there was significant...
, set an example of sound co-operation. By 1917 it has 1,220 members and over $500,000 in sales. That year, it organized a conference on co-ops. The conference, which featured Ontario co-operative pioneer George Keen as keynote speaker, renewed local energy and enthusiasm for the idea.
Adult education was the spirit of the movement, and Coady credits Dr. Hugh MacPherson and Rev. Miles Tompkins at St. F.X. with their early roles as "pioneer extension workers at the University interested in both adult education and economic cooperation."
Jimmy Tompkins
Father Jimmy Tompkins played a key role in concocting the "intellectual dynamite" that was later set off in almost every village in the Maritimes.
Tompkins began teaching at St. F.X. in 1902. As vice-president of the university he attended the Conference of British Empire Universities in London, England in 1912, and returned filled with ideas for ways that the university could become more involved in solving rural economic problems through adult education. British Workers Educational Associations, the Danish Folk High School
Folk high school
Folk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...
s, and Swedish Discussion Circles particularly interested him. And in Canada, the University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
's agricultural program, and Quebec's
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
agricultural colleges and credit unions, caught his attention.
Tompkins had trouble making his case with the university’s administration, and in 1922, St. F.X. sent Tompkins into "exile" as village priest in Canso
Canso, Nova Scotia
For the headland, see Cape Canso.Canso is a small Canadian town in Guysborough County, on the north-eastern tip of mainland Nova Scotia, next to Chedabucto Bay. The area was established in 1604, along with Port Royal, Nova Scotia. The British construction of a fort in the village , was instrumental...
, Nova Scotia. This did not slow the determined priest down, however. His approach to adult education
Adult education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
in Canso triggered local action and a series of articles in The Halifax Chronicle which helped trigger a federal commission into the problems of the Martime fisheries.
Beginning in 1924 Tompkins organized the first of a series of annual conferences bringing together farmers, educators, students, priests and rural development experts. In 1928, seeking a more permanent organization, some of the leaders in this group launched a campaign that raised $100,000. This initiative, combined with the report of federal commission on the fisheries in 1928, prompted St. F.X. to support the formation of an Extension Department in 1928.
Moses Coady
Moses Coady is generally credited with transforming the vision of his cousin Tompkins into an effective program capable of spreading across the Maritimes.
The defining moment in Coady's career came when he testified before a Canadian government commission in 1927. Drawing on his own experience and that of other movement leaders he maintained that the local economy could be revitalized if the right type of learning was cultivated in ordinary people: especially critical thinking, scientific methods of planning and production, and co-operative entrepreneurship.
The report of the MacLean Commission was catalytic: in late 1928 St. F.X. organized an Extension Department to carry adult education to the people of the province, appointing Coady as its first director. The Canadian Department of Fisheries asked Coady to help the government "organize the fishermen".
Coady also invested considerable energy in catalyzing and strengthening wholesale co-operatives around the Maritimes: including the United Maritime Fishermen, the United Fruit Companies and the Canadian Livestock Co-operatives (Maritimes).
Adult education in action
The Antigonish program of adult education employed three main components:- the mass meeting,
- the study club, and
- the school for leaders.
Mass meetings
The field staff of the Extension Department worked with local people to organize meetings in schools, churches, and community centres.People who heard Coady speak at these meetings described his speeches as "fiery" and "energizing". Coady challenged his audience not to accept their poverty but to take action to understand their situation, and then to think and to plan to change it. As he said many times, "You can get the good life. You’re poor enough to want it and smart enough to get it." He would propose that they set up study clubs, and that those who could read help those who could not.
Study clubs
Study clubs typically met in members' homes, with the goal of understanding the factors keeping the members poor, to identify solutions, make plans, and take action. The Extension Department provided pamphlets and technical material on matters like agricultural methods, business organization, economics, and co-operative principles. The clubs studied local newspaper articles and any other materials that could help them understand their situation better.The leaders and ideas emerging from this process often carried it into the next stage – organizing co-operatives and taking other initiatives to solve local problems.
The Extension Department linked the study clubs together through a network called the Associated Study Clubs, which facilitated information sharing and capitalized on the building momentum.
School for leaders
Once the first co-operatives began, the Extension Department organized a six week program at the university with courses in co-operative business, book-keeping, mathematics, economics, public speaking, and citizenship.The program was taught by successful co-operative leaders from around the province. The goal was to reduce the risks of business failure, and to invigorate the momentum in each community with fresh ideas.
The program was taken to the villages by Coady and A.B. MacDonald. Roy Bergengren
Roy Bergengren
Roy F. Bergengren was an American attorney and pioneer of the United States credit union movement. Hired by Edward Filene in July 1921 to head the Credit Union National Extension Bureau, Bergengren carried out an ambitious legislative agenda that resulted in the enactment of the Federal Credit...
, director of Credit Union National of America
Credit Union National Association
The Credit Union National Association, commonly known as CUNA , is a national trade association for both state- and federally-chartered credit unions located in the United States. CUNA provides member credit unions with trade association services, such as lobbying, professional development, and...
, dedicated his book, Credit Union North America to A.B. MacDonald, who he describes as "an extraordinary organizer and an inspired leader who is known in every city, town and fishing hamlet throughout the length and breadth of the province". MacDonald went on to direct the Nova Scotia Credit Union League and then the Co-operative Union of Canada.
Co-operative development
Coady's biographer Jim Lotz gives an example of how the link between the Antigonish approach, community development and co-operatives worked in the village of Judique, Nova ScotiaJudique, Nova Scotia
Judique is a small community located in Inverness County on the Ceilidh Trail on the western side of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada....
.
| "In 1932, the people of Judique formed 12 study clubs. Two years later they built a lobster factory. Canned lobsters brought better returns than fresh groundfish that had to be sold to buyers on the wharf for any price they cared to offer. The 30 members of the Judique lobster co-op paid off the cost of their factory in two years. They built another one, then opened a credit union and co-op shop. The residents of the community told Coady’s staff that they were “much richer than we were a decade ago, both economically and spiritually. We have gained much confidence in ourselves through directing and managing our own affairs.” |
By 1932 the Extension Department had sparked the formation of 179 study clubs with 1,500 members in Nova Scotia. Over the next six years, during the height of Coady and MacDonald's work in the villages, the number of study clubs rose to 1,110 with 10,000 participants.
By 1938 these study clubs had formed 142 credit unions, 39 co-operative stores, 17 co-operative lobster factories, 11 co-operative fish plants, and 11 other co-ops.
"Perhaps the most important reason why the Antigonish movement was able to have a significant, lasting impact was its promotion of credit unions." The farmers, fishers, and miners who formed the backbone of the movement had little access to credit before the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and lost what little they had as the downturn started to bite. With the help of Roy Bergengren and the American credit union movement, Nova Scotia passed the first sound credit union legislation in English Canada in 1932.
From Nova Scotia to the world
From its start in 1928, the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University was concerned with spreading its message well beyond Nova Scotia. It was particularly concerned about the other provinces in the MaritimesMaritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
.
For example, by 1936 there were 200 study clubs operating in New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, and the legislature passed a credit union law that year. Wilfred Keohan, the New Brunswick Registrar of Credit Unions, wrote in 1939 that "There can be no doubt but that the experience in Nova Scotia had a marked influence as credit union enthusiasm knows no frontiers. The crystallized demand came from such bodies as the New Brunswick Council of Labour, the Trades & Labour Council, the Farmer's and Dairyman's Association, fishermen's organizations and members of the clergy who saw in credit unions an economic regeneration of their flocks." By 1939 ten thousand members were participating in 95 credit unions (including caisses populaires) in the province.
By 1936 Coady and MacDonald were increasingly traveling beyond the Maritimes to Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, where their speeches and ideas helped ignite local credit union movements. After Nova Scotia passed a credit union law in 1932, New Brunswick and PEI were the next to pass legislation (1936). By 1939 every province in Canada had a credit union movement and a legal framework to guide it.
Bergengren wrote in 1940 that "out of the Nova Scotia experience has come a new and most valuable study club technique that will have a far reaching effect on the whole future of the credit union movement." He credited the rapid expansion of credit unions to other provinces across Canada to the Antigonish movement.
The Board of Governors of St. Francis Xavier University established The Coady International Institute to honour Moses Coady less than six months after his death. The institute has played a role in the emergence of credit unions throughout the world, especially in Africa. Since then, almost 4,000 community development practitioners from over 120 countries have studied at the campus in Antigonish.
Criticisms
By the end of World War II the credit unions and co-operatives of the Maritimes were an acknowledged success, gaining international recognition. The study clubs for which the movement was noted declined however, and attention had shifted from human emancipation towards building stronger, more professional institutions. "Most of the educational attainment in the war and its aftermath focused on training elite managers for the co-operative institutions. Evidence from the co-operative reports of the 1940s indicates clearly that the common people were not participating very much in the life of their institutions."
Like many of the integrated rural development program
Integrated rural development program
The Integrated Rural Development Programme is a rural development program of the Government of India launched in Financial Year 1978 and extended throughout India by 1980...
s in the developing world today, the Antigonish Movement encountered a grass-roots challenge to its vision in the implementation stage. In the end, the grand vision of fishers and miners appreciating Shakespeare and grand opera seemed to usually lead to one community project: co-operative microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
through credit unions.
Dr. Ian MacPherson
Ian MacPherson (historian)
Dr. Ian MacPherson is a Canadian historian, and a supporter of the co-operative movement.-Education:MacPherson received his B.A. from the University of Windsor in 1960. After working as a high school teacher for four years, he returned to school, earning his M.A. and Ph.D...
, a co-operative historian and theorist, argues that most co-operative movements are dependent for their early impetus on the support of networks of external players like church groups, government departments or wealthy patrons. As the movement begins to transform into a credit union system, "… necessary managerial and technical changes may be inhibited by the “founders”: revered individuals who have made great contributions but who, as they age and the institution they helped found develops, may hold back necessary change and new generations of leadership."
Nova Scotia's credit union system, springing from the centre of the Antigonish Movement, today has a far lower penetration of members (18%) than the systems in neighbouring New Brunswick (41%) and Prince Edward Island (45%).
Coady acknowledged that the credit unions were promoting thrift and household budgeting, and showing members by example how much money they could bring to bear on their communities’ problems through co-operative action. But to him, the main purpose of credit unions was moral. The credit union "makes people honest". "There have been a few instances of dishonest managers and some slow borrowers, but the credit union organization takes care of these cases."
In other parts of Canada, most notably Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
where some of the strongest credit union systems emerged, the movement's early leaders recognized the need to address the practical problems that emerged from the demand for credit unions. Innovations like the Saskatchewan Mutual Aid Board – the first private sector deposit insurance
Deposit insurance
Explicit deposit insurance is a measure implemented in many countries to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due...
scheme in Canada – focused on protecting the savings of members. These practical innovations, grounded in addressing the practical needs of members, led to stronger and more sustained institutional growth.
Legacy
The study club successfully addressed one of the enduring challenges of co-operative development. Co-operative enterprises address the principal–agent problem by making all users of an enterprise into owners. When users accept the duties of owners, this structure results in strong governance and control systems. However, the assets in co-operative enterprises are vulnerable when the users aren’t prepared to accept the duties of ownership. In a paper for the Food and Agriculture OrganizationFood and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 1962, Alexander Laidlaw, a co-operative leader who served as a director at the Extension Department, wrote that:
| "… such concepts as group responsibility, reaching decisions by majority vote, delegating authority to responsible officers, observing rules agreed upon by the group, exerting self-discipline for the welfare of the group cannot be taught or learned in the abstract. They must become part of the personality of the individual and the experience of the group through actual situations." |
Antigonish-style study clubs, unlike traditional seminars or workshops, require all members to collectively manage a group process even before they launch a co-operative. Members can take a hard look at each other’s capabilities and weigh their collective prospects with a clear head while they learn the skills they need to launch community ventures.
By the end of World War II a series of leaders from Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen was a German mayor and cooperative pioneer. Several credit union systems and cooperative banks have been named after Raiffeisen, who pioneered rural credit unions.- Life :...
to Edward Filene
Edward Filene
Edward Albert Filene was an American businessman, social entrepreneur and philanthropist...
to Alphonse Desjardins
Alphonse Desjardins (co-operator)
Gabriel-Alphonse Desjardins , born in Lévis, Quebec, was the co-founder of the Caisses Populaires Desjardins , a forerunner of North American credit unions and community banks.- Early life :...
to Moses Coady
Moses Coady
Rev. Dr. Moses Michael Coady was a Roman Catholic priest, adult educator and co-operative entrepreneur best known for his instrumental role in the Antigonish Movement...
had shown that cooperative movements could reach and empower poor populations in a way that deepened the economic gains of capitalism while alleviating some of its undesirable social effects. This prepared the way for a wave of ‘anti-communist’ co-operative development led by the US government in the developing world in the 1940-60s. For precisely the reasons just noted, however, the results of this 'state-led' credit union development were mixed at best.
The philosophy and techniques of Antigonish anticipated some of the key ideas of rural development, including the emancipatory pedagogy of Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...
, and the philosophy of Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, geologist, proto-evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th century scientific and political circles.Chambers was an early phrenologist, and was the...
/participatory rural assessment
Participatory rural appraisal
Participatory rural appraisal is an approach used by non-governmental organizations and other agencies involved in international development...
. However, the Antigonish approach runs into significant problems in oral communities
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
and those with anti-democratic traditions. This has limited the replicability of the movement, and led to significant off-shoots, such as the self-help group movement in India, village banking
Village Banking
Village Banking is a microcredit methodology where-by financial services are administered locally rather than centralized in a formal bank. Village banking has its roots in ancient cultures and was most recently adopted for use by micro-finance institutions as a way to control costs...
and the ASCA
Rosca
Rosca is a Spanish and Portuguese bread dish eaten in Mexico, South America, and other areas. It is made with flour, salt, sugar, butter, yeast, water and seasonings. It is also called ka'ake and referred to as a "Syrian-style crack ring."Roscas de reyes is an oversized version colored with candy...
movement in parts of Africa.
Timeline
- 1891 Pope Leo XIII issues encyclical Rerum NovarumRerum NovarumRerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
advocating Christian associations of workingmen for economic improvement - 1890s-1900s Co-operative stores, co-operative creameries and fruit-growing co-ops established around Nova ScotiaNova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
- 1906 formation of the British Canadian Co-operative Society in Sydney Mines, Nova ScotiaSydney Mines, Nova ScotiaSydney Mines is a former town in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Founded in 1784 and incorporated as a town in 1889, Sydney Mines has a rich history in coal production, although mining activity has now ceased.Prior to a permanent settlement being established, there was significant...
- 1912 Tompkins gains key contacts and ideas at the Conference of British Empire Universities
- 1917 British Canadian co-operative store in Sydney Mines organizes a conference on co-ops in Nova Scotia, sparking renewed interest
- 1921 Father Jimmy TompkinsJames TompkinsFather Jimmy Tompkins was a Roman Catholic priest who founded the Antigonish Movement, a progressive effort that incorporated adult education, cooperatives and rural community development to aid the fishing and mining communities of northern and eastern Nova Scotia, Canada...
publishes Knowledge for the People, an appeal to St. Francis Xavier UniversitySt. Francis Xavier UniversitySt. Francis Xavier University is a post-secondary institution located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The school was founded in 1853, but did not offer degrees until 1868. The university has approximately 5000 students.-History:...
to implement a program of adult education - 1922 St. FX loses patience with Tompkins and sends him into “exile” to Canso, Nova Scotia as parish priest
- 1924 George Keen, president of the Co-operative Union of Canada, visits Tompkins in Canso and advises him on co-operative development
- Summer of 1927 Father Jimmy’s work in CansoCanso, Nova ScotiaFor the headland, see Cape Canso.Canso is a small Canadian town in Guysborough County, on the north-eastern tip of mainland Nova Scotia, next to Chedabucto Bay. The area was established in 1604, along with Port Royal, Nova Scotia. The British construction of a fort in the village , was instrumental...
, Nova Scotia is featured in The Halifax Chronicle - May 1928 a Canadian government commission advocates adult educationAdult educationAdult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
as part of a strategy to save the Maritime fisheries - November 1928 St. Francis Xavier University sets up adult education Extension Department and asks Father Moses CoadyMoses CoadyRev. Dr. Moses Michael Coady was a Roman Catholic priest, adult educator and co-operative entrepreneur best known for his instrumental role in the Antigonish Movement...
to be the Director - October 29, 1929 stock market crash precipitates economic collapse around the Maritimes
- December 10, 1932 first credit union in Nova Scotia launched in Broad CoveBroad Cove, Newfoundland and LabradorBroad Cove is located on King's Island, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Canada. Its geographical position is . Broad Cove was one of five communities located on King's Island. The other communities were: Tack's Beach, Best Harbour, Baker's Cove, Cooper's Cove and Yaulis Cove...
- 1933 first School for Leaders at St. Francis Xavier University
- 1938 formation of Credit Union Central of Nova Scotia (A.B. MacDonald, Director)
- Sept. 1944 A.B. MacDonald leaves for Ottawa to lead the Co-operative Union of Canada
- 1952 Death of A.B. MacDonald
- 1953 Death of Father Jimmy Tompkins
- July 28, 1959 Death of Moses Michael Coady
See also
- Community economic developmentCommunity economic developmentCommunity Economic Development is a field of study that actively elicits community involvement when working with government, and private sectors to build strong communities, industries, and markets...
- History of credit unions
- Popular educationPopular educationPopular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage as when describing a 'popular television program,' popular...
- Participatory rural appraisalParticipatory rural appraisalParticipatory rural appraisal is an approach used by non-governmental organizations and other agencies involved in international development...
External links
- Web resources on the Antigonish Movement
- Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University
- The Tompkins Institute for Human Values and Technology, Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia
- Antigonish Movement in The Canadian Encyclopedia online
- Story of Antigonish Movement at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia
- New Dawn Enterprises, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia