International Cooperative Day

a day of international solidarity for members and employees of cooperative organizations and enterprises, a manifestation of their unity and cooperation in accomplishing the broad tasks of the cooperative movement and in struggling to improve the living and working conditions of the people and to achieve democracy, peace, and social progress.

Instituted in 1923, International Cooperative Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July by the people of all countries whose cooperative organizations are members of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and in numerous countries not represented in the ICA (including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Korean Democratic People’s Republic, and the Mongolian People’s Republic). Each year on the eve of this day the directors of the ICA send a special declaration to all member organizations. The declaration formulates the most urgent immediate tasks of the cooperative movement and outlines certain general democratic and political demands. Material on International Cooperative Day is published each year in the journal Sovetskaia potrebitel’skaia kooperatsiia (since 1957).