Better together

In the following the main arguments mentioned in the press against capital domination at the expense of labour are summarized and the reasons given for this one-sided orientation of many managers towards increasing shareholder value are studied. [...] It is not the task of the economy but the responsibility of the law-makers to define the limits and to set the rules which entrepreneurs and managers have to respect (e.g. [...] Where the co-operative consciousness of co-operative managers is strong and member- relation management is perceived as the core competency with the aim of ensuring members’ loyalty to the jointly run common enterprise and of offering them exclusive advantages, business with non-members is carried out – if at all – on a limited scale and for purposes of advertising the benefits of membership. [...] If it is one of the topical problems that managers of large international enterprises are forced by the investor-driven system to make short-term profits even though thereby being obliged to carry through spectacular measures of rationalisation like mass lay-offs and shutting down of factories to meet the expectations of their shareholders and to strengthen their own position, co-operative enterpr [...] In the case of co-operative societies, profit expectations of anonymous investors do not play any role, because the owners of the capital and the users of goods and services produced by the enterprise are the same persons.