(Robert Owen, A Closer Look)
The other writer in this column, Lotes Lab-oyan, was able to set foot on the very place where some of the first ideas on co-operativism were conceptualized and practiced by Robert Owen. That is in New Lanark, Glasgow, Scotland. How a fortunate man he is, and I mean Mr. Lab-oyan.
You see, Robert Owen is considered the Father of Co-operativism. Therefore, he and his ideas are being taught and discussed in cooperative circles, in trainings and seminars especially during the Pre-Registration Stage and whenever there are co-op orientations conducted. And here is Mr. Lab-oyan seeing it with his own eyes those places. What the rest of us were merely lecturing about, he had a personal experience with it. No wonder he said that this deepened his understanding on the works of Robert Owen. It is like experiencing an epiphany.
His experience prodded me to explore more about the works of Robert Owen so that even in the written word, I get to picture what was going on during the early 1800’s at New Lanark and probably, I will also receive deeper understanding of this cooperative man. True enough, there are some new information I uncovered and made me appreciate more about co-ops and I would like to share them with you.
If you have been following this column, I have written about Robert Owen some time ago. Now, here is the result of my further readings:
He is considered as the Thomas Edison of social invention.
He was the first to advocate for shorter working hours of workers. Factory workers during this time are working 13-15 hours. He wanted to make it 8 hours only.
He was the first to introduce daycare, preschool for children and night school for adults in his factory. During his time, children as young as 5-6 years old are already working in the factories. He wanted to educate them rather than letting them work.
He introduced health, disability and retirement plans. This is the precursor of credit unions.
These ideas are way too advanced during his time that was why there was a strong resistance to change. He even went to the New World (America) to plant them into the minds and hearts of Americans but everything failed and everything he organized crumbled.
Maybe society was not ready for his revolutionary ideas. Maybe he had a weakness and people were turned off by him no matter how good his ideas were. However, Owen’s ideas were later appreciated by some people but at a much later period.