History

Time Line

1960
During the period of the Brazilian military regime, the two entities nationally representing the Cooperative movement were divided: Brazilian Cooperative Alliance (ABCOOP) and National Union of Cooperative Associations (Unasco). The most direct consequence of this was that their needs were not attended to by the State.

Even so, the State had an interest in seeing the movement consolidate. The great cooperative strength at the time was in the countryside. And the government saw in the sector the support it needed to carry out its economic policy for agriculture.

That was the perception of then minister of Agriculture Luiz Fernando Cirne Lima, who in 1967 requested the secretary of Agriculture for the State of São Paulo, Antonio José Rodrigues Filho, already a cooperative leader, to promote union of the entire movement.

On December 2, 1969, the Brazilian Cooperative Organization was created, during the IV Brazilian Cooperative Congress. The entity substituted the ABCOOP and Unasco. Unification was the decision of the cooperatives themselves.

1970s
On June 8, 1970 the OCB was registered in a notary office, an act that formalized its existence as a single entity, which represented and defended the interests of The Brazilian cooperative movement. The Extraordinary General Assembly of June 30, 1970 approved the OCB Articles of Incorporation and installed its board of directors with a mandate until 1973.

This was the beginning of the struggle of the directors to achieve legal support for the Brazilian cooperative system. The result came soon afterwards with promulgation of Law 5.764, on December 16, 1971. That law replaced all previous legislation regarding the Cooperative movement and brought together the movement´s various aspects, including unification of the system around sole representation by the OCB.

Although it called for major interference by the government – the Cooperative movement was brought under inspection, control and stimulus by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and the National Cooperative Council (CNC) - Law 5.764/71 is a watershed for the movement. It provided a basis for the OCB to organized and become viable, and it was then able to promote organization of representative state entities, since it had become to sole representative of the Cooperative movement on a national level.

With this, the cooperatives began to conform to a business model, enabling their economic expansion and their adjustment to the demands of capitalistic agroindustrial development adopted by the State.

To summarize, the first decade of OCB´s existence was notable mainly for the work involved in making the system viable.

1980s
With a participatory and democratic vocation, the entity used tools through which the majority might participate, give opinions and decide. Thus, throughout the 1980s the OCB promoted events throughout the country to discuss themes connected to the movement and make fundamental decisions for the process of consolidating and perfecting the Cooperative movement.

In 1988, the OCB joined the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). From that point on, the entity began to promote international events and enable an exchange of experiences with Brazilian and foreign cooperative members, meaning that the national movement began to accompany, participate and help define guidelines for World Cooperative Movement.

1990s
The National Cooperative Secretariat (Senacoop) – which substituted Incra in the functions of controlling the Cooperative movement – and the National Cooperative Council (CNC) ceased their oversight role and began only to stimulate the cooperative movement, after the 1988 Constitution. Specific legislation was still needed to create mechanisms for self-management by the cooperatives.

Agricultural and livestock cooperative movement, up until then the main branch in activity in Brazil, suffered from successive government economic plans. Programs that sought to liberalize the economy and reduce State intervention in agriculture led to indebtedness for many rural producers and agriculture and livestock cooperatives.

The OCB and cooperative leaders in Brazil found a solution to the chaos: make the cooperative movement competitive in a market economy. To do this, two programs were designed, but these would only bring results if they were approved by the government.

The first called for releasing funds for cooperatives that presented a complete restructuring project. The second enabled effective implementation of the Self-Management Program. Thus, on September 3, 1998, the government published Provisional Measure 1.715, creating the Revitalization Program for Agricultural Production Cooperatives (Recoop) and the National Cooperative Learning Service (Sescoop).

2000 to present
In 2004 the OCB was set up into eight entities: General Assembly, Executive Directors, Administrative Council, Fiscal Council, Ethics Council, Specialized National Councils by Sector, Technical Association Council and Superintendency.