Owen: Father of cooperative movement

1771 Robert Owen (d. November 17, 1858), Welsh-born philanthropic social reformer and pioneer of the cooperative movement, founder of several model communities of a Utopian bent, such as New Lanark (Scotland; preserved as a tourist site) and New Harmony, Indiana, USA.

Engels called Owen "a man of almost sublime, childlike simplicity of character, and at the same time one of the few born leaders of men" (Socialism: Utopian and Scientific). He was the founder in 1832 of an equitable labour exchange system, a forerunner of today's Ithaca Hours, Local Exchange Trading Systems (the LETS Scheme), UNILETS and the Global Resource Bank).

Owen was the father of Robert Dale Owen, Scottish-born American social reformer and politician (1801 - 1877). One of New Harmony's prominent citizens was the anarchist author Josiah Warren (1798 - 1874). ...

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