50 years in the service of cooperativism and Catalan society

The year 1939 not only meant the end of democracy, but the dismantling of Catalan cooperativism, one of the most solid traditions of popular self-organization in Europe. Despite the submission to which it was subjected by the Franco regime, the sovereign and solidarity spirit of the movement remained alive in clandestinity thanks to figures like Pérez Baró or Ventosa i Roig, making the spark arrive practically intact until 1976, the year the Roca Galès Foundation was established to take over from so many people who still believed in this self-management model. Its birth was not a mere institutional procedure, but an act of resistance and recovery of the political soul of Catalan cooperativism.

International Presence

From its beginnings, the Roca Galès Foundation worked for the preservation of memory, which later materialized in the creation of the Library and Historical Archive of Catalan Cooperativism (1979); communicative sovereignty, articulated through the magazine Cooperació Catalana (1980); professionalization and international projection, and the impulse for the elaboration of a new cooperatives law. The foundation also contributed to the organization of the movement through the creation of federations and, later, the Confederation, and exercised the international representation of Catalan cooperativism before the International Co-operative Alliance.

After consolidating itself as the engine for the restitution of the cooperative movement and as a defender of the memory of cooperativism, the Roca Galés Foundation also wanted to endow the movement with a legal framework, technical rigor, and generational succession that would guarantee its rebirth. The objective was none other than to have committed people with enough energy to assume responsibilities that, together with the re-established structures, would allow Catalan cooperativism to regain its role as a tool for social and economic transformation.

Future projection

This 2026, Roca Galès Foundation celebrates its 50 years of history with a dual mission: preserving the cooperative legacy and projecting it towards the future. Throughout its history, it has acted as a bridge between different stages of the movement, ensuring its continuity. And not only that, as it has also adapted to the needs of each context. With an emphasis now on values such as social justice, economic democracy, and sustainability, the foundation redefines itself as a space for dissemination and debate, systematization of knowledge and research, and promotion of cooperativism for social transformation. Of course, keeping its vocation of service to cooperativism and Catalan society intact.