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Article written by Alun Burge, based on an article in the Welsh History Journal

From small beginnings, the co-operative movement grew steadily through the first half of the 20th century. In 1890, there were 44 societies in South Wales, which had 12,787 members and £468,994 trade between them. Probably more than 250 separate societies were set up across Wales.

By the early 1950s, the co-operative movement in Wales had grown and consolidated to have over 330,000 members in more than 80 independent societies, or through their association with the national Co-operative Retail Society (C.R.S).

The societies in Wales had a combined turnover of £20 million, and employed more than 9,000 people. Seven societies in the South Wales valleys, which were mainly based out of small villages, had each built up their trade to over £1,000,000 per year. These societies were substantial enterprises, run by local people for local people, and contributed considerably to the local economy.

The spiritual centre of co-operation in Wales was in the Aberdare Valley. The first co-operative society which demonstrated that co-operation was a reliable, long term, economic enterprise was established in Cwmbach.

It showed that people no longer had to rely on private shop keepers, but that members could organise their own economic affairs. At least 14 other societies were also established in the Aberdare Valley in the 19th Century, based on individual villages, such as Abercwmboi which was set up in 1865, and Penrhiwceiber in 1867. Some, such as Gwawr-y-Gweithwyr Society, in Abercwmboi, which was founded in 1865, and operated until it was dissolved in 1901, functioned through the Welsh language.

The individual societies in the valley merged bit by bit over 70 years, so that by the end of the 1920s, they were all part of the Aberdare Society. That Society, which had been established in 1869 grew, through amalgamations with its neighbours, to be the largest in South Wales. By 1951, it had a network of over 20 branches throughout the valley and over 16,000 members.

Without banks available for people to keep their savings, people invested their money in the local co-operative society, which used it to provide the capital to finance the business. As well as the usual wide range of services, the Society ran its own bakery and abattoir, as well as repairing watches and producing radios.

The Aberdare Society kept growing and by 1960 had more than 18,000 members. By 1985, the turnover for the business exceeded £8 million. It was the first time that the Society's turnover had reached £8m. However, it did not make a surplus because of the effects of the economic decline in the valley and the year long miners' strike of 1984/5, when the Society had helped the miners' cause to the detriment of their profits.

Moreover, the changes in society and in people's tastes and expectations, from the 1950s, had resulted in economic problems for the movement. Also, small, independent, societies found it increasingly difficult to compete with national supermarket chains.

In 1988, the Aberdare Society gave up its independent status and became part of the national chain of the C.R.S ['The Co-op']. In that year, the Rhondda Co-operative Society also joined the C.R.S., effectively ending the movement of independent co-operative retail societies in Wales, which had lasted for over a century.

While most co-operative organisation in Wales has been based in retail, there have always also been production based co-operative societies. The most recent is that of Tower Colliery in Hirwaun, at the top of the Aberdare Valley.

There, in 1994 (only six years after the transfer of the nearby Aberdare Co-op to C.R.S), the colliery workers bought their pit, which had been closed earlier that year. In 1995 they re-opened the mine as a workers' co-operative. For 13 years, until the coal was exhausted in 2008, the miners owned the coalmine and demonstrated that they were able to run the business at a profit, whereas the previous owners, British Coal, had said it was uneconomic.

Tyrone O'Sullivan, the National Union of Mineworkers' Lodge Secretary at Tower Colliery, led the colliery buy-out, and convinced the miners that they should each invest their £8,000 redundancy money to buy the pit. O'Sullivan became the most recent in a long line of co-operative leaders to come from Wales, who reached national prominence.

Other co-operative leaders from earlier periods who achieved a high profile are (Sir) Tom Allen, who built the Blaina Society into a powerful economic and social institution, and who was appointed as a Director of the Co-operative Wholesale Society. Also, (Sir) Jack Bailey from Miskin, Mountain Ash, attended the Central Labour College in London, and subsequently became the National Secretary of the Co-operative Party.