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The International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (the Gung Ho International Committee, or, ICCIC) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1939 in Hongkong. It suspended its work in 1952 and revived in 1987.
The history of Gung Ho movement
Gung Ho is the abbreviated form of "Chinese Industrial Cooperatives" in Chinese. It can also mean "work hard and work together".
The Gung Ho movement was initiated in 1937 in Shanghai by Rewi Alley of New Zealand and some other foreigners together with a group of Chinese patriots. It aimed at organizing the unemployed workers and refugees for production to support the Chinese people's war of resistance against Japanese invasion. Gun Ho cooperatives spread in the unoccupied areas of China since 1939 and at its peak year 1941, around 3,000 cooperatives with a membership of nearly 30,000 were functioning. They produced more than 500 kinds of daily necessities for the people and a large number of blankets, uniforms and other army supplies for the battlefront, thus becoming the most popular people's movement in the annals of China's cooperative movement.
Gung Ho's Spirit: Work Hard and Work Together, Help Each Other to Achieve Common Prosperity.
Gung Ho's Principles: Voluntary Organization, Self-funding, Self-governing, Independent
Accounting, Taking for Its Own Gains and Losses, Democratic Management, Distribution to Each According to his/her Work and Dividends According to Shares.
The history of ICCIC
To win support from abroad, collect funds for development and ensure the proper use of foreign aid, the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives was founded in Hongkong in January, 1939. Mme. Soong Ching Ling was elected honorary chair and the British bishop of Hongkong R. D. Hall, its chair. The work of the Committee soon won support from among overseas Chinese and just-minded people worldwide who sympathized with Chinese people in fighting against the Japanese aggression. Organizations to aid Gung Ho were set up in several countries notably the United States, Britain and the Philippines. Up to the end of 1945, contributions in cash and materials totaling almost 10 million US dollars poured in and technical workers from many countries volunteered to come and work for Gung Ho. The significant contribution made by the Committee in support of Chinese peoples' war efforts and for enhancing friendship between the peoples of China and the world was highly praised by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Soong Ching Ling, Ye Ting and many betran revolutionary leaders. Its unique role in the War also won international acclaim that the term Gung Ho entered the English language as a word denoting whole-hearted dedication to a meaningful cause.
The new era of Gung Ho-ICCIC
After reviving in 1987, the new Gung Ho-ICCIC is registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and has body corporate capacity.
The Committee has set up its aims to further the establishment and the development of cooperatives in China, to become a mainstay of China’s economy as well as the social coordination and development through unremitting efforts.
The objectives adopted by the ICCIC in pursuit of its mission are:
1．Develop extensive liaison with international cooperative organizations, friendship organizations which volunteer to support the development of Chinese cooperatives, and individuals who are enthusiastic about the cooperative movement; and seek to strengthen international support for the cooperative development. Such support may take various forms, such as cooperative aid projects, donations, human resources development, technical aid in cooperative legislation，investigations of overseas cooperatives and exchanges of experience, international cooperative symposiums，exchanges of cooperative publications and materials，and international economic and trade contacts among cooperatives, etc;
2．Make use of any opportunity and form to publicize and spread the cooperative principles developed in the international cooperative movement；
3．Probe into feasible ways for cooperatives’ growth in accordance with China’s national conditions and promote the establishment and development of cooperatives of various types and forms with the guidance of the cooperative principles developed in the international cooperative movement;
4．Push forward the establishment and development of various cooperative supporting systems which provide cooperatives with social service;
5. Exchange ideas with the government through all possible channels; lobby for legislation and policy adjustment of the cooperatives, in order to create favorable policy foundation and legal environment for the development of the cooperatives;
6．Provide training courses for personnel in the cooperatives, especially organizers and management personnel in the cooperatives;
7. Provide consulting services about cooperatives;
8. Develop and enhance contacts and cooperation with current cooperative organizations;
9. Accomplish tasks entrusted by government departments relating to economic growth of the cooperatives in conformity to the purposes of the ICCIC;
10. Support the study on cooperative theories and practice as well as exchange of information and experience of cooperatives at home and abroad.
Since 1987, the ICCIC has supported a large number of cooperatives in different provinces in China for cooperative principle training, capacity building, income generating, participatory management, environment improvement, women’s position enhancement, poverty alleviation, etc.
From 2001 to 2009, ICCIC has cooperated with CCA for the project: Canada-China Co-operative Promotion and Development, the project: Co-operatives Reducing Poverty in Rural China.
The success of ICCIC’s projects has strengthened its ties with other cooperative organizations at home and abroad. ICCIC keeps close ties with the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, the All China-Federation of Handicraft Cooperatives, the Association of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives and the China Society of the Cooperative Economy. And the International Committee of Producers and Artisans Cooperatives (CICOPA) under the ICA, the Canadian Cooperative Association, the cooperative organizations in Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Japan, Korea; the World Bank, Oxfam and Plan International, the international organizations and friendship organizations in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Canada, America, Britain, Belgium, supported ICCIC in various ways.
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