La Lega is an Italian co-operative association founded in 1891 on irredentist ideals.[1] It grew out of The Federation of Italian Co-operatives, formed in 1886 with 248 co-ops representing 74,000 members.[2] Following the 1992 Italian cooperative legal reform, which was lobbied for by La Lega, La Lega introduced capital participation in ownership by minority soci sovventori, capital memberships, with restricted voting rights.[3]

La Lega is Italy's largest umbrella group for collectives, promoting the interests of the cooperative sector at all levels of government. La Lega (or Legacoop) covers more than 17,000 cooperatives, including 5,000 worker co-ops, 3,000 agricultural co-ops, 2,000 consumer co-ops and 5,000 housing co-ops. By 2002, La Lega's total membership exceeded 6 million people, or slightly more than 10 percent of the Italian population. Of these members, 4.6 million belonged to La Lega's consumer co-ops.[4]

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  1. ^ Piero Ammirato La Lega: The Making of a Successful Cooperative Network 1855218399 - 1996 Dealing with Italy's largest cooperative movement, this work examines the history of La Lega and the problems encountered.
  2. ^ Tom Malleson After Occupy: Economic Democracy for the 21st Century 0199330107- 2014 - Page 65 Whereas Mondragon grew out of the Christian vision of one man, La Lega cooperatives emerged out of a vast socialistic political movement. The early cooperative movement in Italy formed itself into various networks, one of which was The Federation of Italian Co-operatives, formed in 1886 with 248 co-ops representing 74,000 members (about 38% of these were worker co-ops, 44% were consumer co-ops .
  3. ^ Laixiang Sun Ownership and Governance of Enterprises: Recent Innovative Developments 2003 1403943907 However La Lega is even beginning to move into a form of quasi-equity finance through the recent introduction of minority soci sovventori, which literally means 'backer members' but might be better translated as 'capital memberships'.20 These are permitted under the 1992 Italian cooperative legal reform lobbied for by La Lega. One class of such shares provides some minority voting rights to outside capital, while a second class confers no voting rights.
  4. ^ "La Lega". community-wealth.org.