November 2017

Corbyn: ‘Co-operation is a natural thing’
Anca Voinea catches up Labour leader Jeremy
Corbyn at the conference, as he shares his
fond memories of co-ops; how he has used the
model to strengthen people’s skills; and how he
envisages a co-operative future for the UK …
My first co-op memory … My mum was a member
of the Co-op all of her life and instilled in me the
co-op [dividend] number – 11811. She said to me
whenever I went to buy anything from the Co-op –
which I obviously did on her behalf – don’t forget
the Co-op number.
Setting up co-ops … I’ve been involved in a
number of co-op ideas, particularly as a councillor
where we promoted the idea of a co-op running
a building works department in Haringey in the
1970s. We set up a workers’ group to run a building
maintenance department, the idea being that
it would be a self-managing group that would
bring together the skill of electricians, carpenters,
plumbers, bricklayers, surveyors and engineers
and they would form a management group among
themselves, which they would elect. They would
work for the council as it was an internal co-op
but it was using those co-op principles. What the
co-op [model] does is unleashes and harnesses the
energy of everybody into how you run an enterprise
rather than hierarchical management.
Finding out that people need to be involved …
I’ve never forgotten during the 1970s I was involved
in trade union work with the AUEW [Amalgamated
Union of Engineering Workers] in the car industry.
I worked in a factory that made diesel engines and
you look at the incompetence of the management
who were not looking at product development,
not looking at innovation. They were just going on
with the same out-dated production and everyone
I spoke to on the floor was saying this place is
finished, they are not listening to us and you heard
that time and time again. The co-op principle of
involving people’s skills, and how you promote an
enterprise, is something I feel very strongly about.
Why I like the co-op model … As a councillor,
before I became an MP, I was involved in establishing
housing co-ops, some of which are still going. I like
the housing co-op model because it means that all
the residents and co-operators must meet together,
must work together and it means neighbourhood
issues are resolved. It means they are more likely
to ensure there are good play facilities for children
and more likely to be well run. I have a number of
p Jeremy Corbyn speaking with Co-op News journalist Anca Voinea
co-ops in my constituency, which I am very happy
to work with. Co-op housing is something we could
promote, and the co-op principles. Co-operation is
a natural thing to do.
The problems co-ops face … Usually the difficulty
is access to capital. For housing co-ops, the
difficulty is being able to access capital to expand
so they are often heavily reliant on a local authority
to essentially gift them a property or do a very
long lease. Banks are often quite reluctant to lend
to a co-operative, rather than that they’d prefer
to lend to an individual. But all the evidence is
that co-ops are more likely to succeed than many
small business start-ups. Hence, we want to not
just have an effective co-op development agency in
government; we also want to use our regional and
national investment bank for promoting co-ops.
The future of co-ops … I want the public
ownership of water, Royal Mail and energy, but I
don’t want it to be necessarily a huge state model,
I’d rather there was a co-op principle in the way it is
run. If you think of the way the Royal Mail and the
Post Office were separated, the Post Office remains
in public ownership and spends most of its time
selling off every asset it’s got, franchising out every
business it’s supposed to operate. Royal Mail has
sucked out massive profits, gone after the pension
fund and are now taking the union to court over
industrial action. All those people that are part of
the community could be working together. And so I
want to see Royal Mail using those co-op principles
when it comes back into public ownership.
NOVEMBER 2017 | 47