OCTOBER 2018

OCTOBER 2018
POLITICS
Can co-ops steer
a course through
troubled times?
Plus ... Breaking the
association with communism
in eastern Europe ... the
UKSCS annual conference ...
Black Lives Matter ... Brexit
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9 770009 982010
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news
Is the future of the world
a co-operative one?
CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND
CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP
MOVEMENT SINCE 1871
Holyoake House, Hanover Street,
Manchester M60 0AS
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editorial@thenews.coop
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Rebecca Harvey
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Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop
DIGITAL EDITOR
Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop
EDITORIAL
Jen Banks | jen@thenews.coop
DESIGN:
Keir Mucklestone-Barnett
DIRECTORS
Elaine Dean (chair), David Paterson
(vice-chair), Sofygil Crew, Gavin
Ewing, Tim Hartley, Beverley
Perkins and Barbara Rainford.
Secretary: Richard Bickle
Established in 1871, Co-operative
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@coopnews
cooperativenews
With far right parties making electoral gains in Europe, the Trump
administration widening divisions in the USA and the Brexit process
in stalemate (p46-47), there seems no end in sight to the political
fallout from the global financial crisis of 2008.
It’s a worrying and uncertain situation – but arguably, it is one which
opens up space for new, more progressive ideas to flourish and replace
the prevailing neoliberal economics. If so, that makes it the perfect
time to make the case for the democratic ownership models offered
by the co-op movement.
In the UK, these ideas are gaining traction with grassroots movements
and thinktank reports looking at applying co-op and mutual ideas
to energy, housing, transport and employment (p44-45). The
Co-operative Party, formed to represent the movement 100 years ago,
will be presenting its own ideas for the UK economy at its annual
conference in Bristol, from 12-14 October (p42-43).
The co-op movement is being revitalised elsewhere in the world,
too – whether it is being harnessed to the Civil Rights movement in the
USA (p40-41), working with government to improve living standards in
Malawi (p36-37) or shaking off associations with discredited regimes
in eastern Europe to build new enterprises (p34-35).
But does this mean co-op models can build a convincing argument
to counter the reactionary politics offered by right wing populists?
We speak to Ariel Guarco, president of the International Co-operative
Alliance, and US grassroots organiser John Duda – who makes the
case for a more progressive populist tradition which has existed in the
USA, and calls for a pluralist system of ownership models to create a
more inclusive economy (p38-39).
Hopefully these ideas can grow and offer more democratic solutions
to the economic and environmental problems facing the world.
MILES HADFIELD - DIGITAL EDITOR
Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based
inks on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer
waste) with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC
certified sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process.
OCTOBER 2018 | 3

association with communism
in eastern Europe ... the
UKSCS annual conference ...
Black Lives Matter ... Brexit
ISSN 0009-9821
01
9 770009 982010
THIS ISSUE
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT
Claire McCarthy, general secretary of the Co-op
Party, looks ahead to its annual conference
(p42-43); the month’s news includes a strong
half-year for the Co-op Group (p6); we speak
to veteran co-operator Lord Graham (p26-27);
and the late Chokwe Lumumba, a leading light
of African-American co-operation (p40-41)
news Issue #7300 OCTOBER 2018
Connecting, championing, challenging
OCTOBER 2018
POLITICS
Can co-ops steer
a course through
troubled times?
Plus ... Breaking the
£4.20
www.thenews.coop
COVER: There’s a wave
of reactionary populism
dominating world politics
– but can co-ops work with
people in a more
meaningful way?
Read more: p32-47
25 CO-OPERATIVE HERITAGE TRUST
A final update on the Working Together
project to build an archive of UK worker
co-op history
26-27 MEET ... LORD GRAHAM
OF EDMONTON
The stalwart of the Co-op Party and
movement, now 93, looks back on his
career and the state of co-operation
28-31 THE UK SOCIETY FOR
CO-OPERATIVE STUDIES
Full reports from the UKSCS annual
conference in Sheffield, including the
society’s annual report
32-47 POLITICS SPECIAL
32-33 POPULISM AND THE
NEW ECONOMY
The financial crisis has broken the
neoliberal consensus – but which ideas
will fill the gap it has left?
34-35 EASTERN EUROPE
After the fall of communism, co-ops
suffered from their association with the
old regimes – but now there are signs of a
revival for the movement
36-37 MALAWI
The co-op movement has close ties to
the government as efforts are made to
drive development. And the Co-operative
College is working with co-ops there, too
38-39 Q&A: A CO-OP RESPONSE
Ariel Guarco from the International
Co-operative Alliance and US activist John
Duda discuss the ways co-ops can offer a
way forward through difficult times
40-41 CIVIL RIGHTS
The African American community has a
proud co-operative heritage. It is now
building a path to economic selfdetermination
amid renewed activism
42-43 CO-OP PARTY CONFERENCE
Preview of this year’s event, where the
Party will discuss Brexit and its plans to
reshape the economy and double the size
of the co-op sector. We speak to Party chair
Gareth Thomas MP and general secretary
Claire McCarthy
44-45 THINKTANK REPORT
The Institute for Public Policy Research has
issued a report on the UK economy, which
calls for more worker representation.
46-47 BREXIT
As the UK’s departure from the EU
continues to dominate the landscape, just
how well prepared are co-op businesses?
REGULARS
6-14 UK updates
15-22 Global updates
24 Letters
48-49 Books
OCTOBER 2018 | 5

NEWS
CO-OP GROUP
Co-op Group returns to pharmacy sector as half-year profits rise by £12m
The Co-op Group’s has reported pre-tax
profits of £26m (2017: £14m) in its interim
results for the six months to 7 July.
Revenues rose 10% from £4.5bn to
£5bn, underlying profit before tax was up
from £3m to £10m, and net debt fell from
£775m to £707m.
The Group said a strong sales
performance and the purchase of Nisa had
driven the figures. Food like-for-like sales
were up 4.4% and the Group, which noted
positive trading factors such as the World
Cup and the summer heatwave, has now
enjoyed 18 consecutive quarters of likefor-like
sales growth.
CEO Steve Murrells confirmed the
purchase of prescriptions app Dimec,
which allows the management of repeat
NHS prescriptions.
The deal marks a return to the
healthcare sector for the Group, which
sold its pharmacies in 2014 as it recovered
from its financial crisis. Mr Murrells said
it would allow the Group “to accelerate
the development of our healthcare
proposition, and provides the digital
platform to help customers conveniently
access and link their healthcare needs,
including interacting with their NHS GP”.
This emphasis on health and wellness
ties in to the Group’s Food business, with
healthy-eating and free-from ranges.
Mr Murrells told a press conference call
he hoped this would “nudge” people to
healthier lifestyles and reduce future
pressure on the NHS.
The Group said it had delivered £35m
of member value through the “5+1”
membership scheme, alongside price
offers on home insurance and funerals.
It added: “Our Co-op presence is
p The World Cup and summer heatwave helped boost sales
strengthened through the acquisition of
Nisa and the Co-op now supplies food to
over 7,700 stores. By the end of 2018 we
will supply 850 Co-op own-brand product
lines to our Nisa partners.
“Co-op continues to lead the way in the
Funeral sector via numerous measures
to tackle funeral affordability ... Our
Co-op social impact also increases with
over 12,000 local community projects
having now benefited from our member
reward scheme and over a dozen business
partners having joined our Bright Future
programme to tackle modern slavery.”
Asked about the Group’s contingency
plans for a no-deal Brexit, Mr Murrells
said the Group was “in good shape” to
meet the challenges of Brexit but “we
want certainty and no surprises”, adding
that he wanted assurances on migrant
labour to protect colleagues working at
the Group.
Jo Whitfield, chief executive of the Food
business, said the Group’s commitment
to British suppliers offered it some
protection, but called for “certainty” from
the government on its supply chains.
“It’s tough because people are working
in uncertain conditions,” she said, adding
that there was still not enough information
to draw up contingency plans.
Asked if there plans to store food, Mr
Murrells said the Group had the capacity
to stockpile longer shelf-life products but
warned that the real area of need would
be on fresh produce, affecting its imports
of fruit and other short-life products.
“Even if we were to quadruple our
chilled storage at docks for fresh food, it
would not be enough,” he said.
“We are nimble and agile enough to do
the right thing to protect availability, but
we are keen that the government hears
our concerns.”
Beefed up ethical policy sees an end to single-use plastic bags
The Co-op Group has announced an end
to single-use plastic, with the removal of
60 million plastic carrier bags in a phased
rollout of an environmentally friendly
alternative.
The move is part of a radical new ethical
strategy at the Group, which will also
tackle food waste, healthy eating, saving
energy and trading fairly. It sets out how
the retailer will ban single-use own-brand
plastic products and reduce its overall
use of plastic packaging within five years,
and cut out hard to recycle materials, like
black plastic.
Lightweight compostable carrier bags,
which can be used to carry shopping home
and re-used as waste bags, will be rolled
out to almost 1,400 Co-op food stores
across England, Scotland and Wales.
The Group’s pledge on plastic will see
all its own-brand packaging become easy
to recycle by 2023. It has promised to use
a minimum of 50% recycled plastic in
bottles, pots, trays and punnets by 2021.
6 | OCTOBER 2018

Co-op Group staff
protest against
‘dangerous’ one-on-one
food store shifts
A group of Co-op Group workers have
handed a petition to the retailer’s head
office in Manchester to complain about
one-on-one shifts, where just two staff are
on duty in a store.
The petition, addressed to chief
executive Steve Murrells, calls on the
Group to: “Put an end to one-on-one
shifts and have at least three staff for all
shifts. Having just two staff is not enough
to do all the work required whilst keeping
customers happy.”
It adds: “It’s unsafe to have just one
member of staff on the shop floor and one
in the back in case of an accident. Please
put an end to one-on-one shifts and replace
them with something safer, better for the
customer and manageable for your staff.”
The staff members – working with
workplace campaign group Organise –
met the Group’s head of retail PR Craig
Noonan to discuss the issue, and handed
out a booklet to staff in the lobby, which
contained accounts of incidents including
armed robberies at Co-op stores, a lack
of security, and too much work being
expected of staff, the petition says.
The petition, which has attracted
5,904 signatures, adds: “We frequently
have customers complaining about
having to queue, about the lack of stock
on the shelves and the fact that there
are never staff members on the shop
floor to help customers. This not only
puts stress on the manager but also on
the rest of the staff, which leads to low
staff morale and staff members going
off sick. It also means good staff leaving
the company.
p Staff present the petition at the Group’s Manchester head office
“One-on-one shifts also cause problems
for health and safety as often there is
only one member of staff on shop floor,
leaving them vulnerable. The staff
member at the back of the store could also
have an accident; by the time the other
staff member realises, it might be too
late to help.”
A Group colleague at a store in
Maidstone, Kent, wrote: “I have been
held up at gun point before, and also a
machete. I’ve had altercations with plenty
of thieves and drunken people.”
From Wokingham, a colleague wrote:
“We have robbers come in to check out
how many people are on the shop floor
and then we get robbed! We regularly
have shoplifters but we are able to stop
them if we are not one-on-one.”
And in Greater Manchester, a worker
with type-1 diabetes wrote: “I have had
hypos due to not being able to have
a break being one-on-one. The fear
comes into play because of the dangers
if I pass out while in the warehouse and
the other member of staff is unaware.”
Other store colleagues complained of
customers being kept waiting because of
the short staffing, and said tasks had not
been completed efficiently.
A team member from Great Yarmouth
wrote: “If both myself and a team leader
are on the till, the shop floor itself is
not being correctly supervised and
monitored ... Staff are always going home
later than their shift.”
A Co-op Group spokesperson said:
“Safety of colleagues is our number one
priority and our policy is not to have lone
workers in any store.”
They added that the Group works
closely with police and other crime
prevention bodies to implement a range
of measures designed to deter and disrupt
criminal activity, while increasing the
likelihood of convictions.
All own-brand black and dark plastic
packaging, including black ready meal
trays, will be eliminated by 2020.
Jo Whitfield, head of Co-op Food,, said:
“The Co-op was founded on righting
wrongs, and we first campaigned to stop
food fraud. Now we face huge global
challenges and have created a recipe
for sustainability to source responsibly,
treat people with fairness and produce
products which have minimal impact on
the planet.
“We can’t do it alone, which is why
partnerships are key to our plan.”
The Future of Food report will be
unveiled at a supplier conference on 27
September. It has been developed to meet
the UN’s sustainable development goals
to end poverty, protect the planet and
ensure prosperity for all by 2030.
The Group already sources 100%
renewable energy for its stores, but will
go on to tackle greenhouse emissions at
its logistics operation and reduce energy,
water and waste in its supply chain.
It will continue to campaign for the
rights of workers in its supply chain,
having raised the issue of modern slavery,
and will raise funds to bring clean water
to communities in developing countries.
OCTOBER 2018 | 7

RETAIL
Profits at John Lewis
drop 99% amid tough
times on the high street
Profits at worker-owned retailer John
Lewis Partnership have fallen 99% before
tax and exceptional items in its half-year
results to 27 July, with chair Sir Charlie
Mayfield warning: “These are challenging
times in retail.”
The figure slumped to £1.2m from
£83m a year earlier. Gross sales were up
1.6% to £5,486.6m, revenue rose 1.5% to
£4,856.7m and profit before tax fell 80.5%
to £6m, with the results in line with a
warning made by the company in its
strategy update in June.
Profits for the full-year would be
“substantially lower”, it added, pointing
to uncertainty over Brexit negotiations.
The news comes a week after the
retailer launched a rebrand, accompanied
by a glossy TV ad, to emphasise its
partnership model. This saw the words “&
Partners” added to the Waitrose and John
Lewis brands.
But the Partnership also announced
around 200 job cuts to its back office,
with reports claiming that IT, finance and
store security staff will be affected. It also
revealed that 1,838 people had been made
redundant in the past year, 289% more
than in the previous 12 months.
New jobs have been created – including
600 staff hired when it opened its new
Westfield store in White City, London,
and grew its own-label design and
buying teams. In total, there are 700 fewer
employees across the group than a year
ago, and it has just over 83,000 staff.
The Partnership said: “Profits before
exceptionals are always lower and more
volatile in the first
half than the second
half. It is especially so
this half year, driven
mainly by John Lewis
& Partners where
gross margin has been
squeezed.
“The pressure on
gross margin has
predominantly been
from our commitment
to maintain price
competitiveness.
“We have seen an
unprecedented level
of price matching as
other retailers have
discounted heavily.
“Gross margin was
also affected by a sales
mix shift towards
electronics rather
than big ticket items
in Home. In addition,
John Lewis & Partners
profits were impacted
by the costs of new
shops and higher IT
costs as we continued to invest for future
growth, and from lower property profits
compared to last year.”
At Waitrose & Partners, profits were
down on last year, but the report added:
“From Q1 to Q2 there has been marked
improvement in like-for-like sales as
well as good progress in rebuilding gross
margin, and we are on track for profit
growth for the full year.”
With the “level of uncertainty facing
consumers and the economy, in part
due to ongoing Brexit negotiations”, the
Partnership said it was hard to forecast
the next six months, but that it expected
profits to be down.
Sir Charlie told BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme that the weak pound
following the Brexit vote had increased
costs, and warned that a no-deal Brexit
“would be a very bad outcome for the
UK and the consequences are extremely
unpredictable”.
He added that Waitrose would not
be able to stockpile goods in case food
deliveries from the EU were interrupted,
adding: “It rots, and you waste it.”
The Partnership said there had been
extra costs including investment in cyber
security and data protection, but “total
net debts are £700m less than last year
and we continue to maintain a strong
liquidity position.
“This is all consistent with our plans to
ensure a strong financial position in order
to invest in our strategy of differentiation
at a rate of £400m-£500m per year.”
It added: “Our Partnership structure
and our Partners are key differentiators for
us in a highly competitive and changing
retail market.
“The launch last week of John Lewis &
Partners and Waitrose & Partners reflects
our ambition for the future.”
8 | OCTOBER 2018

COMMUNITY SHARES
Standard bearer for community shares notches up a century
p Eden-Rose Community Ltd, the 100th organisation to win the mark
The Community Shares Standard Mark –
the ‘rubber stamp’ for community shares
– has issued its 100th certificate, to a
charity set up to help people with lifelimiting
conditions.
Launched in 2015, the Standard
Mark was developed by the Community
Shares Unit, run by Co-operatives UK
and Locality, with early support from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The scheme assesses and certifies the
quality and viability of share offers and is
presented to community share offers that
meet national standards of good practice.
The 100th certificate was presented
to Eden-Rose Community Ltd, a Suffolkbased
charity, during Communities Week
2018 (10-17 September).
The organisation aims to raise £80,000
from the local community to support its
mission to use woodlands and the natural
environment as a way to provide support
to children and adults with life-limiting
illnesses such as cancer.
“We’re thrilled to find out that our
forthcoming share offer received the 100th
Standard Mark,” said Jo Brookes from
Eden-Rose.
“Going through the Standard Mark
process was crucial for our organisation
as we develop our community business
offer to actively complement the front-line
work of our charity.”
The charity is also receiving support
from the Booster Programme, another
scheme run by the Community Shares
Unit and backed by Power to Change.
The Booster Programme provides
development grants of up to £10,000
and invests equity of up to £100,000 to
match community shares in societies that
can demonstrate higher than average
levels of community impact, innovation
and engagement.
In September, Co-operatives UK
unveiled research showing that one in
four people would invest money or time
to help save a local community asset; 23%
would be likely to invest to help save their
local pub from closure, and they would
give time and energy to help run other
local assets such as a local park or public
space (25%), historical site or building
(24%) or cinema or theatre (16%).
“It’s so inspiring to see communities
responding in such a proactive way
to the challenges they face, and using
community share offers to achieve their
dreams,” said Ed Mayo, secretary general
of Co-operatives UK.
“As well as helping to save and develop
local assets, community shareholders
become co-owners with an equal say in
how the enterprise is run. We encourage
other communities to be inspired by
the likes of Eden-Community Ltd.
WHAT ARE COMMUNITY SHARES?
Community shares are a way for
communities to crowdfund to save,
launch or develop enterprises,
such as pubs or renewable energy
projects, by investing often small
sums of money and becoming
co-owners in the process.
Community shares are a type
of withdrawable share capital
unique to co-operative and
community benefit societies; this
type of share capital can only be
issued by co-operative societies,
community benefit societies and
charitable community benefit
societies.
Since 2009, almost 120,000
people across the UK have
raised more than £100m through
community shares to save or
create 350 local assets.
The support is out there – what can
your community achieve together?”
Communities wanting to find
out more or who are considering
community share offers should
contact: communityshares@uk.coop
OCTOBER 2018 | 9

FINANCE
Two more credit
unions awarded 5-star
Fairbanking Mark
Clockwise Credit Union and Transave
Credit Union have received the 5-star
Fairbanking Mark for their loan products.
This means 17 credit unions across
Britain have received the mark from
the Fairbanking Foundation, which
was established in 2008 to encourage
and assist the development of banking
products that improve the financial
wellbeing of their users by enabling them
to manage their money better.
Clockwise’s general manager, Teresa
Manning, said: “We are absolutely
delighted. We are proud to be part of the
credit union community and fostering
the credit union ethos. We passionately
believe in putting our members’ needs at
the heart of all we do.
“This award reflects our commitment
to leading the way in improving the
financial wellbeing of our community
and its people with a quality loan product
appropriate to their needs, and providing
first class customer service.”
Rachael Hardman-Jones, chief
executive of Transave, said: “Everyone
at Transave Credit Union is overjoyed.
Obviously, this achievement reflects very
well on those connected with the credit
union, their hard work and dedication.
But more importantly, it is recognition that
the financial wellbeing of its members is
hardwired into Transave’s DNA.”
Aidene Walsh, chief executive of the
Fairbanking Foundation, said: “We’re
delighted to recognise the effectiveness
of the personal loans of Clockwise and
Transave Credit Unions.
“We have now assessed the personal
loan products of 17 credit unions and
evidence shows that credit unions are
playing an increasingly important role
in people’s financial lives in the UK.
Fairbanking looks forward to certifying
more credit unions across all products
in 2018.”
Central England’s new
Food store in Ashby
RETAIL
Strong results
for Central
England
Central England Co-operative
has announced a strong
financial performance for the
first half of 2018. The society’s
interim results show sales
grew by 3.6% to £476.9m
compared with the same
period last year, with trading
profit rising by £1m (8%) to
£12.9m.
In the first six months, the business invested £12.4m in a
growth strategy which includes the opening of six new Food
Stores, one new Funeral Home and two New Funeral Booking
Offices alongside the renovation of another 32 sites.
Martyn Cheatle, Central England chief executive, said the
results were “encouraging” and reflected the “hard work of our
colleagues” and continued focus across the Society on providing
great service and products to members and customers.
“Our performance so far in 2018 has again demonstrated the
Society’s resilience as a strong and successful independent cooperative
business,” he said.
RETAIL
Co-op Group and Scotmid salute
Scottish food and drink suppliers
Scotland’s farmers, food and drink manufacturers and suppliers
were honoured at the first ever Co-op Scottish Supplier Awards..
The event was jointly organised by the Co-op Group and
Scotmid Co-op as part of Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight
(1-16 September). Between them, the retailers stock more than
1,800 Scottish lines in their stores.
The winners are:
• Bakery of the Year – Stag Bakeries Ltd
• Beers, Wines and Spirit Product of the Year – Rock Rose Gin
by Dunnet Bay Distellers and Innis and Gunn’s Craft Brewed
Lager
• Best Agricultural Initiative – Rattlerow Scotland Ltd
• Fresh Product of the Year – AVA Rosa Strawberries by Angus
Soft Fruits
• Grocery Product of the Year – Equi’s Isle of Skye Sea Salt and
Caramel Ice Cream
• Investor in Scottish Communities – Malcolm Allan Ltd Family
Butcher and Tennent’s Lager
• Local Supplier of the Year – Equi’s Ice Cream
• Most Sustainable Supplier – We Hae Meat Ltd
• New Product of the Year – Protein 22 by Graham’s Family Dairy
• Own-label supplier of the Year – Angus Soft Fruits
• Supplier of the Year (Judges’ Choice) – A. G Barr soft drinks
10 | OCTOBER 2018

East of England scores with anti-social behaviour scheme
MEDIA
New Internationalist
relaunches print mag
The New Internationalist magazine will
come in a new format from September, as
a bimonthly publication of 84 pages.
Based in Oxford, New Internationalist
was set up 44 years ago as a worker co-op.
Last year it changed its legal structure from
a worker co-op registered as a company to a
co-operative society.
During the conversion, the New
Internationalist received financial
support from the Hive and the Community
Shares Company, while around 3,400
readers bought £700,000 worth
of shares, becoming co-owners in the New
Internationalist Co-operative. It is now the
UK’s largest media co-op.
The new-look New Internationalist
includes more in-depth features and
investigative articles as well as underreported
stories from the Global South.
The September edition is themed around
peace and looks at the struggle against
Boko Haram in Nigeria, Colombia’s
fragile transition from conflict, the role
of traditional diplomacy in the age of
Twitter, and potential routes to peace.
“This is a great time to relaunch,” said
co-editor Hazel Healy. “People want a
progressive, trusted publication to help
make sense of the world. With more space
and a sharper design, we can go further
in-depth and appeal to new audiences
who might not have heard of us.”
Co-editor Dinyar Godrej added: “In the
last few years, we have been focusing
more than ever on the kind of coverage
that our readers hold dear – out-of-thebox
thinking, providing a platform for
vital but often marginalised voices and
grappling with the issues that matter
rather than what’s currently trending.
“Now, we feel, we have a form that fits.”
Co-op Secure Response – part of the East
of England Co-op – has run a programme
of football games to help young people
engage with local authorities. The
project was the joint initiative of Co-op
Secure Response, Suffolk Police, Chantry
Academy and Suffolk County Council. It
was designed to discourage anti-social
behaviour by providing a positive activity
for young people to take part in.
Scotmid to mark 160th anniversary with new store
Scotmid Co-op is building a state-of-theart
convenience store in Drumnadrochit
to celebrate its 160th anniversary. The
4,500 sq ft store will open in the new year.
The society wants to enhance customers’
shopping experience at the store with
a tailored architectural structure and
spacious layout. It is also continuing the
rollout of its remodelled stores.
Midcounties Co-op Fun Day raises £20,000 for charity
A fun day organised by Midcounties
Co-op on 19 August raised £20,000 for
local charities and community groups.
The event featured a cast of popular
characters – including Chewbacca
and stormtroopers from Star Wars and
children’s cartoon favourites Peppa Pig
and Cat Boy from PJ Mask. Attractions
included a fun fair, and BMX stunts.
Anthony Collins Solicitors to give legal support to co-ops
Anthony Collins Solicitors has won a threeyear
contract to provide legal support
to eligible members of Co-operatives
UK. Their role will include advising
co-ops from different sectors on a range
of matters under a legal surgery service,
including commercial advice, contract
matters, property and co-op law.
Central England Co-op acquires six travel shops
Central England Co-op has agreed to take
on six travel branches from Thomas Cook,
bringing the number of travel branches
operated by the society to 26. The six
sites, which are already based in the
society’s food stores in Atherstone,
Oakham, Stirchley, Castle Donington,
Glenfield and Ibstock.
OCTOBER 2018 | 11

COMMUNITY PUBS
Ambitious plan will see burnt-out pub rise from the ashes
The people of a picturesque but deprived
village in Cornwall are preparing to
rebuild and reopen a derelict pub that
burnt down five years ago.
The Old Ship in Cawsand has been
bought by a community benefit society
with support from Co-operative &
Community Finance, Plunkett Foundation,
and the More Than a Pub programme. The
society wants to rebuild the pub, create
new community facilities and provide
affordable rented accommodation.
Cawsand is on the Rame Peninsula
in the south-eastern corner of Cornwall
near the Devon border; the rural area
comprises seven village, and has suffered
from the decline in dockyard employment
in nearby Plymouth alongside a lack of
affordable housing.
In response, community organisation
the Peninsula Trust has undertaken a
number of initiatives to improve local
prospects, and has become involved in the
restoration of the Old Ship. Co-operative
& Community Finance has helped fund
three of the trust’s previous projects,
including the buying and conversion of a
disused bank building.
p The society wants to restore the historic site as a community hub
Simon Ryan, one of the founders of the
community benefit society, said: “We will
work closely with heritage specialists to
retain and show as much of the original
fabric as we can. There is a smuggler’s
tunnel in there somewhere. The Old
Ship was one of Cawsand’s oldest pubs.
We want to bring it back to life under
community ownership.
“Housing is the biggest problem
affecting our community. Unless
something changes, the heart of the
village will disappear because people,
especially the young, can’t find anywhere
to live at a price they can afford – so they
leave and the village loses out. We want to
build five flats on the upper floors, to be let
at reasonable rents on secure tenancies.
“On the ground floor, we want to
recreate the bar area, using the memories
and photos of the older local people. We
will add a café with a large children’s area
and also include a village information
section for locals and visitors. At the rear,
we’re hoping to build a small Heritage
Centre, supported by local experts.”
Over 300 people have bought shares
in The Old Ship Inn Cawsand Ltd, raising
over £137,500. The target date for
reopening the pub is June 2019.
MUSIC
Community shares bid
to keep a threatened
gig venue rocking
A Bristol music venue is selling shares to
the public in a bid to secure its future as a
community-owned co-operative.
The Exchange, in the city’s Old Market,
announced last month that it was facing
financial difficulties and in response has
put forward the community shares offer to
protect its future.
The 250-capacity venue hopes to raise
£250,000 after putting shares on sale to
the public 4 September – marked by a
publicity event at the Exchange.
Matt Otridge, one of the Exchange’s
three directors, said: “We are in this
industry because we are music fans. At the
moment, we tick along and make a little
bit of money but every year people like
myself are required to give up our time for
free and we just can’t carry on like that.
“A venue is bigger than its directors
and its future shouldn’t be tied to them.
By doing this we can ensure that the
Exchange continues to exist as a music
venue and also bring new blood and ideas
into the decision-making process.”
If successful, the campaign will see
the Exchange become the country’s first
community-owned music-only venue. The
project has already gained considerable
backing, with messages of support
and pledges coming in from singersongwriter
Frank Turner and Geoff Barrow
of Portishead.
The minimum share price of £250
entitles the shareholder to a vote at the
AGM where they can influence how all
aspects of the business are run, including
the programme and scheduling. Shares
are limited to one per investor, regardless
of the amount invested, and investors will
see an annual return of 3% cash or 6%
in-store credit.
Since opening in 2012, the Exchange
has become Bristol’s go-to venue for punk
and hardcore acts. Anyone wishing to
participate in its new business model can
enquire about shares online.
12 | OCTOBER 2018

CREDIT UNIONS
As Wonga goes to the wall, can credit unions seize the moment?
With payday lender Wonga entering
administration, the Association of British
Credit Unions (Abcul) has highlighted
credit unions’ role in providing an
alternative to high-cost creditors.
In spite of the payday lender’s collapse,
customers will still make any outstanding
payments in the normal way. Around
200,000 Wonga customers owe more than
£400m in short-term loans.
In a statement published on 30 August,
the FCA confirmed that all existing
agreements remained in place and would
not be affected by the administration.
However, the firm is no longer able
to issue new loans. The repayments
will be overseen by administrators
Grant Thornton.
Wonga was the UK’s biggest payday
lender. In 2014 the FCA ordered the
business to pay £2.6m to 45,000 customers
for “unfair practices”. New payday loan
regulations introduced in 2015 required
all online lenders to advertise on at least
one price comparison website. The FCA
also imposed a cap on fees and charges
on payday loans at double what was
borrowed, which affected Wonga’s profits.
In 2016, the payday lender reported pretax
losses of nearly £65m.
Abcul’s head of policy and
communication, Matt Bland, warned
that the closure of Wonga should not
be confused with the end of high-cost
lending or payday lending.
He said: “The interest rate cap regime
has caused most short-term lenders
to adapt their lending practices and
many now offer loans on instalment
repayment plans which, while still very
expensive, are much better for consumers.
And while the FCA’s consumer credit
regime had produced improvements
in practices in many respects, lenders
continue to grow and lend to people
who find difficulty accessing credit from
the mainstream.
“Credit unions offer an alternative
to these high-cost creditors which puts
people’s long-term financial resilience at
its heart. They will lend people the smaller
sums that banks won’t consider but at
reasonable rates of interest. At the same
time they encourage people to save, which
is the only long-term route out of a cycle of
p Stella Creasy has been campaigning against payday lenders (Photo: Andrew Wiard/Co-op Party)
debt. The Fairbanking Foundation’s Save
As You Borrow report demonstrates the
power of this method.
Stats published by the Bank of England
in September show that credit unions
have two million members across the UK.
Total assets reported also reached £3.2bn,
2% higher for the first quarter of 2018,
compared to the same period last year.
Mr Bland says Abcul is working closely
with the government, regulators, banks
and others to support the sector.
“With changes to legislation and
regulation, and some targeted investment
and partnerships with employers to
deliver services in the workplace, credit
unions could become an even more
significant force in providing an ethical
source of credit,” he added.
Writing for the Guardian, Labour/Co-op
MP Stella Creasy, who has been leading a
campaign against payday lenders, warned
that Wonga’s demise would not lead to
an end of “legal loan sharking”. She
pointed out that the number of payday
lenders had fallen but 150 such lenders
continued to operate in the UK. She added
that some lenders offer high cost credit
cards while others ask for guarantors to
chase more people for the same debt.
Actor and activist Michael Sheen also
called on the government to ensure that
Wonga would be sold to an ethical lender.
In March 2018 Mr Sheen launched the
End of High Cost Credit Alliance, which
promotes affordable alternatives, such as
credit unions. Speaking to the Observer,
he added that the collapse of Wonga
was an opportunity for the government
to support “fair and responsible”
credit providers.
Meanwhile, the Scottish government
has pledged to continue its efforts to grow
the credit union sector in its programme
for 2018/2019.
“We know that accessing affordable
credit is a concern generally across
Scotland,” it says. “That is why we are
investing £1m in the Affordable Credit
Fund, working with the Carnegie UK Trust
to reduce the ‘poverty premium’ lowincome
households often have to pay.
“Care-experienced young people,
in particular, can face considerable
challenges to borrow money. We want to
help. Over the next year, we will work with
the Care Review to develop options which
will help these young people increase
access to financial services.”
Karen Hurst, Scottish policy officer
for Abcul, said: “We’ve been working
closely with the Scottish government on
developing the campaign, and are really
excited to see it launch in November.”
OCTOBER 2018 | 13

CO-OP LAW
Building a co-op
commonwealth: UK
movement calls for
a supportive legal
environment
UK co-ops operate in one of the least
supportive legal systems in the EU,
co-op law specialist Cliff Mills told the UK
Society for Co-operative Studies annual
conference in Sheffield last month.
Mr Mills, a consultant with Anthony
Collins Solicitors and principal associate
at sector advocate Mutuo, presented a
study of the laws of Norway and all EU
member states apart from Luxembourg
and Slovenia.
One issue he highlighted was indivisible
reserves – funds set aside from the
surplus, not available for distribution to
members, but owned collectively by them.
These reserves can absorb trading losses
and fund training and development.
This type of ownership is not very
familiar to the UK, where there is a
more individualistic understanding of
ownership, he added. “We see it as a
restriction on an individual’s rights if
something is indivisible,” he said.
But some EU states make it compulsory
for co-ops to set funds aside, and the third
co-op principle says members should
allocate surpluses, “possibly by setting up
reserves, part of which at least would be
indivisible”.
Six states refer to co-ops in their
national constitutions: Bulgaria, Greece,
Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
But the UK is one of five EU states –
alongside Denmark, Estonia, Ireland and
the Netherlands – with no separate law
for co-ops. It has the Co-operative and
Community Benefit Societies Act of 2014,
but this is not a co-op law in the sense that
some EU states have one. And the lack of a
co-op status in UK law hinders legal
practitioners from exploring the model.
Most EU states define co-ops – but again,
the UK is one of four that do not, alongside
Estonia, Ireland and the Netherlands. And
it is one of six states which do not require
a proportion of surplus to be set aside
for reserves – alongside Austria, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Ireland and Norway.
p Cliff Mills, a specialist in co-op law
Mr Mills said the most supportive states
in terms of co-op legislation were Greece,
Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Croatia,
Cyprus, France, Hungary and Romania.
The least supportive were in Austria,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
He said the UK sector needs a
conversation about indivisible reserves
and making a common cause with other
states that do not have co-operative law to
get recognition at higher level.
Mr Mills’ remarks echo other calls from
the movement for a more conducive legal
environment. Co-operatives UK is asking
Companies House to change its co-op
definition to draw more directly on the
International Co-operative Alliance’s
Statement on the Co-operative Identity.
By law companies can only use the word
“co-operative” in their name if they satisfy
Companies House that they meet certain
criteria. These include being owned and
controlled by members who participate
in the economic activity of the business,
having voluntary and open membership,
and distributing profits equally among the
members, or at least in proportion to the
extent each member has participated.
Co-ops can also register as societies with
the Financial Conduct Authority. In this
case, the main criterion is being a bona
fide co-op – “an autonomous association
of persons united voluntarily to meet their
common economic, social and cultural
needs and aspirations through a jointly
owned and democratically controlled
enterprise”. Notable exceptions include
the Co-op Bank.
James Wright, policy officer at
Co-operatives UK, said: “For a couple
of years we’ve been working with our
members to establish the case for statutory,
but optional, ‘asset lock’ mechanisms for
co-ops, including indivisible reserves and
disinterested distribution at windup. These
tools could help create a ‘commonwealth’
model for UK co-ops: providing a
better basis for capital to be pooled in
co-ops, built up over time, invested in
other co-ops, and, if a co-op comes to an
end, recycled in the co-op economy.
“A consultation we ran with members
in 2016 suggested we should anticipate
broad and strong demand for optional
statutory ‘asset lock’ tools. But we should
anticipate some strong opposition too –
on the grounds that these measures would
be undemocratic and/or unnecessary.”
But Mr Wright warned against “rushing
ahead with legislative projects that end
up suffering from too little consultation or
scrutiny” and instead look at what works
– and what doesn’t work – abroad.
“We can also learn from our experiences
in the UK,” he said. “For example, while
it has proven extremely useful, the asset
lock for community benefit societies is
increasingly understood to contain some
difficult dysfunctions. We can’t afford
more sub-optimal legislation.”
He added: “Our advocacy has recently
led the New Economics Foundation to
make commonwealth reforms a priority
in co-op policy. And there may soon be
opportunities to progress to legislative
design with government support, but coproduction
with the sector must be central
to this, not an adjunct.”
u More reports from the UKSCS annual
conference, pages 28-31
14 | OCTOBER 2018

GLOBAL UPDATES
USA
Electric co-ops feel the force of Hurricane Florence
With Hurricane Florence set to make
landfall on the Carolina coastline, electric
co-ops in the US have made preparations
to deal with the emergency.
The storm is expected to make landfall
at noon local time on Friday and is moving
at wind speeds of 90mph, threatening
power outages which could last
for weeks.
The National Hurricane Center says
the storm is an extremely dangerous one,
bringing a high volume of rainfall and
storm surges, with the threat of a serious
death toll from inland flooding.
Georgia, North and South Carolina,
Virginia and Maryland have declared
a state of emergency and sea water is
washing through coastal streets.
NRECA, the national body for the
USA’s electric co-ops, said the storm has
already caused power outages for co-op
members, with crews standing down until
conditions are safe to carry out repairs.
The organisation says it is closely
monitoring the situation and supporting
co-ops in North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia and Virginia.
NRECA’s communications and
government relations departments are
leading the effort, which is designed to
provide resources to electric co-ops as
they respond to the storm.
During Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and
Maria, NRECA says supported affected
p A team from Tennessee’s Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative takes men and equipment to
assist co-op recovery efforts in North Caroline (Photo: Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative)
co-ops by providing talking points, social
media guidance, and media outreach.
NRECA also coordinates with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency,
the Department of Energy and other
federal agencies during extreme weather
events, keeping them updated on its
members’ response to the storm.
Power outages are expected to be
widespread, with hurricane and tropicalstorm-force
winds hitting some areas for
36 to 48 hours or longer.
Lisa Galizia, communications director
of Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative,
based in Newport, NC, told NRECA’s
website: “We will not put our crews
in harm’s way, and we will not send
anyone out to assess damages and begin
repairs until it is safe to do so.
“People need to remember, too, that
damage may cause outages to systems
up the line from us, such as transmission
lines, which we cannot control.”
The co-operative said that power was
out to thousands of its meters as the storm
set in.
Crews could be forced to sit the storm
out until winds subside to under 35
sustained mph, due to safety concern.
They will not be able to deploy bucket
trucks and are also at risk from falling
trees and windblown debris.
PUERTO RICO
New legal framework eases the way for energy co-ops
Puerto Rico’s state senate has taken steps
to diversify its energy industry by passing
a law on 27 August to provide a framework
for co-ops in the sector.
The legislation aims to transform
the territory’s energy sector and help
communities become more resilient by
forming co-operatives.
Under the rules, an energy co-op will
require a minimum of five members before
setting up. People will be able to develop
co-ops to generate energy for themselves,
as well as distribute it or sell it to the grid.
The law mentions that electric co-ops will
also need to ensure they charge fair tariffs.
The general law of co-operative
societies has also been amended to
include renewable energy co-ops.
In a report to the senate, the
government’s energy department said the
changes are a response to Puerto Rico’s
financial crisis and the need to rebuild
after Hurricane María, which devastated
the island last September.
The territory’s renewable energy
association says the law should be used to
develop renewable energy co-operatives
rather than fossil fuel co-ops.
The Coalition for Economic
Co-operation of Puerto Rico welcomed
the law, which it sees as an opportunity
to develop a decentralised energy system.
Larry Seilhamer, president of the
special energy commission, said: “In
the current environment faced by Puerto
Rico, it is necessary and worthy to enable
communities to explore alternatives to
generate, transmit and distribute their
energy. In this sense, energy public policy
needs to grant communities more access
to this essential type of service. The
co-operative model is ideal.”
OCTOBER 2018 | 15

DENMARK
Dairy co-op Arla will give entire 2018 profit to farmers hit by drought
p Dead cornfields in the Netherlands – a typical sight in Europe during the drought
Arla Foods, one of the world’s biggest
dairy firms, is to pay out its entire 2018
net profit of up to €310m (£278.48m) to
its members after one of the hottest and
driest summers on record.
The proposal from the agri co-op’s
board follows significant improvement in
Arla’s finances over recent years.
The firm, owned by 11,200 farmers in
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Britain,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and
Belgium, traditionally pays only a part of
its profit to owners, but said it would make
an exception this year.
Company chair Jan Toft Nørgaard
said: “The board recognises that many
Arla farmers are facing a tough financial
situation due to this summer’s drought in
Europe, and that it is in Arla’s best interest
for this year’s net profit to be paid out to
the farmers.
“Arla’s board of directors has discussed
and agreed on a proposal for the
company’s supreme governing body,
the board of representatives, to pay out
the entire net profit from 2018 when
the annual results are approved early
next year, thus making a one-year only
deviation from the company’s usual profit
appropriation policy.”
He added: “As a farmer-owned dairy
company, we care deeply about the
livelihood of our farmers and we recognise
that this summer’s drought in Europe has
been extraordinary.
“We are proposing that extraordinary
measures be taken in this situation,
and the board is satisfied with the
improvement in the company’s finances,
which makes this proposal possible.”
The move comes as farmers across
Europe try to recoup losses after the
heatwave hit cereal harvests and dried
out pastures, leaving some on the edge
of bankruptcy and shutting the EU out of
lucrative export markets.
“It is obvious farmers have had a tough
time acquiring fodder, and it’s been more
expensive. This puts the farmers’ economy
under pressure,” Arla chief executive
Peder Tuborgh told Reuters press agency.
The proposal will be discussed at the
next board of representatives meeting in
October, and brought forward for a final
decision at the meeting in February 2019
when the annual results are approved.
A statement from Arla added that the
amount of this payout remains subject to
there being no material changes to the
profit level or financial outlook at the end
of the year.
If approved, the extraordinary payment
will follow Arla’s regular supplementary
payment timetable with money being paid
out in March 2019.
The company says it will return to
its existing retainment policy for the
remainder of the current strategic period,
affecting the financial years of 2019
and 2020.
“Our balance sheet has improved
significantly over the last few years,”
said Mr Tuborgh, “and the strength
of our balance sheet makes room for
this extraordinary initiative while still
maintaining our investment plans
for the continued future growth of
the company.”
16 | OCTOBER 2018

SPAIN
DCOOP Group
acquires
20% stake in US olive
producer Bell-Carter
Agri-food business DCOOP has acquired a
20% stake in Bell-Carter, the largest table
olive producer in the US and the second
largest in the world.
As part of the deal, DCOOP’s USA
branch, Acorsa USA, will be integrated
into the Bell-Carter structure, with the
aim of strengthening its position in the
USA market.
Bell-Carter produces and sells over
half of all California olives, processing
between 40,000 and 60,000 tons of olives
each year.
The DCOOP Group includes 180 co-ops
with 75,000 families and two production
plants, which process a total of 100,000
tons a year.
In 2017, the value of the co-op’s total
exports amounted to €541m, a 10.5%
increase from 2016. The co-op exports
to 72 countries, the USA being its third
biggest olive oil market after Europe
and Japan.
Last year, DCOOP, which is the largest
olive oil co-operative in the world,
signed an agreement with Pompeian
Group, a Baltimore-based importer
and manufacturer of olive oil. The deal
increased the companies’ stakes in one
another from 20% to 50%.
A spokesperson for the co-op said: “We
are farmers and we want our products to
be marketed all over the world. The US
is an important market where we have
already been selling olives and oil, as part
of the Pompeian project.
“With this agreement, we intend to
encourage the consumption of more olives
in the US and we believe the alliance with
leading company Bell-Carter will help in
that respect. We are very excited about
the partnership and we now have to work
together to drive olive consumption in the
USA and around the world.”
The collaboration with Bell-Carter
comes at a time when Spanish olives
are facing total taxes of 34.75% to enter
the USA’s market. By buying a share in
the business, DCOOP has ensured it will
continue to grow in the USA.
According to Copa Cogeca, the
organisations representing European
farmers and agri co-operatives, Spanish
imports have already faced additional
duties totalling 21.6% since January this
year, causing Spanish exports to the USA
to drop by as much as 42.4% in the first
quarter of 2018.
Agrosevilla, a Spanish group of 12
co-operatives and 4,000 producers,
announced restructuring plans to cope
with the USA’s tariffs. The group is Spain’s
largest olive oil co-operative exporter.
The right ingredients
/sumawholefoods
Perfected over 40 years of worker co-operation
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OCTOBER 2018 | 17

EUROPE
Cooperatives Europe wants young co-op
entrepreneurs to share their stories
Cooperatives Europe is calling on young
co-operative entrepreneurs to share their
stories in short videos.
It hopes to collect 10-20 short videos to
share on social media under the hashtag
#ImACoopStarter. Young co-operators
wishing to take part have to introduce
themselves and their business, say why
they chose the co-op model, and what
advice they would give other young
people thinking of starting a co-op.
Each answer must be maximum of 20
seconds long.
The films are part of the Coop Starter 2.0.
project, a European initiative launched
last year to mobilise youth around
co-operative entrepreneurship.
The programme is funded by the
European Commission and builds on the
previous CoopStarter project, created
by eight partner organisations across
Europe to teach younger people about the
co-operative business model.
Cooperatives Europe is the regional
office of the International Co-operative
Alliance and one of the partner
organisations. The others are Legacoop
Liguria (Italy), Kooperationen (Denmark),
K.A.P.A Network (Greece), Promo
Jeunes ASBL (Belgium), CJDES (France),
AEGEE (Belgium) and the Co-operative
College (UK).
Video submissions can be
sent to: e.rosenberg@coopseurope.coop
Participants also need to post on social
media using the hashtag #CoopStarter
and mentioning @coopseurope. More
details on Cooperatives Europe’s website.
USA
Going global: Skincare co-op
takes its healthy message to the States
Skin health co-op JooMo presented its
research on microbiomes in San Francisco
last month.
Working with the Medical University of
Graz, in Austria, JooMo is looking at the
possible link between cosmetics and the
enormous rise in skin allergy problems in
the western world. It focuses on the effect
of cosmetics on human skin microbiomes
– communities of micro-organisms.
JooMo, which unveiled the findings at
the Global Skin Microbiome Congress,
says the trials show how high street
cosmetics appear to maintain the depleted
western microbiome, while third-wave
microbiome-friendly products like JooMo
increase skin microbiome biodiversity,
which improves skin health.
Everyday cosmetics were also shown
to greatly de-moisturise the skin, a key
reason why skin becomes damaged, the
co-op says – while its own third-wave
technology makes it “the only product to
maintain skin moisture”.
Kit Wallen Russell – research coordinator
and lead author of the peer-reviewed
2017 paper Meta Analysis of the Skin
Microbiome – said: “The terrifying rise in
skin allergies has led many to speculate
whether regular contact with everyday
cosmetics are a major contributor to this
problem.”
“These results, coupled with other
complementary research, are now
suggesting a definitive link.”
This should not really come as any great
surprise, he adds, pointing out that the
food industry has been restricting the use
of additives for many decades.
“Cosmetics consumers are finally
cottoning on to the fact that covering their
bodies with harsh unfamiliar chemicals
every day probably isn’t a good idea,”
he said.
“These results show how the cosmetics
industry must urgently introduce the same
safety standards as the food industry,
including the ending of misleading
labelling and the severe restriction in the
use of chemical additives.”
JooMo, which is based in Reading, UK,
was formed in response to an increase in
childhood skin problems and developed a
100% natural preservative-free face wash.
p JooMo offers all-natural products
18 | OCTOBER 2018

CHILE
Laying the
groundwork for an
agri co-op revival
Chile’s agriculture minister Antonio
Walker has announced a meeting of
Congress in October to explore “the
best legislation to reinvigorate modern
co-operativism in Chile”.
Speaking at a special session on
co-operatives, organised by the senator
of the Los Ríos region, Alfonso de
Urresti, the minister said: “Co-operatives
represent the most important opportunity
for the development of the economy and
our agriculture.”
Of Chile’s 300,000 farmers in Chile,
285,000 work at small scale, and Mr
Walker is calling for greater co-operation
and collaboration within the sector.
“The ministry of agriculture strongly
advocates modern co-operativism,
productive alliances, forming teams and
breaking individualism, because this
game is won as a team – and the way to
do that is by promoting co-operation,”
he said. “We have a very demanding
international market in terms of volume
and quality, and for that we have to
unite, we have to come together – and
co-operativism is a central issue.”
The session, held at Chile’s national
Congress, was also attended by the
president of the Senate, Carlos Montes,
and the president of the agriculture
committee, Carmen Gloria Aravena.
Mr Walker said initiatives to unite
farmers and encourage co-operation
“are in line with what we want to
p A vineyard in the Coquimbo region
develop ... We have to form a team to
adapt Chilean agriculture to the modern
co-operativism that’s working in other
parts of the world.
“We’re working on this – it’s a very
important focus for our ministry and we
are going to hold an international congress
on October 3 and 4, where we are inviting
senators to participate and support us
to explore what is the best legislation to
reinvigorate modern co-operativism
in Chile.”
FRANCE
Co-op champers beats the big-name bubblies in taste test
A blind tasting of Champagnes, held by
industry magazine The Drinks Business
last month, saw lesser-known labels from
the region’s co-ops outdo famous rivals.
Among the seven Champagnes that
gained a Gold medal or higher in the Brut
Non-Vintage category were Champagnes
Palmer and Pannier, two brands owned
and run by co-ops. They were placed
above celebrated – and more expensive
– labels, such as Champagnes Pommery
and Laurent-Perrier.
Co-op label Champagne Castelnau
achieved a near-perfect score in the
vintage Champagne category, for its
release from the 2006 harvest. The same
category saw the 2008 vintage from
Champagne Chassenay d’Arce – a growers’
co-op in the Aube – pick up a Gold.
Finally, one of the highest-scoring
Champagnes of the day’s tasting – which
saw almost 200 bottles sampled blind
by experienced judges – was Egérie
p Egérie de Pannier 2006
de Pannier 2006, the top cuvée from
Pannier co-op. Gaining 97 points out of
100, it was praised for its combination of
complementary flavours, from lemon and
honey, to toast and grilled nuts, along with
an uplifting, lasting and very fresh, dry
finish. It costs £75, but the Drinks Business
says this is “amazing value relative to
other special blends in this top-end
Champagne category, from Dom Pérignon
to Cristal, which can retail for almost
double the price”.
Among other co-op Champagnes that
performed well were labels from Nicolas
Feuillatte, Montandon and Jacquart, each
picking up Silver medals for a range of
cuvées.
The Drinks Business added: “Although
Champagnes sourced from growers’
co-operatives are often believed to be
of lesser quality, the tasting in August
proved that such producers can achieve
outstanding results, and even make
superior cuvées than the famous Grandes
Marques, despite the lower prices.
“For those who know the Champagne
region well, however, such an outcome
may not surprise, with co-operatives
being major suppliers of grapes and wine
to many well-known names in the region,
who own few vineyards themselves.”
OCTOBER 2018 | 19

EUROPE
Mixed co-op reaction to Juncker’s State of the Union speech
The co-operative sector has responded
to the State of the Union speech delivered
on 12 September by president of the
European Commission, Jean-Claude
Juncker.
Addressing the European Parliament,
Mr Juncker announced a series of policy
proposals around immigration, Brexit,
the economy, the 2019 elections and
strengthening the union’s partnership
with Africa.
Responding to the speech, Cooperatives
Europe, the regional organisation of the
International Co-operative Alliance, said
it agrees with president Juncker on the
need for “a strong and united Europe”
but argued this would only be achieved by
ensuring strong links with citizens.
And it regrets the omission of the
White Paper on the Future of Europe, an
initiative that puts citizens at the heart of
building and determining the future path
for Europe.
In February, Cooperatives Europe
stressed the importance of co-ops
in achieving a “more inclusive and
sustainable Europe”, as set out in
the Future of Europe white paper.
The organisation also argued that the
speech had not adequately addressed
the Sustainable Development
Goals theme.
Jean-Louis Bancel, president
of Cooperatives Europe, said: “As
Europe faces numerous challenges,
co-operative, as well as social economy
enterprises, must be seen as key partners
for the EU in offering solutions that put
the focus back on the people and back
on our values. To move forward, we now
need a stronger commitment from the
European institutions to our movement,
p Mr Juncker delivers his speech
as together we preserve the diversity
and richness of Europe.”
Mr Juncker also proposed a new Alliance
for Sustainable Investment and Jobs
between Europe and Africa. Cooperatives
Europe is currently engaged in discussions
on the EU External Investment Plan.
The Commission president also called
for stronger anti-money laundering
supervision and enhancing the role of the
European Banking Authority.
GLOBAL
Co-operation can get the world’s small
farmers a better deal, says Oxfam report
Farmers around the world can earn a
higher share of consumer price if they
collaborate, says Oxfam.
The charity’s new report, Ripe for
Change, undertaken by the Bureau
for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for
Citizen Information, found small-scale
farmers benefit from much higher shares
of the end consumer price − around 26%
− where they are organised in co-ops.
Farmers who are not organised in
co-ops retain only around 4% of the end
consumer price, it adds.
The study analysed the value chains
of 12 common products sourced by
supermarkets around the world, from
producing countries in Asia, Africa and
Latin America.
It found producer co-ops add value by
aggregating their produce, supporting
marketing, sharing risks, and amassing
stronger bargaining powers.
One example is the Alaznistavi
Cheese Cooperative in Georgia,
which has allowed members to gain
a higher share of the end consumer
price through niche production of
high quality handmade cheese for
distribution through supermarkets in the
capital, Tbilisi.
Another case study in the report is
Divine Chocolate in the UK, which is 44%
owned by a cocoa co-op in Ghana.
“Consumer-facing companies such as
Divine Chocolate and Cafédirect – which
are both jointly owned by producers
in developing countries – each have
a turnover of $15m per annum,” the
report says.
But the study found that women in
some co-ops do not feel on an equal level
with men. While women in large and
often mixed-gender co-operatives often
gain access to agricultural inputs and
services, they enjoy only a limited role in
decision-making, it said.
“By contrast, small, more informal
women-only groups typically allow
women to build confidence, leadership,
skills and savings,” the report added.
Ripe for Change argues that these
business models do not have to be niche
– and could be taken to scale. Producerled
Kaira District Cooperative Milk
Producers Chain in India, also known
as Amul, is jointly owned by 3.6 million
SUMMARY ................................
RIPE
FOR
CHANGE
ENDING HUMAN SUFFERING IN
SUPERMARKET SUPPLY CHAINS
p Oxfam’s latest report
milk producers in Gujurat, with a sales
turnover of $736m in 2016.
The report urged supermarkets to
place a focus on sourcing from business
structures that aim to share value
with farmers and workers, such as cooperative
groups or women’s collective
enterprise, and use prominent shelf
positioning to promote these products.
20 | OCTOBER 2018

SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE
Rebirth of cocoa
industry based on co-op
values and high quality
p Producers from CECAQ-11
A farmers’ co-op in São Tomé and Príncipe
is producing a superior crop of beans to
gain an advantage in the world market.
The country – a set of islands in Africa’s
Gulf of Guinea – was once one of the
world’s biggest cocoa producers but its
industry has collapsed in recent decades.
Today, farmers on the island of São Tomé
are working to revive the crop’s reputation,
and have organised themselves into
co-operatives with a shared pride in the
excellence of their crop.
Charlotte Borger, of farmer-owned
Divine Chocolate, wrote on the its blog:
“Spending time with the members of the
CECAQ-11 co-operative, we saw and heard
evidence of this pride every day.
“Cocoa growing, especially on the
steep slopes of the island, is a labour
-intensive affair, but these farmers can see
the benefit of being more meticulous and
skilled in how they manage their farms.
“They have been trained in better
pruning methods, in shade management
(cocoa grows best in the humid shade of
the rainforest canopy), and in grafting
seedlings to combine quality with
higher productivity.”
She added: “The farmers are developing
their own improved version of amelonado,
a sub-species of forastero, that delivers a
distinctive depth of flavour with woody,
spicy notes. Their care with harvesting,
natural fermenting and drying ensure
they are extracting the best from their
beans, while the new techniques they
are learning will help with the increased
productivity they urgently need to meet
demand, and grow their income.”
Sad end to Galicia’s clothing co-op movement
Co-op forest plan to tackle climate change
Confecciones Corcubión, the last
remaining clothing manufacturing co-op
on the Costa da Morte in Galicia, north
west Spain has ceased operation after more
than 30 years. The closure came about
after a change in management at Inditex
which saw Confecciones Corcubión receive
orders for women’s clothing – which the
worker members didn’t have the skills or
machinery to produce. The co-op will be
dissolved at the end of the month.
A Canadian co-operative is pioneering
a new approach to carbon offsetting,
with a focus on the social aspect
of planting trees. Set up as a co-operative
in 2016, Arbre-Évolution has recently
become a certified partner of Coop
Carbone, which works with enterprises
to identify, develop and fund carbonoffsetting
projects.
42 member-owned companies on Australia’s top 500 list
Australia’s co-op and mutuals sector has
a strong showing in the 2018 IbisWorld
Index, with 42 businesses from the
sector making the top 500. The results
show the resilience of the model, says
Melina Morrison, chief executive of
national sector body the Business Council
of Co-operatives and Mutuals
Dominican Republic backs sector with co-op fair
The Dominican Republic’s National
Council of Co-operatives is hosting
the country’s first co-op fair from 15-
18 November. The event – Expo Coop
2018 – will bring more than 100 of the
country’s leading co-ops together for
a programme of workshops, talks,
presentations and networking.
WOCCU calls to reduce CU capital requirements
The World Council of Credit Unions is
asking international standard setting
agencies for regulatory changes to provide
a level playing field for credit unions and
community based financial institutions.
The consultation on its report ‘Incentives
to centrally clear over-the-counter
derivatives’ can be read at: s.coop/2aocz
OCTOBER 2018 | 21

NEW ZEALAND
Fonterra dairy
falls into the red and
re-asseses investments
Dairy giant Fonterra has reported a yearly
loss of NZ $196m (£98m) – compared to
last year’s profit of $745m (£373m).
The co-op, New Zealand’s largest
company, blamed the results on high
butter prices, which impacted volumes
and margins; the increase in the forecast
farmgate milk price late in the season; and
higher costs in its ingredients business.
Other factors were higher costs as
Fonterra expanded in Australia, and
increased IT and R&D expenditure to
support development.
Its performance was also affected
by a write-down of $405m (£203m) in
Fonterra’s Beingmate investment in China
and the pay out of $183m (£91m) to global
infant formula maker Danone for the 2012
botulism scare.
In August, Fonterra reduced last
season’s farmgate milk price to $6.70
(£3.36) per kg of milk solids from $6.75
(£3.39). “Our farmers rely on accurate
forecasting when planning. Our decision
to update our earnings guidance and
reduce our 2017/18 forecast Farmgate Milk
Price late in the year was frustrating but
necessary to protect the balance sheet,”
wrote chair John Monaghan in the report.
More accurate earnings forecasts was
an “obvious priority” for 2019, he added.
Interim chief executive Miles Hurrell,
who took over the business after former
boss Theo Spierings resigned in March,
said: “We entered the second half of this
year expecting our performance to be
weighted to the second half.
“The reality is, for this to have happened
we needed an outstanding third and
fourth quarter after an extremely strong
second quarter for sales and earnings.
Unfortunately, this didn’t eventuate.
Forecasting is never easy, but ours wasn’t
on the mark and proved to be optimistic.”
The Kiwi co-op plans to re-evaluate
investments, major assets and
partnerships, including its Beingmate
investment in China, to ensure they still
meet the co-operative’s needs.
“This will involve a thorough analysis
of whether they directly support the
strategy, are hitting their target return on
capital and whether we can scale them up
and grow more value over the next two to
three years,” said Mr Hurrell.
Craig Presland, chief excutive of
Cooperative Business New Zealand, which
represents the national co-op sector, said
the performance had not been impacted
by its co-operative status.
He added that the co-op model remains
“a key strength and founding pillar of the
organisation – with financial benefits for
milk supplied provided to its shareholders
(members) only, profits retained locally
and, most importantly, 100% local
shareholder ownership and control of
the organisation.
“Fonterra remains solely within the
control and hands of its dairy farmers and
long may that continue.”
AUSTRALIA
Digital innovation drives growth at Credit Union Australia
Australia’s largest credit union witnessed
a small drop in profit for the year ended 30
June 2018 following investment in digital
technologies.
Credit Union Australia, which provides
financial, health and insurance services
to around 470,000 Australians, reported a
net profit of AU$54.79m (£30.14m), down
1.9% from the previous year.
Retail deposits grew 5.3% for the year
to a record $9.22bn (£5.07bn) while loans
under management were up 6.7% to
$12.30bn (£6.7bn).
Banking membership grew by a net
20,008, which CEO Rob Goudswaard said
was driven by the digital changes and
brand awareness campaigns.
“We now offer a full suite of digital
wallets,” he added. “We’ve delivered an
updated mobile banking app provided by
Kony ... Members are benefiting from faster
payments through CUA being an early
adopter of the New Payments Platform
(NPP), with 16,500 PayIDs registered by
our members in the first four months. And
we’ve had outstanding feedback from the
2,000 members piloting our messaging
app from Pivotus Inc, the international
banking collaboration we joined this
year.”
Meanwhile its insurance arm CUA
Health saw an increase of $1.49m (£8.2m)
on its previous full-year result, to a $8.99m
(£494m) net profit after tax. The company
also passed on its lowest average premium
increase in almost two decades.
Digital innovation saw the roll-out of a
refreshed health mobile app, and the pilot
of a chatbot to supplement its human
service team.
CUA Health also launched three new
lower cost hospital cover products this
year, including a new hospital and extras
package, aimed at first time buyers and
young people.
22 | OCTOBER 2018

New book chronicles the crisis
at the Co-op Bank
To purchase: thenews.coop/fall

YOUR VIEWS
WAKE UP, GOVERNMENT!
Game changing is the challenge, so
why the John Lewis Partnership name
change? Part of Co-operatives UK – with
Waitrose – it has a larger turnover than the
Co-operative Group.
Bonuses for never knowingly undersold
partners have gone down these past five
years with growing online competition
from the likes of Amazon. Spending
millions on changing the organisation’s
name to John Lewis and Partners hardly
seems the priority (although consultants
may benefit).
The priority is surely for the government
to get its act together on retail taxation.
Amazon, with revenues in billions, pays but
millions in tax. Delivering to the customer
increases road traffic and maintenance,
not to mention the disposal of cardboard
waste at public expense.
As more high street retailers vanish,
less money will come in from business
rates and local taxation – and the onliners
replacing them do not contribute much.
Jim Craigen
Edinburgh
RE: WORKER OWNERSHIP ON THE
AGENDA AS MCDONNELL WELCOMES
THINKTANK REPORT (P42-43)
Sorry John McD, instead of putting
a sticking plaster on the failing and
discredited capitalist system, why not get
behind an all-out drive to promote the
co-operative model?
The people want democratically owned
ethical organisations. While at school,
college or university, students learn
nothing about the alternative to the corrupt
capitalist model which offers wealth for
the few. It’s time not just for a level
playing field, but for a system that
redresses the balance.
No one should leave public or private
education without a full understanding of
the different models – with every hour of
brainwashing on capitalism to be matched
by three on co-operation.
All public employees – both existing
and new recruits – should have at least a
week’s training on the co-operative model
and its benefits. The ease with which
co-operatives can be established should
be made to match that of setting up a as
a self-employed person / partnership / or
private company. The first two can be set
up almost instantly, with no paperwork;
the second takes about half an hour online
and costs nothing.
But to establish a co-operative takes
weeks and costs hundreds of pounds –
and people will try to persuade you not
to do it.
Professional bodies such as lawyers and
accountants should be required to include
the co-operative model in their syllabuses;
at the moment I am told there is nothing.
The UK has a small co-op sector because it
is 100 years behind other countries.
John Harrington
via Facebook
CO-OP GROUP STAFF PROTEST
AGAINST ‘DANGEROUS’ ONE-ON-ONE
SHIFTS (P7)
All comments via Facebook
After being in store during an armed
robbery I know how important staff safety
is. I wish head office would rethink the
one-on-one system.
Gordon Lindsay
I fully support the staff in their quest to
ensure minimum staffing levels in stores.
Risk assessments should be conducted
regularly and ALL incidents should be
recorded for future reference. Staff safety
cannot be compromised in order to
increase profitability.
Christopher Rawlinson
In some cases I agree that workload
and colleagues can be rescheduled to
ensure more even cover, but in certain
cases this extra cost could make some
stores unprofitable and therefore at
risk of closure or disposal. Some of our
competitors operate with only one person
on site during certain hours.
Mark Sanderson
Have your say
Add your comments to our stories
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in touch via social media, or send
us a letter. If sending a letter, please
include your address and contact
number. Letters may be edited
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Co-operative News, Holyoake
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Manchester M60 0AS
letters@thenews.coop
@coopnews
Co-operative News
My daughter used to have to do this
regularly for another chain, including
shifts that finished at 11pm. She was
generally OK about the workload but was
concerned about safety on the nights
the security guard wasn’t on (very rough
area with lots of bars and takeaways).
I also have a friend in a newsagents chain
who is often completely alone, never
more than two, working 11 hour shifts. It
appears to be an industry thing for the
small stores. On the one hand, it would
be good for the Co-op to take the lead
in ending the bad practice – but on the
other, how do you stay competitive in a
crowded market if the wage bill for each
store is increased?
Linda Smith
p Craig Noonan (right), the Group’s head of
retail PR, discusses the issue with staff
24 | OCTOBER 2018

WORKING TOGETHER:
A final update from the Co-operative Heritage Trust
In 2017 the Co-operative Heritage Trust launched
Working Together, a project to find record and
preserve the heritage of the worker co-op movement
of the 1970s-1990s. As the project draws to a close,
archivist Philippa Lewis gives a final update...
SCOPING AND COLLATING MATERIAL
The first stage of the project involved finding out
what material existed – and where it was. Many
items were still held by individuals, often packed
away and forgotten in cupboards or attics.
Working with members of the project steering
committee (who have all been active participants in
the workers’ co-operative movement), we were able
to draw up a list of individuals and co-operatives to
contact. The scoping exercise escalated from this
original list of contacts, with people passing details
of the project to others involved in the worker
co-operative movement.
In total, we contacted over 300 co-operatives or
individuals, many of whom held material relating to
workers’ co-ops that they were keen to deposit with
us at the National Co-operative Archive.
ORAL HISTORIES
Alongside physical items – like banners, bags,
minutes and leaflets – we also spoke with some
of the people involved in worker co-ops during the
1970s, 80s and 90s, which allowed more personal
recollections to be recorded.
In total, staff and volunteers undertook 26
interviews across the UK, with people associated
with, for example, Unicorn, the 8th Day and
Delta-T Devices.
MAKING OUR FINDINGS ACCESSIBLE
From the outset, the aim of the project was not just
to collect material, but to make it accessible to as
large an audience as possible.
Material deposited at the National Co-operative
Archive has now been catalogued, with descriptions
available on the archive catalogue online. This
catalogue will allow researchers to search for
workers’ co-operative collections and choose
material to access in the National Co-operative
Archive reading room in Manchester.
However, it was also recognised that, as a
national project, it was important that material
was also made accessible online, for people who
cannot visit. One way we have done this is to display
workers’ co-operative images on a dedicated Flickr
account, which allows images to be uploaded and
shared, with others able to tag and engage with the
images.
To make the oral histories more accessible, full
transcripts and summaries of the interviews have
been created (many of which were completed by
project volunteers). These have been uploaded
with the recordings to the National Co-operative
Archive website.
A travelling exhibition has also been developed
to showcase some of the findings of the project.
This has been displayed at various venues including
Manchester Central Library and Warwick Modern
Records Centre, and is now at the Rochdale
Pioneers Museum.
INTO THE FUTURE
Although the project itself is coming to an end, the
material and lessons learned from it will live on in
the wider collections of the National Co-operative
Archive. Another long-term aim of the project
is to ensure that workers’ co-operative material
continues to be deposited at the archive.
This will ensure that the heritage of this key part
of the co-operative movement will be preserved
and made accessible to current and future
researchers alike.
The Working Together
exhibition is available for
display at co-operative
events and venues in
the future. If you would
like to know more about
the project, hosting the
exhibition or have some
material you would like
to donate please visit
the National Co-operative
Archive website, contact
us or tweet us.
archive@co-op.ac.uk
@cooparchive
OCTOBER 2018 | 25

MEET...
The Right Honourable The
Lord Graham of Edmonton PC
Thomas Edward ‘Ted’ Graham was born in Newcastle in 1925 and started
working at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Co-operative at the age of 13. He served
in the Royal Marines from 1943, but was severely wounded when taking part
in an exercise in 1944 and returned to the co-operative movement in 1946. He
studied by correspondence courses and at night school and earned certificates
from the Co-operative College. Ted became prime minister of the Tyneside
Youth Parliament and held several positions in the co-operative movement,
being appointed southern section officer of the Co-operative Union and
national secretary for the Co-operative Party. He was the Labour and Cooperative
MP for Edmonton from February 1974; he lost his seat in 1983 but was
created a life peer as Baron Graham of Edmonton. He was Labour chief whip
from 1990-97 and chair of the Co-operative Council, and served as president of
the 1987 Co-operative Congress.
I FIRST GOT INVOLVED IN CO-OPS in the 1940s. As I
am now 93 years of age and joined the Co-operative
Party and the Newcastle Co-operative Society
when I was 17, I can modestly claim to have been
around the course! I first became an addict of the
Co-operative News in the years when it was a vastly
different ‘News’. The year was 1942 and the first
editors that I can recall were Billy Richardson and
Frank Buckshaw, who brought reading pleasure to
thousands of co-operative enthusiasts. But just as
the clientele has changed, so has the congregation
it seeks to serve. The movement as I remember it
has changed out of all shape and size!
I SENSE A FEELING that the future of co-operatives
is full of danger – much of it of our own making.
Let me begin by remembering that the Co-op was
the first retailer to produce what turned out to be
self-service stores. The London Co-op Society (LCS)
led the way. This was one of the biggest of changes
as it engaged the shopper within the democratic
framework of managing the business.
The democracy extended to member meetings. In
the 1940s, gatherings for the Newcastle Society
in the City Hall, which held over 1,000, was often
overflowing. A dividend announcement or a fiercely
fought local issue could draw vast attendance.
There was an air of excitement – the reduction in
the dividend declared could create a riot! Where
are these members now?
THE BEDROCK OF CO-OPERATIVE DEMOCRACY was
epitomised by the strength of the auxiliary bodies
– the Women’s Guild, the Men’s Guilds, the Mixed
Guilds, the BFYC (Young Co-operators). We boasted
what were called ‘activists’, who were active in the
... THE MOVEMENT AS I REMEMBER IT HAS
CHANGED OUT OF ALL SHAPE AND SIZE
... I SENSE A FEELING THAT THE FUTURE
OF CO-OPERATIVES IS FULL OF DANGER –
MUCH OF IT OF OUR OWN MAKING
26 | OCTOBER 2018

ISSN 0009-9821
9 770009 982010
01
years following the Rochdale Pioneers. At one time
in the past 100 years we could rely on the guilds to
democratically keep the board on their toes. But all
of these are gone now too, save spasmodic efforts
to stay alive.
Your co-operatives.
Your Co-op news.
ANOTHER DANGER I SEE is the result of decades of
co-operative mergers.
In Newcastle, for example, I witnessed co-operative
societies clustered around the city merging into a
regional society; thus a modest congregation in a
district was submerged. Over 30 separate societies
merged into one, 30 groups that were whittled
away as their fates were thrown in with other
nearby societies. This meant fewer co-ops. But is
this a good thing?
Whatever happened to the hundreds of oncethriving
societies we were once proud of, their
purpose lost in a morass of fighting for their lives?
Playing the game of expansion does not signal
success but instead we find the very foundations
on which a co-op is built, being eroded away.
news Issue #7294 APRIL 2018
Connecting, championing, challenging
APRIL 2018
EDUCATION
Co-op learning:
principle five
in action
Plus ... 150 years
of East of England ...
and updates from the
Co-op Retail and Abcul
conferences
£4.20
www.thenews.coop
THE WINNING INGREDIENT isn’t necessarily scale
(look at our large competitors who are fighting
to survive) – it rests substantially more on the
quality of management.
Size and business strength does not bring the
success we could once achieve. And although we
cannot match the access to hard capital of our
main competitors, all is not lost. The success of
co-operatives over the last century tells us that the
co-operative principles can be at least one secret to
winning.
THE CO-OPERATIVE NEWS is a great canvas to
reflect on how the new co-operative movement is
emerging, based on men and women with the right
principles at heart. It is full of splendid history
and stories of progress. Modestly, I am likely to
be among the elite who have read the News for a
very long time. I very much welcome the coverage
of world events and recent issues have opened
my eyes to new forms of co-operative, mainly and
strongly worker co-operatives.
Anthony Murray (the previous editor) sailed the
ship in the right direction. Sincere congratulations
to Rebecca Harvey, new editor of the News. I will
read every page of future editions, and anticipate
that it will stimulate more readers, more cooperators
and more appreciation for the vital part
the Co-op News has played for many years. Long
may it do so!
OCTOBER 2018 | 27

UKSCS annual conference
The UK Society for Co-operative Studies (UKSCS) held its annual conference
in Sheffield from 31 August – 2 September, bringing together a range of
expert research. Anca Voinea reports on discussions including worker co-op
funds, FairShares and modern slavery ...
Annual report
The UKSCS reported positive financial results
for the year ending 10 April 2018, with increased
income from events and the sale of its Journal of
Co-operative Studies.
Over the past 12 months, UKSCS has changed
its legal structure from an unincorporated charity
to a charitable incorporated organisation.
Chair Ian Adderley told the AGM the organisation
was in a much healthier position, and had been
financially restored by a successful 2017 annual
conference. The organisation also hosted an
annual lecture, which was livestreamed, and two
law seminars in collaboration with Anthony Collins
Solicitors. “Cash in” increased from £17,097 in
2017 to £19,007 in 2018 while “cash out” rose from
£4,383 to £7,141.
Crowdsourcing meets
co-op development
“The events helped to
educate people about
co-operative forms and
structures and brought in revenue for the society,”
said Mr Adderley.
The UKSCS now has 81 members, and the
journal is bought by around 110 universities, with
subscribers around the world, including in Europe,
Japan, Indonesia, the USA, Canada and Thailand.
The increased income have allowed the
organisation to set up designated funds and
general reserves, and allocate bursaries for those
wishing to attend its annual conference.
Looking ahead, the UKSCS aims to work on
communication and its website.
The AGM also awarded Richard Bickle, who
retired from the board of trustees, an honorary life
membership of the organisation.
p Richard Bickle receives
his honorary membership
of the UKSCS
A fund created four years ago to support the UK
worker co-op sector has reached £76,203, a
session at the conference was told.
The Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund – run by
Solid Fund, an unincorporated collective with 581
contributing members – emerged from a discussion
about a possible development fund at the Worker
Co-op Weekend in 2014.
“Anybody who pays into the fund is a member,”
said Siôn Whellens, a member of design and
print enterprise Calverts, one of the contributing
worker co-ops.
Mr Whellens said there is growing appetite for
industrial democracy within the tech sector, and
most new members are not employees of worker
co-ops but supporters of industrial democracy.
Each member of the fund, whether individual or
corporate, has one vote. It is run on a voluntary
basis, with individual members contributing £1
a week, while worker co-ops pay on behalf of
their members – in some cases through payroll
deduction.
The decisions regarding the allocation of
funding are made collectively through Loomio, an
online collective decision-making tool developed
by a worker co-op in New Zealand.
Around 150 people are active in the Loomio
group, through which Solid Fund makes all
decisions, with 60 members exercising their
voting rights.
Members propose projects for support, which
are discussed and voted on. A number of projects
have already won support, with £3,750 going to
the Creative Workers Co-operative (CWC) for the
purchase of video production equipment.
Last year, a grant went to the successful CoTech
retreat and £6,600 was allocated to find the next
generation of worker co-op development advisers.
“We are now trying to reflect on why this
has this worked and how to make it better,” said
Mr Whellens.
p Siôn Whellens
discusses efforts to fund a
new wave of co-operation
28 | OCTOBER 2018

Where do co-ops fit within the FairShares model of enterprise?
p Prof Ridley-Duff
explaining the main
characteristics of
the FairShares multistakeholder
mode
A diverse co-op movement needs a variety of legal
forms – and for multi-stakeholder co-ops, these
include the FairShares model, says Prof Rory
Ridley-Duff.
Prof Ridley-Duff, in his a keynote presentation
at the conference, invited delegates to switch to a
multi-stakeholder mindset and look at how co-ops
can support solidarity enterprises.
He said the FairShares model is based on
the assumption that the exclusion of primary
stakeholders from member-ownership is a cause
of contemporary poverty.
The approach aims to bring together the people
who established the organisation; the people who
provide the labour; those who use the products
and services; and the financial investors. All
of them are investing different types of capital, be
it financial, social or labour. A person could also
invest different forms of capital into the business.
Governance and legal systems need to
recognise these contributions and reward them
accordingly, said Prof Ridley-Duff, adding: “If you
are constituted appropriately, you can offer shares
to raise financial capital from the people inside
and outside the organisation.
“You can be a company or a co-operative to
do that. And you can adopt this mindset across
different legal traditions.”
As a result, entrepreneurs get Founder Shares
(or membership); workers get Labour Shares
(or membership); trading commitments are
rewarded with User Shares (or membership);
and financial capital creation is rewarded with
Investor Shares (or restricted funds to organise
investments in the well-being of employees, user
communities and/or public benefit).
Prof Ridley-Duff argued that the FairShares
model promoted by the Fair Shares Association
was rooted in the history of co-operatives.
The three models of thinking around consumer
co-operation, social entrepreneurship and
worker co-operation are key concepts within the
FairShares model, he said.
However, the FairShares model has its own
values and principles. These are wealth and power
sharing with primary stakeholders; specification
of social purposes and auditing of social impacts;
ethical review of the choices of goods and
services offered, as well as the production and
retailing processes; and social democratic models
of ownership, governance and management.
Some groups are already using FairShares
models while operating as co-operatives. One
example is Anyshares, a United States company
that includes all stakeholder groups in voting
and dividend profit sharing. The business aims to
position itself as an alternative platform bringing
together users and service providers.
Similarly, Resonate, a co-op owned music
streaming service, is jointly owned and managed
by artists, listeners and record labels. Users pay
to listen to a song – and after they pay to listen
to it nine times, they can download it. With other
providers, listeners have to listen to a song over
100 times to own it. A platform co-op, Resonate
also uses Blockchain technology to track and
distribute payments.
According to Prof Ridley-Duff, co-operative
social entrepreneurship is more rooted in
mutuality than in philanthropy. It also tends to be
explored more within multi-stakeholder co-ops
than the rest of the movement.
“It is closely aligned with the development
of a social and solidarity economy. It’s supportive
of member participation in ownership and
it expands the notion of trading beyond
commodities and market,” he said, adding
that the UK had yet to fully grasp the concept
of multi-stakeholder ownership.
He said that more studies and legislation were
required to support the model, as well as having it
included in education curricula.
In his view, the FairShares model is a philosophy
for creating and sustaining networks of solidarity
enterprises that share power and wealth among
their entrepreneurs, producers, consumers
and investors.
OCTOBER 2018 | 29

Denmark’s co-op movement looking for formal recognition
While 37% of all housing in Denmark is provided
through co-ops, re-marketing co-ops remains a
big challenge for the movement.
The CEO of co-op federation Kooperationen,
Susanne Westhausen, spoke about the sector at
the UKSCS conference in Sheffield, and said the
challenges faced by co-ops in Denmark are similar
to those in the UK.
The country has no co-operative legislation,
which means co-ops can register in any form
they want and set out co-operative principles in
their by-laws.
Worker co-ops in particular are being perceived
as old-fashioned but continue to enjoy a close
relationship with trade unions.
On the other hand, Denmark is home to some
16,500 voluntary clubs and associations. There
is a joke that if two Danes sit together for five
minutes, they will start an association.
“Denmark is the country of associations
but people do not perceive them as business
models, again due to a lack of legislation,” said
Ms Westhausen. She explained that some co-ops
were losing members and board members and
then being sold. For consumer co-ops, a key issue
is explaining to customers that being a member is
different from just having a loyalty card.
On the other hand, the young generation likes
the idea of working together across countries.
“The best way for them to learn is by doing trips
to co-ops to get a co-operative experience,” she
added. The country is also moving away from the
welfare state, which could open the healthcare
sector to co-ops and mutuals.
In the absence of a legal definition of the social
economy, allocating specific funding to co-ops
is not possible, even when political players are
in favour of promoting the sector, added Ms
Westhausen.
She thinks that in spite of these barriers, there
are opportunities for the sector. Changes brought
by the fourth industrial revolution are expected to
result in higher numbers of people working part
time or as freelancers – and co-ops can help them
have more bargaining power.
The UN’s Sustainable Development agenda
gives co-operatives the chance to show how
they can make a difference. New organic farming
co-ops are also taking off in Denmark, where
people are more familiar with organic products
than they are with co-ops.
Kooperationen is currently working on creating
a co-operative certificate. The federation is a
network of 92 member enterprises and 14,000
employees, being the country’s main apex
organisation for co-operatives. It provides
professional legal advice and counselling within
areas such as employment law, company law and
construction law.
p Susanne Westhausen
shares the lessons of
Danish co-operation
qCopenhagen, a city in a
‘country of associations’
30 | OCTOBER 2018

The past informs the present
– The co-operative movement and anti-slavery
At this year’s conference of the UK Society
for Co-operative Studies, Nick Matthews,
chair of Co-operatives UK and representative
on the Co-op Group members’ council,
gave a presentation inspired by the Group’s
campaign against modern slavery. Its
efforts have seen it lobby government and
businesses to tackle the rise in forced labour,
and devise the Bright Future programme,
which offers work opportunities to survivors
of the crime. Here, Mr Matthews argues that
this anti-slavery ethos is embedded in the
co-op movement’s history ...
Last year, when the Co-op Group was awarded
the Thomson-Reuters Stop Slavery Award for the
great work of the Bright Futures programme in
supporting former slaves, I wondered what our
founders would have thought. Delighted that our
values were still intact or horrified that slavery
still existed?
p The iconic CWS wheatsheaf
I thought about the early trademark of
the Co-operative Wholesale Society, the
wheatsheaf with the motto “Labor and
Wait”. Labor stood out because it was in the
American spelling. It was suggested that this was
a demonstration by the founders of the CWS of
their commitment to the emancipation movement.
It is generally accepted that ‘labor and wait’
comes from the last line of the Longfellow poem
the Psalm of Life.
This raises a series of questions: were the
early co-operators supporters of Lincoln and the
Union forces? If the phrase was from Longfellow,
why was it important and would anyone seeing it
understand what it meant?
In short, this is what I have found. Two ideological
strands feed the early movement – Chartism and
Christian Socialism. Both had a commitment to
equality and extending the franchise at home and
against slavery.
The backdrop to the whole process of the
formation of the CWS was the US Civil War and the
blockade of the Southern ports by the Union navy.
This prevented the export of cotton to Manchester
and Liverpool. Prior to the civil war, there were over
half a million operatives in the cotton districts in
Lancashire and Yorkshire. By November 1862, over
two thirds of them had been laid off. The misery
caused has been referred to ever since as the
Lancashire Cotton Famine.
Co-ops were not immune to this economic
pressure. There were around 120 co-op societies
in the cotton districts. All lost trade and members.
Some collapsed. I believe this must have been
part of the pressure to form a Wholesale Society.
The Manchester campaign in support of the
Union came to a crescendo on New Year’s Eve in
1862 as Lincoln’s proclamation freeing the slaves
came into force on New Year’s Day. Two founders
of the CWS, John Cooper of Rochdale Co-op and
Edward Hoosen of Manchester Co-op, had called
the meeting, and some 6,000 people turned up
at the Free Trade Hall for the first meeting of what
became the Union and Emancipation Society. They
went in to be on the founding board of the CWS.
So their anti-slavery credentials are clear. How
well did they know Longfellow? Now, it is hard
to appreciate just how popular he was. Before
effective copyright law, huge quantities of his
work were sold. He was the most popular poet in
the country, with over 20 British publishers, easily
outselling the likes of Wordsworth and Tennyson.
His style of morally uplifting verse fitted the
mood of the times. It is astonishing how many of
his phrases have entered our language and there
is no doubt the founders of the CWS would have
been familiar with his work.
So, it seems that it is true that as George Jacob
Holyoake wrote, “Co-operative societies had no
small share in enabling the people of the two great
cotton spinning counties to resist the recognition
of a slave dominion.”
OCTOBER 2018 | 31

It has become a familiar story: political fault-lines are opening up around
the world, huge sections of the population are feeling disenfranchised,
and reactionary populist movements are moving to fill the vacuum.
Introduction by Miles Hadfield
32 | OCTOBER 2018

The upheaval following the 2008 crisis has led
to the Brexit vote (see page 46-47), the election
of Donald Trump, the electoral successes of far
right parties across Europe, and the hold on power
enjoyed by political “strongmen” such as Vladimir
Putin, Recep Erdogan and Rodrigo Duterte.
These all represent variations on populism –
characterised by political academics such as Jan-
Werner Muller as a form of identity politics that is
critical of elites, anti-pluralist, and makes moral
claim of representation.
In his book, What is Populism, Muller warns:
“The notion that we move closer to democracy
by pitting a ‘silent majority’, which supposedly is
being ignored by elites, against elected politicians
is not just an illusion, it is a politically pernicious
thought ... Populism is something like a permanent
shadow of modern representative democracy, and
a constant peril.”
But there is also a more progressive strain of
populism, as seen in the huge grassroots support
Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Bernie Sanders in the
US, and the Syriza and Podemos parties in Greece
and Spain.
Muller points out that in North, Central, and
South America, there has always been progressive
strand of populism. This has influenced co-op
history in these regions – for instance, in the US,
a wave of co-operativism emerged from the 1880s
populist movement The Knights of Labor.
“The populists’ basic premise,’ writes Nathan
Schneider in his new book Everything for Everyone
(review, p48), is that opposing entrenched power
and creating co-ops went hand in hand.”
Now, the movement is developing its own
radical responses to the world’s challenges, from
the Cleveland model of local co-op economies, to
the development of the platform co-op model to
disrupt the tech economy. Meanwhile, the racial
tensions in the US, which have worsened since
Trump’s election victory in 2016, have seen a
resurgence in the African American co-operative
movement (p 44-45).
But can these diverse strands be built into
a coherent political programme? The co-op
movement has been using the crisis to push its
own cause, arguing for more democratic models
of ownership in housing, transport, utilities and
business. The hope is that co-operative ways of
working, focused on potential employment growth
sectors such as care work and the knowledge
economy, can deliver a more stable future, with
less inequality.
In the UK, thinktanks have produced a series
of policy documents for a reshaped economy,
most recently last month's report by the Institute
for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Commission
on Economic Justice (page 44-45). These ideas
are being echoed in grassroots meetings around
the country. Last week in Manchester, there
was an event discussing alternative models of
home ownership, from campaign group Housing
Futures.
Salford’s Labour MP Rebecca Long-
Bailey, the shadow business secretary,
said “the housing crisis exemplifies
inequality” in the UK. She said Labour
planned to build a million new homes –
half of them social housing – if elected,
but that this would not be enough on
its own.“We also need to investigate
new models”, she said, such as co-op
housing and co-ownership. This was
part of plan to “diversify the economy”.
“We need to investigate who
owns the economy, and investigate
whose interests it is run for,”
she added.
Neil McInroy, chief executive of the
Centre for Local Economic Strategies
thinktank, agreed there was a need
for a variety of ownership models. “We
need a plurality of forms to ensure
there is not one monolithic entity to
extract the wealth.”
He told the meeting the global
crisis had discredited the neoliberal
consensus and left an “interregnum of
ideas” – offering a space of alternative
ideas of ownership to develop.
“Things are coming together,” he
said, “but we’re not there yet.”
But will this be enough? Mr McInroy warned
that such models need a supportive environment,
arguing that community asset transfers, which
had given responsibility to social housing tenants,
had not worked.
“It’s a good idea,” he said, “But in a time of
austerity, it’s just an exercise in passing the buck.”
He added: “We’ve got to listen more and try to
co-design and co-produce” policies with people
who had previously “had things done to them.”
“The housing crisis exemplifies
inequality ... We need to
investigate who owns the
economy, and investigate
whose interests it is run for”
Above: Rebecca Long-
Bailey and Neil McInroy
OCTOBER 2018 | 33

CZECH COFFEE CO-OP AIMS TO PROVE THAT
CO-OPERATION WORKS
As with in other east European countries, many
people in the Czech Republic associate co-ops with
the former communist regime. Some still perceive
co-operatives as old-fashioned, state-owned,
unproductive enterprises.
But in the small town of Kostelec nad Labem, in
Central Bohemia, a coffee co-op is trying to show
that co-operation works. The founders of Fair &
Bio Coffee Roasters wanted to process Fairtrade
coffee in the Czech Republic, rather than have it
imported. In doing so, they are also reviving the
co-operative business model.
“The image of co-ops was very
much damaged. Until now,
they have been disregarded.
There was a misconception that
co-operation doesn't work and
co-ops were rejected. It is
getting better. Over the past
five years, things have changed.
People don’t laugh at us
anymore,” she adds."
The Czech co-op movement dates back to
1847, with the formation of the Prague Food and
Savings Society. Its purpose was similar to that of
the Rochdale Pioneers – to provide high-quality,
affordable food to people in industrial areas. Soon
after, credit, agricultural and housing co-ops
formed in Bohemia and Moravia.
The downfall of the co-operative sector in the
region started with World War II. Co-op staff were
targeted and executed by the Nazi regime. And
when the communists came to power in 1948,
co-ops lost their autonomy and independence,
becoming state-owned. New co-ops were set up
but they belonged to the state and lacked the
entrepreneurial aspect of the old societies. After
communism fell in 1989, some co-ops did not
manage to obtain ownership of their former assets
and were disbanded.
“In 1989, the collective way of doing
things was rejected,” says Marketa
Vinkelhoferová, a member and director
of the Fair & Bio Coffee roasters. “We are now trying
to explain that the collective democratic form of
doing business is not evil and that co-operation is
necessary for a successful way of doing anything.
Not many people know that co-operative history is
so rich.”
She adds: “The image of co-ops was very
much damaged. Until now, they have been
disregarded. There was a misconception
that co-operation doesn’t work and
co-ops were rejected. It is getting better. Over the
past five years, things have changed. People don’t
laugh at us any more.”
The multi stakeholder co-op has 25 members,
some of them employees. There 12 workers, nine of
whom have disabilities.
“I like working in the roastery because of the
beautiful smell of coffee,” says Filip, one of the
employees with learning disabilities, who has
been there since the start. His colleague, Lukáš,
adds: “I love the friendly and relaxed atmosphere
of the workplace.”
Marketa is the president of the co-op’s board,
which includes two other members. Regular
members are also involved on a voluntary basis,
helping out during busy periods, particularly at
Christmas. To join the co-op, members have to
invest €200 in the business.
“We don’t recruit members. We work with
people who want to become members and are
highly motivated. We want committed members
rather than a big membership pool. We expect
support and involvement from them, as well as an
understanding of our values.
“We are part of the wider movement and we
aim to create international contacts. Not much is
known about co-ops in Central and East-European
countries. We would like to let the world know.”
CZ, Kostelec
nad Labem,
Central Bohemia
25 members,
12 workers
Roasted in the
Italian Style
34 | OCTOBER 2018

The co-op is a member of the Union of Czech
and Moravian Manufacturing Cooperatives,
the Association of Social Responsibility, the
Decent Company platform, and RIPESS, the
intercontinental network for the promotion of
social solidarity economy.
Ecumenical Academy – the non-governmental
organisation that co-established the co-op –
was a partner organisation in SUSY, a European
initiative to promote the social and solidarity
economy. Ecumenical Academy supports
alternative solutions to the current economic,
social and environmental issues both in local
communities and at global level.
Fair & Bio Roastery was one of the good practice
examples included in the scheme. As part of the
initiative, the partner organisations launched a
series of videos showcasing good practices in the
social and solidarity economy around the world.
The co-op roasts around five tonnes of coffee per
year. The coffee sold by Fair & Bio Roastery is 100%
Arabica and comes from Latin America, Africa
and Asia. It also offers a blend with Robusta. All
coffee is Fairtrade certified and a large part of it
is organic.
Products include Italian-style roasted espresso
and third-wave coffee, which is roasted less and
emphasises floral and fruity flavours. The products
are sold online, as well as to local businesses and
shops, including zero-waste retailers. A significant
percentage of customers are companies – who buy
the coffee for gift sets or for their staff.
“There is a lot more acknowledgement of
Fairtrade than 10 years ago,” says Marketa.
“People also respect the concept of organic
agriculture. We don’t want to make ourselves
cheaper to be more competitive because we
“We combine global sustainability through our
Fairtrade sourcing and transparent supply chains
with local sustainability by providing jobs for local
people and those disadvantaged”
would need to save money from somewhere and
we don’t want to abandon some of our values.”
One of the main challenges faced when setting
up was the lack of support available for co-ops,
particularly in terms of access to capital, with a
lack of ethical finance in the Czech Republic.
Acquiring the roasting machine and other
equipment required investment; the co-op
obtained a grant from the EU Social Fund, but that
did not cover the full cost.
“Many people tend to say that grants are not
good but we saw it as an initial investment. Social
and solidarity economy enterprises, like us, have
to be economically sustainable and cannot be
running on grants,” says Marketa .
Looking ahead, the co-op plans to grow
sustainably, roast more coffee and increase the
number of employees.
“We would like to expand our offer one day to
neighbouring countries like Poland, or Slovakia,
but there are many more opportunities to take
in our own country first. The environment is
much friendlier now. More people are aware
of environmental issues, especially after this
hot summer. They are also supportive of local
economies. We combine global sustainability
through our Fairtrade sourcing and transparent
supply chains with local sustainability
by providing jobs for local people and
those disadvantaged,” says Marketa.
Members of the Fair
& Bio team enjoy the
relaxed and friendly
atmosphere that comes
from its co-op ethos
OCTOBER 2018 | 35

WHERE STATE AND CO-OPERATION MEET
Above and below: A
co-operative training
session in Malawi
(Photo: Co-operative
College)
“The 21st century provides the African cooperative
movement with exciting and critical
opportunities as the continent becomes the world’s
second fastest-growing region.” So wrote the
Honourable Vincent T. Seretse, chair of the Africa
Co-operative Ministerial Conference, introducing
the International Co-operative Alliance – Africa
Co-operative Development Strategy 2017-2020.
“If the movement and governments work
together to support the co-operative enterprises,
the industry will realise sustainable growth and
development, and inspire Africa’s performance in
distinct segments of the movement.”
However, for many years, co-operatives in Africa
struggled with a legacy of government intervention
from both the colonial and post-colonial period.
As noted by Hazel Johnson (Development Policy
and Practice, The Open University) and Linda
Shaw (the Co-operative College) in their 2014 paper
‘Rethinking rural co-operatives in development:
introduction to the policy arena’, this legacy had
an long-lasting impact on their performance and
limited their effectiveness.
“Many co-operatives functioned as para-statals
and were frequently captured by local elites,” they
wrote. “Liberalisation and structural adjustment
further weakened co-operatives that were
previously dependent on the state.”
They add that African co-operatives have
remained strongly marked by their colonial
legacies – not only in terms of the legal and policy
environment but also by the sectors in which
they operate. In eastern Africa, until recently,
the dominant types of co-op have been those
specialising in export crops such as coffee and
cotton.
Dr Johnson and Dr Shaw highlight a study of
contemporary co-operatives in Africa published
by the International Labour Organization which
“argues that the British, Belgian and French
colonial regimes left behind distinct legal
frameworks, which are still apparent today. The
A CASE STUDY FROM MALAWI
Over the last six years, the co-operative movement in Malawi
has been working to develop a national apex body, known as
the Malawi Federation of Co-operatives (MAFECO) ... writes
Dr Amanda Benson, research and projects officer at the
Co-operative College. Supporting this project, among
others, has been the Co-operative College, firstly through its
Supporting Co-operatives in Malawi project (2012-2015) funded
by the Scottish government, and, more recently, through the
CEPEESM project (2015-2018).
On a recent visit to the country, we (myself and Dr Sarah
Alldred) met with the Malawi government’s registrar of cooperatives,
Wisikesi Mkombezi, and his team to discuss the
ongoing development of the country’s co-op movement.
According to Mr Mkombezi, there are great changes taking
place in the regulation of co-operatives; the Malawian
government has ambitious plans to double the numbers of
co-op members, driven in part from the top by ministers who
attended the National Agricultural Fair and were impressed with
how co-ops have been performing, especially in rural areas.
“Every politician is talking about co-operatives, especially
when they have visited co-ops and have seen how they are
changing people’s lives,” he says. “Then they see them as a
vehicle to change people’s lives for the better.”
However, he is aware that the co-operative movement
needs to be independent and not hampered by politics, and
acknowledges that one of its strengths is that it does work
independently.
But this message of independence also needs to be received
by members of the co-ops: that they are the owners and
decision-makers behind the co-op movement, and that it is not
controlled by government – there is sometimes a misconception
that co-operatives are another wing of the government.
Mr Mkombezi emphasises that even MAFECO is memberbased,
and the co-op movement can put who they want at the
head of the board: it’s in their power to act. “But you can’t force
a concept on the people,” he adds. “First they must understand
what a co-operative is.”
Co-operatives are still used as a tool by the government.
Their popularity has in resulted in a boost of support in using
co-operatives to build primary industry, and has united the
efforts of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the
Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Irrigation and Water and the
36 | OCTOBER 2018

British model has been characterised as a ‘unified
model’, for example, with one law for all types of
co-operatives, a separate co-operatives ministry
and a single national apex body.”
They add: “Co-operatives were often co-opted by
political parties. In socialist countries they became
integrated into state-dominated agricultural
systems while, in other countries, many
agricultural co-operatives became dominated
by big landowners and large scale farmers [...]
However those agricultural co-operatives closely
associated with the state suffered as a result of
the withdrawal of state support and structural
adjustment policies from the 1980s onwards
with many failing or considerably reducing their
activities.”
The shift away from a government-led and
controlled co-operative sector began in the
1980s and 90s, with the liberalisation policies
that started to remove government support and
subsidy from co-operatives in many countries.
And this was furthered in 1995 when, at its
conference in Manchester, the International Cooperative
Alliance adopted a Statement on the
Co-operative Identity which firmly situated cooperatives
as member-owned, democratically run
and autonomous enterprises.
In Africa, small-scale financial co-operatives,
such as credit unions, developed later as
relatively autonomous organisations – and more
recently, the region has witnessed a ‘co-operative
renaissance’, with the number of memberships
and active co-ops growing significantly.
According to the ICA – Africa, there are
now three things that are fundamental to the
future success of co-operative enterprises in
the continent: data; cultural environment; and
research and innovation.
“We need a comprehensive, internationally
comparable and consistent data set that adequately
reflects the economic activity of the sector,” said
outgoing ICA – Africa president, Stanley Muchiri.
Mr Muchiri, who is also the chair of the Cooperative
Bank of Kenya and vice-president of the
ICA, adds that while “African governments now
have a standard definition of what we mean by a
Co-operative, they fail in providing guidelines on
how it will be officially measured”.
To resolve this, the Africa Co-operative
Development Strategy 2017-2020 aims to engage
governments to ensure government information
accurately reflects all parts of the sector and does
not exclude the large proportion of the industry
that exports goods and services.
“Diversity and innovation will define the future
strategic growth of the co-operative movement,”
he said.
“This requires that we build on our long history
of excellence in the arts and culture, sports, and
the talent it nurtures, to develop an ecosystem that
brings together co-operatives and culture with
technology, research, and innovation.”
Ministry of Finance to drive the rural industrialisation of
Malawi. Mr Mkombezi acknowledges that one challenge facing
the movement is resources.
Co-ops have been singled out as a critical tool for Malawi’s
development, but they are very under-resourced – and the
resources that are available are spread out between lots of
different organisations.
John Mulangeni, our project manager in Malawi, said that one
of the issues for the movement, and for joined-up approaches,
is that there is no centralised point that holds data on cooperatives
in the same way that data is collected on other
enterprises (such as figures on membership, capital, how do
they manage their post-harvest production activities etc).
The ministry staff work in a very centralised way and this
presents challenges when reaching out to the more rural areas.
Mr Mulangeni believes the co-op movement in Malawi could
learn a lot from the Tanzanian model, which is developing and
moving forwards, especially as Malawi is currently updating
its 1998 Co-operative Act. The draft Co-operative Bill is being
debated and it is expected to be passed by the end of this
financial year.
The government’s policy is to promote co-ops, and while
they still support other associations, they do emphasise
that the preferred organisation is a co-operative one. A great
recent example of this is the help that was given to a leather
association. This enabled them to create a design studio, but
also encouraged them to become a co-operative too. They
certainly don’t hide their preference for organisations to be cooperatives
to access support.
OCTOBER 2018 | 37

AS THE WORLD BECOMES MORE POLARISED,
CAN CO-OPERATIVE POLITICS OFFER HOPE?
ARIEL GUARCO
Across the world, we see economic inequality
leading to disaffected populations. What is the
role of co-operatives in offering an alternative
to these people? Can co-operatives create a
sense of belonging in these disadvantaged
communities?
We live in a time of enormous global challenges,
in all kinds of areas: the environment, population,
work, production, health and education. At
the same time, we face challenges with citizen
participation and political representation.
For more than 120 years, the International
Co-operative Alliance has upheld values and
principles that promote the development of
communities within a framework of democracy,
justice and peace.
"The world urgently needs
forms of social organisation
that prioritise caring for the
environment and putting
people at the centre of the
economy. Otherwise, damage
will be irreversible"
With the aim of promoting strategic alliances,
we’ve been talking to various international
organisations. And by doing this, we have
strengthened our relationship with the ILO and
FAO – and we’re committed to the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals.
We know that there are more than one billion
members of co-ops worldwide, and we have a
presence on every continent and in almost all
sectors of the economy.
That's why we set out to improve region and
sector integration; engage with members to better
understand their suggestions and concerns, and
make an impact on the public sector to create
better policies and legal frameworks to develop
co-operative enterprise.
Additionally, we’re re-evaluating the role of
data and statistics to get a better picture of our
economic and social contribution in various parts
of the world.
Anca Voinea speaks to Ariel Guarco, president of
the International Co-operative Alliance, and John
Duda of US thinktank Democracy Collaborative,
about the potential of the co-op alternative
If we are an integrated movement, united
in all its diversity, we will be in a stronger
position for governments and other international
organisations to listen to our proposals and
warnings about the global situation.
We can’t stress
enough that the world
urgently needs forms
of social organisation
that prioritise caring for
the environment and
putting people at the
centre of the economy.
Otherwise, social and
environmental damage
will be increasingly
irreversible.
Since the founding
of the Alliance in
1895, right up until
today, co-operatives
have transcended
wars, economic crises,
different political
regimes and natural
disasters. And in all
these years they have
demonstrated that,
in the midsts of many
different circumstances,
they always serve people
and their communities.
In 2012, the United
Nations recognised
that co-operatives can
help build a better world. We have demonstrated
the ability to generate work, produce goods and
services, distribute wealth and improve people’s
quality of life. We do it with our own resources
and tools, and sometimes in association with our
governments.
Clearly, the current economic model will
not solve the inequalities that it has created,
and governments alone cannot provide all the
answers. So co-operatives remain a genuine and
effective tool for achieving a sustainable world.
Ariel Guarco, president
of the International
Co-operative Alliance
38 | OCTOBER 2018

JOHN DUDA
There is confusion over what populism is –
some politicians use populist speeches but
implement policies that help corporations –
such as tax cuts. How would you define it?
Populism is a response to a situation when the
power to establish political reality shifts away from
being managed entirely through elite governance
and towards “the people”.
That doesn’t mean that elites are necessarily
out of the loop in a populist moment, it just means
that the centre of gravity has shifted to a broader
mass of people, and that elites can continue to
do quite well by adopting strategies that ground
legitimation for their programme in this mass.
But populism isn’t always just a strategy of elite
capture – the Populist movement in the late 19th
Century in the US, for instance, was an impressive
bottom-up movement for a systemic alternative,
“the co-operative commonwealth”.
Ultimately, it matters who “the people” are
in a populist moment — and who is left out.
Certainly, the more reactionary and xenophobic
populist strategies on both sides of the Atlantic
are terrifying. But after decades of a technocratic
neoliberal consensus about the acceptable
boundaries for the political imaginary, it’s a relief
to see truly just and equitable systemic alternatives
on the table as well — and it’s populism that’s
made this possible: a moment of delegitimisation
and danger that’s also an incredible opportunity.
Are we witnessing a return of the “isms”? And
does this pose a threat to liberal democracy?
It depends on what “isms” you mean. Certainly
a well-organised, well-resourced, and chillingly
effective strain of authoritarianism is on the
march: it’s a real threat to democracy, and should
be confronted and fought.
But I’m more ambivalent about liberalism, which
is also, of course, an “ism”. The reliance on the
market as the core institution of civil society has
not proved capable of uniformly delivering results
that are compatible with equity or democracy, let
alone ecological survival. A return of some kind of
socialism is not just compatible with democracy, it
may well be the precondition for its survival.
What’s needed is a re-envisioned political
economy built around democratic outcomes as a
consequence of its structure and operation – not
trying to retrofit democracy on top of an economic
system programmed to concentrate power.
Because we are talking about a complex
system with a lot of different operative scales,
this means, for me, the least problematic of all
the “isms” – pluralism. Democratised ownership
and control of many kinds, interlocking and
overlapping – nationalisation, municipal “sewer”
socialism, worker co-ops, consumer co-ops, multistakeholder
co-ops, public/co-op partnerships,
and so on, all at different scales regrounding
the economy in the lives of the public and in
communities. Our current system is in crisis
because a financialised liberalism can’t really
deliver public welfare or sustain communities,
so the choice increasingly becomes one between
a politics based in reactionary hatred and fear
defending what has yet to be stripped away,
or a movement reconstruction of the economic
foundations of democratic life.
Can co-ops create a sense of belonging for
alienated communities? Has this happened
in Cleveland, where Democracy Collaborative
helped establish the Evergreen Cooperatives?
Certainly they can! Co-operatives are an economic
foundation for democracy precisely because they
carve out a space of autonomy and control that
undercuts the fear inherent in precarious life in
a failing system. But to do so, they've got to be
designed with inclusion in mind.
In Evergreen, there’s been a decision to include
the excluded in the hiring and membership
process. That mean working to develop pipelines
and supports for people with barriers to
employment – who may have been incarcerated,
or are refugees, or have simply been long-term
unemployed, with a job and additional benefits.
The challenge is scale – Evergreen is growing,
but it’s just a couple of hundred workers. If we
want to truly work at the scale of communities, we
need solutions that give everyone that same sense
of economic security and agency. So that means
more and bigger co-ops, certainly, but also all the
other institutions of the democratic economy we
can build, as quickly as we can build them.
Democracy
Collaborative hosted
a roundtable in
Cleveland, Ohio,
which blossomed into
birthed an economic
inclusion strategy in
the city’s low income
communities known
as the Evergreen
Cooperative Initiative
OCTOBER 2018 | 39

CO-OPERATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS: BUILDING
BLACK ECONOMIC POWER IN THE USA
This month, NCBA-CLUSA, the apex body for
co-ops in the USA, hosts its Impact Conference –
including a session on the way “communities of
colour are increasingly utilising the co-op model to
meet their needs and create their own solutions”.
Conference organisers note: “The need for an
economic renaissance is already dire, and the
data shows that the racial wealth gap continues
to grow. Innovative strategies are necessary to
address complex disparities around access to
food, housing, financing and employment.”
The event brings together several co-ops
from communities of colour including the
Association for Black Economic Power (ABEP),
which is working to establish the Village Trust
Financial Cooperative, Minnesota’s only black-led
financial institution.
“The need for an economic
renaissance is already dire,
and the data shows that the
racial wealth gap continues to
grow. Innovative strategies are
necessary to address complex
disparities around access to
food, housing, financing
and employment”
formed around Birmingham, Alabama in the
1880s, a decade which also saw the Colored
Farmers’ Alliance, grow out of populist labour
organisations like the Knights of Labor.
A key figure in the movement’s history, W E B
Du Bois, rose to prominence in the early 20th
century. A civil rights icon who helped found
the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People in 1909, he carried out a study
of black co-operation, and formed the Negro
Co-operative Guild in 1918. More associations
followed, such as the Young Negroes’ Co-operative
League in 1930 and over the following decades,
farmer’s co-ops, credit unions, buyers clubs,
and health insurance mutuals were established.
Formed in 1967, the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives has helped create and/or support
more than 200 co-ops and credit unions.
If these co-ops were a response to troubled
political and economic conditions, they often met
with more oppression. Dr Gordon Nembhard has
described how these efforts often met with hostility
Black selfdetermination
through worker
co-operatives
W E B Du Bois, a key
figure in the history of
African American
co-operation
Established last year “as a way to use our
economic power as a form of resistance, to build
the financial resilience of our communities, and
insulate against extraction and divestment”,
the project is a response to the fatal shooting of
Philando Castile, a 32-year-old-black man, by a
police officer in July 2016, in St Paul, Minnesota.
Black co-operation is enjoying a resurgence in
the US, with notable examples such as Cooperation
Jackson, which is working to create a new economy
in the Mississippi city.
But, as academic Dr Jessica Gordon Nembhard,
an expert on African American co-operation, has
pointed out: “African Americans have a strong but
hidden history of co-operative ownership in the
face of market failure and racial discrimination.”
This developed through the second half of the
19th century, with co-ops such as the Chesapeake
Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company,
established in 1865. Black co-op villages were
40 | OCTOBER 2018

– whether in the form of increased rents or refused
bank loans, or acts of violence and murder.
This is a situation which persists: in her foreword
to Jackson Rising, a study of the Cooperation
Jackson movement, Rukia Lumumba describes
efforts by the Mississippi state government to
“remove local control from the hands of the largely
black city council of Jackson”.
But efforts continue
to create a co-operative
city economy, run on
radical lines, with black
self-determination
in Jackson. A leading
light of the movement,
Chokwe Lumumba,
served briefly as mayor
from 2013 until his death
the following year. Last
year, his son Chokwe
Antar Lumumba was
elected to the office.
Just before his death,
Chokwe Lumumba said: Chokwe Lumumba
“We want to accomplish
a revolutionary
transformation. We are party to statistics which
demonstrate that our people, black people in
particular and probably the majority of the
Mississippi population, are at the worst end
of all the vital statistics. When it comes to the
discussion of oppression in America, we’ve been
experiencing the worst of it for a long time. What’s
exciting to me is the prospect of going from worst
to first in a forward-moving transformation which
is going to take groups of dispossessed black
folks here – and others – and make us controllers
of our own destiny.
“We are not foolish enough to think that it is a
mission that can probably be accomplished here in
the absence of fundamental movement in the rest
the world, but we think we can start that movement
and help carry it forward, and help advance it in a
really powerful way. So that’s what excites us.”
“ When it comes to the discussion
of oppression in America, we’ve been
experiencing the worst of it for a long
time. What’s exciting to me is the
prospect of going from worst to first
in a forward-moving transformation
which is going to take groups of
dispossessed black folks here
and make us controllers of
our own destiny”
Asked last year how the movement
should respond to the Trump administration, Dr
Gordon Nembhard said: “We can survive with
strong Black organisations promoting and
educating about co-ops and providing co-op
business education and development at local
levels; and by creating co-ops that support and
supply each other regionally and nationally;
and engage in federations that provide needed
financial, educational, distribution, marketing,
and policy support.”
Below: Mandela
Grocery was set up to
in a neighbourhood
in West Oakland,
California, where there
was a lack of healthy
food stores
OCTOBER 2018 | 41

HOW TO UNLEASH A NEW ECONOMY? CO-OP
PARTY PREPARES FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE
October 2018
The Co-op Party hosts
its annual conference
from 12-14 October, to
discuss ways to meet
its goal of doubling the
size of the co-operative
economy.
Earlier
this
year, the Party
commissioned a report
by the New Economics Foundation (NEF),
Co-operatives Unleashed, which identified policy
areas for achieving this target, and it will discuss
these ideas further at the conference. .
It will also present “a new generation of cooperatives
who are expanding the co-operative
movement into new and innovative areas of
business and the economy”, alongside sessions on
housing and energy, schools and social enterprise.
On Brexit, members given a chance to vote on
the Party’s policy. At a fringe breakfast event on
Saturday, Andrew Adonis and Eloise Todd make
the case for a people’s vote on the final deal,
followed by a debate.
Party chair Gareth Thomas MP told the News:
“Given the significance for the country it’s only
right our members should have a vote to give them
a say.”
He said the other the big issue on the agenda is
the economy. “We’ll discuss the NEF report, plus
our work on community wealth building.”
The Party had taken shadow chancellor John
McDonnell to Preston to see some of the being done
work there under the co-op council model of local
service commissioning, said Mr Thomas. “We’ll
update on this in the economy debate.”
He added: “The scale of inequality in the country
is that something has got to change. The levels of
inequality, is one of the contributory factors to the
divisive politics we’ve got at the moment.
“Part of the response, until we can get a Labour/
Co-operative government, is encouraging local
councils to do what they can to make a difference:
the community wealth building being done in
Preston is impressive. In government we will want
to make it easier for councils to keep their wealth
local.”
Mr Thomas said the Party wanted to “democratise
the utilities”, bringing mutual principles to the
water and energy industries “reflecting what has
happened in the US and Germany that would help
keep more of the wealth that’s generated in local
people’s hands”.
He added: “We
have dialogue within
the shadow cab. John
McDonnell said two
weeks ago he would take
on board our idea for
companies with more
than 250 employers to
give an ownership stake
to workers.
“The NEF report is our
effort to get some input
into how you do that.
We are now taking that
document out to the rest
of the co-op movement
to see how you would do
that on a practical basis.
“That also involves
talking to [shadow
business secretary
Rebecca Long-Bailey, to Jeremy Corbyn, about
getting those ideas into the next Labour manifesto.
We’re also getting those ideas a proper airing in
Parliament, and it would be nice to get broadcasters
to give us party political broadcasts so we can bring
those ideas forward.
“We’ve got good relations with the Labour Party
to get those ideas adopted.”
Keynote speakers at the conference are:
Vaughan Gething AM,
Welsh government cabinet secretary for health
and social services
Rebecca Long-Bailey MP,
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
Marvin Rees,
Mayor of Bristol
Paddy Lillis,
General secretary, Usdaw trade union
The main guest at the evening party will be:
Carolyn Harris,
Deputy leader, Welsh Labour
42 | OCTOBER 2018

To find out more details of what's
happening at the conference and to register
for tickets, visit: s.coop/cooppartyconf18
WORK TO BE DONE BUT ALSO HUGE OPPORTUNITIES
Claire McCarthy
General secretary
We always thought it would be tough to top
our centenary conference but with the Party
continuing to grow in size, profile and influence
we look ahead to this year’s conference – entitled
‘Unleashed’ - with ambition and purpose.
The Party is unashamedly ambitious for
the co-operative movement. We believe that a
substantially larger co-operative sector in the UK is
critical to building an economy where wealth and
power are shared; and where the rewards for hard
work are distributed more fairly. That is why, earlier
in the year, we commissioned the New Economics
Foundation think tank to do an independent
report setting out a roadmap for doubling the
size of the co-operative sector. Their report
‘Co-operatives Unleashed’ sets out a radical but
practical way forward.
It has been exciting over the last few months
to see the ideas in the NEF report being debated
and adopted beyond the co-operative movement,
including in the recent proposals from the
Commission for Economic Justice. The power
of collective ownership is coming into the
mainstream – it is being unleashed.
It is that sense of radical yet practical ambition
that is our inspiration as a Party and is at the heart
of this year’s conference. We want our delegates,
visitors, speakers and other participants to come
to the event ready to think big for our Party and
our movement and to leave on Sunday inspired
and equipped to make change happen.
During the weekend, we will have an important
discussion about Britain’s future relationship with
our European neighbours. We will debate a detailed
document that seeks to address the key issues for
the movement, and for our communities, arising
from some of Brexit scenarios. In addition, the
Party’s NEC want to hear the views of our members,
on how we should deploy our campaigning
resources going forward, including whether the
Party should support a public vote on the decision
to leave the EU on the final terms proposed
by the government.
So, as we approach our first conference of our
second century there is a great deal of work to
be done, but also huge opportunities ahead.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.
OCTOBER 2018 | 43

WORKER OWNERSHIP ON THE AGENDA AS
MCDONNELL WELCOMES THINKTANK REPORT
New plans
would require
all companies
employing
more than 250
workers to set up
ownership funds
Labour has announced plans to require all
companies employing more than 250 people to set
up “ownership funds”, giving workers financial
stakes in their firms and increasing their influence
over how they are run.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the
Observer newspaper the move would deliver
greater equality by forcing an “irreversible
shift in wealth and power in favour of
working people”.
Mr McDonnell, who said turmoil over
Brexit could trigger another general election,
"The aim would be to
give more people a share
of capital and to spread
economic power and
control in the economy
by expanding the decision
rights of employees in the
management of companies”.
wants to introduce the legislation in his first
year as chancellor. He will outline the plans,
which could mean workers receiving dividends
to boost their incomes, in a speech to the
TUC conference in Manchester on Tuesday.
He said the move “will ensure that in large
companies, in addition to rewarding workers with
wages, they will reward them with shares that
will go into a pool that will allow them to have an
ownership role".
Announcing his plans – which follow lobbying
from MPs in Labour's sister party, the Co-op
Party – Mr McDonnell cited a report published
by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Commission on Economic Justice last week which
included ideas to give millions of people “a greater
stake and voice in their workplaces”.
The IPPR said “the aim would be to give more
people a share of capital and to spread economic
power and control in the economy by expanding the
decision rights of employees in the management
of companies”.
Alongside proposals to rebalance the economy,
such as the establishment of a national investment
bank and the creation of clusters of tech
industries around the country, the IPPR says all
IPPR also
suggests having
two worker
representatives
with companies
with more than
250 employees
44 | OCTOBER 2018

"If the commission can attract
pluralistic, non-partisan
political support for its
plan then there is real hope.
We share the commission’s
understanding of where co-ops
fit into this wider agenda
for economic reformation”
The report can be
downloaded at:
www.ippr.org/research/
publications/prosperityand-justice
companies with more than 250 employees should
have at least two worker representatives on
the board.
The report also suggests firms should be
required to put a percentage of profits into an
employee fund that would build up over time,
giving the workforce an increasing say in key
decisions. Workers would not be able to cash in
shares, but could receive dividends from the fund
to boost their pay.
The discussion puts employee ownership
models back in the spotlight. The Conservative
Party had briefly flirted with the idea of worker
representation on company boards, with
Theresa May advocating the model during
her leadership pitch before backtracking last
year. And Labour had included plans for more
democratic ownership structures in its 2017
general election manifesto.
The ideas in the IPPR report have already
received support – with some caveats – from the
co-operative movement.
James Wright, policy officer at apex body
Co-operatives UK, which was consulted for the
report, said: “It was important to represent the
co-op sector through our response to the
commission's call for evidence – and we're
delighted to see our positive influence manifest
itself in the final report. We certainly applaud
the commission for its ambition and for
emphasising the intrinsic links between inclusive
economics, ecology, productivity and wellbeing.
"If the commission can attract pluralistic,
non-partisan political support for its plan then
there is real hope. We share the commission's
understanding of where co-ops fit into this wider
agenda for economic reformation.”
He added: “We agree with some aspects
of the policy prescriptions for co-ops; for
example on legislative reform, buyouts and
common wealth creation. But what's missing
is a clearer emphasis on behavioural change
and improving co-op knowledge and know-how
in business ecosystems and communities.”
The Employee Ownership Association said
that having a greater range of business
ownership structures is "key" to developing
a thriving UK economy. It said: "Start by
empowering the individual with a ripple effect
on productivity and resilience for businesses,
regional economies and the wider economy.”
"What's missing is a clearer emphasis on behavioural change
and improving co-op knowledge and know-how in business
ecosystems and communities.”
OCTOBER 2018 | 45

TIME IS TICKING FOR BREXIT
– BUT CAN IT BRING A NEW CO-OP VISION?
The clock is ticking towards 29 March 2019
when – barring a political earthquake – Britain
will leave the EU.
As uncertainty grows over what kind of deal
– if any – will be forthcoming, leading figures in
the co-op movement are taking steps to lessen the
impact on the retail sector, where there is a fear
profits will slump if supply chains dry up.
Since the Leave vote in 2016, the Co-operative
Group has kept a close eye on developments and
has lobbied for a ‘co-operative Brexit’ – making the
best of the situation while taking steps to mitigate
the consequences on the movement as a whole.
A spokesperson said: “We’re monitoring the
progress of Brexit, as any responsible business
would – but there is a lot of uncertainty in the market
and it’s clearly in everyone’s interests for a deal to be
agreed which is mutually agreeable to both the UK
and the EU.
“That said we believe the Co-op has some degree
of protection, even from a hard Brexit. Our fresh
meat is 100% British. That flows across ingredients
and in some of the core areas like ready meals
and sandwiches.
“We are also working closely with suppliers on
the contingency plans they have. This can give us
assurance and also influence how we may adapt
our promotions, offers and ensure that we can
keep our shelves stocked as best we can in any
degree of disruption that may emerge.”
"Our analysis suggests the impact on co-ops
of Brexit is not too different from the impact on
business as a whole. But there are particular risks
for key sectors in which co-operatives are strong,
notably farming and retail, which does mean the
challenge of Brexit is a challenge to the wider
health of the co-operative movement"
The Co-operative Group is also seeking
approval from the government as an Authorised
Economic Operator, giving quicker access
to customs procedures and the right to fasttrack
shipments through security both in
and outside the EU, avoiding border delays
in the event of a hard Brexit
Jo Whitfield, CEO Co-op Food said: “Since the
Leave vote was announced we’ve extolled the
virtues of a co-operative Brexit, one which would
“We have to co-operate in our supply chains,
we have to co-operate to compete, we have
to co-operate to go sustainable, and we have
to co-operate to survive”
provide clarity and fairness in terms of trade and
labour movements between the UK and the EU.
That view has strengthened over the subsequent
months and our hope remains that a deal will still
be reached.
“If a no-deal Brexit occurs, the view from many
industry commentators is there may be impacts to
food supply over the short-term. As such we, like
the rest of the retail sector, are taking prudent
steps to mitigate the impact for our customers and
members, over and above the existing protection we
have in place.”
Co-operatives UK secretary general Ed Mayo and
his team have been lobbying government on behalf
of members since the referendum, developing
a positive scenario for how co-operatives can
flourish in a post-Brexit UK and articulating a
series of key forward-looking principles to be
respected in negotiations.
He says: “Our analysis suggests the impact on
co-ops of Brexit is not too different from the impact
on business as a whole. But there are particular
risks for key sectors in
which co-operatives are
strong, notably farming
and retail, which does
mean the challenge of
Brexit is a challenge to
the wider health of the
co-operative movement.
“The retail sector
faces the challenge
of securing supply
chains in the absence
of information on what
will happen to produce at the border. As a nation,
we eat around half of what we produce. If crisis hit,
we could produce maybe 70% but not all we would
need to get by. At present, 80% of fresh vegetables
and 30% of fresh fruit is imported from the EU.
That is an opportunity for UK farmer co-ops and
retail co-ops to connect.”
He added: “The decision by the Co-op CEO, Steve
Murrells, early in his leadership to move to 100%
British meat in own-brand products, is looking
Britain will
leave the EU
Uncertainty
remains: will we
strike a deal?
No-deal is
expected to
have a dramatic
instant impact
on food supplies
46 | OCTOBER 2018

like an inspired move, giving the Co-op something
of an advantage.”
Back in March, Co-operatives UK organised
a roundtable so agri-co-ops could meet the
farming minister, DEFRA and industry experts,
and won the case for a new £10m fund for farmer
co-operatives. According to Mr Mayo, the new
Agriculture Bill mapping the future of farming
outside the EU reflects both positive wins for the
sector and continuing areas of risk.
With the possibility of a no-deal Brexit looming,
last month, Co-operatives UK issued guidelines for
all co-operatives, large or small, recommending
boards consider the risk of a “disorderly” Brexit.
These include looking at sales, marketing,
logistics, legalities, tax, HR and the implications
of recruiting or employing EU nationals, as well as
cross-border trade with EU countries and the risk
of obstacles to supply chains.
Official advice from the EU on Brexit and UK
business echoes the call from Co-operatives UK
for contingency plans and preparation for possible
short or medium-term disruption to supply
chains and revenues. Across the country that is
now being taken on board by the co-operative
movement with the focus on partnership working
across the movement as key to survival in a
post-Brexit world.
Mr Mayo said: “A no-deal is expected to have a
dramatic instant impact on food supplies in the
UK. The retail sector is one of those which will
be impacted and knock-on implications in terms
of food availability and consumer behaviour are
ones that start to move into uncharted territory.
“There is no co-op crystal ball, and the effect
Brexit negotiations seem to have had on experts
is to leave them equally unsighted and uncertain
on what will come next. At the same time, it
is interesting and hopeful that a debate has
started on the future of food and farming beyond
Brexit – one we have contributed to on behalf of
our members.
“We have to co-operate in our supply chains,
we have to co-operate to compete, we have to
co-operate to go sustainable, and we have to
co-operate to survive.”
80% of fresh
vegetables and
30% of fresh
fruit is imported
from the EU
The Co-op
Group uses
100% British
meat in ownbrand
products
OCTOBER 2018 | 47

BOOKS
Travelling the world to find a new co-operative commonwealth
Everything For
Everyone:
The radical
tradition that is
shaping the next
economy
Nathan Schneider
(Nation Books,
2018) £21.50
Below: Prime Produce,
is a cooperativelyrun,
multi-use space
in New York. (Photo:
primeproduce.coop)
Right: unMonastery.
(Photo: unMonastery)
The notion of a global co-operative effort to
democratise economies and meet the economic
and environmental crises facing the world is an
exciting one – but it begs certain questions. For
instance, how do we convince young activists
looking for an alternative that co-operativism is the
answer? How do we link the small platform start-up
in Europe and an agri-co-op giant in the USA into a
single movement?
There are some answers in Nathan Schneider’s
new book, where he looks for a new co-operative
commonwealth. It’s a lively read, fizzing with
ideas, mixing familiar reference points such as the
Rochdale Pioneers with more obscure examples of
co-operation, going all the way back to prehistory,
but it never loses sight of the seriousness of the
task in hand. “If we’re to take on existential market
externalities such as poverty and climate change,”
he warns, “we need companies capable of seeing
the world in the way people do.”
Times are promising for the co-op model.
Schneider points out that it is well suited to digital
ways of working, while grassroots activism has used
the language of co-operation – from the Movement
for Black Lives and environmental campaigners to
the “upstart politicians” of the resurgent left like
Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders.
But he warns that while digital networks can
empower peer producers, they are also leading to
“unprecedented global monopolies and previously
unimaginable feats of surveillance”. So how can
the co-op commonwealth win the day?
To answer that question Schneider goes searching
through history, and around the world. He finds
co-operative ideas woven into the early Christian
church – and draws a line to the unMonastery, a
commune of tech researchers formed in 2014, which
installed itself, along Benedictine lines, in the
ancient Unesco site of Matera in Italy, and tried to
devise better ways of organising the world.
The unMonks brought together a range of
cultures – from art to protest – but although
Schneider finds a lack of clarity to their project, he
adds: “I don’t think we can ... imagine a co-operative
future without these errant, fumbling stories”.
He finds other historical models revived by
co-operators alongside the monastic tradition,
describing how New York non-profit Prime Produce
harks back to the medieval workers’ guilds to create
– in its own words – “wholeheartedly organised
co-op supporting entrepreneurs, educators, and
artists who share values of service and hospitality”.
He ties these stories in with more familiar chapters
from co-operative history – the radicalism of Robert
Owen, George Jacob Holyoake or Horace Greeley;
the co-operative response to the Great Depression
in the 1930s; the strong element of co-operation
in the African American civil rights movement, as
inspired in the early 20th century by W E B Du Bois,
and follows these threads to the present day, with
platform co-ops and other co-op disruptors and
entrepreneurs, or the activism of the Co-operation
Jackson movement.
Can these ideals coalesce into a new
co-operative commonwealth? Schneider sees
contradictions, pointing to the “unapologetic
consumerism” encouraged by major players like
Coop Italia’s Ipercoop stores, and to the subsidiaries
of multinational worker co-ops like Bologna-based
SACMI where co-op values are not promoted.
But he adds: “Constructing a commonwealth
means insisting on principles while tolerating
compromise.”
And he argues that old established co-ops offer
lessons from across the years to a new generation.
“Co-operators today neglect the local, diverse,
compromised legacies at their peril.”
48 | OCTOBER 2018

EXTRACT: The Fall of the Ethical Bank
Paul Gosling’s The Fall of the Ethical Bank, has just been published by Co-op Press. In this extract,
he examines the links between the Co-op Bank and government. He looks at lobbying efforts for new
legislation to benefit the co-op movement - which had some unfortunate, unforeseen consequences when
it came to the Bank’s ruinous takeover of the Britannia Building Society in 2009 ...
The evidence that there had been long-term thinking
behind [the Co-op Bank’s takeover of the Britannia
Building Society] comes from the passing of the socalled
Butterfill Act (properly called the Building
Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers)
Act 2007).
This piece of legislation allowed, for the first time,
different types of mutuals to merge. The proposer of
the Bill was Sir John Butterfill. When interviewed by
the author he declined to say who was behind the
legislation, simply indicating that his constituency
contained business operations owned by large
mutuals, which needed greater flexibility.
This was true – he represented Bournemouth,
which was home to a very large call centre run by
the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society. However,
Liverpool Victoria denied to the author that it had
any involvement or interest in the Act.
Sir John told me (for an article in Co-operative
News) that the link-up between Co-operative
Financial Services (CFS) and Britannia is “absolutely
the type of thing we are looking at”. He added: “I
don’t think you will find them alone.”
But behind the scenes, one well-placed source
said, it was the Co-op Group that had pushed to
ensure the Bill was drafted and then enacted.
And the Group (through its Co-operative Financial
Services subsidiary, which owned the Co-op Bank)
was one of only two institutions to use the Act.
In fact, it might be said that the Act has been a
disaster for the co-operative and mutual movement.
While the intentions were good, the applications
have been bad.
It certainly seemed to make sense for friendly
societies and building societies to merge, for
example – except that there is no sign that there is
any interest in those two sectors in coming together.
The lesser-known application of the Butterfill
Act involved the Kent Reliance Building Society,
a struggling organisation that over-loaned in the
boom times and then was at risk when the downturn
came.
While other damaged building societies sought
rescues within the sector, Kent Reliance used the
Butterfill Act in a very different way.
The private equity business JC Flowers had sought
entry into the UK’s banking market. In order to do
this, it established a supposedly mutual subsidiary,
which then effectively took over Kent Reliance. This
combined business now operates as OneSavings
Bank and is a FTSE 250 plc. The Butterfill Act had
demutualised a building society – not at all what
lawmakers had been told it would be used for.
The second application of the Butterfill Act was
the Co-op Bank’s takeover of the Britannia Building
Society.
The Fall of the Ethical Bank is out now. More details at
THENEWS.COOP/FALLOFTHEETHICALBANK
OCTOBER 2018 | 49

DIARY
FROM LEFT: Lord Victor Adebowale CBE,
Co-op Group director and CEO of Turning
Point, is the keynote speaker at Cooperatives
UK’s Practitioners Forum (22
Nov); Rebecca Long-Bailey MP will speak
at the Co-op Party Conference (12-14
Oct); City Hall, Cardiff, is the venue for
the Social Business Wales Conference
(27 Sep); and Stir to Action’s What If We
Ran It Ourselves? Community Ownership
workshop is on 27 Oct
27 Sep: Social Business Wales
Conference 2018
A free annual conference to support
local businesses with aspirations to
grow and be more sustainable. Speakers
include Dai Powell (HCT Group), Guy
Singh-Watson (founder, Riverford Organic
Farmers) and Ken Skates (economy
secretary for Wales).
WHERE: City Hall, Cardiff
INFO: wales.coop/sbwc2018
4 Oct: Co-operative Councils’ Innovation
Network Annual Conference
A chance to hear how co-operative
councils across the country are working
with local people to build strong and
resilient neighbourhoods. Including a
keynote from Steve Reed,MP – honorary
president of the CCIN and shadow
minister (digital, culture, media
and sport).
WHERE: Croydon
INFO: ccin2018.eventbrite.co.uk
12-14 Oct: Co-operative Party Conference
A weekend of inspiring stories, practical
ideas and skills you can use to begin
transforming your communities,
unleashing the power of ideas to
build a fairer, stronger Britain.
WHERE: Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel
INFO: s.coop/cooppartyconf18
13 Oct: Social Saturday
Social Saturday champions social
enterprises that are making a difference
in communities, set up to trade for a
social purpose and using business to
create a more equal society. Events will
be held around the country.
INFO: socialenterprise.org.uk/
socialsaturday
18 Oct: International Credit Union Day
A day to reflect on the credit union
movement’s history, promote its
achievements, recognise the hard work
and share member experiences.
The 2018 theme is ‘Find Your
Platinum Lining’.
INFO: woccu.org/events_and_
engagement/icuday
25 -28 Oct: Social Cooperative
International School
#SCIS2018 consists of three thematic
sessions and one international seminar.
Each thematic session consists of a
theoretic introduction on the topic,
the presentation of best practices and
a workshop to deepen the participants’
knowledge on different aspects of
social co-operative and social
enterprise activities.
WHERE: Hotel Royal Continental, Naples
INFO: s.coop/2ai3t
27 Oct: What If We Ran It Ourselves?
Community Ownership
What are community businesses and why
are they on the rise? How can you work
out if you could start one (or more!) in
your community? How can you fund them
to get going and keep going? And what
challenges will you face along the way?
Hosted by Stir to Action.
WHERE: Restore, Oxford
INFO: www.stirtoaction.com/workshops
7-8 Nov: Locality Convention
Join hundreds of inspiring members,
partners and people working in the
community, voluntary and social
enterprise sectors to unlock the
power of community.
WHERE: Bristol Marriott City Centre
INFO: locality.org.uk/events/convention/
22 Nov: Co-operatives UK
Practitioners Forum
The Practitioners Forum offers
professional training for people operating
in key roles in co-operative businesses.
The event is made up of a series of
specialist forums: communications;
finance; governance; HR; and
membership. This year’s keynote speaker
is Lord Victor Adebowale CBE.
WHERE: The Studio, Manchester
INFO: s.coop/29xlr
50 | OCTOBER 2018

Tickets
from
£120
Practitioners Forum
Training and networking for co-op
professionals operating in communications,
finance, governance, HR and membership.
22 November, The Studio, Manchester
www.uk.coop/pf

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