Movement 124

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co-operatin$ for a better world Co-operative models for running businesses are on the rise. We look at their. history and the ways Ghristians have been involved in developing the movement. models of democratic co-operative ownership offer a practical outworking of Ghristian valuesn applied to meeting the needs of communities The shop opened by Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844 What do wholefood shops in Cambridge and Northampton, some of lreland's largest financial services providers, and a manufacturer of household appliances in the Basque country of Spain have in common? The answer is that they are all businesses using models of democratic co-operative ownership to offer a practical outworking of their founders' Christian values, applied to running enterprises that meet the needs of people in their communities. ln many ways, the co-operative principle - that by choosing to work together with others, more can be achieved than by working alone - provides the very foundations of human society. However, the 'co-operative movement' as such began in the late 1700s, when workers in dockyards and port towns set up their own mills and bakeries, owned collectively and run along democratic lines, as a way to challenge the power of local traders to exploit them through the control of prices and quality. There was a rapid growth of co-operative enterprise up to the 1830s, including equitable labour exchanges, land settlements and colonies, and stores whose profits were saved in order to purchase land for the members to live on. However, when there was a series of failed harvests, most of these experiments had already been dissolved, either because the members wanted to realise their share of the collective assets, or as a result of factional infighting, fraud and disagreements amongst the members. It was a brave move then, for the 2B men who founded the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers to what is a co-operative? A co-operative is 'an autonomous association of individuals, united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise' (lnternational Co-operative Alliance, 1995). Co-operatives come in various forms, including: workers'co-operatives where the members are the employees; consumers' co-operatives where the members are customers; housing cooperatives whose members are their tenants; and marketing co-operatives whose members are individuals or businesses working together to market a product or service. Principles Open membership Democratic control Member economic participation Autonomy and independence Education, training and information Co-operation amongst cooperatives Concern for community Ethical values Co-operative values Honesty Self-help Openness Self- Social responsibility responsibility Democracy Caring for Equality others Equity Solidarity Crtntsrraiv .Socl,tr-tsr r rFrrn4n,.!*r!r.rxr .; .-,,:-.'--* ^: i_:. :.-.:; j-:_: i. :_--:.: -. save their contributions of usually a penny a week for over a year before opening a meagre shop in Toad Lane in 1844. What set their model of trading apart from most of what had gone before, and the reason it was copied in thousands of places around the world, was their set of principles. These included the distribution of surplus, political and religious neutrality (to avoid in-fighting), cash trading (i.e. no credit), and the promotion of education. Partof the success of 'Rochdale model'co-operatives was due to the influence of the Christian Socialists, 24 movement
who were inspired by self-governing workshops in France and tried to promote that model of workers' co-operative in Britain during the 1850s. lt was a Christian Socialist barrister who drafted the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, which gave the movement legal status and the members limited liability. By concentrating on people's common needs and aspirations, a movement was built which encompassed radical secularists, members of a range of dissenting and non-conformist sects, and the largely Anglican Christian Socialists. Using another co-operative model, credit unions are lreland's largest financial services providers (in the North and the South). As savings and loans cooperatives, they provide services to members who share a common bond - a particular employer, living or working in a particular geographical area, or belonging to a particular organisation. While most are run on a non-partisan basis, they have often been promoted by Roman Catholic priests. Perhaps the most dramatic example of the power of credit unions can be seen in the Basque country of Spain. Here, after the Basques found themselves on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War, a Catholic priest founded a credit union. lt provided the basis of capital formation for what is now a network of manufacturing, retail, support and service co-operatives and a university (the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation) which has annual sales of over $7billion and employs more than 40,000 workers. One of these businesses - Fagor - is a major manufacturer of domestic appliances. Back in the UK, by the 1970s the hundreds of traditional consumer co-operative societies were struggling to keep up with the changing times. However, a new generation of worker and housing co-operatives were being founded, as a result both of the radical thinking of the 'new left' and the various counter-cultural movements of the time. Once again, one of the concerns was purity and provenance of basic foodstuffs, and by the early 1980s hundreds of worker co-operatives across the country were involved in retailing and wholesaling wholefoods. While few of these worker-owned retail co-ops still exist, the wholesalers are thriving, and last year the largest - Suma Wholefoods - was the largest and most profitable worker co-operative member of Co-operatives UK (the national representative and promotional body for the movement). Two worker-controlled retail wholefood co-ops that are thriving ate Daily Bread in Northampton and Cambridge. These were founded during the 1980s by groups of Christians who wanted to create a workplace that embodied their values and provided a supportive and inclusive environment in which people with learning disabilities, and others disadvantaged in conventional employment, could work as equal partners. Their model has been so successful that Social Firms UK (which represents and promotes businesses that exist to employ disabled people) is now offering it as a 'social franchise' for replication in other places. what you can do Find out more See our website at www.movement.org.uk/movement for a list of further reading and useful web links to accompany this article. Vote with your purse! Co-op retail outlets, the Bank and Smile are well-known (see www. cooponline.coop), but have you thought about all the other kinds of co-operative enterprise that might be hiding in your neighbourhood? Put your postcode into the www.uk.coop search engine and see what you can find! Set up a co-op on campus Students all over the world are running co-ops - fairtrade and wholefood stalls and shops, bulk buying clubs, bike repairs, caf6s, housing co-ops, etc. See Youth Re-inventing Co-operatives, or look at the BCICS Youthzone, Young Co-operatives and NASCO websites (details in the online resource list). Make your voice heard! lf you shop at the 'Co-op', ask about becoming a member and have your say in the running of the business. (Co-op shops in the UK are run by about 40 different societies covering various geographical areas, but they all share the same values and a common distribution network.) Do you want an 'ethical'career? The Co-operative Croup has a graduate recruitment scheme (www. altogetherdifferent.com), but what about starting your own co-operative business? Business planning exercises for co-ops can be found at www.case4us.com and Co-operatives UK can provide legal advice and put you in touch with local advisers. Do you have a research idea? Contact the UK Society for Co-operative Studies, which brings together academics and practitioners - www.co-opstudies.org Readers with a knowledge of SCM history - and in particular the time when staff lived in a large communal house in Bristol and the movement owned houses around the country where members could live - may be interested to know that Northampton is also the home of a number of communal housing co-operatives based on Christian principles. I believe that we are witnessing a renaissance in the scope and fortunes of the co-operative movement in Britain. Arguably this began with the rediscovery by the Co-operative Bank in the early 1990s that ownership matters, and that co-operative organisations have a mandate from their customers and members to 'do different'. It has continued in the consumer sector with the championing of fairtrade products (co-ops have 25"h market share of fairtrade sales, but only 5'/. of the food market as a whole). With the coming together of all forms of co-operative through Co-operatives UK from 2001 onwards, a clear vision has been established of an expanding scope for co-operative activities into areas such as renewable energy, childcare and student housing. During 2005-06, Co-operatives UK estimates that total trade for all kinds of co-operative in the UK amounted to around f30billion. O Richard Bickle is currently completing an MSc course at Birmingham University. He is also secretary of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies and a Director of Co-operatives UK. Please contact him at richardbickle@ cooptel.net for further information. movement 25
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Page 23: wood ingham's tales from the world
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Movement 124

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