Co-op News (August 2019)
What is co-operative culture - and why does it matter? This issue looks at how co-op values intersect with the values in organisations, across movements and between countries. Plus 100 years of the Channel Islands Co-operative – and how the new Coop Exchange app is tackling the capital conundrum.
What is co-operative culture - and why does it matter? This issue looks at how co-op values intersect with the values in organisations, across movements and between countries. Plus 100 years of the Channel Islands Co-operative – and how the new Coop Exchange app is tackling the capital conundrum.
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What would you say have been the Party’s main<br />
achievements under your leadership?<br />
I think we have had three good years. We have grown<br />
in size, we’ve got more individual members than ever<br />
before, and we have grown our visibility. More pe<strong>op</strong>le<br />
know about the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Party and more pe<strong>op</strong>le are<br />
engaging with us. I think we’ve grown our influence.<br />
We secured a commitment from the Labour Party<br />
in the 2017 general election manifesto that a future<br />
Labour government would work to double the<br />
size of the co-<strong>op</strong> economy. It’s the most ambitious<br />
commitment the Labour Party has ever given to<br />
the co-<strong>op</strong> movement. The centenary year has been<br />
a fantastic celebration of the Party.<br />
All this is at a time when some movement<br />
organisations that are about the same age have been<br />
lost. We lost Naco as an independent trade union for<br />
co-<strong>op</strong>erators, and the women’s guild and national<br />
guild closed down as well. And yet the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Party, in<br />
its 100th year, was able to say actually, we’re stronger<br />
than we’ve ever been. We got a real sense of purpose,<br />
of momentum and ambition.<br />
I think if you are the leader of an organisation as<br />
old as the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Party, your job is to steward this<br />
organisation, to leave it stronger than you found it.<br />
I h<strong>op</strong>e that pe<strong>op</strong>le feel I’ve done that.<br />
Clearly, it wasn’t just me. The staff team is amazing,<br />
they’ve done a brilliant job and they work so hard.<br />
We’re a small organisation with around 13 pe<strong>op</strong>le but<br />
it is one that punches above its weight. And also there<br />
is the NEC, our members, our volunteer officers – so<br />
many pe<strong>op</strong>le are contributing to the Party.<br />
What are the main challenges for the Party?<br />
The nation is divided and Brexit is taking up a lot<br />
of pe<strong>op</strong>le’s time and attention. When we’re so<br />
uncertain about so many of the fundamentals about<br />
our economy and society, it’s hard for an organisation<br />
to plan and to drive its work forward. But that also<br />
presents a lot of <strong>op</strong>portunities as well.<br />
As Ed Mayo and some others said at <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>eratives<br />
UK’s AGM, we’ve got to re-double our efforts because<br />
the need for our co-<strong>op</strong>erative values has never been<br />
more urgent. Pe<strong>op</strong>le who are internationalist, who<br />
believe in an inclusive nation and an inclusive<br />
economy, who believe in solidarity and tolerance,<br />
we’ve got to fight for those values, maybe more than<br />
we’ve ever had to before because we see the rise of<br />
the far right and p<strong>op</strong>ulism, not just in Britain, but in<br />
Eur<strong>op</strong>e and around the world.<br />
But while there are challenges ahead, there are<br />
also massive <strong>op</strong>portunities and a real need for<br />
co-<strong>op</strong>erative values. That’s going to mean the Party<br />
working with other movement organisations to put<br />
our best foot forward.<br />
You’re only the second woman to lead the<br />
Party. Has this <strong>op</strong>ened the door for others?<br />
I h<strong>op</strong>e so. We are seeing some positive trends around<br />
women’s representation in the co-<strong>op</strong> movement.<br />
In terms of some retail society boards, there has<br />
been some really good progress. The appointment<br />
of Debbie Robinson means Central England <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong><br />
has a female CEO alongside Ursula Lidbetter at<br />
Lincolnshire. But there is still more to do in the Party<br />
and in the wider movement. When I look around<br />
co-<strong>op</strong> movement events, including <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Party ones,<br />
they are not as representative as they should be, both<br />
in terms of gender and other ways like age and ethnic<br />
background. We’re not necessarily representative of<br />
society in the way we should be and that’s something<br />
the Party is committed to doing more about. We’ve<br />
re-launched our women’s network. We’ve got our<br />
first BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic pe<strong>op</strong>le)<br />
conference coming up and we are doing more work<br />
with LGBT co-<strong>op</strong>erators as well. But it is a challenge.<br />
What is your favourite memory of the Party?<br />
There are a lot. The centenary conference was<br />
really exciting. We held our AGM in the Methodist<br />
Hall, where the Party had been created 100 years<br />
earlier. After our AGM we marched our centenary<br />
banner, which we had specially commissioned, into<br />
Parliament Square and held a rally.<br />
I think that whole afternoon was quite special.<br />
It was celebrating the past while thinking about<br />
the future. It was the Party’s biggest conference in<br />
a number of years, with more than 500 delegates.<br />
There have been many other special events,<br />
which means you meet so many pe<strong>op</strong>le in the co-<strong>op</strong><br />
movement. In many ways, it’s like a family – when<br />
you go to things like <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> <strong>Co</strong>ngress, you get to<br />
meet and know so many special pe<strong>op</strong>le. It’s these<br />
relationships that I’ll miss the most.<br />
Claire McCarthy speaking at<br />
the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Party <strong>Co</strong>nference<br />
in 2016<br />
AUGUST <strong>2019</strong> | 25