Co-op News (August 2019)

prayers most mornings before the store
opens and communion at least once a
fortnight. The co-op is committed to giving
away a percentage of its annual turnover
to causes ranging from educational
projects in developing countries to local
schemes such as Northampton Soup and
the Hope Centre.
John Clarke, a current member of the
co-op, says: “Daily Bread was founded
from a Christian group that was part of
a local church. This was similar to how
some of the early co-operative societies
were formed, with concern about people
rather than profit. Supporting members
and working together for a common goal
are good social and Christian values.
“Since Daily Bread was founded in 1976
and started trading in 1980, those values
have always been present in our way
of thinking and how we manage
ourselves and conduct business.
Of course, those values are not exclusive
to the Christian faith, but our 40 years
trading has been a demonstration that
these values are strong enough for
us – and many others in the worker
co-operative movement – to survive the
downs in the economy and enjoy the
fruits in good times.”
But if faith acted as an incentive
for religious communities to develop
co-operative businesses, so too did a lack
of belief in religion.
In his lecture at the opening of the
Secular Hall in Leicester in 1881, George
Holyoake talked about his vision of a
secular society in which religion was based
on “the simple creed of deed and duty”,
with personal and society welfare at heart.
Stephen Yeo, in his book Victorian
Agitator – George Jacob Holyoake,
tells how the co-operator’s outspoken
secularism landed him with six months’
jail for blasphemy in Gloucester in 1843.
Yeo describes how, for Holyoake, secular
values of unity and tolerance could
render co-operative efforts possible.
Later in his life, Holyoake sought to
engage with preachers, Quakers and other
faiths in an attempt to involve them in the
co-operative movement. An Owenite
social missionary, he was also influenced
by John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism. He
served as president of the first day of the
1887 Co-operative Congress and wrote
about the history of the movement.
Is co-operation like a religion? Prof
Yeo writes: “I have watched many
co-operators during the last 50 years living
out their attachment to their societies and
their movement as if to a religion, with
a dynamic faith – often against the odds
and after many defeats – as freely chosen,
as open and voluntary and as binding, as
any other religious faith.”
And he suggests that modern advocates
on co-operative and mutual enterprises
could promote not just an economic
model, but also a co-operative ethic and
even spirituality.
When he considers the lessons today’s
co-operators can take from Holyoake,
he says: “The first thing to take away
from Holyoake’s work is to respect other
people’s beliefs and be sceptical about
certainties, and to see co-operative
societies as societies which include
differences of opinion in religion and
party political terms, combined with
unity around actions. Holyoake was
always very sceptical about worldly
certainties – he said he did not know.”
Prof Yeo adds: “Co-operation is not an
ideology, it’s a set of practices – because
what we’re actually committed to is a set
of values and principles in practice. What
we are trying to do is prefigure a different
way of producing ideas and goods, bread
and knowledge.”
While opinions vary when it comes to
the question of considering co-operation
as a religion, there is general agreement
on the role co-ops play in bringing
together a diverse mixture of people for
common goals.
“It’s a good thing to be actively
recruiting to a social and moral set
“CO-OPERATION
IS NOT AN IDEOLOGY,
IT’S A SET OF PRACTICES.
BECAUSE WHAT WE’RE ACTUALLY
COMMITTED TO IS A SET OF
VALUES AND PRINCIPLES
IN PRACTICE.
WHAT WE ARE TRYING
TO DO IS PREFIGURE
A DIFFERENT WAY OF PRODUCING
IDEAS AND GOODS, BREAD
AND KNOWLEDGE”
of values,” says Prof Yeo. “Partly because
our set of values is all about forms of
association and forms of organisation, we
have a commitment to a very particular
way of producing a future society.
Organisations and associational forms
are crucial to us. Just using the word
‘social’ doesn’t make you a co-op.”
“We’re about a very particular way
of arranging the powers of production,
distribution, education and government.
That was a Rochdale commitment and it
puts education and government on same
level as production and distribution –
ideas as well as making and selling bread.
So, if we are to be evangelical, then it has
to be about particular forms of collective
self-governing, not about ‘isms’ but about
ways of getting together.”
AUGUST 2019 | 31