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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directions. I thought: ʻI’ve got to find<br />
a way of teaching this’.”<br />
Dr Sanders wanted to do something<br />
positive, away from the ʻheroic defeat’<br />
stories labour history events are, in his<br />
view, often relegated to – while making it<br />
contemporary and relevant.<br />
“The thing about Victorian literature is<br />
that it’s not a rear view mirror,” says Dr<br />
Sanders. “It’s still with us, still shaping<br />
us and actually it might be the future.<br />
Take precarity. Yes in a sense it's a new<br />
problem, but if you study 19th century<br />
working practices, precarity was the<br />
name of the game.”<br />
He was interested to see if there was<br />
a way of bringing classical Victorian<br />
literature into a meaningful relationship<br />
with the co-<strong>op</strong>erative movement: “So<br />
much middle-class Victorian literature<br />
is imbued with the idea of competition<br />
and competitive culture – and on the<br />
other side we’ve got co-<strong>op</strong>eratives and<br />
co-<strong>op</strong>erative culture. Both of them make<br />
claims that they’re concerned with<br />
human happiness.”<br />
One of the publications students find<br />
most interesting is Our Circle, which ran<br />
from 1907 to 1960. It was a magazine<br />
aimed at young children and teenagers<br />
containing informative articles (for<br />
example on the lives of prominent<br />
co-<strong>op</strong>erators) alongside short stories,<br />
puzzles and lessons in Esperanto –<br />
a universal language that was p<strong>op</strong>ular<br />
within the co-<strong>op</strong>erative movement.<br />
Dr Sanders says: “The students had a<br />
really interesting discussion about what<br />
they thought the age range was. The<br />
very first issue looked like it was trying<br />
to cover ages 8-18. By 1926 it’s more 12-18<br />
and by 1936 it’s almost 14-20. There’s a lot<br />
of interactivity [between the magazine<br />
and its readers] – there's a real sense<br />
of Our Circle saying ʻWhat do you want?<br />
Tell us what you are interested in.<br />
We'd like to know.’<br />
“In comparison, Millgate Monthly was<br />
almost aspirational, more concerned with<br />
the distribution of cultural capital: ʻThis<br />
is what we think co-<strong>op</strong>erators should<br />
look like’.”<br />
He believes that a “whole, genuine<br />
culture around co-<strong>op</strong>erative societies<br />
has been lost.” While a few examples<br />
remain, societies ran sports clubs, choral<br />
societies, brass bands and day trips for<br />
colleagues and members.<br />
“If you read some of the debates in the<br />
1950s, you can see the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>, in a sense,<br />
start to lose its way a little bit,” says Dr<br />
Sanders. “One of the ways I think it does<br />
that is that ceases to take culture – and<br />
that education mission – as seriously as<br />
it once did.<br />
“This coincided with the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong><br />
becoming aware that it needed business<br />
expertise from outside the movement. But<br />
it forgets that previously its management<br />
had risen through the ranks, and<br />
therefore imbibed co-<strong>op</strong>erative culture,<br />
values and ethos from the start – they<br />
were steeped in it. The pe<strong>op</strong>le coming in<br />
weren’t malignant or vindictive, they just<br />
hadn’t been raised in it. So the culture<br />
begins to change.<br />
“Another great missed <strong>op</strong>portunity was<br />
not having the Women’s <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>erative<br />
Guild on the board of the CWS, despite<br />
them saying on numerous occasions, ‘we<br />
are your main purchasers, we are your<br />
main customers, we can tell you about<br />
the products you're making’.”<br />
The course ends with the students<br />
undertaking an individual research<br />
project on some aspect of co-<strong>op</strong>erative<br />
culture, such as looking at the extent to<br />
which gender and class intersect with<br />
the ideas of competition, co-<strong>op</strong>eration<br />
and happiness.<br />
“The project requires them to find<br />
something in the co-<strong>op</strong> periodicals that<br />
they’re interested in. The brief is to take<br />
four issues and design a précis and an<br />
analysis to go alongside it.” The aim is<br />
for some of the précis to be added to the<br />
<strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>erative Archive website.<br />
Why does he think that learning about<br />
co-<strong>op</strong>eratives is still important today?<br />
“Because the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>, from its inception<br />
and throughout its history, asks the<br />
questions that nobody else in mainstream<br />
business asks. The <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> has a duty to its<br />
customers and its employees. But it also<br />
has a duty to the neighbourhood and<br />
environment where it’s located – and it<br />
has to find a way of balancing that. Who<br />
else in mainstream economics is thinking<br />
in these terms?”<br />
Dr Sanders adds: “The initial<br />
pr<strong>op</strong>osition of the Rochdale Pioneers<br />
was: ‘we can do this ourselves’. And<br />
that's what I really want my students to<br />
take away. This isn't a history of highpowered<br />
intellectuals of incredible<br />
experts, this is a story of ordinary men<br />
and women. It's the everyday democracy<br />
and the sense that everyone has<br />
a contribution to make.<br />
“If a group of weavers in Rochdale<br />
deprived of formal education, in the<br />
1840s, can make a success of it, then<br />
given the advantages we enjoy in terms<br />
of education and basic prosperity, you<br />
feel we should be making a much better<br />
job of it than we are.”<br />
“THE CO-OP, FROM<br />
ITS INCEPTION AND<br />
THROUGHOUT ITS<br />
HISTORY, ASKS<br />
THE QUESTIONS<br />
THAT NOBODY ELSE<br />
IN MAINSTREAM<br />
BUSINESS ASKS”<br />
AUGUST <strong>2019</strong> | 35