Co-op News (August 2019)

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