Cooperative model works for this Clevedon book shop

A great story from the South West on how the cooperative model can work.

Local residents registered as a co-operative and launched a community share issue to find the £20,000 needed to save a bookshop from closure.

 For fourteen years, the bookstore in Clevedon, North Somerset,just 100 metres from the promenade,has been a popular destination for book lovers to browse in the Victorian seaside town. However, the retirement of its owner had threatened to close it. 

Now, approaching 300 members have invested at least £10 to become ‘co-owners’ of Clevedon Community Bookshop Co-operative (CCBC), joining the growing ranks of those challenging the orthodoxy that the role of business is solely the relentless pursuit of profit.

 Over recent weeks, the shop has felt the benefit of community co-operation with volunteers and members carrying out painting, decorating, carpentry and other tasks needed to ready the shop for its re-opening, which takes place between 12 (noon) and 4pm on 31 December 2011.

Angela Everitt, Secretary of CCBC, said: “We’ve have been overwhelmed by the support that we have received. Our aim was to attract a large number of investors who, as co-owners, will have a say in how the enterprise is run. More than 250 people invested from just £10 to raise a total of £7,500 which, coupled with loan money and grants, has enabled the community to save this store.

She added that  “Members and volunteers have worked hard to refurbish the store, new flooring has gone down and the final task will be to stock our great new bookcases. We hope that members and customers alike will join us on New Year’s Eve and, this also gives any last minute investors a chance to drop off their applications.”

A great story

Teaspoons and Schumacher -Co-op chief opens a Manchester week of sustainability

Future Manchester, a week long programme of sustainability, launched in East Manchester on Friday.


The week-long festival showcases the work of Manchester organisations that are working together to make the city a greener, healthier, fairer and more sustainable place to live, work and play

Ed Mayo Secretary General of the Manchester based Co-operative organisation was the guest speaker at the opening,inspired the audience with tales of the relaunch of a cooperative store and community pub in Ennerdale in the Lake District.

The event also marked the launch of the The Schumacher lecture programme.

The economist E. F. Schumacher is most famous for the book he wrote called Small is beautiful which when first published in 1973,brought Schumacher's critiques of Western economics to a wider audience during the 1973 energy crisis and emergence of globalization

He was born in Germany fleeing Nazism to come to the UK.He was recognised quite widely,was chief economist at the cold board and was greatly admired by John Maynard Keynes who was said to have referred to him on his deathbed.

After the war he became involved in the reconstruction of Burma and asked the question of what Buddhist economics could be.

Conventional economics starts with the premise of scarcity whereas the Buddhist version was of creativity and abundance.It would also be one based on renewable resources.

It was said by Barbara Ward that he influenced the ideas of a generation and his work has been taken up and given new life.

“you need to raise a sail for when the winds changes” was one of his sayings.

If we are going to move into a sustainable world that is what we are going to have to do says Mayo by setting up new models of doing business

So to the teaspoons.Two volunteers were called to the front of audience to play the ultimatum game.Ten teaspoons are given to the first volunteer representing fabulous wealth who must then decided how much to keep and how much to give to the second volunteer.

The second volunteer has the power to refuse the offer and if she refuses then nobody gets anything.

The outcome was that they shared the teaspoon between them.

According to Mayo,the average offer would be two teaspoons in the world of economics,the average offer when this is played out across the world,the mean offer is 4.5,in some cultures it would be more which would be rejected as being too generous

This exercise, says Mayo, shows a complete opposite to where conventional liberal economic theories tell us.

Convention says that only one teaspoon would be given as you would take something that you haven't got.

The question is how do we construct economic life so that it produces fairness and not competition

There are over 5,000 cooperatives across the country with 12.8 million members and over 33b in turnover.The best known are of course the cooperative shops and banks.

In a world that is more unattainable and unequal than it has been for a 100 years,cooperative says Mayo is even more important.

You can find out more about Schumacher and his legacy HERE

Far-reaching changes to encourage future growth to help credit unions and co-operatives is introduced

Legislation that is designed to help credit unions and co-operatives compete and grow more effectively has completed its Parliamentary passage,the Treasury has announced today.

The Legislative Reform Order (LRO) will come into force on 8 January 2012 and is intended to promote mutuals.

The legislation will enable credit unions to accept new types of members, such as partnerships and limited companies,and allow interest to be offered on deposits.

Announcing the passage,Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban said:

“I want to see credit unions grow to meet the needs of their members and communities they serve.

Mark Lyonette, Chief Executive of the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) said:

"Credit unions in Britain are delighted that legislation reforms have been agreed by Parliament which free up the sector to compete on a more level playing field. ABCUL has campaigned long and hard for these changes, so we're happy that credit unions will be able to use the new powers from the New Year."

Cooperative model no longer a business backwater says report

The economic turbulence has blown-away the dowdy, out-moded image of the co-operative business model to reveal a new generation dedicated to tackling the unprecedented challenges facing our society.

That is what a new report out today which looks at the annual review of the work of The Co-operative Enterprise Hub and, illustrates how communities, by embracing the co-operative model, can support the economy for future generations.

The report concludes that a co-operative economy is no longer regarded as a business backwater and it is witnessing new entrants engaged in a diverse range of sectors including: pubs, marketing and media, sports clubs, education, playgroups and gyms.

Michael Fairclough, The Co-operative Group’s Head of Community and Co-operative Investment, said:

“The co-operative business model has been described as an old solution to a modern problem. Fundamentally, it gives people a voice, a say in how services are delivered. In an age when the general public have serious concerns about the transparency of our financial systems, it is a model that is being increasingly adopted.

Tory Co-op's a challenge to the left?

Cooperation may have been born in the Northern town of Rochdale but the Tories are determined it seems to claim it as their own in 2010.

They announced yesterday that they will give public sector workers the power to take over their organisations and run them as co-operatives.

It's a strange one.Surely the basis of cooperation strikes at the heart of Tory doctrine so could this be a rouse to bring out some on the traditional left to support a Tory measure.

Very interestingly Left Foot forward wrote

if the Left truly wants to put progressive politics above partisan politics, then this morning’s Tory policy on public sector co-ops should be cheered, not attacked.

So is this simply no more than a gimmick?

Power to the public sector workers was the call from David Cameron yesterday.

I know that there are millions of public sector workers who work in our public services and who frankly today feel demoralised, disrespected and unrecognised.We will not only get rid of the targets and bureaucracy that drive you so mad.We will give you power in a way that is as radical as the right to buy your council house.We will give you the chance to set up employee-owned co-operatives to take over the services so you can be your own boss and offer the public a better service......the way you think it should be done, not the way some distant bureaucrat thinks it should be done.So instead of government controlling every aspect of public service in our country, we would say to people who work in Job Centres, in the NHS, in social work, in call centres, right across our public sector......“here is your budget, deliver this service, and if you do it more efficiently and more effectively, you can keep some of the savings that you make.”

he said

He knows the sector has been under pressure,he knows that its workers are frustrated.This may well be a good move