The Labour movement is comprised of three distinct parts. Some political commentators can think of only two – the Labour Party itself and the trade union movement. But the third part of the Labour family, the Co-operative movement, has played an equally important role in our movement’s history – and more importantly, has much to offer for the future. Many of the ideas that New Labour is beginning to translate into radical policies in healthcare, education and international development can be linked directly to the influence of the Co-operative movement and its political wing, the Co-operative Party.
The Co-operative movement began as a response to the industrial revolution, when the collective need for better pay and conditions, as well as access to affordable goods, could only be met with collective action. So trade unions were formed to improve workers’ conditions, the Labour Party was formed to present their political ideas, and co-operatives were formed to tackle the exploitation people faced as consumers. The movement has come a long way since the days of the Rochdale Pioneers who, in 1844, translated the co-operative ideal into a practical reality by forming the first co-op shops, dedicated to keeping prices down and quality up rather than generating profits for shareholders. The co-operative retail movement is now a multi-billion pound concern and has branched out into areas such as travel and funeral provision. However, the enduring principles of fairness and democratic accountability remain entrenched, and are now in evidence across a wealth of co-operative and mutual organisations including credit unions, worker co-operatives, leisure and childcare facilities, large and small retailers, agricultural co-operatives, social clubs and care homes.
The Co-operative Party is the political arm of that activity, and seeks to represent the needs and aspirations of the Co-operative movement at national and local level. In political terms, co-operation is not just about working together for the purposes of economic self-interest. It also offers an alternative way of organising parts of our society and economy, based on the premise that people should, as far as possible, be given the chance to contribute to the decisions that affect their lives. The party also believes that organisations should act responsibly and ethically, with the well-being of employees, customers and the wider community being elevated over the imperative to generate ever-greater profits for shareholders, whose only concern is financial. No doubt readers of Progress will agree that these values are very much in tune with their own.
So how did our present relationship with Labour come about? The Co-operative Party achieved its first representation in parliament after the 1918 general election, when Alfred Waterson was elected for Kettering. Waterson quickly took the Labour whip, as the Co-operative movement clearly saw that an alliance with Labour represented the most logical and effective way of translating its values into practical changes in society. This relationship was fully consummated in 1927, with an electoral agreement between the Labour and Co-operative Parties to stand joint candidates for election. Since those days the Co-operative Party’s political strength has steadily grown, with the high-water mark to date being reached in 2001, when 29 Labour and Co-operative MPs were returned to the Commons. The Party also now has ten members of the House of Lords, seven MSPs and five Welsh AMs, as well as over 700 councillors, all of whom work closely with the Labour Party to promote the cause of co-operative socialism whenever the opportunity arises.
In Westminster, Cardiff and Edinburgh the Labour and Co-operative members (including Gareth Thomas, Alun Michael, Angela Smith and Andy Love) co-ordinate their activities by holding monthly meetings, where opportunities to influence legislation in a more co-operative direction are discussed, and parliamentary events such as policy seminars arranged. A cursory read through Hansard will show that Labour and Co-operative members are tireless in their advocacy of mutuality – particularly when it comes to reforming public services and in promoting ethical standards in business. The party’s policy manifesto, Enterprise, Empowerment, Accountability, sets out a number of areas in which we believe power can be devolved to local stakeholders, and this forms the basis of much of our parliamentary work. Recently, legislative success has been achieved in securing greater protection for community-based service providers against asset stripping, and in making employee share schemes more widely available and more democratic.
The Co-operative Party suffered in the past from a fusty image, at odds with its radical agenda. But this should not deter younger activists from joining, as the party is changing and growing, with membership now at 8,000. The party has also sought to modernise and sharpen its outlook in recent years, and has broadened its intellectual scope with a series of New Mutualism research pamphlets exploring new applications for mutuality ranging from football supporters’ trusts to the internet, from housing to international development. For the first time we are also working with the financial mutual sector to promote and develop mutuality through the creation of the independent think-tank Mutuo, which has recently been focusing on how mutual ownership can provide better quality services in childcare and social housing.
That many of these ideas have quickly borne fruit and been translated into policy initiatives speaks volumes about our identification with the government’s modernising agenda. Perhaps our most popular recent success came when our pamphlet A Golden Goal, which advocated a constitutional role for football fans in the management of their clubs, caught the imagination of culture, media and sport secretary Chris Smith in 1997. A government grant for the establishment of Supporters Direct, an organisation which helps fans to set up democratic supporters’ trusts, followed in April 2000 – and now more than 60 clubs are part-managed by their fans in a true demonstration of mutuality in action.
And in social housing, a new community mutual model has been endorsed by the Welsh Assembly as the preferred ownership structure for property that is transferred out of local authority control. This might sound dull, but the upshot is that thousands of tenants could potentially enjoy far more power over how their housing is managed and serviced than either local authorities or the majority of housing associations would ever allow.
The effect of this application of traditional values to modern settings – to coin a phrase – has led to a renewed interest from the New Labour government in what we have to offer. Certainly, the political climate is now more favourable than ever towards the creation of a society that values individual enterprise within a strong, supportive society and the devolution of power from Whitehall and towards local communities.
Alan Milburn recently said that his planned reforms of the NHS, which will give much more control to staff and more of a say to patients, are firmly rooted in the co-operative tradition and represent a strand of Labour thinking that has for too long been overlooked by the left in favour of a centralising, statist tendency. While the full detail of Mr Milburn’s proposals are yet to be revealed, I am confident the government understands that the time is right for the left to rediscover its roots and start to empower, rather than simply provide for, the disenfranchised in society.