As we mark 150 years of the founding of the Co-operative movement and the work of the Rochdale Pioneers, I find myself comparing the practical dynamics and motivation of their business model with that of the Co-operative Group and the other remaining Societies.
How can a business, originally designed to help and empower the poor, fulfil these original aims now that it has amalgamated and merged into a multi- billion pound combine directed and controlled from the centre? To put it more brutally, has the Co-operative Group wandered so far away from first principles, that it has become just another Tesco or Asda, albeit with a broader range of Values and Principles and small divi? Certainly the Co-operative Group, like its competitors, thinks globally, but does it act locally – apart from the Community Fund, which itself is mirrored by the other big four supermarkets with their funding of local community initiatives and annual support for a national charity? Is the Co-operative Group that different?
Is it a contradiction in spirit and practice to try and be a Co-operative, corporate conglomerate as well as being a truly democratic Co-operative based around trading outlets? However much the Co-operative Group proclaims that it is owned by its members, the only power the ordinary member has is to elect their Area Committee Members, of whom I am one. However, like many other elected members, I know that I have little power to influence the decisions and directives of the Main Board, its officers and CEO.
Given what it happening in the ‘Global Village’, and in our small part of it, I believe we need a rapid re-assessment of our role in our contemporary, atomised and debt ridden society. Consider the following.
A few weeks ago the Governor of The Bank of England said that he believed that the financial crisis gripping the western world could be the worst ever – worse than the Great Crash of 1929 where there was often a butcher and baker at the end of each street supplied by local farmers etc. Today, everything is centralised. Computerised, Distribution Centres send out trucks to deliver to food stores all over theU.K., and this transport, like so many other things, is totally reliant on oil.
Imagine a possible scenario: a war or nuclear disaster in the Persian Gulf in whichIranblocks the straits of Hamuz, through which 40% of the world’s oil passes. The price of oil would shoot to 200 dollars a barrel plus, and fuel on the forecourt would rise to at least £10 a gallon. The added costs to the Co-operative Group, Tesco, Asda, etc for food store delivery would be enormous, let alone the cost to the food manufacturers. Could we deliver?
Those of us who still refuse to compartmentalise our thinking into economics and the environment and social well-being, have for some years been aghast at the visionless policies put forward by self-interested politicians of all parties, who continue to separate these three things. It was inevitable that the great world religion – the worship of the Golden Calf, would lead to troupes of political monkeys dancing to the tunes of the Corporate/capitalist organ-grinders, in particular the Oil Companies and Banks. Driven and blinded by greed, they invented ‘new financial instruments’ which have inevitably failed, but have resulted in making debt slaves of both citizens and nations.
The vision of the Rochdale Pioneers was entirely different. They fought against local exploitation by relatively small capitalist oppressors – small shopkeepers, mill and mine owners etc. They demonstrated a different way of doing business, and lit a fire that spread all over theU.K.and beyond with masses of small Societies fighting the same injustices in their own areas. However, those early pioneers could not have foreseen the rise of the international conglomorates that trade across national boundaries, pay few taxes, know no patriotism and keep politicians in power. Neither could they have foreseen that the one billion population of the world of their own day would grow to seven billion in 2011, and how the growth of mass consumerism, driven by mind-changing advertisers, would erode the physical health of people and planet.
But they knew about debt, and the effects of it’s pernicious human enslavement. They also knew about the value of land, and bought increasing acres of it to grow produce for their co-op shops to ensure the supply of healthy food. It is my contention that the Co-operative Group and other Co-operative Societies should be buying up more land and offering it to the tens of thousands of people who are seeking land to grow things on*. These co-operative growers should be encouraged to sell their surplus produce to co-op shops. (To it’s credit, the Group does encourage and support local farmer’s markets and community village shops etc.) Were they alive today, I believe this is precisely what the Rochdale Pioneers would be advocating. It would represent a much needed and welcome return to localism and democratic involvement in the movement.
Given the unique global, environmental and financial challenges we are facing can we find the courage to willingly return to the roots and vision of the Pioneers, or betray them, by stubbornly persisting with the dream of ever increasing production and consumption, which we all know in our hearts is unsustainable.
In the mid Devon town ofOkehamptonmany families are now reliant on soup kitchens and food parcels, and it will not be long before we see this sort of thing in other towns and cities. Yet the cost margin between co-op food prices and the other big four supermarkets has now widened so much that previously loyal customers are abandoning our stores. However, our diminishing active membership still clings to the pioneers’ original vision, and are waiting for the Co-operative Group to respond.
150 Years ago when the movement started, its prime aim was not to increase it’s ‘market share’, but something far deeper and socially transforming. Yet today, even though we are so much wealthier, we are doing much less in terms of social justice and helping the poor.
As the price of food continues to rise, together with unemployment, only the Co-operative Movement has the financial strength and original vocation to respond. The question is – have the Boards of the Co-operative Group and remaining Societies the vision and motivation to think and act as radically as the Rochdale Pioneers did in their own day?
Given that food is our main business, we should start by facing up to the fact that all cultural and economic life is dependent on the earth, and despite western societies technical sophistication and organisation, this has not changed – and will not change. We are organisms not mechanisms
* There are currently 110,000 people waiting for allotments in theU.K.
Jeremy Bell
Member of N,E,West Devonand Somerset Area Committee writing in a private capacity.