Co-op takeover: 2012 – International Year of Co-operatives

By Alex Baker

Extraordinary circumstances have always been a bit of a speciality of the British people. Whatever is happening at home or abroad, the British ‘blitz spirit’ nature is to rise to the challenge. It was that spirit on the morning after the South London riots took place that made me feel the need to head just down the road to Clapham Junction to help with the clear up. At first there was just a handful of us likeminded ‘riot cleaners’, identifiable with our brooms and bin bags – everyone else there was either trying to get to work or to witness the devastation. However every hour the numbers of cleaners grew until, by the afternoon when we finally got onto the high street to clean up there were over 300 people present. By being there, people were proving that the real Big Society wasn’t some product of the Tory manifesto but the instinctive and emotional reaction of people who cared about their community.

We are now only a few months off 2012 which is going to present extraordinary circumstances of an all the more positive nature. Olympic fever will dictate that 2012 will not be business as normal for our capital city or for the rest of the UK. And neither will 2012 be business as normal for the co-operative movement. The United Nations has declared next year to be the International Year of Co-operatives recognising the contribution that co-operatives have played in socio-economic development and in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This is a huge statement by the UN, which should not be underplayed – we are as unlikely to see another Olympic games in London as we are to see another International Year devoted to the promotion of co-operatives.

And we should be proud that this movement of 1 billion members being celebrated around the world next year started in our country, from the work of 28 weavers in Rochdale and their predecessors in Fenwick, New Lanark, Brighton, Huddersfield and so on.

The International Co-operative Alliance is rising to the challenge of leading the way on the co-operative movement’s celebrations, with the launch planned for November this year in New York & Cancun. Big highlights of the year will be include the Co-op Expo, a worldwide co-operative trade fair which will take place in Manchester in October next year and the relaunch of the renovated Toad Lane, otherwise known as the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, early next year. These big events will no doubt go a long way to fulfil the aims of the International Year to promote the business model to governments and to the business community around the world.

The more tricky aim of the International Year is going to be about increasing public awareness about co-operatives; In the UK this would be no easy task at the best of times but in the context of all consuming Olympic fever, this is going to be an even bigger challenge. The Co-operative Group have put aside £1 million to spend on spreading the words of co-operation in the UK and have some significant projects planned which our customers will see in The Co-operative Food and in our other Family of Businesses.

It is clear to me that Co-operative Party activists across the UK have a significant role to play in delivering this message in their communities locally over the course of next year. The riots gave me faith that there were lots of co-operators out there, even if they wouldn’t call themselves as such. The challenge now is to find ways to help people to embrace their ‘inner co-operator’ – to translate people’s need to take action into helping them to take proactive decisions to shape their community going forward. That might just mean encouraging someone to switch to Fairtrade tea in their local café or it could means as much as encouraging someone to stand for election as a governor of their local NHS Foundation Trust Hospital.

London 2012 will give us all the opportunity to all be proud that we are British. In the same way the International Year will give us an opportunity to be proud to be co-operators, part of an international movement. My hope is that, with a bit of Olympic magic, we can inspire people with our history and our successes in order that we can create a strong and vibrant co-operative legacy for the future.

For more information about the International Year of Co-operatives please see www.2012.coop.