Transforming politics: we need examples as well as ideas

In recent years, the major institutions that affect our lives have been found wanting, at a great cost to us all. The global economy brought to its knees by greed and hubris. Our democracy undermined by falling trust, plummeting turnout and scandals over MPs expenses. The media embroiled in phone hacking and other illegal behaviour. A so-called economic recovery delivering bumper bonuses for the rich and wage cuts for the rest.

The message we must take from Clacton and Heywood and Middleton is a simple one: neither our politics nor our economy are working for people.

Across our public services too much has been outsourced to centralised large private companies, or is still run centrally from Whitehall. There is a feeling that both large private and public sector organisations that affect our lives are no longer being run in our interests.

In his Hugo Young lecture earlier this year, Ed Miliband declared that his mission in Government would be to tackle the “unaccountable concentrations of power wherever we find them.” Whether standing up to the vested interests in our economy, or devolving power in the public services that we rely on, he has made it clear that he is seeking a fundamental change in the way that Britain works.

And this morning Ed Balls, a Labour and Co-operative MP, set out how the discussions at this conference will influence both the Co-operative and Labour Party manifestos including supporting credit unions and rolling out payroll deductions for employees to tackle pay day loans, building on co-operative energy projects and supporting more childcare co-operatives.

I believe passionately that the role of the Co-operative Party is to provide the models and practical examples that can change the way Britain works.

As co-operators, our primary argument is that we share power building and shaping institutions that demonstrably serve our collective needs as people rather than have our lives and circumstances altered by bodies over which we have too little control. Given the challenges we face, we need to build institutions with values, accountable to those with a stake in their success, where long term social returns are put ahead of short term private gain.

Co-operative schools in which parents, staff and students have a formal say in the running of their school. Communities coming together to save the local pub. Sports supporters’ trusts putting communities back at the centre of the game. Community renewable energy projects taking on the Big Six.​

Over 150 years ago, the Co-operative Movement was founded so that working people could come together to protect themselves from the vagaries of the market and acquire the power to collectively improve their lives. While the challenges of this era are substantially different,  its inherent cause is the same – lack of power for working people in the organisations that affect them. Co-operatives have seen tremendous growth in the last 10 years with currently over 10.2 million members.​

This weekend Co-op Party members are gathered together at our conference to continue that proud history of putting co-operative values at the heart of our politics, and at the centre of the next Labour government’s agenda. WIth 31 Co-operative MPs, and a record number of shadow cabinet ministers, together with out MSPs, AMs and councillors all across the country, the party is better placed to make that a reality than ever before.

​Karin Christiansen is the General Secretary for the Co-operative Party