Role of Cooperatives in responding to crisis (Greater Manchester Cooperative Commission report)
When there is a market failure, or a crisis of any sort, people react in a particular way. Of course, there are those who merely seek to take advantage of the vulnerable; but in general humans do the opposite – as social creatures they look out for each other. We respond collectively, because we want life to continue as normally as it possibly can. We co-operate, which is a basic, normal, human instinct.
It’s what happened in a number of places in nineteenth century as the industrial revolution wrought havoc on people’s lives. It led to credit unions, co-op stores, building societies, friendly societies to protect people against sickness, accidents and bereavement, and mutual insurance. Over the course of 100 years or so, this became a way of life, and the older folk remember it.
Build Back Better report (Key recommendations from the report)
These are some of the things that the GM Cooperative Commission’s recommendations call for:
§ Establish a Cooperative Zone, helping to provide access to finance (12), to equip business advisors with the relevant basic practical understanding (21), to improve access to expert advice and support (23), to help family-owned SMEs to plan for ownership succession (22)
§ Train procurement officers about the benefits of cooperative ownership (10), corporate strategies to emphasis procurement of social value (9), embed the principle of cooperation into GMCA’s constitution (2), all GM local authority strategies to address engagement of citizens and communities (5), establish a democratic charter promoting involvement of users, employees, volunteers and citizens (3)
§ Employment for the gig economy through SMART for GM (28), consult on arrangements for SME participation in big digital projects (38), expand GM’s digital infrastructure through a cooperative approach (39), launch a GM user-investment vehicle for full fibre (40)
§ Support small organisations in GM to co-operate in delivering public services (7), with a toolkit and learning programme to address this (8), promote funding of community-based initiatives through community share offers (13), promote credit unions (15)
Building a Cooperative recovery - blog post A different future
The brief opportunity which we have is to do the following:
Help people to realise that the established competitive way is neither the only way, nor even the best way; in fact in many respects it is failing. The old ideas that prosperity will eventually trickle down, and that problems can be solved by throwing money at them just don’t work.
That the alternative basis for the organisation of commerce and of society is cooperation for the common good rather competition for private gain. It’s about giving people the space and the opportunity to succeed
Santosh Kumar · Fri 5 Mar 2021 9:54AM
SOCIAL IMPACT
United Kingdom
Role of Cooperatives in responding to crisis (Greater Manchester Cooperative Commission report)
When there is a market failure, or a crisis of any sort, people react in a particular way. Of course, there are those who merely seek to take advantage of the vulnerable; but in general humans do the opposite – as social creatures they look out for each other. We respond collectively, because we want life to continue as normally as it possibly can. We co-operate, which is a basic, normal, human instinct.
It’s what happened in a number of places in nineteenth century as the industrial revolution wrought havoc on people’s lives. It led to credit unions, co-op stores, building societies, friendly societies to protect people against sickness, accidents and bereavement, and mutual insurance. Over the course of 100 years or so, this became a way of life, and the older folk remember it.
Build Back Better report (Key recommendations from the report)
These are some of the things that the GM Cooperative Commission’s recommendations call for:
§ Establish a Cooperative Zone, helping to provide access to finance (12), to equip business advisors with the relevant basic practical understanding (21), to improve access to expert advice and support (23), to help family-owned SMEs to plan for ownership succession (22)
§ Train procurement officers about the benefits of cooperative ownership (10), corporate strategies to emphasis procurement of social value (9), embed the principle of cooperation into GMCA’s constitution (2), all GM local authority strategies to address engagement of citizens and communities (5), establish a democratic charter promoting involvement of users, employees, volunteers and citizens (3)
§ Employment for the gig economy through SMART for GM (28), consult on arrangements for SME participation in big digital projects (38), expand GM’s digital infrastructure through a cooperative approach (39), launch a GM user-investment vehicle for full fibre (40)
§ Support small organisations in GM to co-operate in delivering public services (7), with a toolkit and learning programme to address this (8), promote funding of community-based initiatives through community share offers (13), promote credit unions (15)
Building a Cooperative recovery - blog post A different future
The brief opportunity which we have is to do the following:
Help people to realise that the established competitive way is neither the only way, nor even the best way; in fact in many respects it is failing. The old ideas that prosperity will eventually trickle down, and that problems can be solved by throwing money at them just don’t work.
That the alternative basis for the organisation of commerce and of society is cooperation for the common good rather competition for private gain. It’s about giving people the space and the opportunity to succeed