Admitting that it has lost touch with “its customers and
members and with the communities in which it operates”, the Co-op is at a
crossroads. After the near collapse of its bank, the Co-op is asking anyone and
everyone to help determine the organisation’s future direction.
Crucial to its history and current identity, the Co-op makes
a big contribution, via its own political party, to the Labour Party. The two
parties maintain an electoral alliance – candidates who want to stand on the
Co-op ticket have to be members of the Labour Party and appear on ballot papers
as Labour Co-operative.
The Co-operative Party is completely dependent on its income
from the group’s trading activities. In 2012 the group donated a total of
£805,000 to the party and its councillors. This included donations to 32 Labour
and Co-operative MPs, as well as a one-off £50,000 grant to the office of the
shadow cabinet.
At first sight, consulting widely by opening up a
questionnaire to whoever wants to spend 20 minutes answering the questions
might seem like a democratic move, but:
Q. where does it leave the more than 6 million members
who’ve loyally stood by the organisation, liking and respecting its principles
for decades?
A. Left by the wayside.
Euan Sutherland became group chief executive last May, from
a career in for-profit companies including Coca-Cola, Curry’s and Superdrug.
Peter Hunt, the former general secretary of the Co-operative Party, accuses him
of threatening the abolition of the party.
The question that’s worrying the Co-operative and Labour
parties is this one:
Q. To what extent do you think it is appropriate or
inappropriate for big businesses to donate money to political parties?
A. It won’t stop huge donations to the Tories from the oil
and banking industries. But it does
attempt to bury the Co-op’s ethos by equating it with all other businesses. According
to the answers to the wide-open questionnaire, it could lead to the end of the
Co-operative and Labour parties.
Over the years, the democratic process has been largely
reduced to becoming part of the corporate branding, giving its members a sense
of belonging. You won’t find many
members even knowing how they could attempt to influence the big, or even small
decisions. Those that have tried, for example, to get the Co-op to source some
of its food offering locally have been disappointed, despite its claims to be
in favour of a sustainable society and economy. So questions on that issue
don’t impress.
Q. Is this questionnaire a return to democracy, or a threat
to it?
A. A threat.
The co-operative movement came to prominence as an attempt
to defend the livelihoods of workers being wrecked by the industrial revolution
in the 19th century. Today, around the world co-operatives are being widely
promoted as the antidote to the effects of the global crisis. Millions of
people are once again coming to the conclusion that the unsustainable
for-profit chase after growth is a dead-end and has to be replaced.
But that isn’t an option offered in the questionnaire. You
can agree or disagree with the idea that the Co-op “is not just for profit”,
but not whether it should be not for profit at all. You can agree or disagree
with statement that “the Co-op supports and drives growth in the local economy”,
but not whether this kind of growth is a bad or a good thing.
But there is an open-ended question you can answer:
Q. What, if anything, should The Co-operative do to
encourage more people to shop with it?
A. become a not-for-profit enterprise run by its members
through a participative democratic process. Campaign to ensure that all
enterprises follow a similar model, ending the for-profit exploitation of
people and planet.
Gerry Gold
Economics editor
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