Designing European event (CECOP network general assembly), June, Manchester
Sion Whellens (Principle Six/Calverts)
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It's official! The network for coops in Industry and Services is having its event Thurs 20-Sat 22 June, alongside Coop Congress in Manchester. We have raised £7,450 of sponsorship from Solidfund, Suma, Infinity Wholesale, Infinity Retail, Delta-T Devices and Unicorn Grocery.
The rough programme is this:
Thursday 20 June pm Visit worker coops around Manchester (Unicorn? Suma? Anyone else want to host?) - Dinner at On the Eighth Day (?)
Friday 21 June am : General Assembly (CECOP members) pm: 40th anniversary open session
- historical perspective trends and tendencies in CECOP network (growth, employment, etc) - challenges and opportunities for the future
Saturday 22 June am Open session co-designed with UK cooperators
For this last session, will people suggest an overall theme(s)? Ideas so far:
- New forms of coop coming up in response to the changing composition of the European working class: is the CICOPA world declaration on worker coops still right?
- State repression, state sponsorship of European coops: historical and present day perspectives
Anyone else want to suggest themes for discussion? Bear in mind CECOP is not just worker coops, it's also the sectoral body for community coops, energy coops, social/multistakeholder, coop consortia - in fact all the sectors other than finance, agriculture, insurance, fisheries, healthcare, consumers etc, therefore cross-posting this.
Your ideas please! (as long as it's not Brexit). Then maybe a poll?
Sion Whellens (Principle Six/Calverts) Mon 18 Feb 2019 6:28PM
A session on coops doing new ways of communicating/deciding would be great. Are you up for presenting on that?
bob cannell Mon 18 Feb 2019 9:51PM
yes happy to
Dave Hollings Tue 19 Feb 2019 6:35AM
I think it would be interesting to have a session on the growing community purchase of assets (pubs, shops, others) here in the UK and see if this is being replicated in other countries. The same economic presssures which are leading to communities losing their vital facilities are working in other countries - are they also using co-operative models to respond? And, if so, are they similar or different?
Nathan Brown (Co-op Culture) Tue 19 Feb 2019 9:10AM
I think connected with that is whether community based finance is an option for worker co-ops, the dis/advantages of multi-stakeholder approaches as a means to access finance
Kate Whittle Tue 19 Feb 2019 12:04PM
I think it would be interesting to have a session on what Stir to Action's Autumn 2018 edition called 'Co-operating out of Crisis'. i.e. the other side of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine - that environmental, economic, political crises present opportunities for new co-operatives as existing infrastructures fail or are damaged. It would be a marvellous opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other.
Mark Simmonds (Co-op Culture) Tue 19 Feb 2019 12:09PM
Something around the gig economy. Michel Bauwens and SMart maybe? https://smartbe.be/fr/news/intervenant-ag-2017/michel-bauwens/#.XGvx64Xgr-s
Graham Wed 20 Feb 2019 10:55AM
I've always seen CECOP as one of those worthy but rather remote organisations that the cooperative movement seems to quite like setting up, and then resourcing to the point that they can just about survive but not actually achieve much. If CECOP really sees itself as a network (rather than a lobbying front or think tank) why not something - following on naturally from the morning session that you describe about future challenges and opportunities - about co-designing what a mid-21st century digitally driven international cooperative network might see as it's raison d'être and from that how CECOP could/should reinvent itself to fulfil that brief.
Roy Brooks Wed 20 Feb 2019 11:23AM
Ditto to Graham
Sion Whellens (Principle Six/Calverts) Wed 20 Feb 2019 11:44AM
Fair comment, CECOP is actually a federation of federations, and much of its work is research and lobbying EU institutions. However under current leadership there is an aspiration to connect more closely to primary coops - though like Coops UK this aspiration to be more like a network is a lot easier in the saying than the doing. One thing I’ll be asking as the UK board rep is to get as many primary worker-social cooperators to the event as possible.
bob cannell · Mon 18 Feb 2019 5:54PM
new fotms of governance and business management for cooperatives. breaking free of the repressive tools of normal management to use inclusive, participative alternatives that engage the intelligence of everyone involved, not just the elite in management.