The left needs an economic re-set, a more radical aspiration of empowerment, says CHRIS WILSON. Can co-operatives help put the ‘social’ back into socialism?...
Edward Carpenter & the Future of Freedom
How would society change if no-one needed to work to stay alive? That was the question Edward Carpenter set out to answer almost 130 years ago in an essay titled ‘Transitions to Freedom’. Would it hail a new collectivist phase? And would that then lead to full individual and social liberty?...
A Legacy for the Future: The Case for Christian Socialism
If progressive politics is not ethical, how will it ever be attractive, asks CHRIS WILSON, for whom the Christian socialist tradition provides both inspiration and hope....
Celebrating Six ‘Crucial’ Years of Labour Rule
Sheffield-based co-operative resource centre Principle 5 has re-published an historic pamphlet celebrating the first six years of Labour control of the Yorkshire city’s local council, a period of social progress that lasted from 1926 to 1932....
History Online: New Directory of the Sheffield Co-operator
Sheffield-based co-operative resource centre Principle 5 has published a valuable online directory of the Sheffield Co-operator, the local Co-op Party newspaper that was printed monthly from May 1922 to July 1939....
Feeding the People
The cost of living crisis requires bold action by the state to prevent severe hunger, says CHRIS OLEWICZ. Perhaps today’s ideological government could learn from the ‘national kitchen’ and ‘British restaurant’ initiatives of war-time Britain....
Fans of Change
CHRIS WILSON reports on ‘a quiet, grass-roots revolution’ taking place in ‘the people’s game’....
Cost of Living Crisis: Why We Need a New Wave of Co-operatives
CHRIS OLEWICZ calls for a revival of the consumer co-operatives that once formed a vital pillar of the Labour movement and could play a crucial role in our crisis-riddled times....
Cooperation Town: The New Network Providing Food for All
CHRISTOPHER OLEWICZ celebrates the arrival of a new addition to the co-operative movement, one based on the same vision and principles as the 19th pioneers. A ‘new Rochdale’ is within our grasp, he says. ...
Acting Local: Community Wealth Building – Past, Present & Future
CHRISTOPHER OLEWICZ examines an inside account of Preston Council’s much-hailed ‘model’ for local development, and casts his mind back to the 1980s when his own local authority tried to resist the march of Thatcherism with bottom-up regeneration and municipal enterprise....
The Long-Forgotten Words of a Co-operative Champion
Principle 5, the Sheffield-based co-operative resource centre, has published the latest in its series of re-discovered pamphlets from the history of the co-operative movement, called The Future of Co-operation, written originally in 1927 by Alice Honora Enfield....
Carpenter’s Long-lost Co-op Pamphlet Re-published
A long forgotten pamphlet by Edward Carpenter extolling the virtues and advantages of co-operatives has been re-published by the Yorkshire Co-operative Resource Centre, Principle 5....