STEVE THOMPSON commends the grassroots movements seeking alternatives to economic growth The current edition of New Internationalist (NI434. July/August 2010) tackles what I consider to be one of the most crucial problems we face today, perhaps the most crucial. Headlined ‘Life beyond growth’, it deals with the conundrum that economic growth is not environmentally...
The Seeds of Radicalism
Steve Thompson traces the history of the co-operative movement and argues that this is a decisive moment in its renaissance. There is an alternative to capitalism, it’s called the co-operative commonwealth. It’s a way of living and trading with business which is run democratically for the benefit of the members and communities who use...
No solutions, much confusion
JONATHAN TIMBERS searches for the soul of social enterprise but finds a rather worrying state of mind This event was billed as ‘social enterprise solutions to 21st century challenges’. It was held in the upmarket Manchester International Convention Centre in late January 2005. I attended the conference in the hope that by the end...
Debating democracy
WILL BROWN examines two welcome contributions to debates on democratic renewal and progressive social change The need to extend democratic practices within society, beyond the confines of the parliamentary system, has been widely recognised on the political left for some time. However, in a context of rising political apathy and a perceived ‘crisis’ of...
Stepping stone or scam?
ANDY HANSFORD wonders whether foundation hospitals will be a fig leaf for privatisation of the NHS. The Tories tried to reform the National Health Service by setting up an ‘internal market’. The result was a failure, with a massive increase in accountants to count debits and credits in a whole new layer of contracts....
The case against social enterprise
The headlong rush towards social enterprise could undermine any prospects of a genuine social economy, says STEVE SCHOFIELD Social enterprise is very much the flavour of the month, or even, possibly, the next big thing. Its proponents put forward an ambitious agenda of creating jobs, providing training and developing local services in areas of...
A Hill of beans?
BARRY WINTER reviews Anti-Capitalism: The social economy alternative, by Chris Hill, and considers the role of the social economy in creating change, as well as sustaining socialism. This is an intriguing book. Written and, indeed, published by a former, long-standing member of Militant and, at the time of writing, a member of one of...
A fig leaf for privatisation
PATRICK GRAY argues that the Co-operative Party has been fooled into supporting foundation hospitals. I fear that cooperators will come to regret that the Co-operative Party has been fooled into lending respectability to the government’s wrong-headed plans for foundation hospitals. The will o’ the wisp promise of community control is completely meaningless. Mutuality may...
Collective action and the sustainable renewal of Britain
SEAN CREIGHTON calls for a better understanding of the history of mutual organisations, and argues that their renewal should be a vital part of the government’s agenda for regeneration and social inclusion. Labour’s aim of regenerating Britain’s rundown neighbourhoods, cities and rural areas faces some fundamental stumbling blocks. Alongside the increasing apathy and disillusion...
Genuine popular ownership?
JONATHAN TIMBERS searches for the truth about foundation hospitals but is left with as many questions as answers. The problem with the debate over foundation hospitals is that it seems to be full of opinion rather than fact. Many of us feel left in the dark by the media and politicians. Now the proposals...
Developing democracy
STEPHEN YEO argues that cooperative politics can help to address the democratic deficit. As mainstream politics, including Labour’s, becomes more consumerist and less based on values and principles, the task of bringing cooperation into politics, rather than politics into cooperation, becomes more urgent. There is a growing democratic deficit in Britain, which cooperative and...
The threat of a good example
MATTHEW BROWN reports from Lowick, where teachers, pupils and parents have battled local and national government to set up the country’s first community co-operative school. In her book Reclaim the State (see Barry Winter’s review), Hilary Wainwright describes a number of ‘experiments in popular democracy’ from different parts of the world, attempts by local people...