SEAN CREIGHTON traces the historical association of mutual organisations and the labour movement, and questions what the ‘new mutualism’ can offer to radical politics in the future. Scarborough’s Central Public Library is housed in the Oddfellows Hall opened in 1840. From 1857 it became the base for the Mechanics’ Institute and its library. The...
The Challenge of Mutuality
This issue of Democratic Socialist is dedicated to continuing the discussions and debates raised by the ILP’s weekend school, held in Scarborough at the beginning of May. Entitled ‘The Challenge of Mutuality’, the school brought ILPers and non-ILPers together to discuss the politics of cooperation, mutuality and social enterprise, and examine their relevance to...
Neighbourhood renewal and co-operative communities
ANDY HANSFORD looks at the causes of social exclusion, and unpicks the government’s plans for regeneration. A year ago, parts of the left press were highly critical of some measures coming out of the Social Exclusion Unit, which had recently published its ‘national strategy action plan’, called A new commitment to neighbourhood renewal. Neighbourhood...
All together now
As the regeneration baton is passed from Whitehall to local authorities, ANDY HANSFORD calls for the people of our blighted neighbourhoods to be given real control. Four years’ work by the government’s Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) have resulted in a practical strategy for neighbourhood renewal. It is challenging stuff, which might transform the life...
Making the mutual state
The New Economics Foundation is influencing the government’s agenda with its ideas for democratising the public sector. MATTHEW BROWN spoke to NEF’s executive director, Ed Mayo. Last year an “independent think tank”, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), published a small pocket book called The Mutual State: How local communities can run public services, which...
The temptation of honest mutuality
DAVID BYRNE examines the recommodification of the welfare state, and says mutuals must decide which side they are for – corporate capital or socialism. “He who sups with the devil had best use a long spoon.” (Traditional) We are at a crisis point in the trajectory of welfare capitalism. It is worth dwelling for...