Throughout this current election campaigning period the Tories have been trying to triangulate to support co-operatives and my Party, the Co-operative Party, has been arguing that it is the Labour Party over the Tories that best represent the co-op movement.
I’ve never really been a fan of the NUS, believe that students should be part of proper trade unions and student bodies should be part of universities and colleges and co-operate with them rather than have confrontations with them. However, the NUS does what it says on the tin – it is a national union of students, that campaigns for student interests.
The Co-operative Party on the other hand, while ideally being the party that promotes enterprise, empowerment and sustainability, often puts its co-operative ideals second to its relationship with the Labour Party. As a Co-op Party member I have been asked to rebut Tory policy to introduce worker co-operatives in the public sector.
My co-operative values stand above any political association I may be a member of, and although I’m not yet convinced that the majority of Tories genuinely believe in the Co-operative Movement, I also know from experience that many state socialists in the Labour Party do not either, but obviously for different reasons.
Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.” This is in keeping with the 1st Principle of a co-operative, which is ‘Voluntary and Open Membership’.
If rules on human rights and co-operatives say this, then why is it that the Co-operative Party only allows people to be members of it only if they either are members of the Labour Party or have no other political affiliation. This does not sound very open and co-operative to me. The Co-operative Movement transcends political party boundaries. In fact, rules for co-operatives say they should be autonomous and only enter into agreements that don’t compromise this. I interpret this to mean that the Co-op Party’s relationship shouldn’t compromise its autonomy and mission. If the Tories do become the governing party after the election, I would like to think the Co-operative Party puts the interests of the Co-operative Movement first and opens its membership to Conservatives on the same basis as Labour Party members, and that is that they support co-operative principles and are a member of a co-operative.
