From 2 to 20: Promoting the development of the co-operative economy
The 2011 Future Co-operatives conference inspired, the From 2 to 20 plan, which has been co-written with and published on behalf of the UK’s 30 or so co-operative development bodies. Now, following the 2012 conference, this plan is a reality.
Last year marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Fenwick Weavers co-operative, one of the earliest societies for which records exist. The subsequent 250 years of co-operative “development” investment and activity have delivered a co-operative economy that is estimated at only 2% of GDP and a total number of about 5,000 co-operatives.
For example and by way of comparison, in 2005, the then government invented “community interest companies” or CICs. There are now 4,640 CICs, very few of which are co-operative.
Meanwhile, the UK co-operative movement has failed to generate, sustain or grow anything like the Basques’ Mondragon Corporation and has generated, sustained and grown so few Sumas, Phone Co-ops or Foster Care Co-operatives that most of us can name them as the exceptions that prove the rule. This is a damning indictment of the UK movement’s co-operative development performance.
I was pleased to see a little strategy from Natalie this week, probably pushing aside her biggest rival for Rob's affections. Otherwise, this was very much a business-as-usual episode. It's like the Zapatera gang's powers of strategy atrophied and now
