Bookstore

Author: Thalia Campbell and Mervyn Wilson
Category: History
Pages: 40

Description:
Lavish colour photographs bring to life the banners of the Co-operative Women’s Guild, Men’s Guild Woodcraft Folk and Co-operative Societies, while articles on the symbolism and the use of the banners give a valuable insight into the people who made and carried them.

Author: Derek Magnall
Category: Rochdale
Pages: 34

Description:
A twenty-mile circular walk which begins and ends at Toad Lane, Rochdale, the birthplace of the modern Co-operative Movement, divided into sections of two to four miles. Full descriptions with maps and photographs are included.

Author: DVD
Category: Biography / History / Videos
Pages: DVD 23 Minutes

Description:
From a childhood in a small Welsh market town, to his return there at the end of his life, this film biography traces the life of the man who became known as the “father of co-operation”.

Author: DVD
Category: History / DVD
Pages: 95 Minutes

Description:
Commemorative video produced for the 1994 Co-operative celebratory film season, introduced by Bill Owen. Three complete films including “Men of Rochdale” make up the programme.

Author: DVD
Category: History / DVD
Pages: 95 Minutes

Description:
A further compilation of co-operative films, including “Out of the Box”, the history of   co-operation in Scotland, and “Co-operette”, an all colour musical comedy from 1938.

Author: Mervyn Wilson, Tom Woodin, Richard Simmons and Johnston Birchall
Category: Member Participation
Pages: 40

Description:
These two papers are based on an action research project in the West Midlands. A number of consumer and housing co-operatives took part, looking into ways of recruiting and developing active members. The research looks at practical ideas for member participation, with a second strand using interviews with members to look at what motivates co-operative members to participate.

Author: Co-operative College Paper 1
Category: Education
Pages: 40

Description:
The first in a new series of Co-operative College Papers is based on the plenary session contributions to the conference organised by the Co-operative College and the International Association for the Study of Co-operation in Education (IASCE) in Manchester in June 2002. The papers bring together the themes of exchange of good practice and research in co-operative learning and how co-operative learning can link with the co-operative movement and explore co-operative businesses as a source of co-operative learning.

Author: Nicholas Deakin (Editor)
Category: Co-operation / Member Participation
Pages: 33

Description:
Proceedings of a seminar series organised at the London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society. The starting point for discussions was the perception that membership, as a concept, has become curiously undervalued in debates about the future of civil society in the UK. The contributors show membership as a concept, the membership implications of the Co-operative commission and the revitalisation of membership to address the issues of the new century.

Author: William E Lawson
Category: History
Pages: 55

Description:
A history of the Scottish Co-operative Co-operative Wholesale Society published for the Society’s centenary in 1968.

Author: Linda Shaw
Category: New / Education / International
Pages: 56

Description:
The stimulus for this paper comes from a review of current co-operative education in eastern and southern Africa. This is the first such major study carried out and is a part of the larger CoopAfrica programme of the ILO supporting co-operative development across the region. The main focus of the research was to find out more about the work of the Co-operative Colleges and the ways in which they provide education for the co-operative movements of their own countries. Co-operative College Paper 15.

Author: Samantha Lacey
Category: New / International / Development
Pages: 96

Description:
The co-operative and Fair Trade movements have each played important roles in challenging the inequalities and exploitative practices of market driven supply chains dominated by multinational corporations. In contrast, the Fair Trade and co-operative movements have endeavoured to empower and inform both producers and consumers and have often worked together to this end. This paper aims to examine this rich history of empowerment and to generate ideas and recommendations for how these movements can work together to provide an alternative to purely profit driven value chains. The findings are based on interviews with a range of co-operative and Fair Trade stakeholders as well as experts in the field. Co-operative College Paper 14.

Author: Johnston Birchall and Richard Simmons
Category: New / International / Development
Pages: 60

Description:
This paper looks at efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the problems that hinder development, with evidence from Sri Lanka and Tanzania compiled during a series of interviews. The first publication from the Co-operatives for Development programme at the Co-operative College. College Paper 13.

Author: Edited by Richard Bickle and Molly Scott Cato
Category: New / History / Co-operation
Pages: 206

Description:
Robert Owen was one of the most significant thinkers and social innovators of the nineteenth century. He is widely recognised as the ‘Father of Co-operation’ and an exemplary industrialist and educational reformer – his work on time-based currencies, trades unionism and community living are perhaps less well known. This book explores the connections between Owen’s work and the present day through a series of papers.

Author: DVD
Category: Biography / History / DVD
Pages: 23 Minutes

Description:
From a childhood in a small Welsh market town, to his return there at the end of his life, this film biography traces the life of the man who became known as the “father of co-operation”.

Author: Melanie Howarth
Category: Co-operation / International
Pages: 56

Description:
The Argentinian experience detailed in this paper takes place 150 years after the industrial revolution in the UK. Yet in many ways, it reflects a common response by human society to turmoil and disintegration brought about by rapid economic change, resulting in worker’s livelihoods and those of their families being placed in jeopardy. The worker’s response was instinctive – to work together to safeguard jobs, and the skills and competencies on which their livelihoods and those depended.

Author: David J Thompson
Category: Co-operation / History
Pages: 152

Description:
The story of the revolutionary era in which the Rochdale Pioneers started their co-operative store. The book calls on the literary observations of Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and other key writers of the times and covers the riots, revolts and reforms of a nation undergoing immense change as well as co-operatives as a national economic force.

Author: Edited by Linda Shaw
Category: Co-operation / International
Pages: 150

Description:
Both the co-operative and Fair Trade movements have the potential to promote a more equitable and balanced economy and society, not just within Europe but with their trading partners in the developing world. The vital contribution of the co-operative sector in Europe to the development of European markets for Fair Trade products is the focus of this publication. Four detailed cases studies explore the situation in Italy, Sweden, Belgium and the UK

Author: Stirling Smith and Cilla Ross
Category: Development
Pages: 40

Description:
The majority of workers in the world today are in the informal economy. They get whatever work they can. It may be hazardous and it almost certainly will not provide earnings much above subsistence level. The SYNDICOOP approach offers an alternative. It shows that workers can be organised in a way that offers some improvements in their daily lives and provides the voice that workers need. The stories in this publication describe the difference that this approach has made in East Africa.

Author: Katarina Friberg
Category: Co-operation / History / Member Participation
Pages: 508

Description:
A comparative study of the Newcastle upon Tyne Co-operative Society in the UK and Konsumentforeningen Solidar in Malmo, Sweden. This volume follows the development of the two societies through their minutes and members’ meetings, showing the interaction with their environments, organisational structure and decision-making.

Author: P D S Waddell
Category: History
Pages: 76

Description:
An introduction to the use by co-operative societies of tokens. Tokens were widely used for the calculation of dividend, prepayment for delivered commodities like bread, milk and coal and for mutuality clubs. This volume is aimed at collectors and examines the use of tokens and their manufacture as well as listing co-operative societies known to have issued tokens.

Author: E G Nadeau and David J Thompson
Category: Co-operation / International
Pages: 206

Description:
The tradition of democratic economic enterprise reaches far back into American History. This exploration of the development of co-operatives in the USA during the 1990s uses a wealth of case studies to show the breadth of the co-operative movement in the areas of agriculture, worker co-operatives, housing co-operatives, credit unions and many others.

Author: Julia Smith, Robin Puga, Ian MacPherson
Category: New / Youth
Pages: 275

Description:
Young people are inherently optimistic, and one readily finds the kind of buoyant optimism, determination and idealism that youth have already contributed to the co-operative movement and to society generally within the pages of this book which has been assembled by the British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies. It percolates through the case studies that are included, clear in their determination to find ways to develop organisations that reflect the values they believe are most important in the modern world. It is clear in the honest, sometimes biting, criticism they level at those who are handing on the co-operative trust.

Author: Professor Ian MacPherson and Professor Stephen Yeo
Category: Rochdale / History
Pages: 45

Description:
The Rochdale Pioneers could hardly have envisaged the scale of the venture they were starting, or dreamt that some 160 years later 800 million people across the globe would be members of co-operatives adhering to the ‘Rochdale Principles’. These contributions, by two of today’s leading academic thinkers on co operative issues, are part of our efforts to address the under-reporting of the Pioneers’ achievements, and to celebrate, 160 years on, the remarkable contribution of the Rochdale Pioneers.

Author: Richard Simmons and Johnston Birchall
Category: Member Participation
Pages: 12

Description:
The  Co-operative Commission argued that there is a positive ‘co-operative advantage’ to a co-operative, from having members rather than investor-owners. But can large-scale co-operatives and mutuals successfully involve members? What motivates people to take part in governance? This report presents the findings from a project asking members of area committees and inactive members why they do or do not participate. Co-operative College Paper 3.

Author: N/A
Category: Member Participation
Pages: N/A

Description:
Some of the first College papers – Co-operative Learning and Responsible Citizenship in the 21st Century, Getting Involved – studies of member participation in co-operatives across the West Midlands, Motivating Members – participation in governance – a study of the Co-operative Group, Pioneers in Co-operation, Co-operation Social responsibility and Fair Trade in Europe and HIV Aids and Co-operatives.

Author: N/A
Category: International
Pages: leaflet free on request. Bulk copies available.

Description:
Today, 2.4 billion people live on less than $2 a day and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day. All the world’s aid budgets can only make a dent in these statistics. To help achieve a world without poverty, the co-operative movement has decided to work with the government’s Department for International Development (DfID). Led by the Co-operative College, a consortium of co-operatives have formed a partnership with DfID to actively make a difference to people’s lives across the world under a strategic grant agreement.

Author: N/A
Category: Member Participation
Pages: 193 plus CD-ROM

Description:
The Building Sustainable Supporters’ Trusts project worked with trusts to identify the training, development and support needs of supporters’ trusts and to design a structured programme of training to enable trusts to realise their full potential as sustainable organisations and strengthen their contribution to the social economy. The Manual covers: Running your trust effectively; Membership and recruitment; Finance and fundraising; and Role and duties of an Industrial & Provident Society trust secretary.

Author: N/A
Category: Member Participation
Pages: 190 plus CD-ROM

Description:
The Membership Toolkit is designed to help co-operative and social enterprises recruit and develop the active members who are essential to their success. Just Ask can be used by activists as well as professional staff. It is laid out in an accessible style to assist the user and includes activities, metaphors, case studies, research findings and examples of good practice. The CD Rom enables users to adapt the exercises for their own use.

Author: Stephen Yeo
Category: Co-operation
Pages: 50

Description:
This report uses a historical focus to explore the potential of co-operative and mutual forms of organisation. It aims to point towards ways of making the historical inheritance of co-operative and mutual enterprises in Britain more widely understood, enabling features of the past to be realised as a resource for the present.

Author: Edited by Bill Lancaster and Paddy Maguire
Category: History
Pages: 136

Description:
The essays in this volume were first presented as papers at the Co-operative History Workshop held as part of the 1994 celebrations of the Rochdale Pioneers 150th anniversary, and show the wide range of interests and enthusiasms of co-operative historians. They appear with a lively introduction by Tony Benn, and an overview by the editors. Subjects range through local beginnings and developments in different parts of Britain; the Co-operative Women’s Guild; the Co-operative Party; biographies; consumer co-operation in the postwar period and internationalisation.

Author: Alan Burton
Category: History / Rochdale
Pages: 8

Description:
Co-operative film-making began with the magic lantern before the end of the 19th century, and developed through short training, publicity and educational films – and longer feature films like “Men of Rochdale”, produced for the centenary of the Rochdale Pioneers in 1944 – into the 1960s. This book, produced to coincide with the 1994 Co-operative Film Festival, describes the films and their making, and is illustrated with stills. The foreword is by Lord Attenborough. Two videos are available to complement this book.

Author: W Henry Brown
Category: Biography / History
Pages: 54

Description:
The original 1925 edition of Pathfinders included 74 biographical sketches of those whose names appeared on the Reformers’ Memorial in Kensal Green, London. Long out of print, the illustrated volume, like the Memorial itself, covers co-operators, chartists, radical journalists and writers, trade unionists, educationalists and feminists.
In this new edition, published shortly after the refurbishment of the monument, Stan Newens MEP has included biographies of the 11 reformers added to the memorial later, and of W Henry Brown himself. The brief ‘lives’ give a flavour of the people and the times in which they lived.
“A study of the names suggests that there is no one highway towards social peace. The avenues are many, as are the natures and dispositions of the people for whom the work is done” – W Henry Brown

Author: N/A
Category: International / History
Pages: 60

Description:
A special issue of the Journal of the Society for Co-operative Studies to mark the 100th anniversary of the ICA and its special Congress in Manchester in September 1995. With articles on the ICA’s role and organisation by contributors with experience of service within the Alliance or in the UK Co-operative Movement.

Author: Illustrations by Bill Tidy
Category: Co-operation
Pages: 136

Description:
This satirical series of letters to Babs, Betty Robinson’s friend, describes the progress she makes through the Co-operative Movement’s corridors of power. She crosses swords with Old Joking, the tyrannical boss of the Downmarket Co-op, wheels and deals a merger with Upmarket, and rescues her Society from disaster in the hands of the Reform Group, ending triumphantly as President of the Upmarket Society.

Author: Nora Stettner and Bert Oram
Category: International
Pages: 184

Description:This study of co-operative enterprise in China examines how government policies since 1979 have transformed the Chinese economy, allowing a vast proliferation of co-operatives and other forms of collective enterprise.

“Their book deserves to be read.” – Prof. Asa Briggs in a thought-provoking Foreword.

Author: W P Watkins
Category: Co-operative Principles
Pages: 184

Description:
The book rigorously analyses the basis of Co-operative Principles and their present and future application. It is enriched with many practical examples from a wide range of experiences, including consumer, worker, agricultural, housing and credit co-operatives. Since it was first published in 1986, the book has been a great success throughout the world, and has been translated into Japanese, Spanish and Finnish. Reprinted 1990.
“A stimulating and provocative reappraisal of the fundamental principles of Co-operation. The richness of the book … deserves a wide public” –Ted Stephenson in the Co-operative News.

Author: N/A
Category: History
Pages: 20

Description:
This richly illustrated booklet presents the historical background to the establishment of the first successful Co-operative society at Toad Lane, Rochdale, in 1844. It takes the reader on a guided tour through the world-famous museum that has been located in the Pioneers’ original shop.
The Guide is now available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese – please specify language when ordering.

Author: Jean Gaffin and David Thoms
Category: History
Pages: 296

Description:

The centenary history of one of the world’s most remarkable radical feminist groups, the Co-operative Women’s Guild, recounts the stirring events of the Guild’s foundation and its many energetic campaigns.

This new edition contains a postscript reviewing the ten years following the book’s first publication in 1983. The book appeals to everyone with a concern for women’s role in society and is an important addition to the academic literature on the women’s movement.

Author: John Tilley
Category: History / Biography
Pages: 91

Description:
A V Alexander is one of the great unsung heroes of the Labour Movement. This son of a widowed corset-maker left school when he was 13 and, following a career in the Co-op and then in Sheffield politics, became the organiser with Winston Churchill of crucial wartime naval successes.
This first biography of the only Labour Party Minister ever to serve as First Lord of the Admiralty was written while John Tilley was Co-operative Parliamentary Secretary.
“His contribution to the nation’s well-being was immense” – Roy Hattersley MP in a lively Introduction.

Author: Ian Snaith
Category: Law
Pages: 750 Loose Leaf

Description:
The definitive work on the subject, unique in dealing exclusively and in great detail with I & P legislation. The Handbook covers every aspect of the law as it applies to the whole range of I & P societies, and there is a special section for credit unions. Appendices include all the appropriate Statutes, SIs and Forms, and there are specimen model rules covering different economic sectors. The book is shortly to move to electronic format, please email for details.

Author: Mary Davis
Category: History
Pages: 147

Description:
The long overdue study of a remarkable and unique youth and children’s organisation founded in 1925 as a non-militarist, pro-socialist alternative to the scouting movement. This organisation – the Woodcraft Folk – is still going strong. Many on the left of the political spectrum will have heard of it – maybe they will have participated in it when they were children or sent their own children to its camps and weekly group nights. Although there were other attempts, Woodcraft Folk is the only surviving independent youth and children’s organisation with a socialist and labour movement orientation.

Author: N/A
Category: Co-operation
Pages: 96

Description:
Throughout 1994 people were writing down their thoughts and experiences of co-operation: this book is the result. It is all here, from distant memories to co-operative achievements, hopes and futures. A collection of prose and poetry published to celebrate the Movement’s 150th anniversary.

Author: United Kingdom Co-operative Council
Category: Co-operation
Pages: 120

Description:
The most comprehensive work of its kind to be published for many years, this book takes a fresh look at co-operation, both nationally and internationally, with facts and figures. Essential reading for anyone seeking better alternatives to conventional, investor-driven business structures or who would like more control over the economic aspects of their lives.

Author: Rita Rhodes
Category: History
Pages: 296

Description: This is the unique study of a consumer co-operative society and its involvement in British politics during a period of one hundred years. The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society was based in South East London and grew to become one of the Co-operative Movement’s biggest retail businesses. At the same time it developed a distinct and remarkable political tradition which set it apart from other co-operative societies.

Author: Dr. Ian Macpherson
Category: Co-operative Principles
Pages: 78

Description:
Adopted at the International Co-operative Alliance Congress in Manchester in 1995, the “Statement on the Co-operative Identity” is the product of consultation involving thousands of co-operators throughout the world. The Co-operative Principles, the guidelines by which co-operatives put their values into practice, are reviewed and their use in confronting future challenges analysed. The luxury edition has a preface by Graham Melmoth, the former President of the International Co-operative Alliance, and is lavishly illustrated with over 175 photographs of Co-operative sectors around the world.