A free, illustrated talk at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford will explore the co-operative movement’s use of film, from film of the Blackpool Emporium and a 1938 Stanley Holloway monologue to a short animation about the Rochdale Pioneers produced last year.

The talk will be given by Gillian Lonergan, Head of Heritage Resources at the Co-operative College, at 2pm at the Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford M5 4WX, on Wednesday 25 July as part of the Library’s ‘Invisible Histories’ series.

All welcome, refreshments available.

For more information visit www.wcml.org.uk/events/invisible-histories–summer-talks-at-the-library.

An article in Red Pepper magazine exploring the co-operative movement as an alternative to marketisation notes that adopting the co-operative model is a way for schools to avoid being ‘forced into an academy’.

The article’s author, Hilary Wainwright, discusses ‘alternatives that enable them to realise their public services values’, with input from Mervyn Wilson, Chief Executive of the Co-operative College, and John Chowcat, Prospect Union.

The article, entitled ‘Co-operatise the state?’ goes on to discuss the growing ‘co-op councils’ movement.

Read the full article online at www.redpepper.org.uk/co-operatise-the-state.

Children, staff and parent volunteers travelled from Western Springs Primary School, Rugeley, to Moorhill Primary School, Cannock, to celebrate becoming The Chase Co-operative Learning Trust. Students took part in Science, D&T, Art, PE and Maths activities, presented in stimulating and exciting ways. They also had the opportunity to take time out to meet and greet each other socially and to share lunchtime. Moorhill’s Year 6 students calculated quantities and costs of ice cream treats as part of their Maths SATS preparations!

The inaugural meeting of The Chase Co-operative Learning Trust took place at the same time, giving Trust members the opportunity to be included.

The Trust comprises very strong partners and both Headteachers, Shirley Wellings and Sandra Peck, are delighted with Trust plans for the future. Partners include South Staffordshire College, which will be providing courses for parents, especially those to help them support their children; Wolverhampton University, which will continue to work with both schools to develop mathematical skills; and The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, which will continue to support the schools’ environmental projects.

Staff from Pye Green Valley Primary will join with both schools to work on curriculum matters, including the National Revised Curriculum. Wednesbury Learning Community Trust schools are also networking with Moorhill and Western Springs, and as this is an established Trust, it brings with it much experience and expertise.

Cannock Chase District Council is most supportive of the Trust and works with both schools to develop projects in the localities to benefit both children and families, which in turn enables the children to focus on their educational studies.

The Co-operative College has extensive experience in helping to found and organise the network of co-operative schools, of which the schools are now members. The co-operative movement will help bring a global dimension to the school and assist in extending existing national and international links.

The students will all become members of the co-operative society and will have the opportunity to contribute to decision making and planning for their futures.

See photos of the celebrations here.

The 13-strong team from food stores in Shropshire and Staffordshire joined Sutherland’s eco-gardeners to prepare the raised beds for planting fruit, vegetables and bedding plants and also repaired polytunnels which had become damaged over the winter.

Midcounties’ colleagues have been regular helpers at the eco garden since it was started three years ago. The community retailer has strong links to Sutherland, which became one of the first co-operative Trust schools in the country in 2008, and has given support in a number of ways.

Community co-ordinator Louise Brown said: “It was great being back at Sutherland and we enjoyed working on the eco garden project. Supporting another co-operative is what this year as International Year of Co-operatives is all about, showing the value of working together for the good of all.

“During the day the catering and hospitality students prepared lunch for us as part of their course work and school trustee Simon Fisher, our Group General Manager of Co-operative Funeralcare, joined us too. The buffet of salads and dips plus chocolate cake and ice cream the students had made themselves was fantastic.”

Teacher Adrian Parker said: “Midcounties has been brilliant in helping us to establish and maintain our eco garden. They really help us to get things moving and the students welcome the support and advice they give.

“We are planning to grow our own vegetables again.  A lot of last year’s crop was used to make pickles and chutneys and they were a best seller! The group is also planning to grow some bedding plants and plant up some baskets and containers this year. The students not only learn about gardening and produce, but it also helps them develop their communication skills and team work.”

Sutherland is involved with The Royal Horticultural Society’s Campaign for School Gardening and the RHS School Gardening Advisor will be in school during May working with students and providing training for staff, students and parents. Sutherland is also working with local primary schools to promote wider community use of the garden.

As well as supporting Sutherland, Midcounties has an extensive colleague volunteer programme that provides assistance where it is needed in the communities where it trades. Each colleague can spend up to three days a year on volunteering activity as part of their paid work time.

The film tells the story of animation through a shimmering fishbowl of delicately glittering fish, which are menaced by a bigger fish until the small fish come up with an idea – working together to take on the big fish!

The animation was made by five Rochdale primary schools in collaboration with Accrington-based Huckleberry Films. Film-making was just one activity on offer to hundreds of Rochdale students who spent the day learning about their town’s history as the birthplace of modern co-operation, and famous ancestors the Rochdale Pioneers.

Watch ‘Working Together’ online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxOZmEy3v5k

Victorian weavers and factory workers greeted students from 12 Rochdale primary schools as they arrived and the brass band from the Co-operative Academy of Manchester got the ‘Meet the Pioneers’ day, which was organised by the Co-operative College, The Co-operative Group and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, off to a swing

Paul Flowers, Chair, Co-operative Financial Services, set the scene for students in his opening address, describing “a time that was a long, long, long time ago, but not that long ago”. He said: “Times were tough in the 1800s. A lot of children your ages were forced to work in mills.”

In 1844, 28 ordinary working men, mainly weavers working in the town’s textiles trade, got together to take a stand against the poor working conditions and unfair trading that was leaving consumers with substandard food products. These ‘Rochdale Pioneers’ set up their own co-operative grocery store in Toad Lane, Rochdale selling unadulterated food for a fair price and rewarded customers for their business with dividend.

Flowers explained why the Pioneers decided to set up a co-operative and what it meant: He said: ‘They called it a co-operative because every person who shopped there could become a member of the co-operative. They had an equal share and every member was the same. At the end of the year, the members of the co-operative had a share in the profits.”

With 2012 designated the International Year of Co-operatives, and Rochdale declared World Co-operative Capital, he reiterated the significance of the Rochdale Pioneers: “The history you have got in this town is important the whole world over. The idea that ordinary folk could take on the people who wanted to screw them into the ground, and take control of their own affairs, spread all over the country and then over the world.”

Flowers also stated the importance of co-operation today. He said: “Co-operation is very much an active thing going on today. It means not being told by lots of other people what we should buy and what we should do.”

Actors from the Shed Theatre Company and Touchstones Rochdale brought the tale of the Rochdale Pioneers to life and gave youngsters a taste of Victorian life – including the stern discipline of the nineteenth century classroom! Students found it hard to visualise how hard life would have been in the 1840s. Leah from St Patrick’s RC Primary School said: “Kids our age and younger were working – I can’t imagine it!”

Other activities included setting up a replica of the Pioneers’ Toad Lane store, taking part in a Pioneers’ treasure hunt, felt-making, banner making, co-operative drawing and visiting the site of the Pioneers’ original shop, now a museum which is reopening this summer after a major refurbishment. The story of co-operation did not stop with the Rochdale Pioneers, and students also took part in activities on Fairtrade, reflecting the co-operative movement’s ongoing support for Fairtrade and ethical trading conditions.

Students pushed a wheelbarrow around the great hall, cheered on by their classmates, in a relay covering the 12 miles between Manchester and Rochdale – the distance the Pioneers had to transport their goods by wheelbarrow from the market in Manchester to Rochdale to be sold in their Toad Lane shop.

In the grand finale to the day, the wheelbarrow finally ‘arrived at the shop’ to three cheers for the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society as students dramatised the Pioneers’ story with a performance and taught everyone the tune to a song about the Pioneers! Musician Will Mace, who worked with students throughout the day, said the co-operative movement inspired by the Pioneers had “become so much bigger than they ever anticipated”!

Students said finding out about the Rochdale Pioneers made them proud to be from Rochdale. Emma from St Patrick’s said: “I didn’t know how the co-op was actually started so it was good to learn what it was at the start. I thought it was just a shop and when I went to the Co-op I thought it was just another supermarket but now I know there’s loads to it. When I found out how brave they were it made me really proud.”

Leah from St Patrick’s added: “Knowing they did all this for fairer trade made me feel proud. I didn’t really care about the co-op before but I do now. I didn’t know why they called the shop ‘co-op’ and I thought they just made it up but now I know it was for a reason.”

Julie Thorpe, Head of School and Youth Programmes at the Co-operative College, said: “One thing I’ve learned today is all of us have got a lot to learn from those people back in 1844. We’ve got a few problems to solve still in the world and we can learn from working in co-operatives to improve our communities.”

She told students: “I hope you’ve all learned how you can make your schools more co-operative places.”

The Meet the Pioneers day was visited by the BBC Radion Manchester show Beswick at Breakfast. Listen again at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00rbc2b (feature appears ten minutes before the end).

Our programmes work with a range of partners to build the capacity of the co-operative movement through education and institutional development. The successful candidate will have a strong background in international development programme management with experience in developing and managing projects preferably in Africa. International travel will be required. We are looking for a candidate with experience and ambition to effectively manage both existing and new programmes. The role will involve working with the College team of associate consultants.

For more information click here.

Travel through co-operative history with the Rochdale Pioneers Museum’s fantastic new website, which includes a timeline of co-operation, memories, resources, details of upcoming events, collections, an online shop and much more.

The website, which was designed by Salford-based Carbon Creative (who also designed the Co-operative College site), gives the background of the Museum as well as a sneak preview of what visitors can expect when the Museum reopens this summer following a major, Heritage Lottery-funded refurbishment.

Visit at www.rochdalepioneersmuseum.coop.

Further images:

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Dr Linda Shaw, Vice Principal – Research and International at the Co-operative College, welcomed the visitors, giving an overview of the co-operative movement in the UK.

The guests then saw co-operative buildings old and new during a tour of the Co-operative Group’s complex including, the new head office which is currently under construction, and met with the manager of a Co-operative store to find out about the range of products on sale. They also met Paul Flowers, Chair of the Co-operative Bank.

Emma was in Vilnius to give a presentation themed ‘From Rochdale to a Global Movement’ at a conference organised by the Lithuanian Co-operative Union. The conference was entitled Co-operative: International Experience and Prospects for Development in Lithuania’, and aimed to raise awareness of the co-operative movement in Lithuania among government officials and members of parliament.

Speakers at the conference, which was held in the ‘Seimas’ (Lithuanian Parliament), included Carlos Dellasega, the Director General of Cooperazione Trentina in Italy, Kazys Starekevcius, Chairman of the National Commission for Co-operatives and Minister of Agriculture, and Edmundas Pupinis, Chair of the Seimas Committee of Rural Affairs. Delegates also heard from representatives from Lithuanian agricultural co-operatives and credit unions.

The conference was attended by around 200 people from Lithuanian state and municipal institutions and agencies, co-operatives and credit unions.

Emma also visited the Union of Co-operatives and Vilnius Co-operative College. Read her blog posts about her time in Lithuania at www.co-op.ac.uk/blog.