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VO: The United Nations International Year of Co-operatives – brought to you by The Co-operative
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VO: The co-operative model has spread across the world and become a major force in the promotion of a fairer approach to life and business. But that’s no idle claim, the figures speak for themselves. Over 1 billion co-operative members worldwide. Over 100 million jobs in co-operatives. And annual profits above 30 trillion pounds.
That’s why the International Year of Co-operatives is a pivotal year for the co-operative movement as a whole. It’s a chance to show the world what being a part of a co-operative is all about – and the big benefits it holds for all.
Here to discuss the importance of the year for the Co-operative Group is project manager, Alicia Walker.
VO: Alicia, what, for you, makes the 2012 International Year of Co-operatives so important?
AW: The international year’s really important for us because it’s a one off opportunity to really raise awareness of our co-operative difference. It’s almost like the UN are shining a spotlight on our business model so it’s a real opportunity and we need to seize it.
VO: So, what is the Co-operative Group doing to mark this special year?
AW: We’ve got loads of events and activities happening all throughout the year across the whole of the UK. One of the things that I’m most excited about is that we’re remaking a film, and it’s about our very first Co-op shop in Rochdale. It’s a really inspiring story, it’s about a group of working-class people who came together and really made a change in their own community and set up a shop that was fair and equitable. What started in Rochdale, you know, this very humble, small Co-op shop has now turned into a global movement that affects the livelihoods of 3 billion people and we’re really excited about getting the word out there.
VO: In summary, what would be the one key message you would want people to take away from the UN year?
AW: The slogan for the year International Year is “Co-operative enterprises build a better world”, and we love that, we think it really sums up the message that we’re trying to get across this year. Co-operatives are successful values based business and owned by their members so through that Co-operative difference we are building a better world, we’re out there in the communities and we’re doing it differently.
VO: Thanks Alicia, I think we now appreciate the significance of the UN Year for the Co-operative Group here in the UK.
But of course, it’s not just on these shores that the co-operative model has been effectively used. In lesser-developed nations co-operatives have delivered democracy, equality and empowerment to their employees and members. In fact, the success of putting people before profits mean co-operatives are continuing to flourish all over the world.
One man who has had first hand experience of co-operatives on a global scale is Stirling Smith – and he joins us now to explain a little bit more about how the UN Year could have a major impact worldwide.
VO: Firstly Stirling – do you have any particularly interesting examples of how co-operatives work around the world.
SS: I think the most unusual co-operative is The Snake-catchers Co-operative which is south of what was called Madras, it’s now called Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu in India, and this is an interesting community, you knowm, India has got what they called indigenous peoples.
So these people basically lived in the jungle and they caught the snakes and they sold the skin to make handbags and shoes and things like that. The Indian wildlife act made that illegal, so the people basically would have lost their livelihood completely, and they’d have ended up like loads of other people in India living, frankly, in an unpleasant slum in a big city.
What happened in this case was a co-operative was organized and they continued to catch the snakes, and this is the strange bit for me – they then let the snakes go, but they keep them as guests for a while and while they’re guests of the co-operative they are regularly milked for the poison, they literally put the head over a cup and squeeze the head and the poison goes into this cup. And they put them back in a pot and keep them for a week or so, and then they let them out into the wild and they put a little nick in the scales. And so when that nick has grown over again it means the poison has come back to full strength. If they catch a snake and it’s still obviously been a recent guest of the co-op they let it go again.
What they sell this product for is mindboggling; a gram of purified snake venom can be worth £1000, and they sell it to the pharmaceutical companies that then use it to make antidote.
VO: Stirling, you’ve been lucky enough to see how different co-operative models work throughout the world, can you tell us a bit more about that?
SS: A very interesting example of how the co-operative model or form can evolve – you find in Rwanda, like many other countries in Africa, informal taxi services and people use motorbikes, or scooters, or even ordinary cycles as taxis to get around.
In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, about 1000 of these motorcycle taxi drivers formed a co-operative. The co-operative also runs a garage so people can take bikes there to be fixed, and it helps train young people to become motorcycle taxi drivers and it controls access to the industry.
What was interesting for – as a trade unionist too – was that this organization, although called a co-operative, is affiliated to the equivalent of our trades union congress. It provided for people, again, a structure of organization – a way of improving their livelihoods, because they had to negotiate with the traffic police about where they could park and pick up customers, and it was able to do that.
So I think Rwanda is interesting how people have taken the co-operative model and the form and kept the essence of co-operation, the solidarity of the organization, and breathed new life into it; as a way of providing all those supports and services.
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VO: Find out more about the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives and all our events around the country at Co-operative.co.uk/2012
Transcribed January 2012.