I'm very cooperative

This month, as an email from ABCUL reminded me, sees the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Fenwick Weavers Society. It is claimed that this is the first known co-operative in the world for which full records are held. Which could put the collective noses of the Rochdale Pioneers out of joint by 84 years, if such things mattered. The residents of Toad Lane have traditionally considered themselves the first among equals.

An interesting article in the Grauniad concerning the Big Society in the Basque Country (Euskadi). Great stuff but not without its problems as the last three paragraphs outline.

Mondragón's utopian ideal, however, is tempered by the fact that only half of staff are co-op members and their vote decides the future of the other 50%. The result is a two-tier system.
During the recession it was non-member staff who suffered, losing jobs as temporary contracts were not renewed. None of its foreign divisions have become co-ops, stymied by a lack of profits and trade unions abroad suspicious of worker ownership.
Carlos Fernández Isoird, a former manager who left to set up social enterprises, says Mondragón is too large, too multinational and too capitalist in outlook: "Mondragón stopped forming co-ops years ago. They have 6,000 workers in China and just opened two factories in India. Tell me when will a Chinese get to be president of Mondragón?"

Ah yes membership, equality and globalisation!

What would a network of cooperatives, mutuals, non-profits etc. look like? Hmmm...

Once upon time in a London Borough far, far away a young lad was enchanted listening to the tale told by a colleague of some considerable experience. On a visit to explore the, architectural, wonders of Bordeaux he fell in with a wine coop which had celebrated its 100th anniversary. The way they had chosen to do this was by bottling an anniversary wine with the label Chateau Rochdale in honour of our friends in Toad Lane!

Let me know if you find a bottle and how good it was!