Category: News

Local Roots, Global Solidarity: How UK Cooperators Are Building a Movement

Posted on September 24, 2025 by samnord - News

This is a reproduction of an article published by CECOP. You can find the original article here.

The original article was published on 17 Sep 2025 by CECOP. Thanks to CECOP for letting us reproduce the article here.

On 16-18 May, CECOP staff participated [in] a weekend gathering organised by our member, workers.coop.

Photo credit: Mikaela/workers.coop

As in previous years, workers.coop members and supporters gathered in the Peak District of England for their annual weekend of learning, collaborating, and surviving the crisp night air in their tents.Surrounded by the picturesque scenery, the “DIY festival” brought together around 100 people from across the UK, who spent the weekend engaging in workshops and debates, learning and teaching new skills, and building relationships.

In true cooperative fashion, everyone pitched in to help: from cooking and washing up after meals to making sure that we leave the campsite spotless, we worked together to make the weekend run smoothly. Boredom was not an option during the weekend. Whether you wanted to learn about and discuss key topics relevant for cooperatives, get your hands dirty with practical workshops, or immerse yourself in nature by walking the Monsal Trail or going wild swimming, there was something for everyone.

Demonstrating the diversity and strength of the UK cooperative movement, the sessions organised and led by workers.coop members reflected the range of skills, interests and causes of the UK cooperative movement: there were vibrant discussions on migrant worker organising, the political history of UK coops, saving music and arts venues; and workshops on mushroom growing by Myco Manchester Co-op, bike repair by Leeds Bike Co-op, and zine-making by the Good Press Glasgow Co-op and Migrants in Culture. Evenings were filled with live folk music, campfire chats, and delicious vegan meals and snacks provided by Veggies, SUMA, and Unicorn.

Photo credit: Mikaela/workers.coop

The weekend provided a great insight into how the UK cooperative movement is built on radical solidarity and inclusion. To ensure that those with children were able to join the gathering, childcare was provided by the Nanny Solidarity Network and volunteers, making it possible for more people to fully enjoy the activities over the weekend – a reminder that inclusion is not an afterthought, but foundational to how the cooperative movement operates.

But the strong values of the cooperatives movement were also demonstrated by one of the most popular sessions during the weekend, “Workplace Strategies for Palestine Solidarity”, where workers.coop members, from the smallest to the more influential, shared the measures they have taken to support Palestine and the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) methods they have implemented against Israel. Additionally, a solidarity fundraiser was organised, with the funds being donated to the members of Yalla co-op and their networks affected by the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Indeed, the event clearly demonstrated the internationalist perspective of the UK cooperative movement, which looks beyond the borders of the country not only to provide help, but also to learn from each other and thus strengthen the movement as a whole. The session organised by FACTICC, the Federation of Technology, Innovation and Knowledge Work Cooperatives from Argentina highlighted this, as discussions took place about the UK and Argentine movements’ relationship with technology and the rise of platform cooperatives.

While the event was organised by workers.coop for their members and supporters, it also served as a powerful reminder of CECOP’s vital work in supporting our members across Europe through networking, mutual learning, capacity-building, and thus ensuring that the development of worker cooperatives, as well as social cooperatives and cooperatives of self-employed producers, takes place as a collective effort.

The cooperative movement’s strength lies in solidarity, both local and international. Despite different national realities and legislative frameworks that can range from sophisticated, supportive ones to the virtually non-existent, the cooperative movement is united in its efforts to build an economy based on social responsibility and democracy. To strengthen it and create conditions in which cooperatives can thrive globally, we must continue to work together across borders. Only by joining forces can we develop the cooperative ecosystem, where even the most vulnerable people in society can feel welcomed and empowered.

workers.coop is recruiting

Posted on August 16, 2024 by samnord - workers.coop, Members, News

Role: Member
Contract: 8 days/month, 1 year contract (potential to extend)
Day rate: £185
Location: Remote

About us

workers.coop is a small but growing movement of worker-led cooperatives to enable workers to unite and collectively advance their economic, social, and cultural interests. We are a democratic work in progress, led by a small but dynamic team of paid members and an elected Board.

In our first two years we have built an organisation from scratch, raising over £200,000 in member income and donations. We are running campaigns to raise awareness of worker co-ops and provide support to help people start or convert to worker co-ops. For members we offer a range of peer networking, learning programmes and events to build this movement. We are growing, we have gaps to fill and roles that need doing.

About role

As a dynamic, growing and member led organisation, we are looking for candidates that are comfortable in a start-up environment, and able to self-organise, lead and be led as part of a democratic and flat structured team. Experience in cooperatives is not required, but enthusiasm for our mission of liberating work through worker co-ops is.

Co-op Fortnight

Posted on June 19, 2024 by samnord - workers.coop, Members, News

[Please note this page was originally published as an Event and has been turned into a News post]

Co-op Fortnight (24 June- 7 July) is the annual celebration of co-operatives and as a federation it goes without saying that we want to focus on worker coperatives amongst the various types of co-operatives. We think worker co-ops are great, so what can we do to put across this message? This fortnight is all about communicating the benefits of worker co-operation and control, so help us raise the profile of mutual ownership through your co-op’s platforms.

What are we up to during Co-op Fortnight?

Launching the Worker Co-op booklet, ‘Worker What??!! A Short Introduction to worker cooperatives’ (digital and print). Members can request print copies by emailing order details to solidarity at workers.coop and they will in future be available to non-members to order.

Making available the workers.coop Style Guide. We are sharing our workers.coop branding Style Guide as a resource. Members looking at developing their marketing, visuals, creating branding or developing style guides for their co-op may view as an example or use it as a template. Members can use the text about worker co-ops or the federation as boilerplate and use the workers.coop logos. Members can read or download here (need to log in).

We also want to share this resource as an example celebrating how the workers.coop Communications group has worked together across multiple worker co-ops with different skills, to produce educational and promotional materials about worker co-ops that makes this accessible to new audiences.

We are happy to share any posts on social media celebrating worker co-ops. If you are a worker co-op who wants to put a message across, get in touch and we can make a social media post or story about your co-op.

workers.coop have backed Co-op Uk’s call for co-operative growth by signing the pledge on their website. They say, “We are urging all political parties to commit to co-operative growth. Our lobbying efforts are strengthened every time a co-operative backs the campaign. We’ll be contacting the new Prime Minister and government after the general election on 4 July. Please also share invite your members, employees, customers and supporters to back our campaign.”

workers.coop also signed Co-op Uk’s Open Letter on Climate Change to lobby politicians ahead of the general election to take action on climate change as a priority. * Please note, this has now been taken down from Co-op UK’s campaign pledges so the link no longer works.

How can you get involved?

T-shirt contest! We invite worker co-ops, members and supporters to submit designs for a worker co-op themed t-shirt contest. The winning design will be printed and distributed. We are accepting design submissions now for a prolonged period, so get yours in.

We have made a ‘Liberating work’ graphic, with a space for people to put a photo/message from their own co-op and their co-op’s name, to share. Download and edit yourself below.

Send in photos from your worker co-op for the workers.coop image bank! If you send in photos we will make a custom ‘Liberating work’ graphic for you with the image to reshare during Co-op Fortnight.

We are looking to increase the breadth and variety of our image stock and are looking for good quality images of workplaces, worker members at work, goods & services made by worker co-op hands, etc. Send them to solidarity at workers.coop.

Join in with Co-op UK Co-op Fortnight campaign

Back Co-op UK’s call for co-operative growth by signing the pledge on their website. They say, “We are urging all political parties to commit to co-operative growth. Our lobbying efforts are strengthened every time a co-operative backs the campaign. We’ll be contacting the new Prime Minister and government after the general election on 4 July. Please also share invite your members, employees, customers and supporters to back our campaign.” More info and how to get involved here.
Members can personalise and share the #alltogetherdifferent assets found on Co-op UK’s website.

Report back from a Scottish co-operator

Posted on May 7, 2024 by samnord - Members, News

07 May 2024

Report from Louise Scott, Media Co-op

There’s been much activity in Scotland with reports from Edinburgh and Glasgow’s worker co-op scene. To start with Media co-op is celebrating its 20 birthday with Films to Change the World at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on 12 June. The audience will be joined by Paul Laverty, screenwriter for Ken Loach, and many of the organisations who’ve worked with media co-op over the past two decades for a screening of some of the films and a formal handover of two decades of short films and animations on the co-operative, third and public sector to Scotland’s National Archive where they’ll be available to the public in years to come.

The Glasgow and Edinburgh monthly meet-ups continue to flourish with a varied programme of activities and events from . films to introducing sociocracy to planning a local co-ops website, to going behind the scenes to view the historic co-op collections at the Glasgow museums to informal drop in for chat and peer support.

During the Glasgow meet-ups this year, worker co-operators, joined by Glasgow Student Housing Co-op and co-op friends, made two banners/ The aim is to give worker co-ops – and co-ops in general – higher visibility and to be able to demonstrate our worker co-op solidarity.

Our two new Glasgow banners had their first outing on the Glasgow May Day march.

Worker co-ops Green City and media co-op have been invited to give a short intro to co-ops for Dundee Social Enterprise Network members on the morning of Wednesday 22 May.

Also coming up in June is Co-ops at the Council. A Co-operatives Fortnight event and part of media co-op’s 20th birthday celebrations, the half-day event at Glasgow City Chambers on Tuesday 25 June will bring together co-ops of all kinds from across the city with elected members and Council officers. The event is a refresher for the Council on co-ops with a focus on four sectors – housing, food, energy and arts – and includes co-ops in all sectors including sports. We’ll work together on how co-ops could support the Council deliver on its programmes; and identify what the Council can – and could – do to help co-ops in the city to grow and thrive.

And last but not least, the 2024 Scotland Worker Co-op Gathering will be held in Dundee this year on Thursday 27 June.

This will be a much valued opportunity to get together with other worker co-ops from around Scotland, find out what the Scottish Government is planning for co-ops, discover what support there is for worker co-ops and meet the people behind it, get 1:1 consultancy on your co-op, take part in workshops and peer support sessions – and chill out at the end at the post-event social hosted by Dundee-based worker co-op, GP practice Newfield Medical.