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, until the end of July. Update August 2024: Voting open for best design!
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.
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.
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.