Northern Lights: Co-operative values are needed in a divided world

The values and actions of the big players in our economy shape the lives we live. There are businesses that treat their workers well and are socially and environmentally minded, and others that prioritise profit above people, greed above responsibility. Too often it can feel like the lives we live are at the whim of those businesses, and with the latter tending to win out.

Trump will run the US like he ran his businesses. Former employees describe an egocentric micromanager with little regard for workers, and we know his way of operating a business was far from perfect – with six bankruptcies and more than 4,000 legal cases under his belt.

His lack of self - and social - responsibility can be seen in his first order to Elon Musk – to “cut wasteful expenditures” – which we know in reality to mean slashing the key social protections that exist for those who need them the most.

He represents the reckless individualism that characterises our modern era.

But there are always different decisions that can be taken, different ways to operate, and which show that an alternative is not only possible but preferable.

In 2019, the home entertainment shop Richer Sounds made the decision to be owned by their employees. Founder Julian Richer transferred control of the business and 60% of its shares to workers, to “thank loyal, hardworking colleagues”, who each instantly became £8,000 better off.

Employee-run businesses are, clearly, great for workers. They ensure the people closest to the work have a genuine say over how the business is run. But they’re also better for the economy, with recent findings showing employee-owned businesses to be 8-12% more productive.

Worker-owned businesses come under the umbrella of the co-operative movement. Founded in Rochdale in 1844, the co-operative movement was built on core values – democracy, equality, equity, self-help, self-responsibility, honesty, openness and solidarity – that are sorely needed in our modern world.

Co-operativism has a long history in Sheffield, with our first co-operative society being founded in 1865 – The Sheffield Improved Industrial and Provident Society, at 127 Devonshire Street – what is today Forum Kitchen + Bar near Dev Green.

Another early Sheffield co-operative was the Brightside and Carbrook Co-op Society, opened in 1876 in Wincobank. Its early objectives included to ‘produce and distribute goods that are made under proper and duly recognised Trade Union conditions of labour’, securing the ‘social advancement and better Economic Conditions of its Members’; and to ‘oppose and renounce the evils of Competitive Trading, by securing for the workers immunity against the tyranny of sweated labour’.

While not the birthplace of the co-operative movement, Sheffield is well-placed to lead its future – and to make the case for the way wider society could and should be run.

We have a great mass of co-operatives and employee-owned businesses. That covers: food retailers and producers – like Lembas, Beanies and Regather; a range of housing co-operatives to provide landlord-free living; and clean energy providers like Sheffield Renewables.

Co-operatives and employee-owned businesses can come in all shapes and sizes – Gripple, Sheffield’s employee-owned manufacturing firm, recently recorded £100m annual turnover, and credit their employee-owned status as why they are more productive than traditionally structured businesses.

Sheffield has also seen a wide range of businesses become employee-owned in recent months, from Spencers estate agents to Abbeydale Brewery to the power tool manufacturer Armeg. But there clearly is more work to do to ensure businesses know how to transition to worker-ownership, and the benefits co-operative values could bring.

The new Labour government has said that it will double the size of the UK’s co-operatives and mutuals sector, and help grow co-operatives locally. This is exciting. If we can build a genuinely democratic economy from the bottom up, we could rewrite our economic rules to put co-operation ahead of competition and ensure that everyone benefits from growth rather than just Trump, Musk and their cronies.

Co-operativism is about putting democracy and co-operation before division and greed, and that’s something that cuts to the core of Sheffield’s values. Ours was the first city to announce a ban on Donald Trump from visiting when he was last President, and that’s a message I know we will continue to uphold.

Through developing our co-operative industry and supporting more businesses to make the transition to employee ownership, we can perhaps play a role in ending the conditions that allowed a Trump to be born, by building a fairer and more democratic economy and world.

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