At the margins of capitalism: useful histories at the Co-op Archive

Around thirty academics, archivists, co-operative practitioners, and community members gathered at the National Co-operative Archive in Manchester for a study day on co-operative history. The event set out to understand how co-operatives function inside and outside of capitalism. It aimed to serve both as an opportunity to learn about the history of food cooperatives, and an exploration of how history can be useful for the practice of present-day cooperatives. Participants considered how the history of cooperatives can be preserved, and the work of both historians and archives in this.

The event began with welcoming remarks from Professor Mo Moulton and archivist Jane Donaldson. This was followed by an archive tour and document discovery session. The tour of the archive allowed attendees to have a hands-on experience with the history of cooperatives, through engagement with an array of different sources from various forms of cooperatives. These included creameries in Ireland, housing cooperatives in New York, and the Eighth Day Co-operative food shop in Manchester. The archive tour was a particular highlight of the event, serving as an opportunity to learn about the process of archiving, seeing how archives make decisions about which parts of donations to keep and how they protect their collections. This was a fantastic experience for those who were experiencing the archive for the first time as well as those who use the archive regularly.

Lunch was provided by the Eighth Day Co-operative. Following this, attendees participated in a roundtable discussion on the ways that groups approached their cooperatives and understood their places “on the margins” of capitalism. The roundtable discussion was locally focused, centring the history of Manchester’s cooperative movement. It included contributions from Debbie Clarke of Unicorn Grocery, Nico Rattue and Anna Sewell of Eighth Day, and Sølvi Goard of MYCO Manchester.

Representatives of local cooperative groups held an exciting discussion on Manchester’s vibrant cooperative movement. This was an opportunity for attendees to discuss and compare their own experience within cooperatives. Attendees brought their own experience of cooperatives in Dublin, Bristol and Wales, amongst others. This allowed for a discussion of the ways in which outside factors, such as rent and community turnover, change the way cooperatives organise.

The group discussed alternative ways of living within capitalism, and the ways that cooperatives create ways of existing “on the margins” of capitalist economic structures. In this, discussions around the language used by cooperatives were useful, as we made distinctions between capitalist ideas such as ‘profit’, and the co-operative focus on ‘surplus’. Attendees found these discussions to be inspiring ones, rooted in contemporary anti-capitalism action, and useful histories of alternative economic systems. Feedback from attendees shows that the event was successful in facilitating useful conversations about the history of co-operatives and alternatives to capitalism. Those who researched co-operative history already in their work reported that the event would go on to influence their current work and thinking. In other cases, attendees reported that the event had helped them to develop an interest in cooperatives, and would influence and inspire their future voluntary work. ++

The event was the first of four events for the Sites of Fracture: 20th Century Ireland at the Margins of Capitalism project. It is led by Professor Mo Moulton (Birmingham), Dr Kevin O’Sullivan (Galway), Dr Erika Hanna (Bristol), Dr Patrick Doyle (Limerick) and Dr Aoife O’Leary McNeice (Galway).

More on the participants

The National Co-operative Archive together with the Rochdale Pioneer Museum forms the Co-operative Heritage Trust. The co-operative movement’s proud claim to look after its members from the cradle to the grave is reflected in the materials held by the archive. This includes:

• the personal collections including correspondence of Robert Owen, George Jacob Holyoake and EO Greening
• papers from the Co-operative Women’s Guild
• society business records, including those of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society,
• ephemera, film, photographs and a large number of periodicals including journals from the Plunkett Society
• early radical publications such as the Reasoner
• and a complete run of the Co-op News from when it began in 1871.

The archive was established after the bringing together of collections formerly held by the Co-operative Union and the Co-operative College. This has enabled the development of a resource allowing researchers to consult material from the early nineteenth century to the present day in a single archive. From Robert Owen, through the Christian Socialists and the formation of national and international organisations, to modern successful co-operative businesses of the twenty first century. Information about the collections, subjects guides and how to visit the archive can be found on the website.

Eighth Day opened in 1970, initially with the aim of trading goods without money commerce, and later developed into a shop. During its time, Eighth Day has served as a clothes shop, a wholefoods shop, and as a vegetarian café. Today, the cooperative is a café and deli, with facilities to help people to go zero waste with dispensers for household staples. At the same time, Eighth Day works collaboratively with other local businesses and cooperatives, and is focused on its local community, working with organisations such as the University of Manchester and Manchester Pride.

Unicorn, based in Chorlton in South Manchester, is a cooperative grocery store, which emphasises “organic, fair-trade, and local produce”. Unicorn focuses on healthy eating and cooking, considering the way that the food that we eat and the way that we source it impacts our world. As a workers’ cooperative, like Eighth Day, Unicorn is owned by its workers, and is focused on creating a space that people want to both work in and shop in. Though Unicorn is rooted locally in Manchester, it is also focused on helping other cooperative supermarkets to establish themselves and grow. It has created the Grow A Grocery guide to help to teach others how to establish similar cooperatives.

Myco is an ecological workers’ cooperative, focused on helping to create better relationships between humans and fungi. The cooperative began in 2020 by people growing oyster mushrooms in their basement and supplying veg box schemes in Manchester. With its expansion, Myco has moved to Platt Fields, where they offer a number of educational events on how people can identify and grow mushrooms themselves, and encourages volunteers and community engagement with its farm.