Rundale

Patrick Doyle and Elisavet Mantzari 

2025 is officially designated the ‘International Year of Co-operatives’ by the United Nations. The UN aims to highlight the role of co-operatives in helping meet global challenges around social, economic, and environmental breakdown. This is no small task. At a time of geopolitical turmoil defined by war, genocide, and a recrudescence of nationalism, the opportunity to remind ourselves of the value of co-operative endeavour across borders is more important than ever.

More locally, the foundational legislation that underpins the potential for growing the co-operative economy here in Ireland is undergoing root-and-branch reform. The Co-operative Societies Bill is slowly making its way through the Oireachtas, with a promise to deliver the most far-reaching reform of the sector in 130 years. At the same time in Britain, the Law Commission is also reviewing co-operative legislation. However, if this legislative reset is to translate into real economic and cultural change, then we cannot rely on the necessary change to unfold in a top-down fashion.

Against this backdrop, a remarkable event exploring the condition of the co-operative movement across Ireland and the UK occurred in February at Boundary Co-operative Brewery in East Belfast. This ‘Co-operation between Co-operators’ conference marked the first time in a generation that the Irish and British co-operative societies had collaborated, aiming to transform society through the dissemination of ideas around economic democracy. Key ideas emerged around workplace democracy, credit union development, educational engagement, historical reflection, collaborative housing, agriculture, sustainability, and innovation in organisational design.

Reminders about the health of the co-operative model and its applicability to the many crises we face was brought through in presentations that focused on work, housing, finance, food and agriculture (see Barry Ferguson’s piece in this same issue of Rundale).

The conference opened with a panel on workplace democracy by the presenters John Barry, Gerard Doyle, Tanya Lalor, and Cian McMahon. A central insight offered by the speakers was the powerful critique of economic growth as an unquestioned ideological force in capitalist societies. The perpetual growth imperative not only structures workplaces around competition and efficiency but also undermines democratic governance. It turns workplaces into hierarchical spaces that prioritise profit over people and the planet. Democratic workplaces can become spaces to reimagine economic systems, for example, through the lens of post-growth and ecological sustainability, where worker participation and collective decision-making are central.

Crucially, workplaces are not neutral spaces; they are shaped by systems that marginalise worker voices, prioritise profit over well-being, and drive ecological degradation. A promising avenue for renewal lies in strengthening the relationship between trade unions and worker co-operatives. While historically rooted in shared struggles for justice and workplace democracy, these two movements have often remained organisationally separate. Yet their overlapping goals, resisting precarity, advancing collective power, and defending workers’ rights, suggest strong potential for synergy.

The crisis around housing (or lack thereof) was also discussed in relation to the student housing sector. Isabel Power, a founding member of UCC’s Student Housing Co-operative Society, spoke about the lack of a co-operative option for student housing. Her work, along with other students, to build the Cork Student Housing Co-operative pointed to one of the great obstacles facing young co-operators – while there is a huge interest and hunger for different approaches to tackling the great housing crisis that has bedevilled Irish politics for years, the inability to access the necessary capital to test out a truly co-operative approach to the student housing crisis is a serious impediment. That the Society will publish a series of zines to ensure their experience is passed on to a new intake of students was an exciting announcement and demonstrates how knowledge can be passed onto new generation desiring radical social change.

Co-operative education and democracy

Throughout the conference, discussion frequently turned to the ideological value of co-operation. The movement stands at a pivotal moment, where questions of visibility, sustainability, and renewal intersect with longstanding values of democracy, education, and collective ownership. A recurring insight was the foundational importance of co-operative education, not merely as a support function to sustain a co-operative entity, but as a core strategy for movement-building. Peter Couchman and Nick Matthews argued that education was historically seen as central to both the growth and resilience of the co-operative sector. It cultivated an informed, active membership and fostered a shared understanding of the co-operative ethos. Without their active participation, the movement risks stagnation. Today, however, this commitment has diminished in many contexts, raising concerns about the movement’s capacity to sustain its democratic character and social purpose over time.

Lakshmi Jayan and Abilash Unny argued from an Indian perspective that co-operative values needed to be more explicitly applied to debates around technological advances if they were to remain relevant. Innovative strategies, such as the integration of digital tools, inclusive learning models, and youth-focused training, are essential for bridging generational divides and ensuring relevance in a rapidly evolving socio-economic landscape. A forward-looking co-operative education model must therefore rethink both content and accessibility, and endeavour to equip individuals with not only the knowledge of co-operative principles but also the skills to lead and innovate within them.

At the same time, data and evidence-based advocacy play a crucial role in defending and promoting the co-operative model. The lack of a comprehensive annual snapshot to highlight the activity of co-operatives in the Republic’s economy –  akin to the annual Co-operatives UK Report – is a limitation and contributes to its lack of visibility. Systematic aggregation and analysis of data on co-operative performance, sectoral trends, and geographical patterns has become vital to making the case for co-operatives in public discourse and policy. By illustrating the social and economic contributions of co-operatives, such data serves both as a tool of propaganda in the positive sense, spreading awareness and shaping opinion, as well as defence, countering misconceptions, and demonstrating resilience. The ability to present a coherent picture of the co-operative economy is essential for gaining legitimacy with stakeholders and strengthening the sector’s voice in wider economic debates.

There was also an acknowledgement that the history of co-operation and economic democracy needs to be better understood, but also used as a resource for movement building. We are often guilty of passing over past examples of efforts to build a democratic alternative to the extractive model of capitalism we live in today, but in so doing we risk having to relearn some important lessons from the past, as illustrated by Mo Moulton’s presentation on Northern Irish co-operatives and Patrick Doyle’s paper on Mike Cooley’s vision of democratic technology. Similarly, Barry Hazley stressed the importance of collecting oral histories as a way to archive the achievements (and setbacks) experienced by those individuals who have worked to build co-operation in the past. Such action would serve the dual purpose of building a resource to inform future generations of activists, but at a more fundamental level, the action of collecting an archive builds and draws attention to the rich identity of the co-operative movement – an important insight for all social movements. 

These insights point towards a need to reclaim and reimagine the educational, strategic, and knowledge foundations of the co-operative movement. This entails renewing a commitment to co-operative education not as an auxiliary function, but as a vital driver of democratic participation and sectoral sustainability. It requires adapting educational practices to engage new generations meaningfully, while also leveraging data to articulate the unique value and impact of the co-operative economy. This broader conception of education may also include public demonstrations and other forms of participatory action, which not only raise awareness but actively embody and express co-operative principles in practice. At its heart, this is about ensuring that co-operatives remain not only economically viable, but politically relevant and socially transformative in the face of 21st-century challenges.

The conference was an important event because it provided a rare opportunity for co-operators to build solidarity with one another, while learning about the achievements of others in a range of areas and jurisdictions. Alongside the ongoing co-operative law reviews across these islands, such encounters will only be of value if they are accompanied by the development of more co-operative ecosystems and mentalities.

Finally, one message came across time and again over the course of the weekend. Co-operative approaches to building vibrant, equitable, humane communities – whether that is building a sustainable and healthy food system or harnessing the democratic potential of fan-owned football clubs to engage in community wealth-building – stand in stark contrast to what passes as mainstream economic orthodoxy in which people are measured by their capacity to deliver growth.

A recurring theme in all the presentations was the recognition that those promoting co-operative ideas have always seen themselves as part of a transnational community. In Ireland, the agricultural co-operative movement learned from and contributed to the development of co-operation in places such as Europe, North America, Russia, and India. Irish co-operative farmers even served as a source of inspiration to activists like Ibrahim Rashad, who viewed economic independence as part of a broader process of decolonisation. This reminder about the way that co-operative principles can act as a source of solidaristic internationalism served as an important reminder about the importance of resisting the siren call of nationalistic exclusivity.   

The potential viability of a united Ireland at some stage in the near future is now a permanent fixture within Irish political discourse. But, so far, it has been a debate in which no side has really foregrounded a vision of what a socially just all-Ireland economy might look like . A weekend of discussion about economic democracy, environmental politics, and social justice within the confines of a co-operatively run brewery in the old heartlands of Loyalist Belfast was as good a place as any to start.

Elisavet Mantzari is the Chair of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies, and Patrick Doyle is the Chair of the Society for Co-operative Studies Ireland.