Following shocking news about the way huge companies such as British Home Stores and Carillion, have been exploiting their workers, and extracting wealth to the point of collapse, news about Cooperatives seem to be in the air. We attended a meeting on Co-ops, which was hosted by HSCB – not the HSBC, but the the Hoe Street Central Bank Project, introducing us to cooperative projects we may not have known about – see Report: LETSlink-HSCB-180622.
The UK Commons Assembly has been held on Friday 20th July 2018 – see UK COMMONS ASSEMBLY_Tate Exchange Programme. I was asked to give a short introduction to LETS and Timebanks under the Economy Section, 11.34am) and a workshop later in the day, and prepared a flyer for this: LETSlink-UK-CommonsAssembly-180720. See: Report of the event: LETSlink-Commons-180720
Radical co-operators will also gather at Open:2018 on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th July 2018 which looks very wide-ranging. So if you want to be fully briefed on what’s going on technically in the world of coops, these are the events to attend. The questions we want to explore for LETS is whether they are voluntary associations or co-ops and whether new technical tools can assist us in improving how we work.
London Permaculture Festival is on Sunday 29th July 2018 • 11am- 6pm at Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY Tickets cost £10/£5 concessions on the door: Details
The Land Justice Network (formerly Land for What?) is a network of groups, individuals and networks who recognise the need to change the way land is owned, used, distributed and controlled in the UK. For a full statement of aims and values please see Our Common Ground statement. You can see our provisional working structure here, see what our working groups have been doing here and please join our mailing list to stay in the loop. The next national gathering will take place Saturday 18th August in Sheffield.
UKSCS (UK Society for Co-operative Studies) is holding its Annual Conference 2018 “Diversity in Co-operation: People, place, and organisations” from Friday 31st August to Sunday 2nd September 2018 at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK. Call for papers: “The co-operative movement, even with its agreed values and principles, has always wrestled with the diversity of people, places and organisational variations that have emerged under the banner of co-operation. This creates a specific challenge as the global movement attracts new advocates in the wake of the 2008 crisis. In this conference, we invite you to submit presentations, proposals, panels and activities that consider issues and impacts from the diversity of people, places and organisations that contribute to the co-operative movement….” Details/Apply/Book.
The National Permaculture Convergence, organised by the Permaculture Association, will be taking place in Hulme, Manchester from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd September 2018. The convergence is bursting with opportunities for learning, networking and demonstrating why permaculture is at the forefront in shaping a thriving future for everyone. The converging crises of our world and the great uncertainties of our time are calling us to step up. Permaculture represents a worldview that is holistic, positive and has wellbeing of all at its centre: Earth Care, People Care, Fair Shares. The convergence will explore the many ways permaculture is interacting with and influencing our world. We see this convergence as being about permaculture at the edges – where we cross-pollinate with other networks and take a lead in designing a better Britain. ….More Details/Booking.
Co-operatives Unleashed is the title of the New Economic’s Foundation recent report: NEF-co-ops-unleashed-1807 – and is the theme for Co-op Party’s annual conference on FSS 12th-13th October 2018: “Co-operatives aren’t just a better way of doing business—they can be at the heart of plans for a fairer economy. Last year we set an ambition of doubling the size of the co-operative sector, putting democratic ownership by workers and customers at the heart of a vision for an economy where wealth and power are shared…. More Details/Booking.
Mary Fee, LETSlink UK as at 22nd July 2018
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