Cake, the Big Society and crime in Lambeth: Why I just joined the Co-operative Party

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Yesterday I attended 52 Ways to Change the World Co-operatively , the event which kicked off  Co-operatives Fortnight . Aside from the free cakes, the highlight for me was a workshop on the theme of 'new ground for co-operation'. 

This opened with an inspiring talk by Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, on his vision for the party. For him, co-operativism is not simply another form of social enterprise, but a comprehensive vision for the whole of society. He was full of heartfelt ambition for pushing forward the Co-operative agenda.

What this agenda looks like in practice was expressed by the Co-operative leader of Lambeth council Steve Reed's account of his council's programs. He compared the usual model of government – government provides solutions which citizens passively receive – with the co-operative model which Lambeth has been pioneering: government empowering citizens to solve their own problems. For example, Lambeth has a significant problem with gang-related violent crime, including a number of high-profile shootings. The usual government response is to send in authorities of various kinds to try and reform troubled youths. Instead, Lambeth council set up a scheme whereby ex-gang members would mentor young offenders. The result was a 72% success rate in preventing re-offending, much better than conventional schemes. The common thread running through this and the other examples which Reed described was a recognition that the people experiencing a particular social problem are often better able to solve it than well-intentioned outsiders.

That's actually the kind of thing David Cameron likes to talk about in his "Big Society" speeches. However, Cameron's Big Society is mixed up with the traditional Conservative hostility to interventionist government and a corresponding enthusiasm for unfettered market forces. Reed's Co-operative approach is based on the idea that an interventionist state can facilitate citizen empowerment which would not otherwise happen.

Taken together, Reed and Stephenson's talks were enough to inspire me to join the Co-operative Party. I'm well aware of the exploitation and unjustifiable inequality which unfettered capitalism results in and that pushes me to the political left. However I'm also aware of the tendency of a bloated, micro-managing, top-down state bureaucracy to stifle innovation and indulge inefficiency, and that makes me cynical of conventional left-wing solutions. For me, the Co-operative Party offers a way of reconciling the social conscience of the state with the efficiency and creativity of the business world, by way of a bottom-up, participatory model of organisation which is foreign to both traditional government and traditional business, but sits very comfortably with the new world of Wikipedia, Twitter and TheyWorkForYou.com which we are creating.