RACE MAIHEVVS

RACE MATHEWS is Minister for the Arts and Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services in Pamphlet 39 's Labor Government. He has represented $1.50 Oakleigh in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1979, and, is secretary of the Victorian Fabian Society. j He rvas Principal Private Secretary to i' :i: ,r I i,, as Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament 1967-72, Member of the House of Representatives for Casey 1972-75, and Principal Worker Co-operatives Secretary to Clyde Holding and as Leaders of the Opposition in the Victorian Parliament and the A.L.P. 1976-79. BUILDING THE SOCIETY OF EQUALS Worker Co-opGratives and the A.L.P.

by Race tlathews

Uictorian Fabian Society Pamphlet llumber 39 BUILDING THE SOCIETY OF EQUALS Worker Go.op€ratives and the A.L.P. For Bob Murray who prodded me into drawing together the proof that worker co- Most of us never control the way our poverty line; where l07o and more of operatives are a practical proposition. daily work is done, or the use to which it is those who want jobs are unable to find put. Nor are the profits or losses our own. them; and every form of job-creating Worker co-operatives are different. activity from building a house to The workers in a worker co-operative are starting a business-can be obstructed or all member-owners, and membership aborted by the high price of money. cannot be held by anybody else. Nor is this atl. As our economic Everybody participates on an equal difficulties have dragged on, with still no footing in making the decisions, benefits end in sight, their social costs have equally when there is a profit, and increased exponentially. This is apparent sacrifices equally when there is a loss. in the grim statistics of homeless young The Mondragon Group of worker co- people, young people who have missed operatives in the Basque region of Spain out on acquiring the habit of work, is owned by 17,000 workers spread over middle-aged people crushed by ninety-six separate enterprises. with an unexpected and irretrievable annual turnover in excess of $400 million, redundancy, unemployment-related The Group's immensely successful bank family breakdown and unemployment- is a worker co-operative. as are its related crime. It cannot be assumed that facilities for research and development, our past good luck in avoiding a Watts or education, housing, health care and a Brixton will continue indefinitely. The social security. France has 900 co- existence of an under-class whose operatives owned largely by the 35,000 members are permanently unemployed people who work in them, and in Italy or otherwise impoverished is rapidly there are 5,000 co-operatives with becoming as real in as in Britain ownership shared by a 350,000 strong and the United States. We are witnessing workforce. Hundreds of thousands of the growth of a similar potential for Danes, Israelis, Poles, Portuguese, violence, in the pent-up rage of people Swedes. Swiss. West Germans and who have been stripped capriciously ofall Published by the Victorian Fabian Sociery, Yugoslavs are worker co-operative self-confidence and hope for the future. G.P.O. Box 2707X, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, members. The lesson for those who still remain well- Australia. Worker co-operatives are an old idea off may well be that in the long run has personal safety social justice are Copyright Race Mathews, 1983. which taken on new interest for and good reasons. All around the developed indivisible. Cover Design by Vane Lindesay world there is rising anger and frustration Conservative commentators harp Printed by Bel Air Graphics over the apparent inability of capitalism, incessantly on how competing demands communism and the mixed economy to for higher incomes ofall kinds, enhanced National Library of Australia card number cope with such economic problems as social benefits and capital investment and International Standard Book Number inflation, unemployment and excessive have swamped increases in productivity interest rates. We are all acutely aware and economic growth. Their account 0 909953 18 2 that there is something appallingly wrong adds to the picture of our predicament with a situation where a nation as richly without explaining it. The real question is endowed as Australia has up to one in why people behave as they do, and how every seven of its citizens ekeing out a change can be brought about. In fact, the precarious existence below an austere structure of our societv and its a new era, and won an enduring place in was sometlmes a prelude to lailure. The institutions leaves most us with no The ideals of the of worker co-operative history for its twenty-eight founder early prosperity of the Pioneers'venture alternative pursue courses of movement are precisely from which but to those members. The Society's tiny generalstore into the worker co-operative field action which are economically self- the Labor Movement the arose. In in Toad Lane, Rochdale, opened at first through the Rochdale Co-operative defeating. There is no incentive for us to lamous words of Victor Hugo, "Nothing on two evenings a week I'or the sale of Manufacturing Society was brought to put extra effort into our work because in this world is so powerful as an idea small quantities of butter, sugar, t'lour, nothing when greedy shareholders began overwhelmingly the benefit will be whose time has come". oatmeal and cakes. A year later splitting up the earnings among creamed off by others already l-ar better membership had risen from 28 to 74 and themselves, along lines which made the off than ourselves. Any economic capital from f28 to f l7l, while the stock undertaking indistinguishable from its consequences of our attitudes and actions oRtctils had been expanded to include tea and capitalist competitors. Co-operatives can be left to the boss, or the government, tobacco, and the shop itsell'was opening also continued to go under in the l'ace of along with all the other economic issues Worker co-operatives have not every night in the working week. the familiar dilTiculties of obtaining we are never allowed to handle for reached this point of promise easily. An example had been set which other adequate management and capital. ourselves. Advertising goads Lrs Co-operation had been foreshadowed communities were quick to follow. Experiences of both sorts had an unrelentingly to the pursuit ofpurchasing in Cromwell's time, when the Levellers Consumer co-operation was on its way to immense influence on the thinking of power and consumption at levels which applied co-operative principles to becoming the major force in retail trade Sydney and . who. in tlrcir can be achieved only at the expense of the farming, and Peter Cornelius Plockhoy now familiar in Britain and elsewhere. turn, shaped the attitudes of the Labour jobs of our workmates or the re- set out in detail "a way to make the poor At the same time, principles were party, the trade unions, and the co- investment of capital on which society's in these and other nations happy by identified which currently provide the operative movement itself. The Webbs future well-being depends. bringing together a fit, suitable and well International Co-operative Alliance with concluded that any association of At the same time, state capitalism as it qualified people unto one Household- its basic operational philosophy. producers which set out to compete with is practised in most of the communist government or little Commonwealth". Membership of a co-operative is capitalism on its own ground would countries has been no more successful. The roots of the broad co-operation voluntary, and open to any person who is either fail financially or adopt the capital- There, too, the link between the economic movement lie deep in the hunger, sweat willing to accept its responsibilities. ist values it was supposed to supplant. interests of the individual and those of and exploitation of Industrial Revolution Managers of co-operatives are elected or Largely as a result of these views, interest society has not been forged. For most in France and Britain, where decent men' appointed by the members, and in workers co-operatives remained people, work and drudgery are still the and women recoiled from the misery accountable to them. Return on shares is minimal among the groups who same thing. Their capacity remains which was inflicted in the name of limited to a fixed interest rate, and any otherwise might have been theirstrongest underdeveloped and their commitment progress, and looked for ways in which surplus is distributed among members in advocates and supporters, long al'ter the unengaged. It is bitterly ironic that, in the human dignity and decent living proportion to their participation in the Webbs were dead. very places where exploitation and standards could be secured. Saint-Simon. form of work or purchases. A co- For all practical purposes, while alienation were to have been eliminated, Fourier and Bouchez in France, Owen in operative educates its members in the consumer co-operatives flourished in we see instead apathy and cynicism Britain and a host of other largely- philosophy and practice of co-operation, Britain, no new worker co-operatives expressed in the worst alcoholism in the forgotten figures thought through the and works together with other co- were started there between l9l4 and world. concept with such effectthat, by 1830, the operatives at the local, national and 1960. A handful of survivors I'rom the Worker co-operatives are way of a editor of "The Co-operator", William international levels. earlier era had it left to them to bear breaking out of these deadly economic King, could point to 300 co-operative Later, features unique to h,orker co- continuing witness to the viability and dilemmas-first, for the growing number trading associations in business operatives also began to emerge. All the tenacity of the worker co-operative ideal. of groups who already are taking up the throughout Britain. workers in a worker co-operative are The Walsell Locks co-operative was co-operative principle in response its to Some of the new bodies distributed members, and all the members workers. established in 1873, and today numbers intrinsic commonsense appeal or their goods on a co-operative basis, and some There is an equal say for all in the making among its customers major corporations own unemployment; and later, through produced them, while in others of decisions. The investor takes the such as British Leyland and the National their example, for society as a whole. The production and distribution were worker\ place in accepting a fixed return Coal Board, Equity Shoes, with 210 co-operatives constitute a new alternative combined. lnitially most collapsed rom for his capital, and the worker the workers, has been in business to the bankrupt dogmas of private and inadequate capital, inadequate investor's entrepreneurial role, along continuously since 1886, as has Leicester public sector enterprise, an alternative managerial skills and, perhaps an with the profit or loss. Printers, with 82 workers, since I893. incomparably superior to its two excess of idealism over pragmatism, but Where the worker co-operative competitors and with the capacity to run in 1884 the establishment of the were insufficiently understood both of them into the ground. Society of Equitable Pioneers ushered in or inadequately applied, initial success

4 which it is situated. FRANCE collapsed, it has not been as a result of a Italy had more worker co-operatives and takeover from within by capitalist values, worker co-operative members than any The concept of community obligation as the Webbs feared, but again of other country in Europe. Co-op Muratori has become one ol'several key features Elsewhere the record has been more slowncss to accept appropriate Cementisti, with 3000 workers. and Co- which makes Spain's co-operatives encouraging. ln France. a surge of managerial skills and practices. Failure op Edilter, with 1400 workers, are ma1or legislation the best in the world. Every enthusiasm for worker co-operatives trom capital shortfall is less common build ing and cir il engineering enterprises. worker in a Spanish worker co-operati\e accompanied the revolution of 1848, and than in Britain, because up to half the while, in addition, the movement includes is b.t, lan'a member, as is every member a there were fu rther upsurges of support in French worker co-operatives are located hundreds more co-operatives with worker. A bank which obtains the 1860s and 1880s. Most of these bodies in the building trades, which have between 50 and 500 workers, engaged not registration as a worker co-operative can turned out to be unsuccessful, but the new relatively modest capital requirements. only in the construction industry but in ofler higher interest rates on deposits century saw a steady growth in the Orly Airport's Hilton Hotel was built by a manufacturing and the provision o1' than its commercial competitors. A ne*' number of French worker co-operatives worker co-operative. servlce s. workers co-operative is entitled to a loan from ll9 in l90l to today's total of Politics have been good to the ltalian of 20% of its initial capital requirement, around 900. L'Assot'iation des Ouvriers worker co-operatives, because each of the repayable at 370 over ten years. beneficiarl' of en Inst rument s de Pr6cision(AOI P), with ITALY nation's major parties has acquired a co- The most signilicant 4000 workers, has been in business since operative federation of its own, for which these enlightened arrangements has been 1896, and ranks currently as a leader of Italy experienced yet another pattern of alTiliates constantly have to be attracted a remarkable group of worker co- the French telephone equipment development. As in France and Britain, and retained. The Christian Democrats. operatives centred around Mondragon. manufacturing industry. Hirondelle and the middle nineteenth century produced the Social Democrats and the in the Basque region. The Mcndragon Avenir are builder co-operatives, each its crop of consumer co-operatives, but Communists are linked with. group had is start in 1956. when Iive with around 1000 workers: L'Association by the time the first federation of co- respectively, Il Confederazione Co- young engineers threw up steady'jobs des Ouvriers en Materiel Electrique operatives Il Federazione dell Co- operative Italiane. Il Assot'iazione with the town's largest tactory in order to (ACOME), with 675 workers, is a major operative Itoliane was established in Generale dell Co-operative Italiane, and start a manufacturing venture ol their force in the copper wire industry; and La I 887, worker co-operatives had La Lega Nazionale della Co-operative e own, along loosely democratic lines. Verrerie Ouvriers d'Albi is the largest multiplied to the point where they Mutue, which replaced the original Capital was obtained by pooling their glass manufacturer in France. Over and accounted for perhaps a third of its Federazione in 1893 and today dwarfs personal savings. along with those of above these five giants of the French co- affiliates. both its competitors. The advantages of friends and relatives, and initially twenty- operative scene, there are about 100 co- Again, as in France, half the this political patronage emerged clearly four people had jobs making simple oil operatives with between 50 and 500 newcomers were small co-operatives in 1947, when new legislation confirmed stoves for the local market. Today, 96 workers, and 500 more with up to 50 engaged in building or civil engineering. all the existing entitlements of the worker co-operatives, each averaging 200 workers. Far from faltering at the crucial stage, movement while adding access to low worker-members. are affiliated with the A significant number fall short of the worker co-operative growth was interest loans and tax exemption for the group, which raises capital internallv "pure" work co-operative model, because sustained. The co-operatives built roads, interest paid to co-operative members on through a worker co-operative bank they include workers who have not been bridges and harbours, carried out their capital. On the other hand, co- (Caja Laboral Populqr); keeps up with admitted to membership. On the other drainage schemes and-in at least one operatives are required to distribute half the demands of product innovation and hand, French law provides answers to instance-constructed. owned and their profits to members, in the form technological change through a research some of the objections to worker co- operated a regional railway. The either of cash or insurance and weliare and development worker co-operative operatives. At least two-thirds of the expansion was assisted powerfully by credits. The assets of a dissolved co- (Centro de Investigaciones Te<'h- places on tho board of a worker co- important legal and political factors. In operative cannot be distributed among its nologicas); provides a full range of operative must be held by its workers. 1883, co-operatives were given legal members, but are paid over instead for welfare state benefits for its members Where profits are distributed by a co- recognition, together with valuable social projects. through a social insurance worker co- operative which includes non-members stamp duty concessions, and in 1889 they operative (Lagun Aro)', educates among its workforce, at least as large a achieved the right to be granted contracts UONDRAGON members' children through schools which share must go to the workforce as to the by public authorites without having are themselves a series of individual members. Any surplus left over where a submitted a competitive tender or put up In Spain this principle has been worker co-operatives; meets its needs for co-operative has gone out of business a security bond. As a result, the period expanded, so that a worker co-operative technical and professional work skills must be passed on to another co- from 1896 to l92l saw a rise in the is required by law to allocate lOTo ofeach through a tertiary education worker co- operative. number of worker co-operatives from 46 year's surplus to educational, cultural or operative (E.s<'uela Pro.fessionol Where French co-operatives have to 2866, and by the nineteen-seventies, sporting facilities [or the community in Politecnica), which incorporates a

6 co-operative approach is incompatible tripartite system of government. A and Toronto. converted to common definitions of common ownership and with the demands of efficient general meeting of all the organisation's ownership as Airflor Communitv. The worker co-operative ventures provided management, adequate capital members elects the Board ol' Directors, twenty workers at Trylon Community for the first time. and authorisation for lormation. high technology or economic and also a Commonwealth Board of Ltd took into common ownership the loans to the ventures and grants to growth. On the contrary, these Management to exercise broad shareholding ot a Nottinghamshire organisations promoting an overall -Ihe credentials are borne out not only by philosophical oversight of the plastics firm, and the workers at Michael common ownership interest. number Mondragon itself. or the long-established organisation and its operations. Jones Community Ltd took over the of I'irms af'filiated with the Industrial worker co-operatives of countries like administer menibership matters and shareholding ol' a firm manulacturing Common Ownership Movement doubled France and Italy. but by an impressive loster outside groups in establishing high quality jewellery at Northampton. to about 100 within a lew months of the crop of newcomers which have sprung up ventures of their own along Scott Bader All these common ownership enterprises passage ol the Act, while the 22 new over the quarter century since ULGOR's lines. Results of the Board of Directors are built around the Scott Bader two-tier worker co-operatives registered in 1976 inception. This period has seen new ballot are subject to ratification by a structure, with one company holding the was more than all the regislrations since worker co-operatives established and Community Council, made up of capital and a second to carry on the World War ll. Between 1975 and 1980. similar worker-owned enterprises representatiles elected separately business. Characteristically. their the number of worker co-operatires in proceeding with renewed vigour in manl through fifteen constituencies within the Articles of Association incorporate England rose from 25 to 400, and in 1980 countries including some, such as organisation, and responsible also for the broad social goals as well as obligations their turnover totalled X80 million. Australia. where the movement final word on disciplinary issues and to the membership, so that Scott Bader's previously lacked roots. welfare I'unctions such as sick pay and commitment to charity and lostering new penslons. common ownership ventures is paralleled JOB.SAVING Operation of the machinery of internal by Trylon Community Ltd's ear-marking CO.OPERATIVES BRITAIN: democracy has been characterised by the equivalent of l0o/o of its salary bill f or The impetus for conversion of' SCOTT BADER high levels of financial restraint and projects such as aid to Honduras, Nigeria conventional companies to common social responsibility. Retention of profits and Vietnam. ownership gained further strength from In Britain. the start of a new era was for taxation and re-investment have Inevitably, obstacles have been the headlong rush to de-industrialisation signalled in 195 I when ownership of the characteristically been around a third encountered and failures have occurred. which began hitting Britain in the middle Scott Bader chemicals and plastics above the 6016 mandatory minimum. Sunderlandia, a common ownership 'seventies. As thousands of firms either manufacturing company began to pass while half the remainder is taken up with enterprise in the building and closed their doors for good. or carried on from the firm's christian socialist gifts to charity and aid for new Scott construction trade, nearly went down precariously with the threat of closure founder, Ernest Bader, to his employees. Bader style ventures. within four years of its inception because hanging constantly over their heads, The transfer became complete twelve of a basic incompatibility between its own groups of workers seized on the common years later in 1963, and subsequently the long-term needs and the short-term ownership idea as a means of forestalling Scott Bader Commonwealth registered, r]rDusTRlAL COilHON perspectives of the transient building redundancy. Mostly, those concerned for Companies Act purposes, as the Scott OWNERSHIP workers who became members had had no previous lnterest or Bader Commonwealth Ltd and Scott automatically under its constitution. In involvement in co-operatives. Although Bader Company Ltd has consistently out- Before long, the fresh twist to traditional the fifteen-member Rowen Community powerful moral and financial support performed its private sector competitors worker co-operative thinking was being satisfied customers. full order books and was made available by Mr Anthony in the rate of return earned on its capital, talked about widely under the new label a twelve year record of profitable Wedgwood Benn, as the Callaghan together with the levels at which wages of "industrial common ownership". Scott involvement in the manufacture of Government's Industry Minister between and salaries have been paid, productivity Bader's tenure as a solitary example of outdoor furniture, metal fencing and aids February 1974 and July 1975, money for lifted and industrial health and safety what could be achieved was short-lived. for disabled people all failed to buying up the assets of the departed preserved. Where one conventionally-structured compensate for chronic management employers often had to be found from In 1975, trail-blazing work in the field capitalist enterprise had passed into the inadequacies or to avert the cash crisis their own pockets and loans raised of polymer emulsion won Scott Bader a hands of its workforce and begun which finally forced voluntary against personal assets, including even Queen's Award for industry, and licences operating successfully as an industrial liquidation in 1977. Nevertheless, as early their homes. The task they were setting for Scott Bader technology are on issue democracy, others could follow. as 1958 a fully-fledged Industrial themselves was to succeed within the currently in a score of countries. A firm of fan and gas-flow gauge Common Ownership Movement had ambit of a capitalist society and economy Scott Bader workers control the firm manufacturers, with 200 people emerged in Britain, and in 19'76 at ventures where the caDitalists and preserve and perpetuate its employed in two factories at High Parliament passed its Industrial themselves had failed. democratic character by means of a Wycombe and branches overseas in Bonn Common Ownership Act, with legal In most cases, the odds against them l0 ll internal to themselves than from the iack "Operation Co-operation", appeared in proved to be insurmountable. The 600 rose from 2l bikes per man-year to 27, of an established and pervasive infra- 1978. The task force's recommendations journalists and printers who tried to keep and in 1979 the co-operative was structure, such as those of the co- were taken up in the Policy Unit of the afloat the Scottish Daill' Nev,s were supplying Triumph Tiger bikes to the operative federations of France and Italy, Department of the Deputy Premier, and forced to abandon their worker co- Devon and Cornwall police at prices a from which moral support and practical within months a three-year $3 million operative when it was barely six months third below those of competitors in assistance can be drawn in time of need. worker co-operative development old, while an attempt by footwear Europe. A five-person professional In France, the Con/|dtration Gen4rale program had been adopted by the workers at Fakenham Enterprises to save management team was able to win the des Sot'i1fts Co-op€ratives Ouvriires de government, with a view to countering their jobs with a worker co-operative was confidence of the membership, and Produt'tion can point to an enviable "the serious dislocation caused by longerJived but no more successful. members continued to pay themselves record of jobs and firms salvaged from unemployment and to maintain Elsewhere, however, job saving worker wages which were around f l0 below the co-operatives the ruins left behind by their former motivation, self-respect and confidence such as Kirkby prevailing local rate. Bui as at Kirkby, the proprietors, while in ltaly the Lega of unemployed youth until employment Manufacturing and Engineering and going was made haid by depressed Nazionale della Co-operative e Mutue comes along". The government's plan Meriden Motorcycles Ltd showed a markets both domestically and in the alone had to its credit by 1978 some 100 "Youth Co-operatives: A Program for staylng power which speaks volumes for United States, together with competitive successful anti-redundancy conversions, Unemployed Youth" further envisaged the potential of the worker co-operative disadvantages arising from the high value representing around 10,000 jobs. the co-operatives as a source of worker movement. of sterling and the low value of the yen. experience for young people who At Kirkby, in 1974,750 workers at the As orders fell away, the remaining 450 otherwise would have difficulty obtaining former Fisher-Bendix domestic members of the co-operative were forced NEW SOUTH WALES a job for the first time, a point of access appliance manufacturing complex to accept a two-day working week, and in It has taken the current jobs crisis to for skill development programs and a established a worker co-operative to mid-198 I the government had to be have worker co-operatives taken means of promoting social contact and carry on the plant's production of approached for a rescheduling of fl.3 in Australia. While Australia's discussion of shared problems among the domestic seriously radiatiors, ventilation million in loan charges owed to the first co-operative was established as early unemployed. equipment, night storage heaters and- Export Credits Gaurantee Department. as 1859, and the consumer, housing and Administrative backup for the project incongruously-soft drinks. Prod uctivity Today the debts to the government have credit co operative movements are highly was provided by the Department of virtually doubled, and the co-operative all been paid or written off, and the developed, attempts to form worker co- Youth and Community Services, through was able to bring down the venture's immediate crisis is once again over; but operatives remained sporadic and a Project Administration Officer and an weekly operating loss from 125,000 to the threat remains that the co-operative unsuccessful until 1976, when New South Advisory Committee consisting of f6,000 within a two year period. Sadty the could at any time be overtaken by Wales elected a Labor government which representatives drawn from the gains fell short of ensuring survival in the Britain's continuing economic troubles, was willing to incorporate the worker co- Department of Labour and IndustrY face of the deepening world recession, and finally follow into history Kirkby, operative idea in its portfolio of schemes Youth Employment Unit, the Technical and in I 980 the doors at Kirkby closed for Fakenham Enterprises and the Scottish for combatting the consequences of and Further Education Department, and the last time. Daily New,s. unemployment. The New South Wales the New South Wales Council of Social Meridan was a similar story, in all but by Victoria's then Service. Areas were identified where Even if the worst eventuates in this example was followed the ending, which still remains in doubt. co- public meetings could be held and the way, the job-saving worker co-operatives Liberal government, and worker In 1975, about 700 members of the former geared needs the first co-operatives established, and, as will not have been in vain. They have operatives to the of Norton Villiers Triumph workforce groups came together, they were each were demonstrated conclusively the capacity unemployed have also been established in able to obtain f5 million in government Western allocated an establishment grant and the of working men and women to assume Tasmania, South Australia, grants and services of a full time Project Officer' loans to establish the Meridan large responsibilities and take hard Australia and the Australian Capital Motorcycles Subsequently, these arrangements were Ltd, worker co-operative, decisions where their livelihoods and Territory. At the same time, conversion further systematised, with the Minister and revive the production ofhigh quality right to work are at risk. Democratic of conventional firms to worker co- receiving policy advice from a Workers' Triumph bikes which the previous structures have been evolved. the need for operatives has given rise to successful proprietors ventures such as NVC Australia Pty. Ltd. Co-operative Development Committe. had abandoned. The new co- professional management skills has been New Huckel while government grants and loans were operative incurred losses totalling more recognised at the shop floor level, and in South Wales, P.J. & P. disbursed on the recommendation of a than f2 million n the first thirty months of wage restraint has been exercised in the Logging Pty. Ltd. in.South Australia, government Submissions Revtew its life, but by early 1978 its situation had interests of capital formation and other and Modern Maid and Staff Ltd. in Committee. from a pool held in trust for stabilised, ind subsequently it began requirements for long-term survival. Victoria. government the Co-operative marketing bikes for itself where Moreover, experience elsewhere The New South Wales worker co- the by Federation of N.S.W. previously they had been marketed for it suggest that where the job-saving co- operative initiative arose in 1977 from a Needs Taskforce, whose booklet, By the end of 198 l, funding for a total by Norton Villiers Triumph. productivity operatives failed it was less from factors Youth t2 l3 government will provide co-operatlves of eightecn worker co-operatives had received. two were in business but had NEW PERSPECTIVES with management support. bustness been prtn idcd. with f ourtccn survivingas arranged lor payment oftheirgrants to be services and training. independent businesses. Workshop delerred. and therc wcre three whose advice, education government will continue to lndustries in Wollongong currently has busincsses still had to be started. ln At present, a signil'icant shift is taking and the receive advice f'rom its Worker Co- six worker-members and a S 10.000 addition, a lurther six groups had place in how the N.S.W. and Victorian f)evelopment Committee. monthly turnover lrom servicing o1' completed leasibility studies on which to co-operatives are seen and what is operative electronic appliances and equipment. have their claims tor assistance assessed expected ol them. The early emphasis on Thirteen workcr-members ol the Hills in the I982-83 l'inancial year. co-operatives as a means of supporting Work Collective at Castle Hill turn overa Whereas the N.S.W. project has placed unemployed young people "until coNvERsroNs monthly $25.000 lrom pallet repair its emphasis on workcr co-operativcs, the employment comes along" has been contracts, and in Mosman up to$20,000 a cmphasis in Victoria has been on co- replaced by a tougher-minded While the employment co-operatives month is turned over from lawn mower operatives where control rs dividcd appreciation that, if work is to arrive at have been carrying on the struggle to sales and service by the lbur worker- between worker-members and members all, the co-operati\es may have to create it grow and prosper in the lace of such members ol the Northern Beaches ol the local community whose concern is for themselves. lt is recognised. problems as largely unskilled labour. Pipeline Group. A mid-1982 evaluation to create job opportunities for the increasingly, that funding co-operatives naive hostility to basic management. rcrealed that. in 198 I. the co-operatives unemployed. Concern-based community with grants can produce dependent accounting and entrepreneurial had a total turnover ol $935,000. employment co-operatives can bencl'it attitudes which are as incompatible with rcquirements. and unfamiliarity with the employed 98 lull-time and 30 part-time from being able to draw on extra local the whole spirit and value system ol principles and practice of co-operation. workers and provided training, work resources, but suffer as a result ol the low business success. yet impressive results have been obtained experience and support for a lurther 247 priority their all'airs may be assigned by Victoria now attaches over-riding where existing companies have made the workers. The project had enabled the co- directors whose Iivelihoods are not importance to its initial group of co- conversion to quasi-worker co-operative operatives to accumulate capital assets dependent on their success. Where operatives becoming self-sufficient structures, mostly in preference to closing totalling around $400,000, created.jobs at unemployed people are recruited into a within the three year pilot phase period. down. roughly hall the cost normally incurred in co-operative which allows them to teel With the conclusion of the N.S.W. N VC Australia Ltd came into existence small businesses. and saved the like employees and not co-operators, the project's three year pilot phase, new long- in 1979 when the fourteen employees of Government unemployment benefits in sense of commitment which is vital to the term arrangements for the I'ostering ol' Sydney's Watson Victor hospital excess of $700.000. co-operative's success as a business future work co-operatives have been equipment and scientific apparatus 'fhe venture ma1 be stillborn. introduced. goal ol the project has manufacturing plant acquired the Currently, eleven of the nineteen co- been re-defined as "to assist groups ot' business lrom the parent Nicholas Croup vrcToRtA operatives funded under the Victorian people to establish independent viable in Melbourne. which had issued Much the same sort of progress has project are concern-based community businesses in which ownership and redundancy notices in preparation for been made in Victoria. where a Co- employment co-operatives, with a total ol' control is vested in those who are actually finally shutting the doors. A majority of operative Development Program was 474 shareholders. and eight are worker working in the businesses, and is NVC's shares must be owned by the launched in April l98l by the new co-operatives, with 174 shareholders. exercised in a democratic manner". while workers, and every worker must be a Department of Employment and Public lmages, with four worker- its objectives are stated now as "(l) to shareholder, but some shares have had to Training. In its first year the Victorian members employed in the production of promote viable, independent Worker Co- be placed externally in order to raise project was allocated $600,000 to make outdoor murals. and the Gold{ields operatives, particularly in areas ol high adequate capital. Workers receive a grants to new co-operatives for wages, Community Radio Co-op, with three unemployment, (2) to promote montly productivity bonus, while there is overheads, working capital and capital members, exemplify worker co- employment generation through Worker an upper equity limit of 10,000 shares equipment. The Co-operative Federation operatives Iunded through the Victorian Co-operatives and (3) to promote the which may be held by each worker, and of Victoria was funded to provide the co- project, while the Maryborough potential of work structures based on co- 5000 shares by each outside investor. operatives with a Business Advisory Bootstraps Trading Co-operative, with operative principles". In future, N.S.W. While a Board exists for Companies Act Service, and an Education and Training four workers. is an example of the government grants and loans will be purposes, Board meetings are rare, and Unit for co-operatives and co-operative project's concern-based community allocated and administered independen- decisions are made mostly by the members was established within the employment co-operatives, as is the Loch tly by Common Ownership Finance Pty. fortnightly StalT Meeting, and a Department's Vocational Orientation Ard Trading Co-operative, with four Ltd.-a company owned by the Co- Management Committee with three Centre. By June 1982. nineteen groups workers, ol a venture currently making operative Federation of New South Board representatives and three elected had had help from the project. Eight co- the transition I'rom a concern-based Wales. The worker Co-oPerative from the shop floor. Productivity rose by operatives were carrying on businesses community employment co-operative to Development Agency-a foundation 30.670 in the eight months following for which project grants had been a worker co-operative. funded annually with $15,000 from the NVC's establishment, as a result of a6.57o l4 l5 gain from the disappearance ol f'or forest products which is Australia- of the first two years of operation. In the achieved through co-operatives within absenteeism and a 24.17o gain lrom wide. For 198 l-82. worker shareholders current recession it has not been possible our current constraints have become greater worker effectiveness. Currently. will receive roughly $300 in dividends on to maintain the bonus, and, the l5o/a clearer. The co-operatives are not simply workforce commitment is enabling NVC their $200 investments, together with a dividend paid to shareholders in the first an alternative sort of Community Youth to pull through where conventional small productivity bonus of roughly $500, but two years has fallen to 1070, but no Support Scheme, and to allow welfare businesses are going under. The major the company now finds itself faced with redundancies have taken place and the considerations to predominate inevitably orders which the company received the choice ofeither cutting back to a four- company expects to bounce back quickly prejudices the survival and further previously from Watson Victor and day week or asking one of its as the building trades recover. growth which should be their over-riding Townshend and Mercer have dried up, shareholders to find work elsewhere until objective. While the co-operatives and and work is having to be picked up where times improve. Even so, Mr Huckel employee shareholding companies have it can be {ound. in the form of"one-off" remains confident that within three years OPPORTUilITY created a number of new jobs internally, items of laboratory equipment, small the company will be free of debt. He plans il saved other jobs and helped a number of runs of x-ray apparatus and a steady that at that stage he and his wii'e will Unsurprisingly, neither government young people to find jobs through the demand security seeding unemployment for alarm cabinets and withdraw from the business, so that the of co-operatives external labour market, unemployment is housings. 45-hour job-saving A week is being final stage of its conversion to a worker nor conversion ol' not going to be overcome so long as conventional worked, and cash paytnent of co-operative can take place. busiesses into employee Australia's current economic policies and productivity bonuses has had to be When Oliver Davey Ltd took over shareholding companies has so far given social structures remain in place. suspended, Australia but, on the brighter side. there Mcllwraith's Ltd in 1979, and set about much to match the ideal of a What we have instead is a mechanism have worker been no redundancies, and a 37a winding up its Footscray stove, bath and co-operative as the property ofits for long-term social change which-given dividend for l98l-82 has been declared. sink manufacturing plant, some 350 plant workers who participate equally in the the sustained and whole-hearted support In March 1978, decisions, the South Australian employees acquired the business from its and also in the prol'it or loss. of the Labour Movement can free Unit for Industrial Democracy was new owners and re-named it Modern The employment co-operatives still rely Australia from its present confrontation- approached Peter mostly by Mr Huckel of Maid and Staff Ltd. The factory was on outside shareholders or ist impasse, and bring about the society of Mount Burr's P.J. Huckel government & Co logging bought by the State Insurance Office of for the resources and skills equals which is our whole thrust and company, for advice on how his business Victoria and leased back to the new they have lailed to generate internally. purpose as democratic socialists. It could introduce employee The shareholding, venture, while $300,000 of share capital companies Iall short of work place remains for us to ask ourselves how the adopt a superannuation scheme and was raised within the workforce as a democracy, because the workers have most can be made of our opportunity. ultimately transform itself into a worker down payment on the $l million cost of their rights determined by the number of co-operative. Subsequently, P.J. & P. plant and stock. Modern Maid shares can shares they have been able to buy and not Logging/ Contractors Pty Ltd was be owned only by current or former by their labour. The situation overall is a CAPITAL established as an employee shareholding Modern Maid staff, and no shareholding long way short of labour hiring capital company with elected worker directors. can exceed a third of the shares on issue. instead ol' capital hiring labour, and For a start, worker co-operatives need All ten of the company's workers have Roughly twothirds of the present 300- Mondragon has not emerged overnight. capital. Getting a new co-operative off bought the 200 Class "B" employee shares strong workforce have shares, and the Even so, immense steps forward have the ground has its costs. Machinery and to which the new Articles and company hopes that ultimately all its been taken. Co-operation, worker an initial stock of raw materials may have Memorandum entitle them, and a worker workers will be shareholders. Decision- ownership, , profit to be bought, and wages, rent and other becomes eligible for election to the Board making is vested in a seven-member sharing and the capacity of ordinary men recurrent outlays may have to b€ met once he has served continuously with the Board, which includes employee il and women to shoulder responsibility from carry-on finance while profitablity two I company for at least two years. The representatives nominated from a nine- and work constructively with one another is being achieved. Board has the same number of Directors member Management Council. The for mutual help and benefit have been We have seen how in Spain the elected by Class "B" employee Council itself has four employee instated at the heart of the agenda for Mondragon co-operatives underwrite shareholders as there are for those with representatives, who chair sub- national debate as never before in our this process for themselves, through their Class "A" conventional shares, and committees dealing respectively with history. Governments have been broken Caia Laboral Populor, while in Britain Board meetings cannot be held unless at Personnel, Safety, Productivity and in to accept active involvement with the Labor's advisory Co-operative least one worker Director is present. Up Quality, and elections for these positions worker co-operative idea, and the Development Agency has received a untif June 1982, productivity, are contested vigorously. As at NVC and administrators of government programs further three-year lease of life from the profitability and the company's capacity P.J. & P. Huckel Logging Contractors have been able to think their way through Thatcher Government. In New South to sub-contract additional fellers all Pty. Ltd., productivity rose sharply in the to practical arrangements for enhancing Wales, worker co-operatives until increased steeply, but currently progress aftermath of the change in ownership, the prospects of success. recently received government grants and is being blocked by a depressed demand and a productivity bonus was paid in each Equally, the limits of what can be loans which were made available to them l6 t7 through the Co-operative Federation's co-operative being wound up, while plans Ior a Co-operative Bank, currently specral rccognition so long as their Conrmon Ownership Finance Company having the added practical advantage under study by the Co-operative development has to be carried on in thc Pty Ltd on the recommendation of the over loans- from the point ol'view ol the Federation of New South Wales and the face ol incomprehension or outright Minister's Submission Revierr' co-operative that no payments are Co-operative Federation ol Australia, hostrlity on thc parts of banks and other Committee. The Submission Review necessary unless a profit has been earned'J are brought to fruition. A Co-operative traditional sourccs ol capital, and the Committee has now been abolished and Where a co-operative raises capital Bank of Australia would be an important hegemony ol economic and social values ownership ol all capital translerred from internally l'rom its members, should there step towards worker co-operatives' and assumptions which dillir proloundly the Minister to the Federation. so that the be an issue of shares, and, if so, should obtaining access to the backing of not lrom thcir own. They should be give n tax Federation is able to decide ior itsell shareholders be paid dividends over and only the affiliates of each State incentivcs which placc them at a clcar within broad government guidelines above the salaries and bonuses they Federation. but thc and advantagc over bolh oonventional how grants and loans should be allocated receive as members, or exercise special movements. In time. the companies and those uhich implemented from what has become eflectively a rights which are not available to those new bank could be expected to equip industrial dcmocracf in less thorough permanent revolving N.S.W. without shares? Are there differences in Iund for itself with facilities specifically oriented going lorrns. worker co-operative development. principle where all the members oi a co- to the needs of worker co-operatives, Italy's 5000 worker co-operatives have Victoria's Minister Ior Employment and operative are required to own an equal suclr as those of the "empresarial" the beneiit of being exempt from local Training has 1982- number shares, the earnings on currently $850,000 in ol or division ol' Mondragon's Cala Laboral taxes, while France's 900 co-operatives [i3 Co-operative Development Program shares are held back until a member Popular. An incoming Labor and their 35,000 worker members are f unds to allocate on the recommendation retires or resigns, and is the holding ol a Government should expedite the excused l'rom paying personal or ol a Funding Committee made up of capital "stake" in one form or another establishment of the Co-operative Bank corporation taxes Ior the part of their voting members Irom the Ministry itself. essential in order for members to ol Australia in every way possible, and prolit which gets allocated ro an Small Business Development identify themselves adequately with the the subsequently provide incentives lbr an investment reserve or "worker Corporation, the Department of Labour co-operative and commit themselves evolution towards the principles and participation fund". Similarly, French and lndustry, the Co-operative wholeheartedly to its success'l structure which have won the co-operatives are olTered the opportunity Federation of Victoria and the Registry The answers to some ol these questions Mondragon bank its triumphant success. of providing a quarter ol'the goods and of Co-operative Societies. will determine whether it is really a services required by public sector However, co-operatives everywhere worker co-operative which emerges, or agencies at average prices, and, where a are obliged look beyond government simply whose shareholders to a company LAWS worker co-operative and a conventional and meet major capital requirements are also its employees. Irrespective of the companv submit equal tenders for a through such mechanisms as raising outcome, conllict around the issue can be Secondly, our laws are in need of public sector contract, the worker co- loans Irom banks and other traditional minimised where the availability of o1' alteration. In Victoria, the registration operative gets the job. In Australia. sources, accepting external shareholders, alternative sources of capital is enhanced. worker co-operatives is technically private member's legislation aimed at and making it a condition of membership The use of scarce government I'unds for impossible, Section 103 (9) of the because cncouraging industrial democracy has that members should "buy-in" with an grants can be limited items such as to Co-operation Act I98l imposes a limit o1 passed the Senate and been introduced initial capital contribution, which may be feasibility studies, where the cost is one on the number of workers in a worker into the House of Representatives. The payable over an extended period, but can incurred before a new co-operative's co-operative who may become members Bill's provisions include an 8/6 taxbreak range as high (as in the case of the British inception. In this way a larger share ofthe '[he Co- ol its Board of Directors. lor companies which have at leasts|o of Sunderlandia co-operative) as half a government for dollar is retained operative Federation of Victoria has their issued share capital spread widely year's earnings. ln the process they must recycling in the form loans from a of suggested that Part Il of the Act should among employees who are not resolve large issues of principle. revolving Iund of the sort which we have be re-written to incorporate a new executives, implement acceptable profit- Can holding of equity by external seen established in New South Wales. Division (A) on "Worker based or 6 sharing arrangements, and have a shareholders be reconciled with the idea Clearly, it would be of immense Societies", Community based Industrial consultative council where half the of a worker co-operative, where labour advantage if arrangements along the lines with the requirement that "-I'he Rules ol members are appointed by management hires capital rather than capital labour, or of the N.S.W. Common Ownership an industrial society will provide that and hall'elected by and from the other is it mandatory for external capital to be Finance Company Pty Ltd could now be worker members are eligible for election employees. Clearly these arrangements accepted only in the form of loans, at a introduced in Australia's other States and as directors of such societies". This would (all far short of the worker co-operative fixed rate of interest? ls a compromise Territories. ln addition, the co-operative ol' not only regularise the legal standing ideal, and in any case there is no hope ol' possible through the issue of non-voting movement has large resources of its own, worker co-operatives but also provide a Australia's current conservatlve prelerence shares, which guarantee the but lacks the financial institutions which del'inition on which to base concomitant government allowing the legislation to shareholder's right to participate in any would enable it to put them to the best af'lirmative action legislation. complete its passage through Parliament distribution of assets in the event of the possible use. This remedied will be if Worker co-oDeratives have a claim to But expectations have been established l8 l9 on which a future Labor Government will movement's own Co-operative College, should be encouraged tLr provide where decisions are made by all the bs expected to build. Beechwood College (which has recently introductory units on worker co- members meeting together. In 1980 the Further new legislation is required to become independent of the Industrial operatives for all its students, and our co-operative generateri a $60,000 surplus, codify the conversion of conventional Common Ownership Movement), the national government should partner the which was used, in part, to build a day companies to worker co-operatives. Commonwork Trust, the London Co-operative Federation of Australia centre so that its members'clients could Workers should have a statutory right to Council of Voluntary Service, and the and its State affiliates in rhe be brought out of the isolation of their initiate a conversion process in National Council of Voluntary establishment of an Australian Co- homes and have access to a full range of circumstances such as an employer Organisations. Elsewhere, there are operative College. A similar project is educational, therapeutic and social closing down business, production major co-operative training centres in his underway currently in Britain, where Mrs resources. being transferred to another site, or assets most of the countries with which Thatcher's conservative government is The relevance of the Mondragon and being stripped in the aftermath of a Australia compares itself, including contributing f l00,000 towards a Italian models is not restricted to takeover. Collective bargaining would France's Ecole Technique Cooperotive, Development and Training Centre for education and welfare. It may well be then be used to drrive at terms for Italy's Instituto Nazionale per worker co-operatives in Wales, on the that there are aspects of our purchase of the former owner's capital I'Educazione Cooperativa, Austria's Co- recommendation of the Welsh Trades arrangements lor the delivery of health assets, which might include offsetting the operative College of Konsum Oesterreich Union Congress. care, housing and public transport where costs against any redundancy settlement and Spain's Centro Nacional de Nor should Australia's schools be the substitution of worker co-operatives for which the owner would otherwise be Educac ion oo pera t i va. .C overlooked. The Labour Movement gives for a conventional bureaucratic structure liable, agreement by the owner to accept Australia's would-be worker co- away far more than it can afford when the would lead to the same people enjoying payment profits, or operatives are less lucky. Over- from future community's children are left to learn addedjob satisfaction from the provision immediate settlement from a loan whelmingly, it has been necessary for individualism and a strong competitive ofa better service at a lower cost. A Labor guaranteed for the co-operative by the them to rely instead on the limited spirit to the exclusion of co-operative Government could use the establishment owner or the government. The N.S.W. education and training resources of the values or recognition of the practicabiiity ot worker co-operatives as a key means of Worker Co-operative Development Victorian and New South Wales State of co-operation. It is high time our implementing worker control for Agency has done worker co-operatives Covernment Co-operative Development schools gave greater emphasis to games significant sections of the public service. throughout Australia a significant service Programs. In Victoria the government and other educational activities where At the least, there should be channels by preparing a kit lor incorporation as a provides co-operatives with a Business everybody wins, rather than the other through which worker co-operatives can common ownership company under the Advisory Service through the Co- sort, where most of the children are submit delivery tenders wherever new operative Federation of Victoria, and an National Companies Code. taught to lose and regard themselves as public sector benefits are introduced. Education and Training Service through failures. Ultimately, we could have the Vocational Orientation Centre of its EDUCATION schools which are themselves worker co- Department of Employment and operatives, like those which have u1{tot{s Training, while in New South Wales the succeeded so brilliantly at Mondragon. Thirdly, worker co-operatives if are to education and training services formerly There is no bar to professions such as Fourthly, worker co-operatives will do make their maximum contribution to provided by the Worker Co-operative teaching organising themselves as worker best where they have trade union support. social change and the well-being of all Advisory Unit of the Department of co-operatives. In Italy, worker co- Currently, Australia's unions seem to be Australians, the opportunities for co- Youth and Community Services are now operatives provide a service which is mid- well-disposed, and this disposition operatives and their members to acquire funded for the independent Worker Co- way between social work and home help. should be maintained by setting at rest new business skills and deepen their operative Development Agency. These Bologna's Cooperativa Assistena the legitimate union worry that worker understanding of the principles and rudiments proper education and of a D o mic i liar e Infan z ia An z iani Infe rmi has co-operatives could undermine hard-won practice of co-operation will have to be training system have proved their worth, sixty women and two men members, who wage levels and working conditions, improved. There will also have to be a but they are grossly under-financed and contract with the City Council for care of threaten existing conventional great leap forward on the part of the over-extended, and the Development elderly, infirm or otherwise disabled companies and their employees, or make community at large in understanding all Agency in particular has maj or people. Members look after all the needs unionism itself redundant. that co-operation has to offer. responsibilities for seeding and nursing of the clients assigned to them, from In fact, worker co-operative members The key is a better set ofarrangements new co-operatives over and above its getting them up and dressed each day to are as interested as other unionists in the for co-operative education. British education and training commitments. finding them better housing or winning maintenance of standards of wages and worker co-operatives and their members While what exists should be them back pension payments where they working conditions, and case studies of can draw on extensive educational strengthened and built upon, there is a have been missing out. The work they do seven worker co-operatives carried out facilities which have been developed need too for totally new arrangements. is rewarding and important, and they for the Welsh Trades Union Congress under the auspices of the co-operative The Trade Union Training Authority highly value belonging to an organisation indicate that, where longer hours and 20 2l lower wages evolved in the struggle for have rocketed. additional accom- of providing co-operatives with an possible support for all institutions survival, the risk of self-exploitation was modation, machinery and specialist staff organisational and promotional and to optimise the business efficiency recognised and consciously kept under have been acquired, and the l8-member framework which allows opportunities to of the group as a whole, the control. New co-operatives either save co-operative is creating new jobs for be grasped fully and set-backs averted. As Associated Co-operative will respect existing jobs by converting conventional trainees and part-time staff. we saw earlier, a similar absence of the principle of inter-group loyalty companies which otherwise would go Equal and greater levels of union integrated support was instrumental in and mutual assistance when under, or create new jobs with start-ups support for co-operatives can be achieved bringing about the downfall of most of formulating future plans concerning job-saving where goods and services are produced in Australia. On the co-operative side, it Britain's Wedgwood Benn co- production, selection of personnel, the locally for the first time. The union role is should be axiomatic that co-operative operatives in the middle 'seventies; but establishment of business links enlarged. All the traditional functions of members are always members of their subsequently, with the establishment of between the co-operatives, where to unions, including protection of the unions. This is already the attitude ofthe the Co-operative Development Agency place orders, and other facets of their interests of individual workers and Co-operative Development Agency and and the growth of the Industrial business by which other co-operatives negotiation of wages and conditions, the Industrial Common Ownership Common Ownership Movement, associated with the Caia Laboral remain relevant, while new opportunities. Movement in Britain, and it has been formation of new co-operatives has been could be made to benefit, without in areas such as resolving conflict within adopted by the Association of Worker able to go ahead with immeasurably affecting the interests or autonomy of co-operatives and making sure their Co-operatives in New South Wales. enhanced prospects of success. In the co-operative itself." industrial democracy is effective, are Again, the co-operatives should lift the September 1982, 22 new co-operatives Immediate consideration should be opened up. level of their communication with the were registered with the Industrial given to the functions and structure of Supporting workers in the exercise of union movement at both the State and Common Ownership Movement, while worker co-operative support that control over their workplace, and over Federal levels, so that there is the Movement was able to report organisations at State level throughout the uses and rewards of their labour, is by understanding and sympathy for their eight of the ten co-operatives registered Australia. They can be assembled far the most important and fulfilling position within the Trades and Labour over the same month a year earlier were gradually over a period of years, thing that unions can do. The common Councils and the Australian Council of safely in business, one was still expected probably around the nuclei ofthe existing aims of unions and worker co-operatives Trades Unions. Union advocacy, union to start operating in 1983, and one had Co-operative Federations and a possible progress beyond the registration are given practical expression in a acumen, union educational facilities failed to future Co-operative Bank. In principle, country such as Denmark, where union and-perhaps union capital could stage. The Wilshaw Rainwear co- the new support organisations should be money provides capital for worker co- become a powerful force for enabling the operative had expanded its membership second degree co-operatives, along the operatives through the Co-operative co-operative movement to achieve a far from 20 to 30, with the expectation of lines of Mondragon's Caja Laboral Finance Fund, and the union movement more rapid rate of growth than would taking on a further ten workers in 1983, Popular, welfare, housing and research has representation on the Danish otherwise be within its reach. while its sales for 1982 were estimated at ventures. Eventually the services required Federation of Workers' Co-operatives. In 1150,000 and its export performance had' of them will encompass mobilisation of Britain, too, the giant Transport and placed it in line for a Queen's Award. finance for individual co-operatives; General Worker's Union has favourable STATE SUPPORT Futon Ltd had achieved so marked a provision of book-keeping, personnel, reference to co-operatives written into its STRUCTURE success in its manufacturing of Japanese accounting, clerical support, marketing, constitution, and invclves itself actively mattresses that sales for the year were market research and general in getting new co-operatives off the Fifthly- and finally a strong union likely to hit f300,000. Membership had management. where co-operatives ground. When Courtauld's closed down connection may be what it takes to risen from seven to 15, and the co- choose to hire skills in preference to its Luvisca Shirt Company factory in catalyse establishment of the broad operative was looking to adding a developing them internally; education Taunton in 1981, the T. & G. W.U. was worker co-operative support structure Fulham Branch to those already and training; and researching and successful in obtaining six months'free which Australia at present so operating in the north and east of facilitating the inauguration of new co- use of the premises and machinery for a conspicuously lacks. London. Similarly, in countries such as operatives. Their affiliates will include new Taunton Shirt Co-operative. Individual co-operatives are unlikely France and Italy. worker co-operatives not only the co-operatives themselves, groups Subsequently, the number of worker- to make the most of themselves where have enjoyed adequate organisational but their own workforces and members has risen from 3l to 50, while their sell-image is one of embattled and promotional frameworks for years, representing the community at large. as production has increased from 800 to "islands of in a hostile capitalist through the agency of powerful and Ultimately, it may be seen 2000 shirts each week. In Wales, the sea"; and the national and State Co- highly developed national bodies, and, in inappropriate for any worker co- support union was instrumental in converting a operative Federations and the Spain, Paragraph 44 of the Mondragon operative or worker co-operative failed blouse manufacturing firm into the government co-operative development Association Agreement requires that: organisation not to include spokespeople Bargoed Blouse Co-operative. Orders programs have not yet reached the point "In order to ensure the stronsest for the broader community interest on its t', 23 governing body, to ensure that social support organisation with eight full-time development can be made available, pointed out, socialism is not a utopian responsibilities such as the well-being of staff; a revolving loan fund comprised, in together with assistance in kind such as state of affairs which will arrive in a given residents of the area where business is part, of contributions of 2070 of the start-up accommodation in municipal year, or whose blueprints can be drawn in being transacted and the protection of the trading surplus of each participating co- buildings which are temporarily or advance, but rather "something we are natural environment are addressed. operative; and a two-month initial permanently disused. Professional both working towards and trying to training period for each prospective co- services, for which fledgling co- practise along the way". Those of us who LOCAL CO.OPERATIVE operative member, covering both operatives otherwise would have to pay are serious about our commitment to this training for the job and socialisation for a fees, can be provided free of charge by operational philosophy will embrace the DEVELOPMENT full and fulfilling involvement in the co- municipal engineers, architects, solicitors worker co-operative movement as a key AGENCIES operative's affairs. In Brent, the and accountants. Co-operatives can be means of giving it effect. Management of the Local Co-operative assigned a specific share of council Quite simply, the worker co-operatives Clearly, local communities have much Development Agency includes members purchasing requirements, or simply are Tawney's "society of equals" in to gain and much to give in developing of the Trades Union Congress, the added to the list of firms from which embryo. It is vital that we who share their worker co-operatives. Profits of worker municipal Council, and the Brent Law goods are ordered or tenders sought. values should also share their struggle, co-operatives are not transferred Centre; and David Whitchurch, who In New South Wales, advice on while they evolve and grow to the point of elsewhere, but retained locally for formerly worked for the Agency in promoting and facilitating the maturity where our common goals are distribution among members who shop Britain and now chairs the Board of development of local worker co- achieved. Nor is this in any sense a one- locally, for re-investment involving local Warrnambool's Loch Ard Co-operative, operatives has already been sought from sided transaction. As the co-operatives purchases and contracts, and for direct has attributed its success to the fact that the Worker Co-operative Development thrive and flourish, the Labour giving for community facilities and ". . .four staff with a broad range of Agency by several metropolitan and Movement will be able to demonstrate services. Job discrimination is tackled experience with co-operatives were country councils. Three councils are for all Australians what we have always where worker co-operatives take employed, and that next door was the currently considering the establishment been committed to. by pointing out affirmative action on behalf of groups Brent Law Centre where there were eight of Local Co-operative Development concrete and practical examples ofa sort such as women, ethnic minorities, the lawyers employed. In addition, the Agencies, and Broken Hill a "Worker Co- never previously available to us. disabled and older people, whose Agency had sufficient funding to set up a operative Development Committee" has Australia has always had its share of interests are likely to be hardest hit under very well equipped office which included been set up with council funding and advocates of the "big bang" school of conditions of high unemployment. The printing machine, photocopier and a vast support. The New South Wales lead socialist theorists, who believe with the experience of work-place democracy library. Most importantly, there was a should now be publicised and promoted British miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, fosters more active participation in strong community involvement which throughout Australia. Where necessary, that "workers'control, as an ideology, is community affairs and . greater ensured our 'tentacles'covered a wide State local government legislation should the apologist's alternative to socialism, acceptance of personal responsibility for area. . .". be amended to remove impediments to the academic's dream of Utopia"; but the community well-being. The stability of Britain's Local Co-operative Councils involving themselves actively in reality of our situation is otherwise. the local economy is enhanced, because Development Agencies can be operated the fostering of co-operatives. The Similarly, those of us who subscribed to the co-operatives are not sub.ject to directly by municipal councils, which possibilities for Commonwealth-State- the late Anthony Crosland's vision of takeover by remote corporations and may have the resources to provide loan Local Government PartnershiP in economic growth and the mixed other outside groups. capital as well as employing development responding to the needs of worker co- economy overcoming inequality and In Britain, recognition of the potential workers; as community groups with operatives and worker co-operative ushering in the just society, now have to local contribution of worker co- financial backing from Local support organisations should be admit that we too have been wrong. operatives has led to the establishment of Government, which may enable paid staff vigorously explored. Grasping control of our working lives Local Co-operative Development to be employed; or on a purely voluntary and making decisions for ourselves in the Agencies in forty or more municipalities, and self-supporting basis. Co-operatives full knowledge of the consequences for including, for example, London, may find it easier to meet their capital the community and the economy are keys Northampton, York, Cardifi Glasgow, requirements from banks and other CONCLUSION to extricating Australia from its present Manchester, Bristol, Coventry, traditional lenders where it is known that predicament and carrying forward the Birmingham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. they have the support and guidance of a Democratic socialists everywhere have process of social reform. Worker co- Sheffield has allocated f2 million for recognised Local Co-operative a solemn obligation and immenselY operatives are the way these things can worker co-operative development, and Development Agency. Grants for welcome opportunity to get behind the happen. The future is here among us Fife has a detailed worker co-operative feasibility studies. registration costs, worker co-operative movement and already, waiting on our recognition and development blueprint, incorporating a market research and product ensure its success. As Bob Connell has support.

24 25 APPENDIX I APPENDIX II Co-operatives seeking technical and finarrcial Agencies and organisations should also be sought. assistance will need to be planning for the following The Policy of the Agency includes: individual objectives. L Employment Priority CO.OP PRIilCIPLES GUIDELINES-THE l. to establish viable businesses; Priority will be given to groups/ businesses which 2. to become registered as a co-operative society lo show a potential to .grow and provide more WORKER GO. be incorporated in a form approved by the Worker employment. This is unlikely in propositions which OPERATIVE Co-operative Development Committeel will not be able to support at leasl five people The 1966 Congress of the International PROGRATME 3. to ensure real ownership and control by workers; somewhere during their early life. The Agency should Alliance has approved these wordings of 4. to develop effective organisation struclurest not involve itself with groups/businesses which do six Cooperative Principles: NOVEilBER, 1 982 5. to give preference in employment to unemployed not show this potential. l. Membership of a cooperative society should be people; 2. Preconditions for Assistance voluntary and available without artificial restriction 6. to increase community and political awareness of The Agency, after an initial period of consultation or any social, political, racial or religious Worker Co-operatives; and education will not commit any further resources (I) INTRODUCTION discrimination, to all persons who can make use ofits 7. to ensure the continuation of the assistance unless the following necessary pre-conditions are A Co-operative is a business enterprise organised services and are willing to accept the responsibilities programme and the further development of Worker met: by a group of people on a self help and user owned of membership. Co-operatives. . the clear existence of a market; basis. 2. Cooperative societies are democratic Further information is available in the followine . the availability of competent leadership/ The N.S.W. Worker Co-operative Programme has organisations. Their affairs should be administered documents: management; been established to assist groups wanting to organise by persons elected or appointed in a manner agreed l. "An Introduction to Worker Co-operatives" . energy and cohesion within the group to sustain it co-operatives which have as their prime aim the by the members and accountable to them. Members 2. "The Worker Co-operative Development through the difficult phases of its early life; provision of employment for their worker members. of primary societies should enjoy equal rights of Agency" . an honest commitment lo a co-operative and The Programme is designed to ensure that voting (one member, one vote) and participation in 3. "Guidelines for the Provision of Financial democratic form of enterprise. assistance is available to those Worker Co-operatives decisions affecting their societies. In other than Assistance to Worker Co operatives (Common 3. Long Term Assistance which can become self sustaining and llnancially primary societies the administration should be Ownership Finance Pty. Ltd.)" It is acknowledged that most groups will require viable within a planned and specified period. conduct€d on a democratic basis in a suitable form. technical assistance and finance over a three year The Programme recognises that a great deal of (3) 3. Share capital should only receive a strictly TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT period to achieve viability. Finances and advice will work is involved and will make every effort to provide limited rate of interest. SERVICES be geared to that period. high level of assistance groups, both from 4. The economic results arising out of the a to Management support, business advice and 4. Workers Equity Commitment Programme resources and elsewhere, to enable them operations ofa society belong to the members ofthat organising. training and education services are Groups must be prepared to financially contribute to achieve their objectives. society and should be distributed in such a manneras available from to the co-op by up front money, or contributions (2) PROGRAMME GOAL: would avoid one member gaining at the expense of The Worker Co-operative Development Agency from earnings. The principal aim of the Programme is: "to assist others. This may be done by decision ofthe members Suite l, 265 Castlereagh Str€et, (4) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE groups of people to establish independent viable as follows: (a) by provision for development of the Sydney, N.S.W. Financial assistance is available from: businesses in which ownership and control is vested business of the cooperative; (b) by provision of (P.O. Box 4496, Sydney South, NSW 2000) Common Ownership Finance Pty. Ltd., in those who are actually working in the businesses, common services; or, (c) by distribution among the Phone: 267 8948 ro 267 9406 8th Floor, 44 Young Street, and is exercised in a democratic manner". group people members in proportion to their transactions with the These services are available to any of Sydney, NSW, society. seeking information or direction while in the process Sydney, NSW, 5. All cooperative societies should make provision of forming a , whether or not (GPO Box 1758, Sydney NSW, 2001) Objectives for the eduqtion of their members. officers. and they will be seeking or have already received financial Phone:231 5014 promote viable, independent Worker Co- employees and of the general public, in the principles l. to assistance through the Programme. Assistance will This Company is owned by the Co-operative operatives, particularly areas high and techniques of cooperation, both economic and in of be provided for: Federation of New South Wales. All decisions on unemployment; democratic. (l) the creation of new Worker Co-operative direct or indirect hnancial assistance in grant or loan 2. to promote employment generation through 6. All cooperative organisations, in order to best businesses: form to any Worker Co-operative are made Worker serve the interest of their members and their Co-operatives; (2) the expansion o'f existing Worker Co-operative exclusively by Common Ownership Finance Pty. 3. to promote the potential ofwork structures based communities should actively cooperate in every business: Ltd. in accordance to the approved "Guidelines for on co-operative principles; practical way with other at local, (3) the conversion ofexistingbusinessesinto Worker the Provision of Financial Assistance to Worker Co- The attaining of these objectives will mean that national, and international levels. CGoperatives. operatives". as following be associated benefits such the may also The Agency is the only organisation publicly Applications must be received at the offices of derived: lnternalionsl Coop€rutiye Alliance, ll Upper funded to carry out these services. The Agency is Common Ownership Finance (COF) by the last day jobs young people will be created; Grosvenor Street, London, England WIX 9PA l. for funded according to a comprehensive plan and of each month in order to be considered at the 2. young co-operative members will be encouraged programme covering all fields of promotion, following months meeting. The services of a Loans acquire and social skills; to work technical services and training. Officer are available for considering each cas€ put up 3. the application of co-operative skills and It is essential that the Agency's services are utilised for financial assistance. techniques to eKtend the range of social and in the process offorminga Worker Co-operative. The The main sources of funds within Common economic benefits available to members of co- provision of organisational, business and training Ownership Finance are: operative groups e.g. group action to reduce living plans, as well as the undertaking of an education l. The Loens Fund: From which formal interest costs such as food or housing collectives; programme are important aspects to receiving bearing loans will be made. the involvement 4. of the community in constructive financial assistance from Common Ownership 2. The Self Help Dev€lopment Fund (SHDF): From and enterprising action in the face of increasing Finance Pty. Ltd. which grants for specific projects will be made. unemDlovment. Where feasible, the advice and support of other Financial assistance will be provided EITHER as 26 'r1 "direct financial assistance where funds are ownership and control being exercised by these success in your type of business? Where is transferred from Common Ownership Finance "outsiders" to the exclusion of worker members. factors for For all of the above: directly into the hands ofa Worker Co-operative; OR 4. The capital contribution required of worker it easiest to fall down? The Worker Co-operative Development Agency, 4. Business Planning Where do you hope to be in as "indirect" financial assistance where funds members must be spelt out in a clear and P.O. Box 4496, supplied by COF are applied on behalf ofa worker unambiguous manner. six months/ I year | 2 years time? Will you be making Sydney South, 2000. the same product? co-operative, but paid to a third party to carry out 5. There must be restrictions on the right to transfer Tel: (02) 267 9406 will be able to help you. Finances--How much money you need specific work to benefit that co-operative. shares in the co-operative (i.e. the right to transfer 5. do tostart (8) THE BUSINESS PLAN machinery, equipment (starting The Loans Fund will be used to provide financial shares must remain in the control of the Board). up for stocks, If you have got an idea for a co-operative business, assistance capital)? To tide you over money from sales for the following purposes: 6. There must be a limit on profit distribution by way until how easy is to to set one up? What sort ofdifficulties . The purchase of capital equipment and assets of dividend on share capital. comes in (working capital)? where are you going to can you expect and in what areas? r Working get the finance from? Have you drawn up a budget? you be a Capital requirements 7. There must be an arrangement to ensure that the The first thing to sy is don't have to All assistance made available from the Loans Fund benefits of the co-operative are made available to What amounts will you have to pay out regularly business whizz kid to start a co-op. However, if you (fixed costs)? What amounts vary according to how are get any will be in the form of repayable, interest bearing worker members in their capacity as workers (i.e., not trying to finance or support from financial loans. in their capacity as shareholders). much you make (variable costs)? Have you drawn up institution, there are some important things to get a cash forecast? paper prove The SHDF will be used to provide financial 8. Effective control oftheco-operative must be inthe flow down on to that you have done your assistance for the following purposes: hands of worker members (i.e. most if not all 6. Finrnciel Planning How will the financial needs homework. It doesn't have to be more than a few o your Feasibility Studies directors must be workers and the election of of business change over time? With expansion? pages unless it's a particularly large scheme. This . products? Research and Development of new products, directors should effectively be in the control of New "business plan" should include: processes or markets worker members). 7. FeasibilityStudy If youare not sureaboutitems The product or sorvice-What are you going to do or r Specialist 3-6, the Worker Co-operative Development Agency make? Consultancy 9. Control must be exercised on rne one person one o Training and Skills Development of worker co- vote principle. may be able to belp you. The peopl€ Who are you going to work with? What you incorporated as a co- operative personnel 10. The co-operative must clearly demonstrate that t.Incorpordion-Have skills and experience do they have? . company? Does it Specific costs associated with the establishment of in the event of winding up any surplus resulting from operative or common ownership The organisetion-What Rules or Articles are you name? Business address? Bank account? going a legal structure and record keeping system such a winding up, will be made available to another have a to incorporate with and what sort of internal you going from? required for the operation of a business. worker co-operative oran organisation supporting or 9. Premiss-Where are to work struclure do you plan? All assistance made available from the SHDF will promotrng worker co-operatives, provided that Are there any special requirements? If you have The mrrket-Who are you going to sell your product you planning permission be in the form of grants. Such grants may be made similar restrictions on the distribution of surplus premises in mind, do need to? Why do you think they will buy it? available to carry out your particular business? Are there any premises-What directly to worker co-operatives (if suitably resulting from a winding up also apply to the The sort of building will you need? incorporated) or applied on their behalf. recipient organisation. other restrictions? Is the site and area crucial? Unincorporated insurances will be appropriate groups may receive SHDF grants In some cases, an applicant organisation may 10. Insurance*What The money-How much money will you need and by way of for your operations? Equipment? Employees? Theft? you indirect assistance only. experience problems in denonstrating that its formal what do want if for? Fire? etc. Grants will not b€ made available for purposes "constitution" (Memorandum and Articles or Rules) The budget and cash flow-How much do you expect other than those you are going pay wages, your year? you listed above. meets all these requirements. If so, advice should be ll. Tsx-if to to make in the first Will there be times when pay you Where appropriate, COF may use its available sought from the Worker Co-operative Development employees will have to tax. As an employer are short of money? You need to work out a budget resources to assist worker co-operatives to obtain Agency. may also have to pay payroll taxes. Sales taxes may and cash flow. finance from other sources. Such assistance could be (6) f,LIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE- also be applicable to your products. The support services-What sort of advice do you in the form of loan guarantees, credit or lease BUSINESS AND COMMERCIAL CRITERIA 12. Trrdc Union-Do you wish to join a trade need to get? guarantees, appropriate? or leveraging on the basis of a COF loan. Specific proposals will bejudged on a case-by-case union? Which is the most Consider these areas thoroughly in particular the (5) ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE_ basis. A proposal should contain the information 13. Audit Each year your books will need to be "money" and "budget" sections and document your ORGANISATIONAL CRITERIA requested on the application form available from audited. You may also wish to take the advie ofan plans. lf you want to be more persuasive, put a cover year, The minimum organisational requirements of the Common Ownership Financ€ Pty. Ltd. and other accountant throughout the financial round it and bind it in some way. Presentation helps! Programme are set out below. information relevant to an assessment of the These requirements apply to the formal legal commercial and business aspects of the proposal. structure ofan incorporated body as evidenced by its The attached: Memorandum and Articles (if registered as a (i) Checklist for starting a co-operative and company) or its Rules (if registered as a co- (ii) The Business Plan operative). The word "co-operative" includes both will assist any group in its preliminary work towards organisations registered as companies and as co- developing a case for technical or financial assistance. operative societies. (7) CHf,CK LIST FOR STARTING A The minimum requirements are: CO-OPERATIVE l. the co-operative's objects must include as a l. Peoplc-Who is going to work in your co-op? Do principle object the provision of employment to its they have all the necessary skills or will you have to members. look for others? 2. Membership of the co-operative must be available 2. Aims-Why are you starting a co-op? You may all to permanent all workers after a suitable qualifying be involved for different reasons. Will this make a period- difference to how the business develops, or how it is 3. If membership of the co-operative is open to non- run? workers, the conditions under which such.,outsiders" 3, The Business-What business are you in? What can be members must be clearly spelt out, and product or service will you make and/or sell? How arrangements established that will Drevent €ffectivc will you sell it? Who will you sell it to? What are the 2t 29 Further Reading VICTORIAN FABIAN SOCTETY PAMPHLETS

l. Trading Banks, Inflation and Depression O/P. 2. Socialist Economic Policy (John Reeves) O/P. BOOKS 3. Commonwealth Industrial Regulation in Australia (Harold Souter) O/ P. Carnoy, Martin and Shearer, Derek 4. The Housing Crisis in Australia (Ray Burkitt) O/P. : The Challange of the 5. Reform in Medicine (Moss Cass) O/P. 1980s M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1980. 6. The Impact of Automation (Ted Jackson and Charles Healy) Oi P. 7. Australian Wives Today (Jean Blackburn and Ted Jackson) O/P. Case, John and Taylor, Rosemary 8. Socialism and the A.L.P. (Jim Cairns) O/P. Co-ops, and Collectives: 9. A National Health Scheme for Labor (Moss Cass) O/P. 10. Have Australia's Unions a Future? (Jack Grey) O/P. Experiments in Social Change in the 1960s and I L Labor and the Constitution (Gough Whitlam) O/ P. 1970s 1979. Pantheon Books, 12. Economics and Foreign Policy (Jim Cairns) O/P. 13. Australia Armed and Neutral? (Max Teichmann) O/P. Coates, Ken (Ed.) 14. A Future or No Future Foreign Policy and the A.L.P. (Brian Fitzpatrick) $1. The New Worker Co-operatives, 15. Meeting the Crisis-Federal Aid for Education lRace Mathews) $1. The Institute for Workers'Control, 1976. 16. The Implications of Democratic Socialism (Bill Hayden) $.. 17. Beyond Vietnam Australia's Regional Responsibility (Gough Whitlam) $1. Cockerton, Peter Gilmour-White, Tim Pearce, 18. Australian Defence Policy and Programmes (Lance Barnard) $1. (Gough Whitlam) John Whyatt, Anna 19. Whitlam on Urban Growth $1. Why Protect Consumers? (David Bottomley) $1. Workers' Co-operatives: A Handbook 20. 21. Dental Services for Australians (Jim Lane) $1. Aberdeen People's Press, 1980. 22. Labor in Power (Gough Whitlam and Bruce Grant) $1. 23. National Health-the A.L.P. Programme (Bill Hayden) $l Luard, Evan 24. Open Government-To What Degree? (Clyde Cameron and David Butler) O/P. Socialism Without the State Macmillan, 1979. 25. The Tragedy of Power The A.L.P. in Office (David Butler and Sol Encel) O/P. 26. Legal Aid-A Proposed Plan (, Geoff Eames, Bruce Oakman, Eilish Oakeshott, Robert Cooke. Brian Bourke, John Cain, David Jones and Michael Head) $1. The Case for Workers' Co-ops 27. Social Welfare And Economic Policy (Bill Hayden) $1. Equality-The New Issues (Elizabeth Reid and Denis Altman) $1. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978. 28. 29. Worker Participation (Bill Ford, Di Yerbury and Rob Jolly) $1. 10. Land Rights or A Sell Out?-An Analysis of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Thornley, Jenny Territory) Bill 1976 (Wenten Rubuntja and Geoff Eames) O/P. Workers' Co-operatives: Jobs and Dreams 31. SocialPolicy theNewFrontiers(RussellLansbury,LoisBryson,ConnieBenn)$1. Heinemann Educational Books, 1982. 32. Power From the People-A New Australian Constitution? (Donald Horne) $1. 33. The Politics of Justice-An Agenda for Reform (Careth Evans) $1. Zwerdling, Daniel 34. Labor's Socialist Objective Three Persp€ctives (Race Mathews, Gareth Evans and Workplace Democracy Peter Wilenski) O/P. Harper Colophon Books 1980. 35. Australia Alone A Case Against Alignment (Max Teichmann) $1. 36. An Occupational Health and Safety Policy for Labor (John Mathews) Sl. Industry Tariffs and Socialists (Ken Gott, Gough Whitlam PERIODICALS 37. Reshaping Australian and ) $1.50. 38. Cybernetics and Industrial Democracy (John Maihews) $1 50' Co-operative Review, 39. Building the Society of Equals-Worker Co-operatives and the A.L.P' (Race Co-operative Education and Training Unit Matbews) $1.50. Vocational Orientation Centre (Victoria). Studies in Smiel Control l. Public Ownership The Alternatives (James Jupp) O/P. Work Link Co-operative Development Agency (N.S.W.). Note: O/P. = Out of print. Order other titles from The Victorian Fabian Society, Box 2?07X, Melbourne, at prices shown plus 24 cents postage for each copy.

30 31 ABOUT THE FABIAN SOCIETY

The Fabian tradition is one of achieving progress through research and education. Bernard Shaw and the Webbs began it, and generations of Fabians have placed its stamp on every facet of British society. ln 1947, Australian Fabians formed the Victorian Fabian Society, which has grown rapidly, and now includes among its members political, professional, trade union and academic figures. The aim of the Society is to craate informed, articulate public opinion. In furthering this aim, it both carries out and commissions research, publishes books, , pamphlets and periodicals, and conducts forums. seminars, symposia and conferences. The Society has no policy beyond that implied in a general commitment to democratic socialism, makes no political statement and issues its publications as the opinions of their authors and not of the organization. As a democratic socialist body. it maintains an informal relationship with Australia's democratic socialist party, the A.L.P.. and does not admit members of parties other than the A.L.P. lf you believe that reason. education and ideas should play a large part in Australian politics. if you care about the quality of the society we live in and the direction it is taking, and if you share the ethic of democratic socialism. the Victorian Fabian Society would like to number you among its nrembers. ,\4etnhership o.f The L'i<'t

Melbourne. 3001 .

32