One current frustration in the UK is the sorry state of mutuals. In the 80s most of the building societies demutualised, to the benefit of carpetbaggers, who joined mutuals to organise votes to turn them into conventional businesses. Legislation to strengthen the common bond and so help mutuals resist such attempts is long overdue. Now we’re seeing the car crash that is the retail co-operative movement. The management believes their own rhetoric about inclusive membership, whilst in reality as few as 100 people have a say in running the co-op. So, why mutuals?
Then a few days ago the Chancellor announced what amounts to demutualisation of pension funds. Instead of purchasing an annuity, fund owners will now be able to withdraw their funds. People don’t realise pensions are mutuals. Those who die early effectively subsidise those who live long lives. Is this fair? Work it out.
The problem is people do not understand mutuality. Mutuals emphasised education from the very start and equipped their members to take part fully and understand what it was they were participating in. The first retail co-op on Toad Lane is now a museum, and the first floor preserves the original library and meeting room.
I’ve written about the origins of mutuals, through the worker and retail co-operative movements. I described how they inspired many of the institutions we take for granted these days, even though big business exploits many of them.
The very wealthy, sometimes called the 1%, never create anything new. Their main purpose is to own stuff and exploit it. Their motive is ultimately personal power.
Community Activism
Community activism has always opposed the impact of the powerful on disadvantaged communities; without money organised people is the only approach available. (The co-operative movement was organised people; they organised to be financially successful.)
The pity is community development has itself become the playground of statutory sector in the UK. Statutory and professional voluntary sector organisations fund community development to a greater or lesser extent (lesser at present).
Since the 1970s, the community sector has ignored the UK the private sector. They ignore the contribution small businesses make to the local economy and demutualisation has spread because no-one understands or values the contributions made by mutuals.
Mutuals are the historical roots of community development. To understand community activism pre-1970s, review the century to 1950 (roughly), when working people created institutions through mutuality. Prior to that the principles of mutuality were laid down through the late eighteenth century evangelical revival.
As the new industrial poor learned to organise, via movements like Methodism, they discovered mutuality as an effective way to get things done through organised people; far more effective than organised money.
Why was this? In my next Monday post I’ll write about the main features of mutual organisations.
