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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=center><B>YORKSHIRE CO-OPERATIVE PARTY
COUNCIL</B></P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=center><B>APPEAL TO CO-OPERATORS</B></P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>Whether you work
in worker co-operative producing energy, food or any other goods for sale, or
work in co-operative retail distribution, or are a member of such organisations
as an investor or consumer, you are a co-operator. </P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>You may not think
of yourself as a co-operator because your organization has no affiliation to
Co-operatives UK or Co-operatives Yorkshire and Humber. Moreover, your
organization, because of its structure of governance, may be best described as a
social enterprise, rather than a co-operative. Even so, if it is constituted
under Industrial and Provident Society legislation, which was originally devised
to provide a legal framework for forms of co-operative activity, you qualify for
membership of Co-operatives UK and Co-operatives Yorkshire and Humber</P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=left><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">This
brings us to our first appeal. If your organization is eligible and not already
affiliated to Co-operatives UK and Co-operatives Yorkshire and Humber, please
consider doing so. We urge affiliation because we think it important to
demonstrate the amount and scale of economic activity based on an
</SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">alternative </SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">model to that of private equity
capitalism.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>But we wish to go
further and issue a second appeal. We share the feelings of all co-operators who
are disillusioned by politics, political parties and politicians. We too are
disgusted by much of what we see at Westminster and in the City and would not
exclude from criticism those with whom we are affiliated. We see great virtue in
trying to change society through grass-roots action and we view co-operation as
social movement which, through its greater ethical commitment, can produce a
major transformation of society.</P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>But if that is
your view, we appeal to you to join the general movement by affiliating to
bodies beyond your own organization so that our voice can be magnified and the
message trumpeted to the many who are only too inclined to wallow in
self-interest!</P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=left><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Being
an active co-operator is one part of being an active citizen, but it is a
</SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">part </SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">rather than the whole. Unfortunately, despite our
feeling of disconnection with much in current politics and society, we find
politics inescapable. We may often wish to say, as once did Anthony Newley,
“stop the world I want to get off”, but …..</SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>The Co-operative
Party was founded in 1917 and affiliated to the Labour Party in 1927. Why?
Economic conditions for the domestic population were very difficult at the
height of the Great War in 1917 and co-operators saw the need to politically
represent the interests of consumers and co-operators against those of war
profiteers. The affiliation to the Labour Party followed the defeat of the
miners and the wider trade union movement in the General Strike of 1926 and to
combine against the subsequent attack on working-class interests by a triumphant
Conservative government. Political action was required to defend co-operatives
from adverse legislation in Parliament.</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left>What we need now
is less defensive than offensive action! The crises now facing humanity call for
more pressing of co-operative ethical values and principles on Labour's
policy-making and, through political mechanisms, on domestic and international
society. JOIN US NOW.</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=right><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">John
Halstead. </SPAN><FONT color=#000080><SPAN lang=zxx><U><A
href="mailto:john.halstead@blueyonder.co.uk"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">john.halstead@blueyonder.co.uk</SPAN></A></U></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm" align=right><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Steve Thompson. </SPAN><FONT color=#000080><SPAN
lang=zxx><U><A href="mailto:steve.thompson@phonecoop.coop"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">steve.thompson@phonecoop.coop</SPAN></A></U></SPAN></FONT></P>
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