Co-op Party Conference Film Showing

There is a screening of a film the ‘The Great African Scandal' at the Co-operative Party Conference. The showing of films at a Conference works well. It's lunch time so eat your sandwiches and watch the projection. Stay out of the pub, stay awake in the afternoon.

You can watch it online on Google Video..it's 47 mins long. Download version for iPod, MP3 players etc available too.

Lunch time fringe event: 1215 - 1400h:
Screening followed by a Q & As session chaired by Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, and with Brian Clavin, Ethical policies manager, The Co-operative Group, and Deborah Burton, Christian Aid.

Congestion Charge Campaigns

The big local issue for Manchester and the surrounds is the referendum on Congestion Charges. Vote yes and get a new metro system, vote no and things remain the same. It's a little bit more complicated than that but only a little.

Voting begins in November by postal ballot until December 11th. A yes campaign is kicking of with a meeting at Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham Street, Manchester 1900-2100h. The no campaign backed by Peel Holdings has been running for months as we saw in the local elections in Salford.

There will be lots of scare stories in the media. If you cross Wilbraham Road in Chorlton before 0930 you will have to pay a charge - that sort of thing.

Co-op Party Conference

The annual Co-operative Party conference returns to Memorial Hall, Westminster this week. All party members and in fact anybody can attend, but only delegates can vote and speech make. Doubt if anything will be reported in the mainstream media but if anyone wants to send in photos, stories or links the address is coop AT biffadigital.org....
We'll be scanning the web and news channels in case anything appears.
Link : Party activists seek left turn at conference - Co-op News
Official Line-Up - Co-op Party

Co-op in Play

Spent the damp Sunday afternoon watching a play called "Fair Trade" by the Mikron Theatre Company out back of the Working Class Movement Library in Salford. Not your earnest speeches but comedy and music to tell the story of The Co-operative Movement. Highly recommended. It has a cast of four, some stage props and musical instruments that all of that arrive in a white van. On tour at the moment. They are also touring another play called Debtonation.

Links : Mikron

Co-operative Conservatives

Co-operative Conservatives
Originally uploaded by co-ophistorian.

"An unlikely alliance in a car park at Woodhall Spa" spotted by co-ophistorian. The goings on in Lincolnshire....

Still no news from the Conservative Co-operative Movement - it's been six months since the last posting.

Will the real Common Ownership own up?

Local co-operator Tom Miller writes a regular eye on the ball blog (clearly he manages his time better than most of us) and he's kicked off a lively debate at LabourHome about about ownership and workplace democracy.

A topical subject in times when private capital gets jittery when the going gets tough, but when nationalisation is still in the shadow of bloated inefficiency. The old adage of "the profits are privatised, but the risks are socialised". But there are more choices than just the above as the millions of co-operative and social enterprise organisations do every year. You can read and put your 2 euros in.

Tom Miller is called NewerLabour.
The LabourHome debate

Co-op Website Survey

The official Co-op Party website is running a quick simple survey. What do you think of our website, 1 thru 5, strongly agree...get the idea. It says it takes 5 minutes. More like 1 minute. It maybe worth giving your answers and views...err, it might improve it.
Survey here

Ship Canal Cruise

Local co-operators are doing Ship Canal Cruise this Sunday. It's a bit different from the 1980's cruises in the leaflet organised by Co-op Travel. Then it only ran from Eccles to Liverpool, this trip had an extra hour journey from Salford. Otherwise it's obviously the canal route. Plenty of time to talk to everyone - it's a captive audience nobody can get off along the way. Once again to reader Michael who digs out the historical ephemera. As a trivia aside the CWS had one of the first cargo boats, if not the first, to travel the canal when it opened in 1894 called the SS Pioneer.

Reaping The Dividends - a play

Mikron Theatre Company make a welcome return to the Working Class Movement Library, 51 The Crescent, Salford M5 4WX with Fair Trade: Reaping the Dividends. This new show tells the story of the Co-operative Movement from its roots in the early part of the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution resulted in exploitation and misery for many working people. Did it all begin at Toad Lane in Rochdale in 1844? Take your basket and wander down the aisles of history as Mikron bring you the true story, told, of course, with their usual mixture of music, humour and sadness..

Sunday 7th September 1400h
Entrance £4.00, payable on the door.

Nearly political season

Alright politics runs 366 days a day, but everyone knows the season like football begins seriously in September with the Conferences and the return of Parliament. Everything crammed in before xmas.

So coming up is the Manchester Co-op Party trip down the Manchester Ship Canal - forty people on a boat and no stops until Pier Head in Liverpool. That's this Sunday 24th August. The annual conference is 11th thru 13th September back at Memorial Hall, London - so some reports from that.....blogging returns, and thanks to reader Michael for the lovely photo of "Book of Party Games" (circa 1930's - which you can still play if you follow the rules).