POD’s shareholder members – the amazing local people who began the funding to make POD possible – will be receiving a newsletter from POD this month. It includes an article about the rich history of co-operatives in the valley.
We hope this will be of interest to members, users, and everyone in the local community, so the article is reposted here. And additionally, this online version contains an extended list of co-operatives that goes further than we could fit in print!
There’s a long history of co-operatives in Calderdale. And POD is continuing the story, along with more than 25 other co-ops working in the Calder Valley.
Co-operatives have seven internationally agreed fundamentals:
1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Co-operation among co-operatives
7. Concern for community
This focus on being a member-led organisation is why your involvement as a member is so important to POD.
Local author Andrew Bibby, in his book All Our Own Work (Merlin Press, 2015), tells us how the Hebden Bridge Fustian Manufacturing Co-operative Society was established in 1870 at Nutclough Mill (now the home of Calrec). This was the first workers’ co-operative textile mill in England, countering the well-known model of mill-owning families controlling wealth and the working lives of their oppressed workers.
Other community benefit societies and co-operatives in the Calder Valley include:
A short film from the Calderdale Co-operative Association, made in 2022 with the help of local film maker Nick Farrimond and funded by Hebden Royd Town Council, includes interviews with local co-ops and a brief history of co-operatives in the Calder Valley.
POD is drawing on the rich history of co-operation in Calderdale and at the same time helping to address the significant environmental challenges we face.