The Greens want to expand co-operative education and teach young people the history of co-ops.
Is your money still safe in the Co operative?
England could move towards the success of Finland's schools and save money by expanding the co-operative model, says Danny Dorling.
Through the Health Forum's and local residents' committees' efforts, this council-funded conversion of a disused nursery provides what the residents have wanted: a central area that enables them to meet, plan activities for the youth and the elderly, and expand the food co-operative into a healthy café.
As its customer base has grown, it has expanded into a co-operative of 13 local farms that share machinery, labour and expertise, allowing year-round delivery of vegetables from a single distribution point at Riverford Farm.
We have also reformed and re-regulated the banking system, expanded the role of co-operatives and credit unions, and renegotiated lopsided agreements with multinational companies.
For ideas about promoting co-operation, visit Co-operative learning.
And we are helping parents expand the number of childcare co-operatives so they can not only afford a service fundamental to modern working lives, but also exercise more control over it.
We need to concentrate on areas where these values count, as, for example, Midcounties Co-operative has expanded into childcare and energy supply.
The group has since expanded but remains an artists' co-operative that has survived in the heart of the city without any subsidies and stayed true to its original goals.
Apart from allowing healthy micro-lending firms to grow into rural banks, the Ministry of Finance announced in May that it would provide subsidies equal to 2% of individual loan books to healthy rural banks, lending companies and rural credit co-operatives which had expanded their overall loans last year.
