Coceta, a co-operative umbrella group in Spain, reckons that in 2013 alone some 75 Spanish companies were taken over by their former employees – roughly half the total in the whole of Europe.
Several are beneficiaries of scholarships issued by the co-operative's umbrella federation, Cecocafen, with support from overseas donors.
Yet, radical and wholly unexpected changes to the finance bill will decimate the area that has shown by far the greatest potential for community share issues – community energy," said the letter's signatories, who include energy company Co-Operative Energy, umbrella group Community Energy England, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the trade body RenewableUK.
The women of LaFem, an umbrella co-op working for social change in Nicaragua.
LaFem is an umbrella co-op that has magnified the needs of women's voices in the mountainous region of Nicaragua where they work.
Last year, the CNE finally drew up guidelines; these have been followed by the Democratic Co-ordinator, the opposition umbrella group.On four days late last year, the Co-ordinator gathered over 3m signatures calling for the plebiscite.
Ed Mayo, secretary general of umbrella group, Co-operatives UK, says: "If you're going to call yourself a co-operative council, then you need to be clear what that means and you need to have a dialogue with the wider co-operative sector".
Sir Paul is chairman of Tulo, an umbrella body co-ordinating trade unions affiliated to Labour.
His brief: to "facilitate" a dialogue between the government and the Democratic Co-ordinator, an opposition umbrella group.
According to the Democratic Co-ordinator, an opposition umbrella group, some 3.6m signed the petition well above the 2.4m required by the constitution to trigger the referendum.
Half a dozen officers in full tropical uniform attended a recent meeting of the Democratic Co-ordinator, an opposition umbrella group.
