Looking back at the history of the British Empire, a book reveals how the International Co-operative Alliance helped to spread the growth of co-operation.
'Empire and Co-operation' charts the ICA's influence in ensuring the implementation of co-operative principles throughout the world, which led to the British Empire promoting co-operatives as part of its development strategy.
Written by British academic Dr Rita Rhodes, the book looks at the role played by the ICA, and organisations such as the Plunkett Foundation, in enabling co-operative development.
According to Dr Rhodes, the support for co-ops within the British Empire started to increase between 1904 and 1918 due to the extensive work of co-operative leaders Horace Plunkett, Earl Grey and Henry Wolff. The three men were all active in the ICA, with Earl Grey being the first ICA President and providing a tremendous contribution to co-operative development.
“Being an aristocrat he gave credibility to the co-operative movement,” explained Dr Rhodes. He also presided several co-operative congresses. Henry Wolff also helped to organise the first ICA Congress in 1895 and he was also chair of the Executive Committee of the Young ICA.
Horace Plunkett set up Ireland's first agricultural co-operative and later founded the Plunkett Foundation, which is still operating today, to spread co-operation throughout the British Commonwealth.
The first break-through came with the first co-op legislation in India in 1904.
Dr Rhodes also said that overcoming the different views between ICA members was extremely difficult, particularly since in the late 19th century when there was a divide in the British movement between consumer and producer co-ops.
During the inter-war years, leadership became more professional with offices in the colonial services around the world. Following the Second World War and the decline of the Empire, British co-operators were recruited to help promote co-operative development in India.
This led to a change in the ICA's development strategy, according to Dr Rhodes: “The ICA needed to develop policies for territories which were moving away from the Empire and becoming independent and developing their own policies."
She said the ICA served a double purpose. It first clarified co-op principles so that people in the Empire and colonial services were able to use the statement as a theoretical framework and a way to measure their ultimate success. Secondly, post-1950s, the ICA had to adapt from an imperial system to one where it had to work extensively with the UN and its agencies.
Dr Rhodes, who is a Plunkett Foundation fellow and was also employed by the Alliance as its Education Officer and Secretary to the ICA Women's Committee, said the idea of writing 'Empire and Co-operation' first came to her back in 2000. She recalled how the UK Society for Co-operative Studies was approached by its sister organisation in India to help with the history of Indian co-operatives. The UK society said it would help in identifying sources and records.
Trevor Bottomley, former Head of Development and Education in the ICA and who delivered co-operative development in Botswana during the 1950s, described the book as “a seminal work in co-operative literature" and "an important contribution to recorded world co-operative history". He added: "It tells a story of advocacy for, and commitment to, co-operative development which spanned 70 years of the last century; and reached every corner of the globe.”
Photo: Dr Rita Rhodes with 'Empire and Co-operation'.
To order the book for £25, plus shipping charges depending on the location, visit the book's publisher, Birlinn. To promote your book, tell us about it through the ICA Facebook page, on Twitter or email.
