Thought for the Week: The cooperative vision

Nick Matthews reflects on the cooperative movement

by Nick Matthews 5th July 2013

A statue of Robert Owen, visionary mill-owner and father of cooperation, stands outside the Co-operative Bank in Manchester. His experiment at New Lanark, of providing housing for the workers and education for their children, had a huge impact. It inspired modern comprehensive education, the cooperative movement, trade unionism and even the garden cities movement. Interestingly, Owen credited Quaker John Bellers’ (1654-1725) work of 1695 ‘Colleges of Industry’ as one of his influences.