Worker Co-operative Solidarity Fund to hold strategy meeting

Members contributing to the Worker Co-operative Solidarity Fund (Solid Fund) are meeting in London on 14 October to discuss its future. The event, which is free to attend and...

Members contributing to the Worker Co-operative Solidarity Fund (Solid Fund) are meeting in London on 14 October to discuss its future.

The event, which is free to attend and is open to non-members, will be the second face-to-face meeting for the members of the fund, which was set up last November and is now approaching £25,000. Any proposals discussed will be voted for via Loomio, an online collective decision-making tool.

A group of web developers among the members will focus on designing and building a website with a membership database function.

The fund was created to support worker co-operation and is currently in an “accumulating phase”, says Siôn Whellans of Calverts design co-operative, one of the co-ops contributing to it.

“We want to attract support and contributions from people who want to support worker co-operation even though they may not actually involved or who want to make donations,” he added.

The fund has more than 460 regular contributors, mainly individual members or supporters of worker co-operatives. They include Argyle Street Housing Co-operative, Calverts, Essential Trading, Footprint Workers Co-op, Suma, Greencity Wholefoods, Infinity Foods, Valley Organics, the New Internationalist, Argyle Cleaning Services and Belfast Cleaning Society.

The worker co-ops behind the initiative want to create and manage a permanent common fund, paid for by the voluntary subscriptions of worker co-operative members, workers’ co-operatives, individuals and organisations that support industrial democracy and collective ownership. Each member, whether individual or corporate, has one vote.

The fund is run on a voluntary basis and all money will go towards supporting worker co-ops.

Individual members contribute £1 a week to the fund, while worker co-ops pay on behalf of their members. The fund functions on the basis of a membership agreement and is not an incorporated body. ICOF, the Co-operative and Community Finance provider for social enterprises and co-operatives is collecting the money on behalf of the fund.

More information on the event is available online. Those wishing to contribute to the fund can join online at s.coop/solidfundjoin.

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