Calder Valley: the solidarity economy in action

As the Institute for Solidarity Economics is relaunched as the Solidarity Economy Association, Kat Darling explores the movement’s growth across the UK

It doesn’t take much more than a cursory glance at the headlines to get a sense of the scale of the problems we’re facing as a society. While the global economy has more than doubled in size in the last 25 years, it has degraded more than 60% of the world’s ecosystems.

Extreme drought over a number of years in places like Syria, made worse by climate change, is exacerbating the already dire situation for millions of displaced people – an issue that will only worsen as natural disasters and changing weather patterns become more frequent.

Closer to home, one in five people in Britain live in poverty, which equates to 13 million people. There’s been a dangerous rise in household debt and personal loans and, as we head into the school holidays, bleak warnings have been issued from organisations like the Trussell Trust, who say that the only place some children will eat a good meal over the summer is a food bank, the use of which is at a record high in the UK.

But it’s not just wealth inequality that’s making us poorer. To be happy, fully-functioning people we need more than money. As social beings, we thrive on a sense of playing a meaningful role and contributing to society, whether that’s in our close social circles, or our wider communities. As creative and empathetic beings we have more to offer – and need more to feel fulfilled – than maximising our bank balance and climbing the corporate ladder. But while many of us may want to help others, feel more valued, and do more to address these pressing global issues, how realistic is it really that we can bring about change?

Collaboration at the heart of places
For those of us who take the solidarity economy approach, the answer lies in collaboration, and in celebrating the diversity of different economic activities. We recognise that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, that different communities and cultures will be responding to different challenges. We focus instead on the values that unite us and that are needed to address these problems: economic and social justice, diversity, self-management, co-operation, democracy, and ecological sustainability.

We promote collaboration at every level, from local, grassroots initiatives to national movements.

A great example of the solidarity economy in action is happening in the Calder Valley, west Yorkshire. It’s already renowned for its strong co-operative ethos and large number of community-owned and controlled initiatives – it boasts the first community-owned town hall in the north of England, as well as a co-operative pub, community energy, community land trust and a number of local food initiatives.

All the initiatives are addressing different local challenges, from access to land and affordable food to places for socialising and coming together as a community. Recently, a local event was held – Calder Bootstrap – to look at how these different local initiatives could work together, to support each other, to scale up and address larger local problems that as individual enterprises they could not. The outcomes of this event have included the pooling of resources to fund new local initiatives, and the formation of a local currency discussion group.

Whilst there’s already a lot of economic activity happening that puts people and planet before profit, we’re still a long way from where we need to be if we’re truly going to bring about system change. It’s one of the main strategic areas of our recently-relaunched organisation, the Solidarity Economy Association. Set up in 2014 as the Institute for Solidarity Economics, our early work was researching the ways that the solidarity economy movement in the UK could be supported to grow. After talking to our partners and wider networks, it’s clear that there’s a real sense of urgency to address these issues together.

As a multi-stakeholder co-operative, our new name and governance structure reflects the co-operative values which are at the heart of what we do, and will take us into our next phase as we focus on furthering education around economic democracy and the solidarity economy, promotion, and supporting the creation of a UK-wide network. The aim of our organisation has always been to find ways of bringing together the diverse range of movements working to create a fairer, more democratic society that works for everyone.

From community land trusts and permaculture projects to alternative currencies and worker co-ops, the desire to find alternative economic systems that put the real needs of people and the planet above the maximisation of profit is gathering momentum. Now is a really exciting time to be relaunching ourselves, and to be clear about who we are and who we represent.

• If you’d like to join us, visit www.solidarityeconomy.coop