During Co-ops Fortnight, UK Co-op Congress and as part of the UN International Year of Co-operatives, Archive Volunteer and Emeritus Professor Tony Taylor, writes about international co-operation from materials he has been reviewing in biographical folders.

In 1949 the death of the prominent Scottish co-operator and Co-op Party MP John Downie, was recorded in the Co-operative Review. The obituary noted his interest in early US co-operative models, translation of Swedish co-op manuals and history of Finnish co-operation to English, and his role in setting up a joint Swedish/British co-operative factory in Scotland. In 1935, he stood as a candidate in the 'Dumfriesshire' by-election which was won by the National Liberal Party candidate, Sir Henry Fildes. 

John Downie canvassing for votes in Dumfries, 1935. Biographical Folders, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

An International Life

The account of his life is one amongst many in twenty boxes of obituaries and life stories of co-operators stored in the Co-operative Archive at Holyoake House, on Hanover Street in Manchester. Amongst the accounts of the careers of co-operative officials, local co-op pioneers, founders of co-operative retail organisations and members of the Co-operative party, one distinct theme emerges: the transnational links between the co-operative movement in Britain and other co-operative movements around the world.

Downie’s career, whilst unusual for his linguistic abilities, was not out of place for the instinctive internationalism in the outlook of the co-operative movement more broadly. During the nineteenth-century, some trades unions campaigned to restrict an inflow of migrants and unskilled labour into Britain to prevent what they saw as the undermining the pay and conditions of their members, the co-operative movement stood out for its willingness to assimilate global co-operative models, and for the degree of openness it demonstrated to the wider world. In the twenty-first century the co-operative press remains keen to report on diasporic traditions of co-operation brought to Britain by migrants and dispersed communities.

John Downie c1935. Biographical Folders, Co-operative Heritage Trust. We think the women are from the Co-operative Women's Guild and if anyone can help name others in the photo, we will update our records.

Around the World

Numerous other life stories and accounts of co-operation in the co-op archive reveal this internationalist side of the broader co-operative movement. Emigrant co-operators who continued their activities around the empire were welcomed back on return visits. 

When George Booth, originally from Bolton, returned in 1952 after 42 years in Australia, he was feted in his hometown by the Women’s Co-operative Guild for his contribution to co-operation in the Australian colonies. Profiles of well-known European co-operators like the Viennese co-operator, Emma Freundlich, president of the International Co-operative Women’s Guild, also appeared prominently in the pages of co-operative newspapers. The Co-operative News, claimed in 1921 that it featured reports from Iceland to India, covered twenty countries, and received news in fifteen different languages.

Throughout the twentieth century, symbols and icons of peaceful co-operation and co-existence became touchstones for the co-operative movement. In 1921 the International Co-operative Congress in Basle adopted the rainbow flag, which merged the primary colours of national flags from around the world to promote values of harmony and international co-operation.

Image of a Woodcraft Folk hanging from the 1980's.

The Young Ones

In 1925, the youth organization, the Woodcraft Folk, was set up in Britain as an antidote to the militarism of the Scouts. Closely aligned to the co-op movement, it encouraged the values of pacifism, feminism and the correct moral values among the young. The obituary of Jack Barnes in the co-op archive biographical files, covering his fifty-eight-year career with the Woodcraft Folk in Coventry, reveals his role in establishing the movement in the West Midlands, and his lifelong adherence to the causes of internationalism and pacifism which began with his expulsion from school for singing ‘The Red Flag’ on Empire Day.     

The Reach of Rochdale

The role of Rochdale in pioneering an enduring retail model of co-operation in 1844, sometimes taken up and adapted elsewhere, also gave the town a central role in the narrative of co-operation that attracted pilgrims and visitors from other co-op associations around the world. These visits are well represented by material in the archive. 

In 1926 a group of visiting international co-operators, including some from Finland, laid wreaths at the graves of the Rochdale Pioneers and visited the premises of the first co-operative store at Toad Lane, described as ‘the greatest co-operative shrine’ in an account of the visit (it was not yet open to the public as a museum at this time). Finland’s most prestigious order of merit awarded to co-operators was the Knight Order of Rochdale, presented to Sir Harry Gill, President of the International Co-operative Alliance in 1954, whose life story also features in the biographical archive. 

The emphasis on the precedents provided by Rochdale often led to a blurring of facts around co-operation and a tendency to overlook local traditions of co-operative activity. In an account of a co-operative in Tammerfors (Tampere) in Finland established in 1900 by textile workers, the newspaper The Co-operative Official, focused on the town’s similarity to the spinning centres of Greater Manchester and the instance ‘of history repeating itself that a considerable proportion of the first society [in Rochdale] were weavers.’

Cover of a programme for the 'Co-operative Century' pageant, 1944, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

The highpoint of these international pilgrimages and connections came in 1944, on the centenary of the formation of the co-operative retail society at Toad Lane. Co-operators from around the world descended on Rochdale to discuss the role of co-operation in post-war reconstruction and rebuilding. Tableaux, plays and pageants of the events of 1844, accounts of which feature in the archive, were also enacted by co-operative associations around the world. At a time of reflection on the war years and of renewed hopes for the future, the Central Co-operative Bureau asserted that ‘there cannot be permanent and universal peace until all peoples accept and practice co-operative philosophy’.

In the first week of July 2025, the international significance of Rochdale and the North-West of England will again be reaffirmed by the gathering together of co-operators from around the world to celebrate the second officially recognized ‘International Year of Co-operatives’ backed by the United Nations at the General Assembly of the International Co-operative Alliance. The event recognizes the values of mutualism and the important role co-operatives play in the global economy. The event will be attended by delegates from all over the world and is entirely in the spirit of co-operation’s international precedents.

At a time of increasing international tension and uncertainty, it reaffirms the importance of co-operative values and offers hope for the future.