Unfortunately not everybody’s experience of cooperatives is positive. For Elle, their time in co-operatives was both transformative, but also painful, marred by classism that often goes unnamed.
In this episode of Punchcard, Elle and I talk about what classism looks like in co-ops, how we can transform it and why inclusion isn’t enough.
Listen to the full interview on workers.coop/podcast, Overcast, PocketCasts, RSS, Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts
🏠 Cultural Domination
Co-ops tend to be far more accessible to middle-class people – those with higher education, spare time, savings, and inheritance. That shapes who can access co-ops and quietly sets middle-class culture as the default.
Middle class norms then define how we communicate, behave, argue, and organise. Anything outside of that framework is subtly flagged as unprofessional, disruptive, or “not the right fit.” That’s how working class ways of being (in all their intersectional forms) get sidelined, suppressed, and erased.
💸 Inclusion Isn’t Enough
We can, and should, keep learning how our cultures marginalise others. But as Elle (and Taylor, in her episode) both emphasise, inclusion is not enough. Often it causes harm by placing the responsibility on marginalised people to adapt.
The deeper issue is power. Working-class people often lack real decision-making power, leaving them dependent on the goodwill of those who have it. Inclusion becomes assimilation.
🔧 Shifting Power
Elle is part of a network of redistribution groups that have been forming across the UK. These groups have been set up to give real power to working class members, including power to choose how to redistribute the groups financial resources.
These groups are cross class collectives, where traditional hierarchies are flipped on their heads – working class cultural norms are centred, decisions are weighted in favour of working class members, and access to resources, especially financial resources, are transferred to the group.
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