07 May 2024
Report from Louise Scott, Media Co-op
There’s been much activity in Scotland with reports from Edinburgh and Glasgow’s worker co-op scene. To start with Media co-op is celebrating its 20 birthday with Films to Change the World at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on 12 June. The audience will be joined by Paul Laverty, screenwriter for Ken Loach, and many of the organisations who’ve worked with media co-op over the past two decades for a screening of some of the films and a formal handover of two decades of short films and animations on the co-operative, third and public sector to Scotland’s National Archive where they’ll be available to the public in years to come.
The Glasgow and Edinburgh monthly meet-ups continue to flourish with a varied programme of activities and events from . films to introducing sociocracy to planning a local co-ops website, to going behind the scenes to view the historic co-op collections at the Glasgow museums to informal drop in for chat and peer support.
During the Glasgow meet-ups this year, worker co-operators, joined by Glasgow Student Housing Co-op and co-op friends, made two banners/ The aim is to give worker co-ops – and co-ops in general – higher visibility and to be able to demonstrate our worker co-op solidarity.
Our two new Glasgow banners had their first outing on the Glasgow May Day march.
Worker co-ops Green City and media co-op have been invited to give a short intro to co-ops for Dundee Social Enterprise Network members on the morning of Wednesday 22 May.
Also coming up in June is Co-ops at the Council. A Co-operatives Fortnight event and part of media co-op’s 20th birthday celebrations, the half-day event at Glasgow City Chambers on Tuesday 25 June will bring together co-ops of all kinds from across the city with elected members and Council officers. The event is a refresher for the Council on co-ops with a focus on four sectors – housing, food, energy and arts – and includes co-ops in all sectors including sports. We’ll work together on how co-ops could support the Council deliver on its programmes; and identify what the Council can – and could – do to help co-ops in the city to grow and thrive.
And last but not least, the 2024 Scotland Worker Co-op Gathering will be held in Dundee this year on Thursday 27 June.
This will be a much valued opportunity to get together with other worker co-ops from around Scotland, find out what the Scottish Government is planning for co-ops, discover what support there is for worker co-ops and meet the people behind it, get 1:1 consultancy on your co-op, take part in workshops and peer support sessions – and chill out at the end at the post-event social hosted by Dundee-based worker co-op, GP practice Newfield Medical.