Alice McLarnon grew up in Belfast during the Troubles, surrounded by violence, segregation, and 60-foot peace walls. In 2006, she joined the worker cooperative Trademark and was immediately struck by how different it was from anywhere she’d worked before.
Coming from low paid work in a chip shop and other hierarchical workplaces, she was shocked that even as an administrator she was considered an equal. From being paid the same as the founders, to being invited to take part in key organisational decisions, Trademark’s radical commitment to equality reshaped her expectations of what a workplace could be.
In Northern Ireland, the workplace has long been one of the few places where Catholic and Protestant communities regularly intersect. That’s why Trademark, as the anti-racist and anti-sectarian unit of the Irish Labour Movement, focuses its work there — working with unions and supporting groups to set up worker cooperatives.
One of the most notable examples of this is the multi-award-winning Belfast Cleaning Cooperative. Formed by a cross-community group of women that the Trademark team were working with. The co-op has become a standout example of what cooperative development in working-class communities can look like.
Trademark’s work offers a powerful example of what’s possible when anti-racism, class politics, and cooperative economics come together. It’s a prime example of how to confront the rise of racism and fascism we’re seeing across the country.
Listen to Punchcard for the full conversation with Alice McLarnon.
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