There are a couple of thousand people working in worker co-ops across the UK. Collectively, that represents millions of pounds sitting idly in separate bank accounts, where it’s used by banks to pay shareholders and invest in things many of us would strongly oppose.
What would it look like to pool more of that money together and use it collectively instead?
Some of us already use credit unions, community shares, or building societies, but these institutions can still feel distant and impersonal. They don’t bring people together and embed democratic culture and power in the way that worker co-ops do.
This month’s guest is Rob Callender, co-founder of Kin.coop, a platform designed to help people start and manage cooperative savings clubs.
What would it look like to organise money collectively?
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Money is Power
Rob put it bluntly when he said, “If we can’t change this, I think we’re fucked.”
He was talking about how weak we are when our money is isolated and managed individually. Worker co-ops are built around collective control — over our labour, workplaces, sense of purpose — but financially we remain fragmented compared to the banks, investors, and billionaires who shape the wider economy.
We need to take financial cooperation more seriously.
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But What Would We Actually Use Savings Clubs For?
Savings clubs are common across much of the world, but in the UK they still feel unusual. We’re very private about money, so the idea of putting it into a shared pot and collectively deciding how to use it can feel alien.
Some uses are simple. Buying groups, insurance pots, and solidarity funds can use savings clubs to manage shared money and support each other through difficult periods without needing formal structures.
Others are more transformative. Rotating savings clubs let members periodically access larger lump sums for things like university fees, emergency costs, flights home, or replacing appliances. Instead of relying on debt and paying interest, people borrow money from each other at no cost, and build community and resilience instead.
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Building A Worker Cooperative Safety Net
The worker co-op movement already has forms of financial solidarity. Solidfund, for example, redistributes money from workers and co-ops to support projects across the sector, and co-ops like Hempen, New Internationalist, and Loaf have all benefited from that support at difficult moments.
But it did leave me wondering whether we could go further.
Many co-ops hold reserves covering 3–6 months of operating costs. Obviously those reserves exist for good reason, but the likelihood of every co-op collapsing simultaneously is relatively low. So what would it look like to collectively pool a portion of those reserves instead of every organisation holding them entirely separately?
Rather than relying only on small voluntary donations, could the movement build larger shared financial infrastructure capable of supporting co-ops through crises, transitions, or moments where projects risk collapse entirely, like the recent fall of Daily Bread Cambridge and Brixton Cycles? I don’t have the answer, but I do think we need to get more serious about collectivising the movement’s finances.
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