Cooperative Loan Fund, managed by our bankers CCF, have matched the members' commitment, making a total of £60,000. We hope and expect other organisations to contribute to this really important - perhaps once in a generation - effort to secure a new worker-led cooperative campus in Birmingham.
Why did Solidfund members agree to such a potentially risky commitment? Perhaps it's because they recognise that to build long term worker power, we need more than day-to-day cash, confidence, negotiating skills and good trading models. We also need to combine forces and resources to secure long-term space for working and living that isn't extractive, and isn't dependent on the goodwill of external landlords and landowners ('social' or otherwise).
At the time of writing, 10 years of unpaid work and cooperative effort are in danger of being lost in Stirchley because of the actions of Stirchley Cooperative Development (SCD)'s project partner, a housing association that decided to go back on its agreements and take exclusive control of the building they co-designed with SCD for self-managed collective working and co-housing. It's a brutal standoff that highlights the wider confrontation between the rentier class, domestic renters, ordinary workers and local residents, playing out over money and land.
This fight is complicated. It's political as well as financial. However much money we raise, we may not win this time. But it's still worth putting our money where our mouth is. Solidfund is all the evidence we need that small contributions from a lot of people can create a powerful resource for worker co-op solidarity and organisation. So thank you to all the members, without whose practical commitment we wouldn't have a cash reserve to mobilise - and who turned out in numbers and unanimously to pass the support proposal.
If you like what you're hearing but you're not yet a Solidfund member, join here for just £1 a week, or a bit more if you can afford it.