Next Branch Meeting- Saturday December 7th

There will be a meeting of the East Sussex Branch of the Co-operative Party on Saturday 7th December 2013, 10.30am,  at the Central Methodist Church, Langney Road, Eastbourne.

A G E N D A

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Minutes of the meeting held 10th August 2013

3. Matters Arising

4. Reports:

a) Membership
b) Finance
c) Constituency Labour Parties (including Lewes Bridge by-election)
d) Sussex Co-operative Party Council
e) Any other Reports

5. Campaign Planning, including:
Party Support Mailing; Cost of living/ Loan Shark/ Living Wage campaigns; People's Film Club, Eastbourne

6. Any other business, including date of next meeting

Tea and Coffee will be available at the meeting.

The meeting is open to members of the Co-operative Party only.  For information about joining, and to join online, visit the national website here.

Food price rises biting ? The Co-operative Solution...

The potential of community food co-operatives was the subject of a discussion at the recent East Sussex Co-operative Party meeting.

More and more communities are setting up food co-ops so they can get good food at an affordable price and have more control over where their food comes from.

Co-operation is all about two or more people joining forces and working together to achieve something they probably couldn't do on their own.

In the case of food co-ops a group of people join forces in order to be able to buy foods they may otherwise find it hard to get hold of at a price they can afford. By volunteering their time and pooling their buying power they can get produce direct from local farmers or wholesalers.

You can find out more about Food Co-ops on the website Foodcoops.org

There is also a superb toolkit on setting up a local food co-op project, on the Sustainweb website here.

 

Local, Loved, Trusted: It's Co-operatives Fortnight

22nd June to the 6th July is Co-operatives Fortnight- a chance to explore and support your local co-operatives.

Co-operatives Fortnight brings together co-operatives and their members and supporters from across the country to raise awareness of the ways in which co-operatives are offering fantastic, local and trustworthy shops and services for everyone’s needs.

In 2013, Co-operatives Fortnight is focusing on raising consumers’ awareness and understanding of the diversity and benefits of co-operatives. Co-operative businesses and organisations are armed with online and printed resources, for use in store or for members to take out, to encourage people to explore local co-operatives and find new co-operative shops and services.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK says:

“We know that people love and trust co-operatives. But we know that most people are yet to discover the tremendous range of co-operative products, shops and services available to them.  

The purpose of this year’s Co-operatives Fortnight campaign is to focus on helping people find co-operatives they’ll love – whether that’s sparkling wines or energy providers, online or in-store.”

You can find local co-operatives in East Sussex by visiting Co-operatives UK here or even download the co-op finder Phone App here !

Annual General Meeting 2013

The East Sussex Branch of the Co-operative Party held its AGM today in Eastbourne.   

 

The meeting elected  Jean Couture as Chair, and Dave Brinson as Secretary, with Hastings Labour councillor Nigel Sinden as Vice-Chair.  Thanks were given to Dilys Gray-Jones, who stepped down as secretary after seven years service, that started when she was the driver to re-form East Sussex as an active Co-operative branch.  Jean and Dave will represent the Branch on the Sussex Co-operative Party Council.

 

The branch continues to affiliate to all local Constituency Labour Parties in East Sussex, and nominated John Carden to serve as delegate to Brighton Kemptown CLP, Jean Couture, Dave Brinson and Jake Lambert for Eastbourne CLP, and Dilys Gray-Jones, Paul Barlow and Nigel Sinden for Hastings CLP- where, of course, we are proud to have our member Sarah Owen as Labour and Co-operative Party Parliamentary Candidate. Branch member Emily Westley is also on the shortlist of Labour candidates for the European elections next year.

 

The meeting discussed our campaigning priorities for the forthcoming year- and our attention was drawn to the Co-operative Party's current national campaigns to promote co-operative values in Britain- including:

The Feeling’s Mutual- a campaign to build a fairer economy, support financial mutuals and, in particular, to return Northern Rock to its former building society status.
HomeShares – the campaign for Co-operative Housing Tenure- to recognise co-operative housing in English law for the first time.
The People’s Rail - to give passengers, staff and the taxpayer a stronger voice in the running of Network Rail and our rail network, by ensuring that the governing members of Network Rail are directly accountable to stakeholders and by enabling worker and community co-ops to bid for rail franchises.
Sewn Up – supporting the Kopano Women’s Co-operative in South Africa - raising funds for the women of the Kopano Sewing Co-operative in South Africa to help them renew their equipment and expand their business making clothes and school uniform for their local community.

and, of course:

End Legal Loan Sharking-  to regulate payday lenders, and the exorbitant rates of interest and penalties associated with them. Eastbourne Labour Party and the East Sussex Co-operative Party have made this one of our key campaigns- especially as local Lib Dem MP Stephen Lloyd has defended these companies in Parliament !

If you would like to be part of our campaigns, JOIN the Co-operative Party by clicking here.

Annual General Meeting

The East Sussex branch of the Co-operative Party will be holding its AGM on Saturday 18th May, 10.30am at the Central Methodist Church in Eastbourne.

This will elect new officers for the branch, delegates to local Labour Parties and decide on future campaigns and activities for the Party in East Sussex.

The AGM is a members-only meeting: why not join us by clicking here ?

Elections 2013

Commiserations to our two Labour and Co-operative candidates in Peacehaven Christine Robinson and John Carden, who were unsuccessful in their bid for election to East Sussex County Council- in  a ward that saw UKIP councillors elected.

East Sussex Co-operative Party member Paul Richards was also unsuccessful in his bid for Labour in Hampden Park.

A good night though for Labour in Hastings, where they almost swept the board- seeing six Labour candidaes elected in the seven wards ! This bodes very well for Sarah Owens, who is the Labour and Co-operative prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hastings and Rye in the next General Election.

A New International Settlement

Perhaps the most important thing the financial crisis has taught us is that no country is able to solve all of its problems on its own. As we face the greatest challenge to the world economy in modern times, the looming catastrophe of climate change and the continued emergency of global poverty, co-operation between nations has never been more important.

The G20 agreements reached constitute a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale. Commitments have been made to strengthening our global financial institutions, promoting global trade and mitigating the impact on the world’s poorest countries. We should not simply try to get back to the way things were before. Global co-operation is essential to creating a new world economy – designed to provide for all our long term interests, rather than short term gains for a few.
The Co-operative Party will campaign for:

• An International Transaction (Robin Hood) Tax – To help ensure our future economic stability, and ensure that banks pay the full cost of their bailout, we will campaign for the global introduction of taxes on capital transfers in the international stock, credit derivative and currency markets.... find out more about a fairer global economic system
• Protecting the future of our planet – We will continue to campaign for a comprehensive climate deal at the Mexico Summit, that will radically cut global emissions and provide the support needed by poor countries that are already struggling to cope with a changing climate... find out more about climate change
• Tackling Global Poverty – Co-operatives put people at the centre of development, giving communities the power to bring themselves out of poverty. We will campaign for the creation of a co-operative agency for international development, which will build capacity for co-operatives across the globe. >>  find out more about international development
• Fair Trade – through assisting fair trade producers to own an increasing proportion of their supply chain, we can allow primary producers to capture more profits and allow some of the world’s poorest farmers to collectively own sophisticated international businesses... find out more about Fairtrade
• Trade Justice – we will work with governments to replace free trade with just and equitable trade. We will seek to ensure that fair trade rules and development concerns are central to a global trade deal... find out more about a fairer global trade system

Making Co-operative Policy for 2015

Sussex Co-operative Party will be hosting a mini-conference on Saturday 11th May at City College, Brighton, to help Sussex (CG) Co-operative Party to make our submissions on the subjects of Housing policy and Culture, Media and Sport.

This is your opportunity to have your say in developing Party Policy ! There will be a speaker on each of the two policy areas, then we will invite you to answer a few questions and give us your opinion on what the Co-operative policy should be.

Sussex Co-operative Party Chair, Rianna Humble says:

"This is an exciting time in the Co-operative Party! With barely two years until the next General Election, we are inviting all members to help us to develop the policies that will go into our election manifesto. If you would like more information about the conference, please do not hesitate to email me by clicking here. "

Tickets will be available online shortly. To take part you must be a member of the Sussex Co-operative party- if you haven't yet signed up, please click here to find out more about Co-operative Party membership !

Co-op MP's highlight Food Banks

The rising need for foodbanks- particularly for working families was highlighted in a recent House of Commons debate led by Co-operative MP Luciana Berger.

Labour and Co-operative members showed up in numbers, creating what one MP described as a ‘tour de force’.  On the opposing side, Conservatives were only represented by one front-bench member who consistently seemed to be out-gunned by Labour and Co-operative members.

The debate shed light on the growing problem of food poverty and the massive increase of visitors at local food banks.  As one MP explained, “In this country, more people are facing food poverty in work than those out of work”. 

Several Co-operative Party MPs participated in the debate including Luciana Berger, Andy Sawford, Stephen Doughty, Meg Hillier, Chris Evans, and Jonathan Reynolds.  Co-operative MPs were in strong agreement that the increase in food bank attendees and supermarket prices is a direct result of the current government’s policies.

Members concurred that this crisis is an absolute tragedy in the 21st century and that immediate action ought to be considered.  Despite the enormous challenge presented, MPs were able to discuss ways in which co-operative action can be beneficial to solving the problem.  Campaigns such as the Co-operative Group’s You CAN Help were mentioned and several other instances were mentioned when communities have created partnership with local farming and agricultural bodies.

You can read the full report here.

Locally, the Eastbourne Foodbank does a tremendous job- and has helped over 6,500 people over the past 18 months.   They highlight the fact that over 3,850 children currently live in poverty in Eastbourne. You can find out more about their work, including how you can help, by clicking here.