Andrew's links to the co-operative movement go back to the rather different political world of the late 1970s when he was one of those starting a workers’ co-op community bookshop (assisted by a community share capital issue). I moved on to become a co-operative development worker in Leicester and then, later, as a freelance journalist and writer, undertook work for international (ICA, ILO COOP, ICMIF), British (Co-op Group, EOA) and US co-operative bodies as well as for international and national trade union bodies.
More recently, on a voluntary basis, I have been active in the community land trust movement. I have written two books of co-operative history, All our own work (early productive co-operatives) and These houses are ours (co-operative housing initiatives before the First World War). I have also been a trustee of the Woodcraft Folk, the co-operatively-minded youth movement and charity.
