ICA board member and international co-operative housing expert, Gun-Britt Mårtensson, was in Australia for the “Living Co-operatively – Affordable housing, Sustainable communities” Symposium  (Feb 13-14) which examined co-operative solutions for Australia’s affordable housing crisis. On 18 February at a co-operative seminar organised by the Co-operative Federation of NSW, Ms Mårtensson was joined by Trent Bartlett, CEO Capricorn Society and Peter Gates, CEO The Mercury Centre, to discuss the advantages of linking into the world-wide co-operative movement through ICA membership.

Helen McCall, EO of the Federation said, “We are keen to encourage co-operatives not just to network with other co-operatives, but to do so outside Australia.   There are many co-operatives elsewhere in the world that have ideas, assistance and trading opportunities to offer us but most Australian co-operatives have not been looking out there to find them.   We're keen to help the sector to see that they're part of a large, successful international movement.   The seminar was an initial effort to bring these factors to everyone's attention, especially to take advantage of Gun-Britt's experience to help people see some of the possibilities.”

The ICA as a source of inspiration and an agent for change was a theme of the presentations at the Sydney seminar. Trent Bartlett recalled his first ICA General Assembly in Cartagena in 2005. “The ICA is like the UN of co-operatives and it was a moving experience to see all of the nations represented at the opening ceremony—but a great disappointment that Australia was not among them. Our [Capricorn’s] invitation to speak at the GA came through our relationship with [ ICA communications head] Garry Cronan and it quickly became clear to me that we had to be part of this huge world-wide network. I committed to Capricorn becoming a member of ICA.”

Capricorn is expanding into the UK and Trent said the ICA has helped guide this expansion; “Through networking, opening doors, offering guidance and experience.”

Peter Gates from The Mercury Centre, said that during almost 20 years as a director of one of Australia’s largest credit unions, it was connecting to the global network that showed him what could be achieved by working together: “My first international conference was the World Council of Credit Unions Forum in Cork, Ireland in 1994. But it was a side trip to Thailand on the way to Europe that showed me first hand how co-ops are a way to solve peoples’ problems.

“We were in Thailand to meet with various co-operative and credit union organisations and we were taken to a local member savings and credit co-op near the port area of Bangkok. This was a vast ‘rabbit warren’ market where people eked out a living with the barest of margins. When the landlord wanted to increase the rents causing more hardship to the stallholders they approached their co-operative to take over the market. It did, and at the same time, put a [credit union] branch in the middle of it. Members could deposit amounts as small as 20 baht a day (about one Australian dollar at the time). It was a great lesson in how co-operatives empower local people and revitalize local economies. “