On Saturday 10^th September, delegates and visitors at Co-operative Party conference took part in a workshop for ‘The Feeling’s Mutual’ (TFM) campaign. We planned for our campaign day in October, set out our ideas for effective Co-operative Party campaigns and discussed the policies we would most like to see at the heart of the TFM campaign.

Below is set out what was discussed and agreed.

• Attendees signed the petition to George Osborne calling for a halt to the sale of Northern Rock and pressing the government to look again at the Co-operative Party’s plan for a mutual Northern Rock. Please sign the petition if you haven’t already done so and use twitter and facebook to encourage others to sign.
• Attendees discussed plans for the day of action on 15^th October. Co-operative Party members across the country will be setting up street stalls, signing up new Co-op Party members, protesting outside of Northern Rock branches and highlighting the excellent work of credit unions in advance of International Credit Union Day. Contact Pete Jefferys for more materials or information about campaigning on 15^th October.
• Attendees shared their ideas on which policies should be at the heart of the TFM campaign. Ideas included support for small businesses, university credit unions, a mutual credit ratings agency and a Financial Inclusion Act to guarantee that everyone has access to affordable and fair financial services. Co-operative Party staff will continue to work up these ideas, through engagement with the co-operative movement and other experts.
• Attendees made suggestions for what could be done locally to promote the campaign and the Co-operative Party. Suggestions ranged from submitting press releases and motions to council to using inflatable sharks or shark costumes to raise the issue of loan sharking! We agreed that local Parties would use a range of techniques to promote the campaign and that all would submit photos to the Co-operative Party to showcase the actions taken on October 15^th.
• Finally, attendees planned for future campaigns. We agreed that the new Co-operative Party website could be a fantastic tool to co-ordinate campaigns and provide campaign materials. We noted that campaigns should reflect local circumstances and that therefore it is important to keep campaign messages sufficiently flexible to be used in different parts of the country.

What you can do to help:

1. Sign the petition and tweet to encourage others to sign.
2. Contact your local Co-operative Party to find out plans for 15^th October.
3. Send in your photos/comments from the 15^th October campaign day.