The BAME Co-operators Council would like to extend Season’s greetings to you and your family.

The Council was formed earlier this year following elections to represent the growing BAME membership of the Co-operative Party. We have appointed officers and we have an observer who attends National Executive Committee meetings. We aim to raise the profile and involvement of BAME members throughout the Party.

We also have a role in promoting co-operative ideals and opportunities among the minority ethnic community. The BAME community is naturally enterprising, innovative and believes in strong, supportive communities. These are ideal, fertile conditions for building co-operatives and promoting co-operative values.

Similarly, we wish to expand the diversity of the Party by encouraging more people from BAME backgrounds to join.

If you identify as BAME, please ensure you update your membership profile to include this. You will then be able to receive regular updates and information from the BAME Cooperators Council. We currently have a number of vacancies on the Co-operators Council and to take part you must be registered as a BAME member.

To do this simply complete the Party’s Equalities Questionnaire and let them know that you identify as BAME (and any other networks to which you may belong).

This year has been a very difficult year for everyone. As we enter 2021, we can look forward to the future in which Co-operative Party members have a crucial role to play in helping build back a better, fairer and more co-operative society in the future.

Once again, please enjoy a (socially distanced) happy Christmas and a co-operative New Year.

With best wishes

Shahina Jaffer (Chair)
Martin Bailey (Secretary)
Faisal Rana (NEC Observer)
Ade Adeshina
Titus Ajayi
Gregory Roberts

BAME Co-operators Council

About the BAME Co-operators Council

Shahina Jaffer (Chair)

I’m the Chair of the coop BAME network and Deputy Leader London of Black Labour movement and London wide-candidate in Greater London Assemebly election May 2021. I’m an active member of Unite and Bermondsey and old Southwark CLP, a socialist, anti-war and anti-racism campaigner, fighting for social justice and equality for the oppressed and underrepresented. I have been active in Southwark for many years – in the Labour Party and in the community. As an active GC delegate and Chair of South Bermondsey branch, I am passionate about creating opportunities for new voices to be heard.  I believe that internal democracy and transparency, is vital for our movement, My passion for politics has always been embedded in the community, I work closely with many grass-root black organisations, looking at the root cause of discrimination and racism, I call upon your solidarity today and for your commitment to creating unity within our party so that we can join forces to root out all forms of racism and discrimination, wherever they occur.

Martin Bailey (Secretary)

Hi all, I’m Martin Bailey, Co-op Member in Lambeth, South London.

Holding no office in the Co-op beyond being on the BAME Council, over in the Labour Party I have been CLP Secretary of Vauxhall Labour for four years, and was previous the National BAME Officer for LGBT+ Labour 2016-18.

Hailing from Birmingham, my campaigning has seen me knock on the doors of Labour & Coop candidates and causes in London & South East, Midlands and Scotland, but too few of those have been BAME. I plan on using my time on the council to empower and encourage more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people into our representative structures, and challenging our sister party the Labour Party to do more too.

My political interests span a variety of issues. In business, 2020 has prompted a lot of questions about community and economic purpose, and where social good and good business interact. There are so many opportunities here for co-operative business models to play a key role in our economic recovery and generate value directly into the left-behind and underrepresented communities many of us are from and very familiar with. Our local, independent shops often run by BAME people have been pillars of the community throughout 2020.  I am also Vice Chair of Governors at my local primary school, and Governor of the NHS Foundation Trust. Health and Education are massive areas where BAME people are often disproportionately recognised in negative stats, and doing what I can to tackle those, on a local level, continues to be a passion.

As one of your voices on the BAME Co-operators council I hope to put these ambitions into action, and to ensure that we recognise the uniquities of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities in policy we develop and in campaigns we fight for.

Faisal Rana (NEC Observer)

I am an active member of the Rochdale Borough Co-operative Party, and I am extremely proud to live and work in the birthplace of the worldwide Co-operative movement – Rochdale!

I am a trade unionist, socialist and community activist. I serve on the GMB’s regional BAME Group and Labour’s NW BAME network.

I am a Labour Councillor in Rochdale, representing a large Asian electorate. I know first-hand the struggles the BAME community face every day.

I was brought up in poverty in Lahore, my parents sacrificed everything to give me a good education. I went on to become a Sub Lieutenant in the Pakistan Navy. When I settled with my young family in Rochdale in 1996, I struggled to find work coming up against discrimination at every turn. That’s what led me to be politically active in my trade union, the Labour Party and its sister party the Co-operative Party.

The BAME community is naturally enterprising, innovative and believes in strong, supportive communities. These are ideal, fertile conditions for building co-operatives. The Co-operative Party has a great opportunity to build its membership among ethnic minority communities and to promote co-operative ideals and projects – from energy schemes and food co-operatives to childcare clubs and credit unions.

I also promote co-operative values and principles within the Council, which is a member of the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network.

I am an active community campaigner. Recent activity has been supporting my local community during the Covid-crisis and the Co-op’s Campaign for Food Justice. I initiated Council grants to over 5,000 of Rochdale’s poorest residents to help them through the Covid-19 pandemic and also, following the Tory government’s refusal to back Marcus Rashford’s campaign to prevent child hunger during school holidays, Rochdale Council is stepping in to provide food vouchers to children on Free School Meals during holidays.

I am looking forward to my role as the BAME Co-operators Council observer to the NEC and I look forward to getting to know NEC members and working with you in the future (albeit remotely!)

You can find out more about my activities and campaigns promoting Labour and Co-operative values for a fairer society and economy where ownership and wealth are shared by visiting my website: councillorfaisalrana.com

Ade Adeshina

I became a Labour Party activist in 1990 and a full party member in 1997, as I have high regards for the party’s ethos. In particular, “It’s believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potentials and all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few”. Having worked in public, private and voluntary sectors has equipped me with the skills and knowledge that will add value to my role as CLP’s NEC member. I have over 27 years’ experience of implementing and scrutinising government third sector contextual and conceptual underpinning frameworks and 26 plus years of management experience, managing social enterprise youth and community economic regeneration initiatives.

Titus Ajayi

My name is Titus Ajayi. I am a National BAME Council member from Northampton in East Midland, an Executive member of the Central England Eastern & Southern Co-operative Party and also Vice- Chair of the Northampton local branch. I am also a member of the Northampton North CLP and for many years the BAME coordinator and member of the East Midland Regional BAME Officers’ Forum.

In addition, I am a Trade union activist and I currently sit on the Unite the Union’s Regional BAME Committee, Regional Industrial Sector Committee and National Industrial Sector Committee for Finance.

I have previous experience of working in the third sector organisation helping to BAME members to set up community groups, signposting them to various supports groups and initiate community cohesion through socio-cultural and inter-faith relationship building programmes in Northampton and environs.

I am particularly interested in issues like unconscious bias and discrimination fo all shade and forms, socio-economic imbalance/disparities against BAME communities, increased and qualitative representation of BAME members in the Coop Party, in the sister Labour Party and in the wider society.

Gregory Roberts

Gregory formerly served as Interim Chair of BAME Cooperators 2018 – 2020. He was instrumental in raising the profile of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Cooperators both within the party and the wider UK. Gregory recently led the Working Group that looked on COVID-19 Recommendations. He is a founder of an African Caribbean based cooperative, Our People, Our Legacy (OPOL) and is the Chair of UK-Caribbean Advisory Group on Cooperatives and Social Enterprises. Gregory has been busy exploring and developing pathways for cooperative development within BAME communities across the UK.

After relocating to the UK to commence his PhD, he worked as a community development worker, teacher and business advisor in Birmingham’s diverse communities and the wider West Midlands. His work and research have focused on economic, social and political empowerment.

Gregory is a trained economist and development specialist. He was educated at the St. Mary High School and University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He holds a PhD from University of Birmingham, where he studied Economics and Theology.