Rochdale, Globalisation
and uneven development (Part 2)
By: Andrew Wallace
Globalisation in Rochdale has
proved controversial given difficulties in respect of inter-racial strife, the
disproportionate amount of asylum seekers, the widespread levels of
deprivation, the grooming scandals, a notorious failure of public housing with
a youngster's death as a direct result of a toxic flat, the ongoing problem of
organised crime gangs and a legion of controversial local politicians. It seems
Rochdale has been pressed into taking a much higher proportion of asylum
seekers than the national average and this remains provocative for certain
sections of the population, particularly given the huge cuts in public services
that were rolled out in the 2010s. Demographics and large migration flows have
arguably presented a challenge to the idea of a social contract (Goodhart,
2004) and a welfare state which was originally predicated on contributory
national insurance. Goodhart talks about the ‘progressive dilemma’ which speaks
to the tensional relationship between solidarity and diversity, or nativist
particularities of place versus liberal universalism. With Rochdale already in
sharp socio-economic declinism, race and ethnicity arguably became increasingly
salient as different sections of the community wrestled over diminishing
community funds. As the curiosity of the February 2024 Rochdale by-election
illustrated, Middle East politics have proved a significant ingredient for the
Muslim community, much to the chagrin of a large section of non-Muslims and
others who stressed the priority of local issues or indeed boycotted engagement
altogether (Chakelian, 2024). The community hub is but one amongst many former
retail outlets that have been repurposed for a number of charities within this
comparatively neglected area of the town. The picture perhaps evokes the uneasy
relationship within the community as surly low-level resentment of asylum
seekers is frequently evidenced by various vox pops across the town (Lyons,
2017).
It was significant that the
town’s short lived MP George Galloway claimed inspiration by way of Rochdale’s
historic innovative contribution to progressivism in birthing the Co-operative
movement. This represents Rochdale’s distinctive contribution to the world at
large with Co-ops “found in more than 100 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia,
the Americas and Oceania” (Co-operatives UK, 2024). Co-operatives represent an
alternative model to standard capitalist enterprises whereby ownership resides
with workers, customers or the local community, thereby providing a
collectivist social dimension which otherwise is absent in capitalist
transactions. Co-operative philosophy evinces adaptability to an ideological
climate which also proved accommodating to free market anti-statism and the
invocation of ‘self-help’ (Da Costa Vieira and Foster, 2022, pp. 295-296). It
seems Co-operatives illustrate the ongoing contested forms of globalisation,
whereby challenges to a hegemonic neoliberalism have to contend with a disenfranchising
counsel of despair that holds any alternative politics are illusory.
Co-operatives do however bring a credible historical record of their
distinctive agency of doing things differently. The consciousness-raising of
fair trade and the brokering of equitable contracts that pay heed to the
environment and its peoples are a salutary reminder of viable alternative forms
of globalisation and these may prove foundational for broader movements of
protest and change to the present problematic realities (Massey, 2004). The
picture is also another visually arresting testament to a striking fusion of
styles, the modernist museum bolted on to the original warehouse and can be
taken as a signifier of playful retrofitting, invoking the dialectic between
past and the looming future.
Chakelian, A (2024) ‘Rochdale’s
by-election brings the Gaza war to Britain’, The
New Statesman, 21 February.
Available at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2024/02/rochdales-by-election-
brings-the-gaza-war-to-britain
(Accessed: 06 March 2024)
Co-operatives UK (2024)
Understanding Co-ops. Available at:
https://www.uk.coop/understanding-co-ops/how-co-ops-began/co-ops-across-world
(Accessed: 06 March 2024)
Da Costa Vieira, T. and Foster,
E. A. (2022) ‘The elimination of political demands:
Ordoliberalism, the big society
and the depoliticization of co-operatives’, Competition
& Change, 26(2), pp.
289–308
Goodhart, D (2004) ‘Discomfort
of strangers’, The Guardian, 24 February. Available
at:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/feb/24/race.eu
(Accessed 06 March 2024)
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