James Barr reports on the vote by Co-op members to boycott Israeli products 

The vote at the Co-op’s Annual General Meeting in favour of boycotting Israeli products is of major significance. This was a decision made not by a board of directors or an academic board but a vote in which the Co-op’s 6.5 million members had a chance to have their say.  

It was preceded by vigorous online debate.  

Nearly three quarters (73%) of members supported the motion, which urged the board to demonstrate “moral courage and leadership” by removing Israeli goods from the shelves.  

Although the motion is advisory, the board confirmed it is actively reviewing its sourcing policies, to “ensure that they reflect both our values and principles and the views of our members, which they have made clear today.”  

The CEO of the Co-op, Shirine Khoury-Haq, is Lebanese. In her speech at the AGM, she pointed out her father was Palestinian and that the issue affected her personally.  

The Co-op was the first retailer to refuse to stock goods from the Occupied Territories after a vote at its 2007 AGM. Over the last year it has donated to Medical Aid for Palestine and others, bringing aid to Gaza. Earlier this year, during Ramadan, it stocked Palestinian dates and olive oil, though understandably encountered supply issues.  

UK Lawyers for Israel had asked for the motion to be withdrawn.  

It said: “A non-binding motion to take all Israeli products off the shelves of Co-op stores contains false and defamatory statements, promotes racial hatred of Israelis and Jews, and should be rejected under the Co-op’s rules.”  

But the motion was allowed received 73% voting in favour, compared to 27% against.  

Lewis Backon, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “The Co-op AGM vote shows ordinary people in this country are committed to the cause of justice and freedom for Palestine in their everyday lives and refuse to support Israel’s apartheid economy.”  

The fact that the Co-op has 6.5 million members – who own the business and vote at the AGM – marks it out from other retailers. It dates its history back to the Rochdale Pioneers, working class men who in 1844 joined together to ensure local people could buy safe food at a fair price.   

It retains a strong commitment to charity with its Local Community Fund, distributing £114 million to 36,500 community projects across the UK since 2016.  

It is also part of the Climate Coalition and will be urging its members to join the 9 July lobby of Parliament.  

It has been viewed historically as part of the labour movement and there is a long record of socialists being actively involved in it. Lenin wrote “On Cooperatives” in 1923, urging support for co-operatives inside revolutionary Russia. In it he argued:  

“There is a lot of fantasy in the dreams of the old cooperators. Often they are ridiculously fantastic. But why are they fantastic? Because people do not understand the fundamental, the rock-bottom significance of the working-class political struggle for the overthrow of the rule of the exploiters. We have overthrown the rule of the exploiters, and much that was fantastic, even romantic, even banal in the dreams of the old cooperators is now becoming unvarnished reality.  

Indeed, since political power is in the hands of the working-class, since this political power owns all the means of production, the only task, indeed, that remains for us is to organize the population in cooperative societies.”   

The Co-op’s membership has seen a 22 percent growth since 2023, growing from 5.1 members to six and a half million.  

Life membership is just £1, and you can choose a Local Community Fund cause to support every time you shop – 1p goes to it and 1p to the central charitable fund; plus, you get to vote at the AGM. That’s a very worthwhile and useful investment.