… for 5 July is Coops Day “a once-in-a-decade opportunity to spotlight the critical role of cooperatives in building more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.” At least that’s what the International Cooperative Alliance would have us believe.

They seem to have forgotten that the world economy is driven by the laws of capitalist production. Meaning that every enterprise must increase its productivity if it is to stay in business. Increasing productivity is (usually) achieved by spending more of the enterprise’s revenue on technology, so reducing the amount available for wages. So eventually, there will be fewer workers, or lower wages.

There is no opt-out from this particular law – see here for more on the socialist view of coops.

Fellow workers currently in receipt of a PIP or Universal Credit will no doubt be relieved that the government has been forced to withdraw its plan to directly attack their standard of living.

They might also be thinking that Starmer & Co. would be more honest if they used the term ‘economic imperative’ instead when referring to plans to change the social insecurity system.

Because capitalists everywhere are bound to resist increases in the amount of tax taken from profits to fund the system, in the same way that they are bound to resist attempts to increase wages.

By so doing they reveal their real imperative: the protection of profitability, come what may for the rest of us.

Many workers find their jobs stressful in various ways. But recently the trade union Unison described the problems met by a specific group of workers, those who deal with 999 calls that involve a medical emergency. It is important and rewarding work, but …

They frequently have to take life-changing decisions, sometimes working a 12-hour stretch with limited breaks. One worker had to take time off after dealing with four suicide calls in a single shift. There is a high staff turnover, with over a quarter leaving their jobs in the last three years.

These may be exceptional cases, but they demonstrate the stress and burnout that many workers experience under capitalism.

Inflammatory headlines such as ‘London pays £3.6bn to house non-Britons (Telegraph) and ‘Asylum chaos as migrants housed in 81% of areas’ (Express) have been part of a relentless campaign to foment hatred of anyone living in the UK who is not White British. Keir Starmer has announced that Britain risks becoming ‘an island of strangers’. Such goads to xenophobia and racism could hardly be more blatant.

Instead of making life hell on earth for people moving from country to another, we should be looking towards a radically different earth – borderless, stateless and moneyless. The end of the border system and the nationalism that underlies and sustains it will make the world a secure and habitable place for all.