Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM)

Corporate information, Federal organisations

ICOM was founded in 1971, as the central membership organisation for a new generation of worker co‑operatives. It grew from the Society of Democratic Integration in Industry established by Ernest Bader in 1958.

Based in Leeds, ICOM initially benefited from the 1976 Industrial Common Ownership Act that provided the finances for their flagship legal department to set up over 2,000 new worker co‑operatives.

In 1999, they appointed Dame Pauline Green as their President, moving them closer to the Co‑operative Union when Pauline became that organisation's Chief Executive the next year. Initially, their growing relationship involved the Union providing administration services for ICOM, but in 2001 both organisations agreed that a permanent merger would best serve the resurgent Co‑operative Movement.

The merger married ICOM's excellent legal services and relationship with grassroots co‑operatives with the Union's standing in the movement and ties to the larger consumer co‑operative societies that still dominate public perceptions of co‑operation in the UK.

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