Co-op Bank – from ‘supermutual’ to carcass for vulture funds

Many in the labour movement were dismayed by the recent news that the Co-op Group had lost control of the Co-operative Bank – the bank of choice for generations of trade unionists and the joint owner with a consortium of trade unions (including UNISON) of the Unity Trust Bank. A disturbing report in today’s Sunday Telegraph claims that 70% of the bank’s equity will be controlled by a group of private equity funds (including so called vulture funds) and 1,000 redundancies are in the pipeline - 10% of the bank’s workforce. How and why has this happened? Daniel Tischer writing in Red Pepper unlocks the background to this salutary tale of the vulnerability of the mutual model in the capitalist market place:
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/co-op-bank-the-david-that-wanted-to-be-a-goliath/