Robin Murray

= Robin was a huge contributor to the movement for a cooperative commonwealth, and passed away at the end of May 2017, a huge loss for all those who knew him

Bio

1.

"Robin Murray is an industrial economist. Currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE, he was a teaching Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex for twenty years, prior to which he taught economics at the London Business School. Having specialised in industrial strategy, international corporate taxation and international commodity supply chains, his most recent work has focused on industrial restructuring in response to environmental pressures (notably waste and energy), on social innovation, and on the civil economy – particularly in co-operatives, with whom he has had considerable personal involvement.

During the 1980s and 90s, Robin acted as a consultant on industrial and development issues to a wide range of governments, serving as Director of Industry in the Greater London Council and later as a Director of Development in the Government of Ontario. This work led him to the conclusion that there was a major role that could be played in achieving social goals by mission driven third sector companies. In response, he co-founded Twin Trading, the fair trade company, in 1985, which now sells four branded products in the UK: Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, Agrofair and Liberation Nuts. The company works with existing farmers co-operatives and supports the development of new ones, now supporting over 300,000 farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Robin has also established a range of environmental ventures, focused on the economy of distributed systems and their potential for environmental and social sustainability. He is co-founder of the environmental partnership Ecologika, whose members work in the fields of waste, energy, transport, food and health, which has played a major role in the re-direction of UK waste policy, and, with the Mayor’s office, helped to establish the London Climate Change Agency, a consultancy service for the retrofitting of Green Homes, and the development of city-wide plug-in hybrid vehicles. From 2004-5 he served as Director of RED, the innovation unit of Design Council, where he led the team working on public health.

He is a Fellow of the Young Foundation, for whom he co-authored two books on social innovation, and is currently working on a text on the Social Economy." (http://beyondthetechrevolution.com/team/robin-murray/)

2.

“Robin Murray is an industrial and environmental economist. His recent work has focused on new waste and energy systems and on projects in the social economy. He was co-founder and later chair of Twin Trading the fair trade company and was closely involved in the companies it spun off, including Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, Liberation Nuts and Agrofair UK. He has alternated working for innovative economic programmes in local, regional and national governments, with academic teaching and writing.” (http://www.socialinnovator.info/blog/blog-bio/robin-murray)

Discussion

An appreciation of his life by Hilary Wainwright:

""I'm thinking of my friend, many people's friend, the great economist, Robin Murray who died yesterday. Robin exuded vigour and hope. And he infected those around him with his mood. Maybe as a resuIt I find myself resisting the sadness which threatens to overwhelm me now that he is gone. The tears well but they refuse to flow. The only respite is to ring several of our common friends for mutual comfort: Stephen Yeo, the inspiring historian of the co-operative movement in which Robin had a passionate and therefore active interest. Carlota Perez whose theory of technological change and it's connection with financial crisis he hugely admired and with whom he collaborated at the LSE. Mary Kaldor the theorist of war and of movements for peace with whom he taught Marxist economics at Sussex university. 'We didn't always agree' she says , but he loved debate. My niece Jessi who joined Murray breakfasts after a swim at the London Fields Lido in Hackney for which he and his beloved artist wife Frances campaigned after the nearby Haggerston baths were closed.

People and ideas. Even as he lay breathless with the terminal lung disease which led to his death, and under strict instructions from Frances not to talk too much, he would not be able to contain his passion for both people and ideas. They were his life force. He could not imagine living without talking about both, between sucking the means to do so from his oxygen machine. One evening's topic were the ideas of Allende's cybernetics advisor Stafford Beer and, more generally, the idea of the economy as a nervous system. At the same time, his starting point was always the cell, the dynamics of the particular , so he was forever fascinated by particular exemplary initiatives and how they worked, the conditions for their success so, between breaths, the conversation would turn to the burgeoning Japanese consumer co-operative movement. Or to the co-operative shop in his original home county, Cumbria, to which even as his illness advanced he devoted inordinate energy.

Above all he was perennially fascinated by people's stories, especially the stories of the young people in his family or helping with his care. The stories from his beloved and talented daughter, Beth and her Italian boyfriend Gianluca, of a visit to Gianluca olive-growing family in northern Italy, and of exactly how his father harvested and sorted the olives. Or of how my niece Jessi proposed to her boyfriend in a tent during a hike across a Himalayan pass.'I asked her to describe the exact moment '. He said afterwards. He was living for the moment as his illness took hold. But his irrepressible curiosity about what moments were important for other people was throughout his life, one of most endearing qualities.

Our most thrilling moments together were when he was was appointed to lead a small band of economic guerrillas who were brought into the GLC by Ken Livingstone, John MacDonell and Chair of the Industry and Employment Committee , Michael Ward, to draw up and help implement the London Industrial Strategy. He was a wonderful leader, with the self-confidence to enable maximum autonomy for the diverse cells of the 70 or so strong Industry and Employment Department. I led the Popular Planning Unit and although a few eyebrows were raised at our proposals – for example for the GLC to try (unsuccessfully as it happened) and buy the Royal Docks in order to implement the People's Plan for the Royal Docks (a community plan for an alternative to the City Airport) – Robin gave us constant encouragement. The politicians , Mike Ward along with Livingstone and MacDonell had won the space for new thinking and Robin was the ideal person to take it and recruit a team to grasp and push every opportunity.

And what a team! Robin was immensely proud of the people and their work together. I will write about this work later today for Open Democracy and post it here. Suffice it to say now that it is not surprising that our four years of intense work, axed by Margaret Thatcher in an act of political vandalism in 1986, should produce a wealth of ideas from which John MacDonell has been able to draw for Labour's persuasive manifesto that just could on June 8th, finally put an end to neo-liberalism nationally as Robin's London Industrial Strategy sought to defeat it in London.

This is just many of the examples of how Robin's legacy of hope will live on with us and through us. And why inspite of the sadness that this remarkable man with his indominitable spirit and generous enthusiasm will no longer physically be part of our lives, no longer welcoming us with Sunday breakfast, tears well but do not easily flow." (facebook, May 2017)

More information

• an interview on his engagement with the Fair Trade movement, https://www.mixcloud.com/deltawithdellaz/an-interview-with-robin-murray-a-leader-in-the-fair-trade-movement/ ; listen to: Robin Murray on the Fair Trade Movement.

• a chapter from a book published by the Cooperative Society in the UK: Taking Stock of the Cooperative Economy in the UK

Bibliography

Selected Publications

Murray, R. (2015) ‘Post-Post Fordism in the Era of Platforms’ New Formations, 84/85

Murray, R. (2015) ‘Prospects for innovation in the Co-operative Economy’, in Ed Mayo (ed) The Co-operative Advantage, Co-operatives UK 2015

Murray, R. (2012) ‘Global Civil Society and the Rise of the Civil Economy’ in Kaldor, M., Moore, H.L. and Selchow, S. (eds) Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection, Palgrave MacMillan

Murray, R. (2011) ‘Raising the Bar or Directing the Flood’ in John Bowes (ed) The Fair Trade Revolution, Pluto

Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J. and Mulgan, G. (2010) The Open Book of Social Innovation, NESTA and The Young Foundation

Murray, R. (2010) Cooperation in the Age of Google, Co-operatives UK

Murray, R. (2009) Danger and Opportunity: Crisis and the New Social Economy, NESTA

Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J. and Mulgan, G. (2009) Social Venturing, NESTA and The Young Foundation