The Rochdale Pioneers

The Rochdale Pioneers is a British biographical feature film, released in 2012, that tells the story of the foundation of the first successful cooperative retail store by working class members of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, in 1844. This came at a time of chronic unemployment, poverty, hunger and social inequality, and it was met with prejudice and opposition.

The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought with it famine, chronic unemployment and drastic wage cuts, especially amongst textile weavers and spinners, and this coupled with a lack of suffrage voting rights led to calls for reform which culminated in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in Manchester, England when a peaceful demonstration of radical reformers was attacked by cavalry.Several cooperative ventures had since been begun, in an attempt to improve conditions, but they had all failed, and the pioneers in Rochdale, too, were faced with a hard struggle. ........

Source: Wikipedia