A feature film telling the story of the birth of the modern co-operative movement has had its Island debut at the Manx Museum.
The 52-minute Rochdale Pioneers was commissioned by the Co-operative British Youth Film Academy and brought to the Island by Co-operative affairs and democratic services manager Chris Boyd.
Set in Rochdale in 1844 the film features only a handful of professional actors and traces the efforts of a group of working-class men and women frustrated by local shopkeepers’ unfair and dishonest trading practices. Pooling their resources the group open their own shop, selling produce, initially staple items such as butter, sugar and flour, at fair prices and sharing the profits with their customers.
The group’s revolutionary way of conducting business led to the formation of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers and went on to form the foundations of the global movement that numbers some 1.4 million individual co-operative enterprises and now secures the livelihoods of more than three billion people.
The screening was preceded by a short film promoting Fairtrade fortnight presented by a nine-year-old school boy who explained the importance of consumers buying fairly traded goods to support smallholder farmers around the world. Mr Boyd said the Co-operative had been championing Fairtrade since 1992. ‘We believe it’s the right thing to do and complements the Co-operative Group’s business model based on fairness and our programme of initiatives to tackle global poverty.’
Completed in 2012 The Rochdale Pioneers was one of a number of projects undertaken that year to mark the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives.
2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Co-operative Group.
Photo - Co-operative affairs and democratic services manager Chris Boyd. Picture Andrew Barton
