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''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.〔 A documentary, (''The Making of 'The Rochdale Pioneers ), was also created to accompany the film. ==Background== 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. The Rochdale pioneers' aim was to provide an affordable alternative to poor-quality and adulterated food and provisions, using "honest weights and measures", and to use any surplus to benefit the community.〔 The vision and efforts of these twenty eight working class men is recognized as the birth of the co-operative movement, and the Rochdale Principles which they developed formed the foundation of the principles still in use by the modern cooperative movement which now numbers around 1.4 million independent enterprises with nearly 1 billion members worldwide.〔〔〔 ''The Rochdale Pioneers'' was inspired by the 1944 film, ''Men of Rochdale'' which had marked the centenary of the first shop's opening and had been in turn based upon G.J. Holyoake's ''The History of Co-operation''. The original shop at 31 Toad Lane in Rochdale in Lancashire, England opened on 21 December 1844 and was used for trading until 1867. It was re-opened in 1931 as the Rochdale Pioneers Museum and again reopened in 2012 after renovations costing £2.3 million.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Rochdale Pioneers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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