Co-operative movement

People  have been creating co-operative societies for centuries - the earliest society for which records still survive is the Fenwick Weavers. Early societies tended to operate separately and did not come together to form a movement until the early 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution. Industrialisation brought the rapid growth of towns and fewer people producing their own food.

Robert Owen is regarded as the founder of the Co-operative Movement. His vision was for villages of co-operation - a 'New World Order'.  A successful businessman, Owen set up a model community around his cotton mill at New Lanark between 1800 and 1820. He paid higher wages for shorter hours than his competitors, provided housing and education, and still made profits.

In the 1840s Rochdale was second only to Manchester and Leeds as a centre of working class activity. The many strikes against the falling wages of cotton and woollen workers failed to improve wages and conditions.  28 weavers turned to the ideas of Owen. They started the first successful co-operative enterprise, the Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale.

Over a year, each saved £1, and with the £28 rented a property in Toad Lane, and started trading on 21 December 1844.  At first the shop only sold five basic items – butter, flour, sugar, oatmeal and candles - but after very many difficulties expanded very quickly.   

In the following years the Rochdale Pioneers opened new branches and many other societies were formed. By 1900 there were 1,439 different co-operative societies and around 2 million members.  In 1883, the Women’s Cooperative Guild was formed. In 1917 the Cooperative Party was founded, with an electoral agreement with the Labour Party.  

Over the last century there have been many mergers, and in 2000 the Co-operative Group was formed, and now has 5½ million members and sales of £13.7 billion. There are around 39 Co-op retailing societies as well as worker, housing and agricultural co-ops and credit unions.

Sources on the Co-operative Movement in our collection

We have an extensive collection of books on Robert Owen and histories of a wide range of Co-operative societies, as well as a facsimile reprint of William King’s  The Cooperator, published in the 1820s.  Search the library catalogue
There are a number of Co-operative organisations on our links page.

Explore 200 years of working class movement activism

• 1791

  Thomas Paine publishes 'Rights of man'

• 1798

  Irish Rebellion

• 1819

  Peterloo

• 1834

  Tolpuddle

• 1844

  Rochdale Pioneers

• 1848

  Kennington Common Chartist meeting

• 1867

  'Manchester Martyrs' executed

• 1868

  
  First meeting of TUC

• 1871

  Fall of the Paris Commune

• 1893

  Foundation of the Independent Labour Party

• 1906

  

  Creation of the Labour Party

• 1908

  

  Formation of the Plebs League

• 1913

  
  Cat and Mouse Act

• 1924

  
  First Labour government

• 1926

  General Strike

• 1931

  
  Red Megaphones first performance

• 1932

  Kinder Scout mass trespass

• 1936

  Spanish Civil War

• 1944

  

  Education Act

• 1945

  Nationalisation of the coal industry

• 1948

  Birth of the NHS

• 1956

  Hungarian uprising

• 1958

  Aldermaston marches and birth of CND

• 1968

  Prague Spring

• 1971

  

  Upper Clyde Shipbuilders

• 1976

  Grunwick dispute

• 1982

  

  Falklands War

• 1984

  Miners' strike

• 1990

  Nelson Mandela's  release from prison

• 1998

  

    Good Friday agreement

• 1999

  Introduction of national minimum wage

• 2001

  
  Stop the War campaign