Later this year will be the 170th anniversary of the foundation of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. The first Pioneers were a group of 28 struggling weavers and other workers who in 1844 banded together to open their own shop selling food that was both affordable and unadulterated.
The Rochdale Pioneers were the beginnings of the Co-operative Movement which, for many years, was for working people a guarantee of fair prices and decent quality.
Britain was once home to a great array of mutuals that made a huge contribution to our national progress and history. Building societies, friendly societies, co-ops and yes, before they turned to challenging elected governments and turning the lights out on their fellow citizens, the trade unions too.
The principles embedded in them all are golden ones: solidarity and mutual support but also that to take out, you have to put in.
Sadly the mutuals have withered somewhat in recent decades. Post-war the state nationalised much of the nation's self-help machinery. And the financialisation of the British economy put paid to many of our great building societies.
