ABSTRACT
This chapter speaks about Our Story written for use in weekly classes for juniors organised by educational committees of local co-operative societies and provided a basic account of the history and structure of the movement. Fred Abbotts, who went on to play a national role as a co-operative journalist and educationalist, attended these classes in Walsall before the First World War. He later recalled how he had learnt “the childish version of the Rochdale Pioneers” from Nicholson’s history and had read it until he knew “the thing off by heart almost, and the author became very interested in the educational side”. Around 17,000 children were attending these classes by 1914. Although most of these children did not go on to become activists, it seems likely that a significant number internalised this heroic account of the rise of co-operation as a working-class defence against capitalist exploitation.
