|
RCCG’s next undertaking is sponsoring an exhibition called Rossendale Past and Future to be held in Rawtenstall and Haslingden on Saturday January 31st. The motto of the exhibition is ‘The Irwell Valley led the world into the first industrial revolution, let’s play our part in the second’.
The exhibition will have two aspects. One (the past) will be a dramatic presentation of episodes in Rossendale’s fascinating history by two teams of actors, drawn from the Accrington and Rossendale College Players. The other (the future) will be largely concerned with the great issue of our time, the climate problem. We’ll have a stall at the exhibition that will provide information about climate, argue that the prominent journalists who are denying that there is any great problem are wrong, explain why the issue is so important, especially for our children, make suggestions as to what we can do about it and try and answer any questions that you might have.
The dramatic presentation will take one hour and ten minutes including an interval. The first performance will be at Longholme Methodist Hall, Rawtenstall at 11 a.m on Saturday January 31st. The second will be at St.Peter’s Church, St Peter’s Avenue off Manchester Rd, Haslingden at 7.00 pm on the same day.
The history of Rossendale is completely captivating. It included great suffering and privation, at one period starvation as bad as any in Ethiopia today, great riches, extreme poverty, machine breaking, insurrection and revolution, but also immensely colourful characters, incidents of high comedy, a strong sense of local community and great generosity of spirit. The people of Rossendale were independent, resilient and resourceful. When bad times came they didn’t sit about wailing or denying that any problems existed. Instead they banded together and solved the problems themselves. In particular, they formed the first industrial workers’ co-operatives in the world with great success. Quite ordinary people in Rossendale held shares in these enterprises, and also in international ventures, some of them quite hare brained it must be said, that Rossendalians started all over the world. We could do with some of their spirit today and they are surely a most tremendous inspiration to us. In particular, their small shareholder model is one that we could really use to help solve the climate problem. Which leads us on to our next project Focus on the Future. We’ll keep you posted. |
