Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the secret trade deal currently being negotiated between the EU and the US. Its text is a closely guarded secret shared only by the negotiators, including representatives of multinational corporations.
Drafts are withheld from both MEPs and members of all the European national parliaments, as well as US Congress and Senate members.
On May 28 the voice of almost two million Europeans who have petitioned against TTIP was ignored when the European Parliament’s international trade committee (Inta), led by the Socialist and Democrat group of MEPs, agreed to a shabby compromise resolution supporting TTIP. The compromise paves the way to a vote of the full European Parliament next week.
ANSELM ELDERGILL looks at the legality of the wars in the Middle East and the means used to fight them. It is said that truth is the first casualty of war, so what is the truth with regard to the legality of America’s and Israel’s wars in Iran, Palestine and Lebanon?
Cypriot lawyer and former central committee member of the Progressive Working People’s Party (Akel) TOUMAZOS TSIELEPIS discusses the case for expelling the British military from Cyprus
Organised workers at the notoriously anti-union global giant are scoring victory after victory, and now international bodies are pitching in to finally force this figurehead of corporate capitalism to give in to unionisation, writes EMILIO AVELAR
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR


