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
Latest editorial
KEVIN HALPIN: 1927-2017
Communist, trade unionist and working-class intellectual
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
KEVIN HALPIN, whose funeral takes place today in east London, was at the centre of Britain’s labour movement for over half a century as a workplace militant and Communist activist.
Born into grinding poverty in Preston in 1927, he graduated at the university of hard knocks, joining the world of work at 13.
His first job was dismantling a factory chimney, climbing up it by ladder, sitting on high and dislodging the bricks into the shaft, unaware of health and safety provisions that he would champion in later life.
Similar stories
A lifelong communist and community organiser, Pinder helped shape anti-racist and anti-colonial activism in Britain while dedicating himself to youth work and collective struggle, writes David Horsley
In part II of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explores how witch-hunting drives took hold in the Civil Service as the cold war emerged in the wake of WWII
Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY
