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
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Alan Morrison on his new literary project Odour of Devon Violet
ALAN MORRISON wrote Odour of Devon Violet to juxtapose the attitudes and politics of the 1930s with that of today’s Con-Dem austerity culture
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
In the early stages of Tory-inflicted austerity, I noticed flea markets and antique emporiums — with quaint names and decor evocative of the depression-hit 1930s — popping up in great numbers in boarded-up shop premises.
Complementing this change of mise-en-scene was the historic local art deco building the Dubarry Perfumery by Hove station near to where I lived.
But this retro was not confined to retail — it also pervaded the social attitudes of Tory austerity. It was presaged by an attitudinal nudge towards 1940s blitz nostalgia — that notorious “We’re all in this together.” Bakelite rhetoric as if to stiffen our collective upper lip in the wake of massive public spending cuts.
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MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings
RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
TONY FOX invites readers to come and hear the story of the remarkable Liverpudlian International Brigader Alexander Foote