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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Time to free Abdullah Ocalan
JOHN CALLOW reports on the launch of a trade union campaign to liberate the Kurdish leader from jail in Turkey
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
ABDULLAH OCALAN, pictured right, has spent the last 17 years as a prisoner of the Turkish military on Imrali island, a rocky outcrop in the Marmara Sea.
Abducted from Kenya, with the assistance of several Western secret services, he was handed over to the Turkish authorities. He was sentenced to death for treason, after a sham trial that was covered by neither Turkish law nor by the European Convention on Human Rights.
By eliminating Ocalan, as the symbol of Kurdish resistance, it was hoped that Turkey’s ties with the West would be substantially strengthened. A radical internal voice of dissent would be silenced and a more pliant tier of Kurdish politicians established in his place.
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Anyone who criticises those in power in Kenya risks their freedom or worse. The brutal abduction of Booker Omole marks a new escalation in a country sliding toward authoritarian rule, says MARC VANDEPITTE
VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
