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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The British protest against fascism that nearly derailed Mussolini’s plans for the ‘March on Rome’
ALFIO BERNABEI looks back 100 years to a key turning point in the emergence of fascism
DARK DAY: The first contingent of armed Italian fascisti arriving in
Rome in 1922; fascist leader Benito Mussolini
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
AS HE prepared to take control of Italy with plans already under way for the march on Rome, Mussolini warned the British government that he would unleash “maximum-degree” retaliations against British ships in Italian ports if an anti-fascist protest by the British unions was allowed to go ahead which threatened to embarrass him in front of the whole world.
The protest, led among others by the British National Union of Railwaymen and the National Federation of Transport Workers, was the first major anti-fascist event outside Italian borders and was called at a time when Mussolini was sending out warnings that he was ready to advance, with up to 300,000 Blackshirts at his command.
The march on Rome eventually took place on October 28 1922 and the Italian king appointed Mussolini prime minister.
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