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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Disrupting DSEI: workers in action
Rather than boycotting the jobs, four YCL members who work in live events gained access to the biggest arms fair in the world — and set off smoke grenades. TOMASZ NOWAK explains why and how they did it
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
FOR over 20 years Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), the largest arms fair in the world, has blighted east London. Protests have raged, even London Mayor Sadiq Khan has publicly opposed the event, but nothing seems to stop the Excel centre being taken over by groups like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to sell guns and bombs to countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel.
First things first: with all due respect to the incredible work pacifists have done for the peace movement, I am not a pacifist. Sadly, until we abolish capitalism, people will alway need way to fight back against oppressors and occupiers.
But DSEI is far more than a supermarket for weapons: it is the beating heart of Britain’s military industrial complex, part of the fading Empire’s current co-ordinating role in Western imperialism. DSEI is state aligned — its chair is the Navy’s Rear Admiral Simon Williams, who via UK Defence and Security Exports, a government body, invites delegations from 61 nations, territories and bodies, including delegations from Australia, Nato, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan.
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