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 General Federation of Trade Unions – 120 years old and getting stronger
The Star looks at the unique contribution the GFTU, umbrella organisation of the class struggle in Britain, has made to building the institutional strength of our movement
General secretary Doug Nicholls shows delegates around the newly expanded GFTU facility in Quorn
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
THE digital archives of the GFTU, retained by the Bishopsgate Institute, reveal a forgotten world of solidarity among industrial trade unions that very much shaped the culture of Britain.
The distinguished historian Dr Alice Prochaska wrote the first history of the GFTU in 1980 and revealed the indispensable support hundreds of small GFTU affiliates gave to each other for decades.
The GFTU was often the sole source of financial support in employers’ lockouts or when trade unionists were victimised and made unemployed.
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The newly catalogued News International Dispute Archive ensures the history of the Wapping dispute – and the solidarity it inspired – is preserved, accessible and alive for future generations, says MATT DUNNE
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR