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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Lessons to be learnt from the demise of Appledore shipyard
We need to reinvest, reopen Appledore, and start a new chapter for Britain’s world-class shipbuilding industry, writes HEATHCLIFFE PETTIFER
Instead of mothballing our shipbuilding industry, Britain should be investing and expanding
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 sad and, in Unite’s view, unnecessary closure of the Appledore shipyard on March 15 after 164 years of existence, raises important questions about how seriously the government takes the future of shipbuilding in Britain and, more generally, the absence of the much-vaunted industrial strategy.
On a human level, the loss of the final skilled 200 jobs at the yard on the River Torridge pierces the heart of this North Devon community. I feel that pain acutely as I worked at the yard for nearly 20 years before becoming a Unite official.
The emotional devastation by the closure decision by Babcock International is compounded by the hard economic fact that the area has some of the lowest weekly earnings in the whole of Britain, so the opportunities for decently paid work to replace the jobs, which have been lost, are scarce
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