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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A light has been shone on women’s rights for all the world to see
A shocking tribunal decision against Maya Forstater, who lost her job for believing sex is immutable, has elevated the ‘gender debate’ to a new level of international scrutiny, writes RUTH SERWOTKA
Maya Forstater speaks about her case at a Woman's Place UK event this year
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
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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
ON DECEMBER 19 a shocking decision was delivered in a London tribunal hearing.
Maya Forstater, a feminist campaigner, had lost her case. The refusal of her employer, a global development think tank, to extend an employment contract with her because of her feminist views was effectively ruled lawful.
The tribunal heard that Forstater was a “gender critical” feminist, part of a growing women’s movement in Britain and globally, and that she held as a core premise that men cannot change into women and that humans, as a dimorphic species, cannot change sex, a scientific and immutable fact.
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