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
DAN KOVALIK first became aware of a place called Nicaragua in the autumn of 1979.
Two new students joined the school he attended as an 11-year-old at Milford, Ohio, in the United States. The students, Juan and Carlos, were both from Nicaragua and, it turns out, they were the sons of the former dictator of the country, Anastasio Somoza who had just been ousted by the popular Sandinista revolution.
Kovalik doesn’t pretend that this sparked any real awareness or sudden interest in revolutionary politics but it did ignite a curiosity about Nicaragua and the region as well as the role of the US.
ISAAC SANEY points to the global stakes involved in defending the Cuban revolution against imperialism and calls for resistance
The US is desperate to stop Honduras’s process of social and democratic change, writes TIM YOUNG
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ says the US’s bullying conduct in what it considers its backyard is a bid to reassert imperial primacy over a rising China — but it faces huge resistance
The corporate media have been quick to point the finger over the murder of a Nicaraguan opposition figure, but where is the actual evidence, ask KELLY NELSON and ROGER D HARRIS


