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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‘Today is the beginning of a new and challenging road’
GARY SMITH writes on the GMB’s new direction, how the union will begin to right its past wrongs and seek to be the ‘light upon the hill’ once more
GMB members on strike against Scottish Gas's fire and rehire practices and (right) GMB general secretary-elect Gary Smith
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
THE trade union movement is not about individual leadership, superheroes, or career paths. Ambition and calculation have no place within its ranks.
It is a calling: a gut instinct that tells you what is right and what is wrong. It is a collective cause whose watchwords are fairness, decency, and solidarity.
I joined the GMB as an apprentice at Scottish Gas. I knew, instinctively, that this was my union. So, I got involved and became a young members’ activist and a shop steward.
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