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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Underneath the arches: Manchester during 'regeneration'
Councillor SAM WHEELER, recently re-elected, speaks to the people of the rapidly changing heart of his home city
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
I SAT with my ward colleague Jon in the Marble Arch on Rochdale Road and listened. The very nice, very thoughtful people around me lived in the tumble of renovation and new build developments that had sprung up around Angel Meadow, a place once both home to some of the monuments of the co-operative movement, and an Irish slum Friedrich Engels termed “Hell on Earth.”
I often wonder whether, when flogging flats in the Far East, the slick, multilingual video realtors mention that the angels of this meadow are the children who died in the sort of squalor we can’t imagine. I also wonder whether they know that there are no red squirrels in the park — the ones on the corporate identity brochures must be day-trippers from Formby.
Still, as the group of young people clustered around my table sat and sipped the very decent beer, the echoes came through.
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