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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'Keep our eyes on the prize and we'll build that better Britain'
Ahead of Derby's Silk Mill festival, CHRIS WILLIAMSON MP speaks to Morning Star editor Ben Chacko about the spread of poverty in Britain and the rush to war with Iran
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
THIS weekend Derby North MP Chris Williamson speaks at the city’s Silk Mill festival, commemorating the lockout of 1833-4 when employers tried to force workers to renounce trade unions. Is the lockout relevant today?
The trade union movement has been under attack for as long as I can remember. In the 1970s we were fed a propaganda diet by the media about trade union barons holding the country to ransom. The truth was very different — the unions had successfully reduced inequality through successful collective bargaining — though there was still a long way to go.
The seminal Grunwick dispute over trade union recognition and low pay started the year I joined the Labour Party in 1976 and ended in failure two years later.
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With ‘Your Party’ holding its founding conference in Liverpool this weekend, JEREMY CORBYN speaks to Morning Star editor Ben Chacko about its potential, its priorities — and a few of its controversies too
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
RICHARD BURGON MP points to the recent relative success of widespread opposition to the Labour leadership’s regressive policies as the blueprint for exacting the changes required to build a fairer society