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 vast contribution to left politics
SAM BROWSE looks at Ken Livingstone’s record and why it’s so important
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
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
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
AS a kid, the first I came across Ken Livingstone was on television in my living room in Portsmouth.
My dad said something like “good old Red Ken, he can really stick it to the Tories.” The second time, I was rooting through old Hansard speeches in the university library for an essay I was writing on Section 28.
His speech was courageous. At a time when the majority of people thought there was something morally outrageous about gay people — when Neil Kinnock was calling Peter Tatchell a “fairy” and Patricia Hewitt was writing memos bemoaning that “the gay and lesbian issue is costing us dear amongst the pensioners” — Livingstone was raining down oratorical fury on state-sanctioned homophobia.
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