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
Latest editorial
What can we learn from Freedom, a landmark magazine of the cold war era?
During the height of McCarthyist repression in the US, black rights legends Paul Robeson and Louis Burnham launched a publication that drew the anti-imperialist connections that others feared to make, writes ROGER McKENZIE
FEARLESS: Singer Paul Robeson addresses the crowd at a World Peace Movement rally in Lincoln’s Inn Field, London, 1950
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
IN A vain attempt to tidy up my clothes at home I came across a T-shirt emblazoned with “Always be yourself. But if you can’t be yourself, be Paul Robeson. Always be Paul Robeson.”
I’m not sure where I got this T-shirt but Robeson has always been one of the great inspirations of my life. He even had his feet firmly planted in two of my other great loves of music and sport. His bass-baritone voice was awe-inspiring especially for me with his rendition of Ole Man River.
Robeson was also — as I am sure many will know — a great athlete, particularly in American football where he was a college great. A feat all the more inspiring because of the way he overcame the racism that surrounded him which sought to block his progress.
Similar stories
ROGER McKENZIE draws attention to the much-neglected oral traditions of the global South that define the identity – and therefore the liberation – of its custodians
RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist
PATRICK CHURA reflects on the mass murder of civilians in wartime and his own visit, 10 years ago, to My Lai where US soldiers slaughtered over 500 men, women, children and infants
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride