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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Making culture tell the truth about our class-divided society
The remarkable, campaigning and politically potent drama Mr Bates v the Post Office was a rare glimpse of what we could have if the working class punches its weight in cultural production, argue RON BROWN and MIKE QUILLE
REAL-LIFE STARS: (Left to right) Christopher Stonehouse, Pauline Stonehouse, Gillian Harding and Gregory Harding outside the the Royal Courts of Justice, London. The story of the wrongly convicted postmasters was turned into a four-part British drama series by ITV
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
“HAVE you seen Mr Bates v the Post Office,” people ask me. “Yes, I have,” I say. And if you haven’t watched it yet — go and watch it.
The scandal, long exposed but brought forcefully to the country’s TV screens at the start of the year, shows no sign of going away. The government stands accused of trying to slow down compensation payments, the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells was stripped of her CBE this week, and the very future of the Post Office as a state agency is now up for debate.
The four-part series, first broadcast in January on ITV, is a dramatisation of a gross injustice. Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted for theft, false accounting and fraud, due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It’s also about the long collective struggle that its victims waged for justice, led by subpostmaster Alan Bates.
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Digital ID means the government could track anyone and then limit their speech, movements, finances — and it could get this all wrong, identifying the wrong people for the wrong reasons, as the numerous digital cockups so far demonstrate, warns DYLAN MURPHY
MIKE QUILLE applauds an excellent example of cultural democracy: making artworks which are a relevant, integral part of working-class lives
