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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Pay for artists, not exploitation
Joint national chair of the Artists Union England ZITA HOLBOURNE argues that artists are systematically neglected when it comes to paying them for their labour
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
I WILL be moving Motion 9 at TUC Congress on ending the “low pay/no pay” culture in the arts sector.
As a black, disabled woman and working artist, I live and breathe the experiences highlighted in the motion.
Art benefits every single person in society and yet it’s frequently perceived as a hobby and hardworking, talented and skilled artists are told by organisations and institutions that wish to benefit from their art that they don’t have a budget, or that they have a low budget, or they don’t have any money to pay but “can’t we do it anyway out of our love of art,” as if we can live off the air we breathe and don’t have bills to pay or mouths to feed.
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For generations black women have shaped Britain’s activism, arts and public life despite exclusion and discrimination. ZITA HOLBOURNE pays tribute to these political trailblazers and cultural icons, whose courage continues to inspire
Artists should not be consigned to a life of precarious working – they deserve dignity and proper workers’ rights, argues ZITA HOLBOURNE
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
ROS SITWELL reports from the Morning Star conference on ‘Race, Sex and Class Liberation’ last weekend