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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Black people will resist the Borders Bill
Given our history of colonisation, emigration, life as second-class citizens and our experience of open racial prejudice, Britons of African and Asian descent are not surprised by the Tories' latest attack on us — and we are ready to resist it, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Asian anti-fascists face police repression during clashes with the racist National Front in Southall, London, April 1979
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
THE Nationality and Borders Bill allows the government to strip, without notice, the nationality of nearly six million British citizens, including two in every five black people, even if this makes those people “stateless.”
The Bill, now heading for the House of Lords after the Tories voted it through the Commons last week, also criminalises anyone helping an asylum-seeker to arrive in Britain — with a penalty of up to life imprisonment.
When one sees these measures alongside this government’s deeply draconian measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to curb non-violent protest, everyone should be incandescent with rage — but realise these are not new proposals.
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