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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‘They do it by stealth, slowly, so people don’t realise it is happening’
LUCY WOOD reports from the Colchester protest against NHS cuts and privatisation last weekend
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 NHS turned 73 this weekend and in celebration, staff and supporters took to the streets in 70 locations across the country to protest over privatisation, patient safety and pay justice.
The protest in Colchester kicked off from the ruins of an ancient priory built in c1100 — a location that would have provided free medical care and alms to the poor during the medieval era until King Henry VIII appropriated the property of all monasteries, priories, friaries and convents in England to fund his military campaigns in the 1540s or give as gifts to his closest cronies. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
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Working-class women lead the fight for fair work and equitable pay and against sexual harassment, the rise of the far right and years of failed austerity policies, writes ROZ FOYER
