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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From Wapping to Amazon
GRANVILLE WILLIAMS sets the scene for two Festival of Debate events on trade union topics
Union members march in Fleet Street on their way to the News International plant in Wapping, following a rally in Trafalgar Square in support of the print workers sacked in the dispute with Rupert Murdoch
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
TRADE union themes are at the centre of two events during the 2021 Sheffield Festival of Debate: Trade Unions, Workers’ Rights and the Media tomorrow, May 5, and Wapping: The Workers’ Story on May 12.
Both of them are timely. We saw during March huge publicity about the attempt to organise a union at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.
Here in Britain, the trade union Unite has just launched a national campaign against the pernicious “fire-and-rehire” tactic used by employers where workers are sacked and rehired on inferior pay and conditions.
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