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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'We make bread not profits' - when Irish workers took on an empire
The Limerick Soviet, established one hundred years ago today in 1919, remains an important part of Irish and labour history, writes STEVE SWEENEY
Seized by the working class, the slogan ion this fortified bakery reads: 'free workers soviet mills - we make bread not profits'
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
JAMES CONNOLLY’s masterpiece Labour in Irish History stressed the key role of the working class in the fight against British imperialism in Ireland as the “incorruptible inheritors of the fight for Irish freedom” with the potential to transform into a powerful revolutionary force.
It was with the working class that the emancipation of Ireland lay according to Connolly who warned that the nationalist bourgeoisie were the enemies of labour.
Connolly argued that Irish conservatives were tied to the British empire by “a thousand economic strings in the shape of investments binding them to English capitalism.”
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A new group within the NEU is preparing the labour movement for a conversation on Irish unity by arguing that true liberation must be rooted in working-class solidarity and anti-sectarianism, writes ROBERT POOLE
JIM JUMP looks forward to the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM taking place in Belfast later this week where the spirit of solidarity will be rekindled
Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY