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
ON the eve of UN Anti-Racism Day, it is prescient that our trade unions will be coming together at the TUC Black Workers’ Conference to advance a progressive agenda of anti-racism on the anniversary of the first coronavirus lockdown.
In the last year we have seen the country plunged into a health emergency, an economic emergency and a racial justice emergency. A health pandemic and the government’s response to it has reopened the deep wounds of structural racism that continue to blight and scar our country and our economy.
Structural racism continues to hold back communities and blight life chances. We have seen that most starkly in data showing the highest rates of Covid-19 deaths amongst black communities that have been systematically failed by a government response that was supposed to protect all of us during the pandemic.
Women’s fight against violence and legal erosion is central to building a democratic and just Iraq, says Dr SALMA SAADAWI
1943-2025: How one man’s unfinished work reveals the lethal lie of ‘colour-blind’ medicine
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP


