Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
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‘Where there is persecution you express your reactions with culture’
Steve Sweeney spoke to Kurdish singer SUNA ALAN ahead of her online performance this Sunday
Suna Alan
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
When gas company bosses gorged on assets, the GMB union fought back with the help of a 20-stone saddleback sow. MAT COWARD tells the story
JOHN REES looks at why the June 20 international anti-war conference is such a vital initiative
ROGER McKENZIE highlights how health workers in DRC are struggling to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak in a region already suffering conflict, aid cuts and a legacy of imperialist degradation
Associate Professor BUI QUANG TUAN explains how modernisation and growth are helping to unlock new foreign investment in the Vietnamese economy
Suna Alan: I am a Kurdish/Alevi singer based in London. I was born in the mountainous province of Cewlik (Bingol), an ancient Kurdish and Armenian province in Northern Kurdistan (officially Turkey). I’m the fifth of the seven siblings. When I was two years old, the family left the village due to the conflict and settled in Izmir on Turkey’s west coast.
Moving to Izmir in my early childhood meant that much of my formative years were spent surrounded by traditional Kurdish dengbej (“bard”) music and Kurdish-Alevi laments within a rich cosmopolitan cultural environment.
Steve Sweeney: How and when did you start singing? Is it something that runs in the family?
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