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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How Star journalists rallied in support of their unjustly suspended editor
DAVID NICHOLSON – striking Morning Star journalist – remembers the strike to save the editor’s job and the Morning Star itself
John Haylett is carried back to the Morning Star in triumph – and piped in – after winning the strike
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
JOHN HAYLETT was the catalyst that provoked a six-week journalist strike in 1998 threatening the future of the Morning Star, but ultimately saving it from a slow slide into extinction.
The first three years of Haylett’s editorship were marked by internal strife. He was appointed following Tony Chater’s retirement in 1995 and was a contentious appointment because it threatened a family takeover of the Star.
The People’s Press Printing Society’s chief executive Mary Rosser was married to Mike Hicks, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain. Rosser’s son-in-law, Paul Corry, was deputy and news editor at the Star and the dynastic chief executive wanted him as editor.
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