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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‘The people are not the ones who benefit from our resources’
HUBER BALLESTEROS tells the Star that despite the Colombian peace accords, the country is still a dangerous place for trade unionists
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
When the Colombian government sent farm workers’ union leader Huber Ballesteros to jail on trumped-up terrorism charges, he didn’t stop organising. He became the health and human rights organiser for the prison.
In Britain last week for a round of meetings with fraternal union leaders, Ballesteros took half an hour out of his busy schedule to chat to the Morning Star.
Ballesteros was released from prison in January after three-and-a-half years of “preventative detention” on spurious charges of rebellion and financing terrorism.
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