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
TAKING place on November 11, 2pm, at the Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford is an event to celebrate the lives of the library’s founders Ruth and Eddie Frow.
It is 30 years since the library, with the support of Salford Council, found a new home in an old nursing home on the busy A6 leading in and out of a once radical city.
Across the road from the WCML is Bexley Square, now a playground for students, where Eddie, alongside his comrades in the National Union of Unemployed Workers, was battered by the police in October 1931.
A lifelong communist and community organiser, Pinder helped shape anti-racist and anti-colonial activism in Britain while dedicating himself to youth work and collective struggle, writes David Horsley
The newly catalogued News International Dispute Archive ensures the history of the Wapping dispute – and the solidarity it inspired – is preserved, accessible and alive for future generations, says MATT DUNNE
From hunting rare pamphlets at book sales to online panels and courses on trade unionism and class politics, the MML continues connecting archive treasures with the movements fighting for a better world, writes director MEIRIAN JUMP


