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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Trade unions must stand opposed to an EU-lite
Whatever unfolds, we must use our influence to ensure Brexit will reflect our members’ desire for change, argues BERT SCHOUWENBURG
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
A YEAR on from the EU referendum, as Brexit negotiations get under way, it would appear that the trade union hierarchies that campaigned for Britain to remain in it have learned little from their experience.
Policy documents emitted from the TUC, and indeed the ETUC, call for a post-Brexit settlement that would retain all the disadvantages of the single market without any of the supposed benefits, ie representation in the Parliament, Council and Commission of the EU. This EU-lite would undoubtedly be worse than that rejected by the electorate in 2016.
On June 7, Unite hosted a meeting of global union IndustriALL’s European executive committee, representing some of the continent’s best paid manufacturing workers, where their own position statement on Brexit was unanimously endorsed.
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