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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A faithful servant of his class
Peter Pinkney who is returning, after three years as president of transport union RMT, to his job as a railway signalman talks to Peter Lazenby
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
It’s been a tumultuous three years for Peter Pinkney, pictured. The railway signalman from Middlesbrough was elected president of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) in December 2012.
It took him from his Victorian signalbox at Stockton in the north-east — Britain’s oldest operating signalbox, and probably the world’s — and pitched him into a life of constant meetings, negotiations, decisions affecting 80,000 workers, and international travel.
It also put him alongside a man who was Britain’s most prominent trade union leader, RMT general secretary Bob Crow.
The partnership with Bob Crow was abruptly cut short when Bob died suddenly on March 11 last year.
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