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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Obituary: Simeon Andrews
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
SIMEON ANDREWS was one of the unsung heroes of the Labour movement, whose tireless and unglamorous work helped to lay the foundations for the Corbyn insurgency.
Having already had his spell in the limelight, as an actor for the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and with a number of TV credits, he wasn’t seeking any personal recognition from his involvement with politics and was content to work behind the scenes.
Living in Lambeth, where he’d been through the titanic struggles of the ’80s where Ted Knight led a courageous rate-capping dispute, he would later challenge Chuka Umunna for the parliamentary selection in Streatham and despair at the Blairite dominance of local politics.
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