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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Time for unions to up their game
Plummeting membership and declining activism are largely self-inflicted for Britain’s lethargic trade unions, writes ROGER McKENZIE, arguing for a drastic change of tack
Thousands march to Trafalgar Square in central London, to celebrate workers' achievements at a May Day rally in May 2016
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
ALBERT EINSTEIN is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
This seems an eminently sensible point of view to me. You have to wonder why then if someone widely regarded as one of the foremost minds of any generation says such a thing that the trade union movement and the left — if indeed those things are the same — just bundles along doing the same old thing, expecting different results from the ones we keep getting.
I have been around the trade union and labour movement a while now.
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