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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Faiza Shaheen won’t back down
In one of the most dishonest episodes of the recent purges, Labour HQ has tried to deny Chingford the chance to vote for a committed and talented socialist — but ANDREW MURRAY finds she is fighting back, with huge local support
LOCAL HERO: Supporters rally for former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen after she was blocked her from standing, May 31, 2024
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
THIS working-class Muslim woman is out to annoy the Starmer apparatus.
Victim of a political drive-by shooting for the ages, Faiza Shaheen has the fizzing popular energy in her struggle against the brute force of the Labour machine in Chingford and Woodford Green, on the edge of East London.
In a sense, she is one of two Labour candidates fighting to wrest the seat from the ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith who inherited the constituency from Norman Tebbit, Margaret Thatcher’s “semi-house trained polecat,” in Michael Foot’s pungent phrase.
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