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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What caused the ecological disaster in Ohio?
A week after the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials, locals still complain of nausea, headaches and a strong chemical odour in the air — cost-cutting corporate greed is to blame for the catastrophe, writes MARK GRUENBERG
APOCALYPTIC: A toxic black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, Monday February 6
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
A FIERY freight train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, involving hazardous materials in tank cars, was a direct result of Norfolk Southern Railway’s cost-cutting which led to little maintenance and an undiscovered safety problem, the top organisation for rank-and-file railroaders says. And corporate greed to satisfy Wall Street led to the cuts, it adds.
The wreck could have been worse, Railroad Workers United (RWU) added, had the 9,300-foot-long train not had a three-worker crew, rather than the single worker — the engineer — the nation’s big Class One freight railroads, including Norfolk Southern, have advocated for years.
The three crew members decoupled the locomotives and moved them to safety, preventing an even bigger disaster if the fire reached them. One crew member could not have done so.
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