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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Trade unions are at the heart of combating racism
ROGER McKENZIE welcomes the opportunity to develop the movement’s anti-racist and black-worker organising strategies
The assertion of the importance of black lives cannot just be a convenient slogan to use at the appropriate time. It is a call for real change to happen to deal with the racism that so many of us face on a daily basis; from the attacks on the street to the discrimination in the workplace; from being passed over again for promotion to missing out on yet another training opportunity.
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
THE United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is held each year on the day the police opened fired and killed 69 people and injured 180 others at a peaceful demonstration against the South African apartheid “pass laws” at the now infamous Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
At its general assembly in 1979 the UN agreed that each member state should organise a week of activities every year, beginning on March 21, to bring focus to the fight against racism.
Twenty years ago, after the fall of apartheid, the UN held a World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, to give fresh impetus to the struggle.
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