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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Why do some LGBT rights groups regard arms dealers as allies?
Equal rights groups should not be seduced by the forces of capitalism and imperialism, writes SYMON HILL
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
“TO be inclusive is the right thing to do,” declared arms dealer Roger Carr at an LGBT event earlier this year.
As chairman of BAE Systems, he said: “I’ve always stood up for what I believe in.”
It’s not difficult to find out what BAE believes in. It is one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to Saudi Arabia. In 2014, the year when Carr became chairman, the Saudi regime sentenced a 24-year-old man to 450 lashes for “promoting the vice and practice of homosexuality.”
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ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10
WILL DRY speaks to three former members of the armed forces about the political hypocrisy surrounding Armistice Day, how war is a function of class society, and the far right’s use of militarism and nationalism to divide working people
Witnessing a war of words at a meeting on tackling militarism at The World Transformed, BEN COWLES spoke to a union rep who is organising against war from inside the arms industry itself, to hear about worker-led solutions to ending weapons production
