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
I WENT on my first anti-fascist demonstration as a teenager in the 1970s. Ten years later I began working for the Runnymede Trust — a body providing research and information on racism and discrimination.
My ears may occasionally need syringing but they are exceptionally well attuned to hearing expressions of any kind of racism or bigotry.
I turned 61 last January, and in the last five or six years I have overheard or personally encountered more anti-semitism than in the previous 55 combined.
As antisemitism grows, the labour movement must recommit to defence of minorities while navigating the complexities of Gaza and global politics, argues NICK WRIGHT
In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
CLAUDIA WEBBE argues that Labour gains nothing from its adoption of right-wing stances on immigration, and seems instead to be deliberately paving the way for the far right to become an established force in British politics, as it has already in Europe
Listening to our own communities and organising within them holds the key to stopping the advance of Reform UK and other far-right initiatives, posits TONY CONWAY


