After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
JOSU URRUTIKOETXEA was a key figure in the Basque movement Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Eta) and played a major role in ending the armed conflict in the Basque Country and Spain.
He led peace negotiations on behalf of Eta from the 1980s. In 1989 he was arrested in the middle of a truce and spent 10 years in prison.
Urrutikoetxea led further negotiations from 2005 to 2007 in Geneva and from 2011 to 2013 in Oslo.
Spain has joined South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel while imposing weapons bans and port restrictions, moves partly driven by trade unions — proving just how effectively civil society can reshape government policy, writes RAMZY BAROUD
RONNIE KASRILS pays tribute to Ruth First, a fearless fighter against South African apartheid, in the centenary month of her birth



