Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
The railway that was murdered
DAVE WELSH looks at a little-known story of the deliberate destruction of 519km of socially and economically important rail infrastructure in Palestine

BY 1914, Palestine Railways had the greatest ratio of railroad tracks per capita in the Middle East, a consequence of European capitalist penetration coupled with military strategy.
Today, Israel has an extensive railway network: excluding light rail, the network consisting of 1,511km of track, and is undergoing constant expansion.
But Gaza and the West Bank have no railway as their 519km of track and its stations have been erased: in Gaza from the Egyptian border to Jaffa via Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza city and in the West Bank from Tulkarm to Nablus.
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