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From industrial revolution's lifelines to spaces of leisure
JOHN GREEN looks at the Britain’s canal network, its historical arteries
Pontcysyllte in Wales was constructed using cast iron water troughs
[Adrian Pingstone/CC]
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
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
ENGLAND has one of the largest canal networks in the world. Wales and Scotland also have canals but only a few. Today, our 2,000 miles of canals and rivers flow through cities, past homes, alongside offices and into the countryside, bringing leisure opportunities to millions.
From boating, fishing, walking and cycling, they offer a range of activities. Their history, however, reveals a very different function.
Most of our canals were built 200 years ago, but their history dates back to the Romans who built our oldest canal, the Fossdyke Navigation.
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Two-hundred years ago, on September 27 1825, the world’s first passenger railway line was opened between Stockton and Darlington. MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, reflects on the history – and the future – of Britain’s railway industry