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Liz Truss’s remarkable implosion has devastated the Conservatives’ poll lead despite their parliamentary majority – now is the time to build links between unions, campaigns and the left representatives in public office, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

OVER five decades of political activity in Britain, I have seen plenty of governments that I didn’t think much of. But while there have been many unpopular administrations, it’s hard to remember any quite as shambolic and widely discredited as this one.
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KEN LIVINGSTONE writes of the case of the illegally detained Venezuelan diplomat now facing a possible 20-year jail sentence in the US

THE imprisonment of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab in Florida since October 2021 exemplifies the US’s vicious assault on Venezuela and its disregard for international law.

According to Venezuelan government sources, Saab was arrested at a refuelling stop in Cape Verde in June 2020 by order of the US while he was carrying out official duties as a Venezuelan special envoy.
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There is a genuine appetite for real change among the wider public, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THERE are many things the Conservative Party’s leadership election did not offer: an unexpected outcome being one of them.

In a contest so often dominated by talk of which figures turned on the previous prime minister, it was hard to find anything vaguely substantial in the way of actual politics.

That the European Research Group faction of MPs backed Liz Truss, who called for a Remain vote in 2016, in order to stop a pro-Leave Rishi Sunak is indicative of how many endorsements and alliances have been based purely on recent events.
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The Tory leadership contest is a reactionary race to the bottom, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

BRITISH politics all too often produces a race to the bottom, and there can be fewer better examples than the Conservative Party’s current leadership election.

If nothing else, the tone of the contest is proving true to the agenda that has run through their tenure in government: making the majority pay for the greed of the class that funds them, rolling back our hard-won rights, spreading division and siding with reaction across the world.
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Bumper profits for energy giants while millions are in fuel poverty shows the system is broken — it is clearly time to renationalise these industries and we must support all those who are fighting for this goal, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

HIS WEEK it was announced that Shell made record profits of nearly £10 billion between April and June and promised to give shareholders payouts worth £6.5bn.

It made adjusted profits of £9.5bn during the second quarter of the year, beating its previous high — set only between January and March earlier this year — by 26 per cent.
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Lula and his supporters are taking to the streets to rally for democracy and against hunger in Brazil, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

PRESIDENTIAL elections due in October in Brazil have the potential to not only transform that country, but also the whole of Latin America, and indeed the world.

As part of the build-up to those vital elections, the former president, historic leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) and candidate for the Together for Brazil coalition, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is fronting up massive rallies and other campaign events, whose central themes are the defence of democracy and the fight against hunger.
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It seems like the P&O scandal was a line in the sand and since then the unions have been taking no steps back – but even with the huge public support for RMT’s actions, will the Tories legislate us into defeat, asks KEN LIVINGSTONE

AS we enter July, trade unionists in London and dockers from across the country held a major commemorative rally yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pentonville Five.
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In light of a well-earned Sinn Fein victory in a system set up to prevent republicans from winning, unity is on the cards — the left in Britain must now stand up for Ireland’s right to self-determination, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THROUGHOUT my time in politics, there have undoubtedly been some hugely significant changes. Whilst many of these have sadly been negative for the left (most notably the rise of neoliberalism and its attack on organised labour), it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate examples of real progress — and the situation in Ireland has undoubtedly been one of those in recent years.
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We need to defend our right to boycott from the Tory attacks, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

SOME of the proudest moments in the British labour movement’s history have been acts of international solidarity.

Whether it be NHS staff in Portsmouth refusing to handle supplies from apartheid South Africa or workers at Rolls-Royce’s East Kilbride factory putting a stop to work on engines used by the Pinochet regime in Chile (as featured in Felipe Bustos Sierra’s fantastic documentary film, Nae Pasaran), those who took part not only had a sense of obligation to stand up for just causes but an understanding that all those fighting for a better world have a shared interest in sticking together and supporting each other in whatever ways we can.
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Under pressure, the US is seeking to re-engage with Venezuela, totally undermining Juan Guaido and the regime-change agenda pursued under Trump in its sudden desperation for oil, reports KEN LIVINGSTONE

DESPERATE times breed desperate measures. In a shock development, parts of the international corporate media are reporting that the US has approached the Venezuelan government with a view to buying oil to shore up its domestic market and avert an energy crisis.
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