Category: Articles

Bolivia’s rapid social progress under a left-wing government and ability to suffer a right-wing coup then overcome it through mass mobilisation is a source of hope and optimism for the international left, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THE politics of the post-cold war period were originally dominated by the famous claim of Francis Fukuyama that we had reached “the end of history” — neoliberalism was now the only game in town and in the words of our own champion of Chicago school economics, there was “no alternative” to letting the market run riot.
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Biden should end Trump’s interventionist policies in Latin America, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

A SIGNIFICANT sense of relief was evident among progressives in the United States and throughout much of the world when Donald Trump was defeated in his re-election bid last year.

Given his catastrophic approach to Covid-19, alliances with extreme-right elements in US society, and further steps towards war on Iran, this was entirely understandable.

Having lived through the tenure of numerous US presidents (from both major parties), though, there are some policy agendas which have been constant: notably their approach to Latin America.
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The Tories’ £20 cut to universal credit will be a social and economic catastrophe, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

MEDIA reports late this week highlighted a private memo showing that the Tories’ £20 universal credit cut at the end of this month will be a “catastrophe” and “disaster of autumn.”

A government insider noted that analysis shows poverty, foodbank use and homelessness will spiral when the cut takes place — in a situation where it should be remembered we already have grotesque levels of all three.
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The new president faces a coronavirus-ravaged economy and deeply entrenched political opposition, but his ambitious social programmes are a cause for celebration, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

PEDRO CASTILLO, a rural schoolteacher representing the left-wing party Peru Libre (Free Peru), scored a stunning victory in this year’s presidential election, but the struggle against powerful right-wing forces is now entering a new stage.

Castillo’s success was unexpected. Back in March he was at 5 per cent in the opinion polls but performed well in the candidates’ debates and secured 19 per cent in the first round of the election in April, topping 17 other candidates.
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Tories sink to a new low with their manipulative and incendiary tactics in the province, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

As Labour MP Dawn Butler has bravely highlighted, telling the truth does not come naturally to Boris Johnson, but it is the best way to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated. Unfortunately, recent actions by the government, from its approach to the legacies of the Troubles to more recent issues arising from its own Brexit deal, signal its intention to do the opposite.
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At this point where the Tories are claiming funds are low, we must highlight the ridiculous £200 billion they plan to waste on renewing and expanding our sick missile programme, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

AS the government ploughs on with yet another dangerous and reckless misstep in its haphazard and callous approach to the pandemic, one trend is becoming crystal clear: that working people and those already hit hard by a decade of austerity will be expected to pay the price.
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Joe Biden must not be let off the hook as his electoral promise to abandon Trump’s hostility has come to naught, argues KEN LIVINGSTONE

COUNTRIES around the world have again demanded at the United Nations that the United States lift the blockade of Cuba that it has been imposing since 1962.

On June 23 2021 in the 29th vote at the UN general assembly on the issue of the US blockade, 184 countries supported the Cuban resolution calling for its end.
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The world’s coup-plotters and warmongers haven’t given up on getting their hands on Venezuela’s oil, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is poised to deny Venezuela over $5 billion of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to bolster its reserves on the grounds that the elected President Nicolas Maduro is not the undisputed legitimate leader of the country.

The overall SDR fund, worth $650 billion (£459bn), is to be allocated to help emerging and low-income nations deal with mounting debt and the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The people of Ireland have the right to shape their own future, as agreed in the Good Friday Agreement, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

LAST week saw the outcome of the inquests into the deaths of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre.

The coroner found that all 10 of those shot dead between August 9 and 11 1971 — in the days following the introduction of internment without trial — were “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing.”
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We need to step up our campaign against the illegal US sanctions on Venezuela, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

AN overwhelmingly damning report by UN special rapporteur on human rights Alena Douhan has catalogued the massive harm inflicted on the Venezuelan people by the illegal sanctions imposed primarily by the US but also by Britain, the EU and Canada.

Yet less than a month after its publication in February, President Joe Biden has chosen to renew by executive order what the Obama administration in 2015 termed “a national emergency with respect to the situation in Venezuela,” on the absurd grounds that the country continues “to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
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