Category: Uncategorised

They called us the ‘loony left’ but we showed the world what was possible once socialists take power even over one city, from free transport and free festivals to recognising same-sex partnerships — we need that ambition once again, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

It is hard to believe that last year marked 20 years since I became mayor of London and that this year marks 40 years since the Labour left gained the leadership of the Greater London Council (GLC).
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KEN LIVINGSTONE writes on new revelations about previously denied collusion between the Bank of England and the Tory government to steal Venezuela’s gold in support of US-backed regime change

SHOCKING new evidence has emerged that the British government conspired with the Bank of England to deny Venezuela access to 31 tonnes of gold worth more than $1bn (over £800m) it had deposited with the bank.

The British government has always maintained that the Bank of England makes its own independent decisions about Venezuela’s gold deposits.
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April 11 marks the anniversary of 2002 coup in Venezuela, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

NINETEEN years ago in Venezuela a right-wing military coup briefly unseated its elected President Hugo Chavez before loyal armed forces units and a popular mobilisation of Caracas’s barrios turned the tables and restored Chavez to the presidency.

The coup was mounted by a combination of industrialists, businessmen, media owners, the principal trade union movement’s leaders, Catholic bishops and conservative military officers, working closely with the US government.
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As we approach 11 years since the US-backed right-wing coup in Honduras, resistance to neoliberalism continues, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

IN 2009, I was one of the co-founders of the Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras and have tried to keep up to speed with developments and with the resistance movements there ever since. Despite the repression — including killings — the resistance has faced, it has continued.

Many of those opposing the coup regime may have felt vindicated when it was recently reported that US prosecutors have alleged in a major court case that the Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was a co-conspirator in his brother’s cocaine trafficking ring.
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This week the Museum of Homelessness (MoH) released the figure that 976 homeless people across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland died last year. KEN LIVINGSTONE reports on a government-made housing crisis

I HAVE written in my Morning Star column before how the homelessness levels in our country are a national scandal, and news this week confirmed the human costs of the Tories’ inaction in this area, as well as being a devastating indictment of 10 years of austerity cutting so many essential public services to the bone.
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Now is the time to step up international campaigning against illegal US sanctions in Latin America, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THE United States has an extensive sanctions programme affecting two dozen countries across the globe, and three of those states singled out for coercive measures are in Latin America: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. 

The cost to those three nations of US sanctions imposed allegedly “to counter threats to national security” are breathtakingly severe and must be stopped.
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The left must respond by fighting for every job and arguing for massive investment in the economy, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

RECENT figures showing unemployment rising to 5 per cent in the three months to November 2020 were further evidence of the growing jobs crisis facing Britain.

Not a week passes by without more announcements of job cuts from household name companies, and many job losses of course do not even reach the headlines.
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If he is to prove he is different from Trump, the new US president will have to change approach in Latin America, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

DESPITE enormous costs to its economy and its people imposed by illegal US sanctions, Venezuela has seen off President Donald Trump’s term in office and his clear goal of toppling the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.

From his earliest days in office, Trump had drastically ratcheted up the sanctions first levied against Venezuela by the Obama administration, increasingly meaning there is a full-on Cuba-style US blockade of the country.
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KEN LIVINGSTONE writes on the restoration of democracy in Bolivia

THE Movement Towards Socialism’s (MAS) victory in Bolivia’s presidential election, the first held since a military-led coup ousted legitimate President Evo Morales last November, offers a new way forward for the country out of the nightmare of the last year.

Under the coup regime led by Jeanine Anez, a wave of human-rights abuses took place, targeting trade unionists, indigenous activists and MAS supporters, with large-scale violation of people’s rights and the loss of lives.
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There needs to be real action to protect renters, end rough sleeping and stop a new homelessness crisis, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

THIS week, Labour, homelessness charities, housing campaigners and others have called for the government to repeat the Everyone In scheme from earlier this year to protect rough sleepers this winter as the country again enters lockdown.

As Labour’s shadow minister said, “On Saturday, the Prime Minister said: ‘From Thursday until the start of December, you must stay at home.’
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