KEN LIVINGSTONE, leader of the Labour Greater London Council, has come under savage attack from the press since coming to office in May The right wing Tory press, led by the ob noxious London Standard, campaign of slander and vilification on every word and action of Ken Livingstone's. The right wing Labour have been airing their misgivings in public.
So what lies such concerted camKen himself thought that the press campaign would subside after the elections.
But he acknowledges that when he became leader many people The would 'mellow' with the weight of his exalted position. anything he has done just the opposite.
Ken has spoken our of workers' struggles, gay discriminatior against racism in the police force, and by no means least, on He does not always have the support of the other left councillors in the GLC, let alone the Labour group as a whole. The new administration has begun to tackle many problems facing Londoners, not too successfully.
It plans to cut fares but at the expense of a huge rate increase: it in tends to create more jobs and has supported strug. gles against redundancie such as the work-in at St Mary's Paddington, as well as accommodating the People's Marchers. Gays And when Ken Livingstone denounces discrimination against black people and gays he is speaking on the policy of the LADOlI group and manifesto on which it was elected.
has launched a councillors have been The Labour GLC has tried to blow a wind of change through the COr ridors County Hall.
They want to do away with some o mae bureaucranc workings of the council and make it more accoun table and open, particularly to the labour movement in London.
So why the campaign against ken Livingstone? First, his stand on Ireland, in particular his complete support for the hunger strikers and for the withdrawal of troops.
He has been the only major Labour Party figure who has taken such He openly broken bipartisanship the Tories But he now needs to take this fight into the Labour Party as a whole in order overcome his so anon Irom Col leagues on this issue. Benn The second reason why Livingstone has come suca banare. that for many people the Labour GC is seen as a government will be totally victorious. That is not a small for the working class which looking to the Labour Party leadersnip against Thatcher Socialists sbehind ken four square behind Livingstone against the attacks from the media and the right. outright supporters of the Shah; and other more militant currents like the has grown weaker so it has in creasingly turned to savage against position. More than executions of political op sonents have been carrie out in the past few months and hundreds more have 'disappeared' or been arrested.
These actions by Khomeini regime can further undermine the gains anti-Shah revoluBut the bombing campagn the Mojahadin and other bourgeois politicians
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quick to join forces with the Tories in attack. ing Ken and even some of the left councillors