"Red Ken" and the Greens in London (Part 2).

• Author: Hawkins, Howie

[Part 1 of this article appeared in Synthesis/Regeneration 23, Pp. 9-11. It discussed the election of "Red Ken" Livingstone and three of his Green allies as Mayor of London and London Assembly members and how it may be a turning point in Green and Left politics in the UK and an example for others elsewhere.]

The Green Manifesto for this election addressed the Greens' "radical vision for London," a vision of "a multi-cultural London of 300 urban villages" where "the extremes of poverty are eliminated and the obscene gap between rich and poor is diminished" and where "riverside and parks are protected from the encroachment of speculative developers and once more opened up for the use of Londoners and wildlife."

Transportation was a central issue in the campaign. The Greens called for reducing road traffic by 40% by 2008, turning a large area of central London into a "car-free zone," taxes on corporate car-parking spaces, cuts in public transit fees, and, addressing the biggest single issue of the campaign, no privatization of the London Underground, the city's subway system. Prime Minister Blair wants to privatize the system.

The Greens' environmental policies called for zoning changes to encourage the siting of businesses, shops, and leisure facilities close to residences to reduce the need for car transportation, a Zero Waste Agency to expand waste reduction and recycling, opposition to municipal incinerators, ending nuclear waste transport through London, and making London a "GM-Free Zone" by banning genetically-modified crops from cultivation in the Greater London area. On the economy the Greens said, "London's economic future cannot rely solely on attracting more inward investment from multi-national companies. Instead of corporate welfare for this purpose, they called for municipal support for credit unions, cooperatives, and local shops and businesses. They also called for the creation of 80,000 new jobs in the environmental and public transport sectors of London's economy.

Police brutality and racism is an issue in London as it is in most US cities. The Greens called for a citizens' review board with the power to investigate complaints and sanction violent and racist cops, for the recruitment of more ethnic minority police officers, for community policing by 1000 police officers on bikes, and for an end to the "waste of police time" investigating and prosecuting people for possession of small amounts of marijuana. [1]

Revolutionary...