 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello everyone, today is the 12th of May and you're watching Give the People What They Want, your favorite weekly news show where we bring you a roundup of news developments of, you know, incidents from around the world. This is brought to you by People's Dispatch, Zoe and I, and also Globe Trotter where, once again, we're missing Vijay who's out on a series of talks and reporting work as well. So we hopefully have him back next week. It's been a lot, lots been happening this week actually and a lot is said to happen as well. On May 14th, we have the elections in Turkey where the fate of President Rajatay Berdagan is said to be decided. This is actually going to be one of the most important elections in the world. Not saying it lightly because Turkey's positions over the past years have been very crucial. It's played quite a destructive role in a country like Syria. And it's important that that whole region is extremely significant. A lot of internal suppression by Erdogan as well. Opposition leaders, for instance, activists being jailed. At the same time, Turkey has also sort of played a mediator's role in various issues including Ukraine. So very important to see what is going to happen in all the 14th of May and what it will lead to. But while one country goes to elections, a lot of uncertainty there. Equally uncertainty also prevailing in Pakistan where all hell seems to have broken out. Chaos, complete chaos after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Now we've talked about Imran Khan and the political crisis in Pakistan quite a few times on these issues on this show. And it escalated over the past one week when Imran Khan came to court. He was suddenly arrested in what is called the Al-Qadir Trust case, accused of graft. And then there was this outbreak of massive protests. People across Pakistan taking the streets in large numbers. And within 24 hours it had been quite chaotic. I think four or five people had been died. Over 1,000 people definitely arrested, buildings set on fire. And there was another case against Imran Khan. But he has sort of, seems to surmounted some of those legal issues after the high court has basically said that he cannot be arrested now until the 17th of May. So it does look like he's sort of gained an advantage over his rivals, which is the current ruling dispensation. Now it's interesting to note that Imran Khan and the current dispensation, they've really been sort of, you know, they've been duking it out so to speak on the streets in terms of protests. But there were also reports of some negotiations going on between them over the question of when elections would be held. And that's really become a central issue in Pakistan. Imran Khan was overthrown last year. He believes that if elections are held, he's going to come back to power very quickly. The government, on the other hand, kind of reluctant, it seems to have these elections and they're trying to basically get Imran Khan somehow trapped in, put him behind bars before the elections actually happened. So it's a bit of a seesaw battle. But what definitely does seems to be clear is there is mass resentment against the current ruling structure in the country. And I think that explains a lot of the protests which are going on as well. Of course, there is support for Imran Khan, but I think there is also people, the kind of campaign he's been doing. The campaign he's built against the current ruling dispensation, the government, which is led by the two old parties of Pakistan. Both of them, which are basically family parties at this point, and are supported strongly by the military, which is also a very important player in Pakistan. So Imran Khan successfully emerging of positioning himself as this kind of one lone wolf fighting against the dynasties and the entrenched powers in Pakistan. And that seems to have really resonated, which explains also, I think to a large extent, the sheer amount of strength and people on the streets he's able to mobilize. So a very sensitive moment for Pakistan also happening in the middle of a very, very deep economic crisis. We know that Pakistan has been struggling with an IMF loan. It has been forced to make major cuts, except those IMF conditionalities. Inflation has been pretty bad. Overall economic scenario has been extremely dire for the people of the country. So at this point, Imran Khan has also been able to tap into that and say that, hey, these people, these people, the government are just making killing by corruption, by entrenched interests. They care only about themselves. There's no one to look after you. And that message seems to be really kind of working. So it's a very, like I said, a very decisive moment, very difficult to say what's going to happen is release might things might quiet down a bit. But I don't think this legal battle is definitely going to end because I think the government also facing a bit of a legal setback right now. But they'll have their own strategies as well. So very interesting time for Pakistan in unfortunately some good and both good and bad ways as well. And it remains to be seen when the crucial issue of elections gets decided. Well, all the way across the world in Colombia, we're seeing interesting dynamics as well with coup attempts, coup threats as announced by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. He's, of course, referring to the decently sized quite large mobilizations of retired military personnel that happened on Wednesday in the central Plaza de Bolívar. Troops who have, of course, in Colombia, there's mandatory military service and a 60 year long armed conflict. So there's no shortage of people who have actually served in the army in a war situation. And they were on the streets in Plaza Bolívar, rejecting the president, calling for him to be ousted amongst other things and criticizing his efforts towards actually creating lasting peace in the country. Interesting. Colombia is a country that has many people who, again, have served in war, have lost limbs, have lost family members, and yet they're protesting this policy of peace. And on Thursday in an interview, a retired colonel who used to be in the leadership of the Association of Retired Military Personnel, John Marulanda, he was in an interview and a debate on the WV radio. And he said some interesting words, and he referred to a situation across the continent. And he said that the mobilization of the retired military members on Wednesday is, quote, a sign that Colombia is following in the steps of Peru, where he said the reserve forces were able to successfully defenestrate a corrupt president. And here in Colombia, we will do our best to defenestrate this guerrilla fighter president. Of course, he's referring to Gustavo Petro, who served in the M-19 movement in the country, and referring to the coup against Pedro Castillo, where of course the retired military members played a very, very important role in this coup and setting the stage. And so these comments, which he immediately tried to rectify saying, no, I'm just referring to Peru and that maybe this could happen. And then he cuts the audio cuts because he's of course repeating the same thing. And then later says, oh, no, Petro is perfectly legitimate as a president. It makes sense that he's there as a president. Of course, you know, these comments completely undermining the fact that millions of Colombians have voted for Petro in the elections. He was democratically elected in 2022 and completely undermining the rule of law. This has been met with widespread opposition. Gustavo Petro has been making many statements about what he terms as an impending coup attempt. The actual current leadership of the Association of Retired Military Personnel has made a statement saying that these declarations by the retired colonel do not represent the sentiments of the organization. That being said, they were still on the streets on Wednesday, where many people were calling for Petro to be taken out. The attorney general of the nation in Colombia has also made a statement saying that they're going to investigate these words which do undermine the democratic rule of law. And it's maybe a situation that we could see coming, given the fact that Gustavo Petro is going against what has been the ruling establishment in Colombia for 60 years. A country that has been governed by far right and center right presidents for many, many, many decades, wherein waging war was the status quo, wherein bowing to the U.S. and its desires was the status quo. And you know, Petro has done everything but that. He was in an event yesterday where he was turning over lands to dispossess peasants, which was a key promise of his campaign, making good on agreements that came out of the 2016 Havana agreements. A lot of them having to do with land reform and in this event where he's turning over lands to these peasants, he said that these forces cannot stand that there's a president that gives back lands to the peasantry instead of stealing it for their friends. One former colonel said that this deserves a coup d'etat and that these coups are resisted and overcome with the mobilization of civilians. So I think we're going to see a situation of increased political tension in Colombia. There has also been a far right opposition to the proposed health reforms, labor reforms and other reforms that Petro and his historic pact have presented. It's a moment of really challenging these right wing forces that have really become comfortable with the plundering of the state with a state of constant war and a divided citizenry. I mean, I think one of the what we see in Colombia is again a reiteration of some of those patterns that we see across Latin America historic historical patterns actually time and again the same old violent forces of reaction being summoned to try to crush any kind of progressive political project that emerges the same old mercenaries remnants from armies, you know, and the same old tired cliched slogans that seek to sort of destroy any attempt to actually bring about any sustainable change. And of course, this is a global phenomenon. These are the the the for the way in which these forces have continued to exist. And I think maybe nothing exemplifies that more than what we see today in Palestine. Again, a very unfortunate anniversary. This that's 2023. It marks 75 years since what is known as the knock power the catastrophe, which is when Israel was supposedly founded on basically the ruins of various, you know, hundreds of Palestinian villages after people were thrown large numbers people were killed. The number of people who were thrown out of their homes ranges in between 700 to 800,000 people. And this was how Israel was supposedly found it although they like to claim what what is one of those core ideologies of Zionism is that it was an empty land for people. The fact is that they were actually people living there, and these people lost their, you know, people lost their lives, their livelihoods, their homelands, they were forced to go across, you know, across the region in the other parts of the world, in what is known as the knock power the catastrophe. And this year is the 75th May 15 is usually the day that is, you know, marked as Nagpa day. But, you know, we carried a report on event organized by international people's assembly, people were long worked for the cause of Palestine coming together and talking about how the Nagpa is not a day. It is, in some ways, unfortunately a process and it is a process that continues to this day, the fact that to this day, Israel the Palestinians are being thrown out of their houses in the occupied territories in East Jerusalem in West Bank, the fact that Gaza is continues to be a blockaded to a large extent, the fact that in places like Massafariata you have to continue a threat of evictions of people, people losing their houses, their schools, etc. We have talked about Sheikh Jarrah in the past on this show as well. And all of this, you know, making it very, very clear that the Nagpa continues to this day. It's not some kind of historic event. And like we talked about the same arguments, the same brutal arguments, yanked out again and again by Israel, by its allies talking about terrorism, talking about, you know, their right to, their right to sort of somehow as their right to exist is under threat, all these tired arguments being brought out again and again. And also important, this week has been significant because it was the anniversary of the assassination of the journalist Shireen Abu Akle, who was killed while covering an Israeli raid in Janine. And now, as we again talked about multiple times on this show, Shireen was wearing a jacket which identified her as a journalist. It was clear that this was, you know, definitely an attack, but until now there's been no justice for that. No one has been held to account. Various investigations by both Israel and the US have at the most concluded that there might have been a possibility. And I want you to remember that when she was killed, the first instinct of Israel was to say that it was the Palestinians that killed them until footage proved that, you know, it was definitely not the case. And even then there's been really no justice despite the fact that Shireen worked for a very prominent media organization, that it's Al Jazeera, despite the fact that she was an American citizen, despite all this there's been no justice for the murder of Shireen Abu Akle. And Shireen's case also getting a lot of attention because of the unique circumstances. But like we've said, this is an ongoing process. You had raids in Gaza. Again, I think close to 30 people killed so far. Continuous bombing raids by Israel. This was after they agreed supposedly to ceasefire. So we know what these Israeli words about ceasefire and peace and all mean in this context. So as yet another week passes, yes, we cross yet another Nakba day. I think it's important to sort of, you know, highlight the continuity of this process. Because often we get kind of desensitized some of these reports sometimes, but this is an occasion to kind of remember that we're talking about a long, unbroken chain of atrocities of crime of, you know, human rights violations, which have been which started before 1948 also, but and continue to today. Well, that's exactly right. And one of the other elements used by Israel specifically against the population of Gaza, in addition to the brutal bombing campaign is actually a unilateral course of measures, which is maintaining a virtual complete blockade of Gaza, impeding the importation of necessary goods amongst other items. And so this sanctions measure is very important to keep in mind as it's used against the population of Gaza and over 30% of the world's population. And this week in a very, very important letter, House Democrats actually urged President Biden to lift unilateral course of measures. They spoke specifically about Cuba and Venezuela and they related it to the current migrant crisis, the current current border crisis right now in the United States. That is expected to increase with the expiration of Title 42, which we've covered extensively on this on people's dispatch. It's a very, very interesting letter and as I said, it comes at this time amid the migrant crisis, but it is one of the first significant pushbacks on what has been essentially a consensus and unilateral opinion from US ruling elites and both parties, Democrats and Republicans who for several decades have used the tactic and tool of sanctions to push forward their political goals. And it's interesting right now, because there has been some talk amongst people on both sides of the aisle about actually what is the effectiveness of these unilateral course of measures. Janet Yellen at the Treasury Office said that it has been successful or maybe shouldn't say that they were successful in doing this, but it has caused a severe economic crisis, for example, in Iran where they're extremely restrictive sanctions, but it has not been successful in achieving their political goals. And so we've seen the use of financial and economic sanctions against Venezuela against Cuba, really to squeeze the population to the most intense. We again have been covering this with Cuba with extreme fuel shortage crisis right now. And in the eyes of the US ruling elite, this is in an effort to make people angry, to make them upset with their governments and eventually revolt and overthrow these governments. But as Janet Yellen has pointed out in some statements in Iran, for example, this hasn't been successful. And in this letter, House Democrats point out that this has really created a humanitarian crisis and has been a contributing factor to driving up immigration. Numbers show that in 2018, the number of Venezuelan migrants numbered a couple hundred. And now in 2022, this number was up to almost 200,000. That's a substantial increase. And these are people who are trying to regularly cross at the border. So it's not even counting the number of people who are maybe migrating in other ways. So it is definitely breaking somewhat with this consensus opinion. There are many people who have pointed to the migration of Cuban and Venezuelan people as saying this is because of these governments, because of these dictatorships they like to say. But the fact that these Democrats are coming out and saying that this is actually directly due to US policies, due to these economic and financial sanctions. This is really groundbreaking and I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming days. We know there have also been comments saying that sanctions are undermining the hegemony of the dollar, pushing global south countries towards embracing other modes of trade and other modalities of economic relationships. So on both sides, on both the humanitarian side and both actually maintaining the economic hegemony of the United States in many ways, this policy of sanctions is really being questioned. So it's a very interesting moment. Zoe, of course, the crisis in Venezuela is something we've been looking at for a long time because of the way in which the question of sovereignty is dealt with, the way in which the question of rights is dealt with. And the very clear double standards apply often when it comes to the positions of the United States both for its allies and for those it considers enemies or critics or whatever. But ultimately, a lot boils down to the question of what people, what are the rights people deserve? I mean, by rights, we're also talking about the right to lead a life of dignity, the right to sort of lead a productive life, the right to basically receive resources or we get access to resources which all humans should have and which sanctions as one of the most cruel things about sanctions is that they actually take away so many of these rights. There's a great report by CEPR, which actually talks about the impact of sanctions on Venezuela or Afghanistan or Iran. And each of these countries, the quality of life has declined so much because governments are not able to provide these basic resources because of sanctions. And of course, this is not just an issue relating to sanctions, it's a larger issue as well. And a very interesting verdict that came out recently in South Africa where there's been a case going on for some time about load shedding. Now, in many parts of the global south, people live with load shedding, some of them at least grew up with various small degrees of load shedding, for instance, which is rolling power cuts. But South Africa has been really facing this issue at a massive, massive scale and the sheer increase in power cuts has led to staggering economic losses. Of course, inconvenience in day-to-day life, a massive decline in the quality of life. All of this has been happening at a very regular basis. The government, of course, saying that the power entity, ESCOM, does not have the capacity to keep power going. So it is very interesting that a series of organizations, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, basically filed a petition saying that they want talking about demanding that essential services at least not face this level of power cuts. And at one level, it is the most legitimate demand you can think of with schools and health institutions and, say, other critical facilities not face power cuts of this sort. But on the other hand, the response of the government was quite surprising. I think I think Presidents in Ramaphosa in an affidavit said that various government respondents that have been mentioned in the petition that none of them have a constitutional responsibility to supply electricity to the people of the public. So that was clearly the government's stand when it came to this basic question. But the code word being quite surprising actually and interesting because it actually lays its interim relief, of course, but it lays forward a question for governments across the world that isn't it their responsibility to actually ensure that these basic services are provided. Now, this is part of a much longer and larger case. I think a more substantive issues will be taken up later this month, maybe. And this was more of interim relief, but this is part of, I think, a larger campaign. Noomsa has been running other allied organizations have been running, which has questioned really the model by which power utilities have been the main power utility SCOM has been managed in South Africa. And these organizations including Noomsa have time and again said that a key issue is that the amount of privatization in the sector is what has led to the deterioration of these kinds of supplies. And we have some extensive coverage. I would urge you to go to People's Dispatch and see our archives on SCOM and Noomsa both have extensive coverage on the various factors that are involved. And this quote verdict is one arm of the strategy that a protest taking place on the ground as well. And this is also, I think, especially concerning at a time when South Africa is thinking of moving, shifting to more renewable source of energy. There is a very strong critique that the shift to renewable energy is going to benefit the private sector more workers are going to suffer that issues also very much in play. So I think this is this this word it gives is an occasion to sort of pause and think for the government as well how you know it wants to whether it even does so is a different question it does it provides an occasion. And you know how it really wants to sort of configure this question of power, which is not something that should be definitely taken for granted I think in the in 2023 this is one of the things you can at least ask from our governments. Well, that's exactly right and over in Chile. Again, another slightly upsetting setback for left forces over there on Sunday they voted to elect the members of what would be the constitutional council. And as we remember this is the body that will write another draft of the Constitution, just to give people a little brief briefer in 2019 during the massive protests against neoliberal policies against the economic crisis facing Chile and the inaccessibility of basic healthcare education and pensions. Many people demanded that the Pinochet era constitution be rewritten in order to ensure ensure these basic rights. Following that there was a referendum to see if a constitution should be written a new constitution should be drafted. People said yes overwhelmingly and that it should be done through a constitutional convention. Following that there were elections to elect the members of this constitutional convention. These were carried out in the constitutional convention was largely composed of progressive and left wing forces independent ones that were also linked to the current government of Gabriels boardage. This constitutional draft was made it was one of the most progressive constitutions in the world guaranteeing the rights of nature rights of indigenous people women LGBTQ communities, as well as guaranteeing this fundamental social and economic rights of healthcare education pension with the Chilean people have been fighting for for so many years having been the birthplace of neoliberalism. Gabriels boardage said that Chile would also and was a sentiment echoed by the protest that Chile would now be the tomb of neoliberalism. However, when this draft constitution was up for referendum. It was defeated. And following this essentially the government of Gabriel boardage has been scrambling to try to come up with another way for the constitution to be rewritten. They finally decided on a constitutional council which had its elections this past Sunday, and in an upsetting defeat for the left understanding that this whole trajectory was really pushed forward by progressive forces all of the demands to rewrite this constitution was because of demands on the streets. Right wing forces the Republican Party, people allied to Jose Antonio cast who was the extreme far right contender in these last elections actually won the majority of this constitutional council and this has been sort of an upset for progressive forces within Chile and across the continent that really had been looking at this Chilean process as such an important example of what can happen how you translate street power to actually creating lasting change. And this is seen as a serious upset, both in the sense that it's going to be the same forces that were against writing the Constitution that wanted to stick with the Pinochet era Constitution that are now basically tasked with doing it. And because they have the majority in this council they're able to veto their veto power. And they're also going to be able to pass kind of any sort of aggressive elements that they that they want to so this is extremely challenging scenario, how much of these promises for change of guaranteeing rights will actually be able to move forward with this Constitution. There have been many different analyses of how this happens how that the how the right wing in Chile was able to really regain its footing and actually win in a space that was essentially created by the left which is these constitutional spaces. And many are pointing to the fact that, for example, these this uprising on the streets was asked to also be interpreted as a rejection of the political systems failings itself. And in this context we look at the, the actions of the board of just government. And for many Chileans he just hasn't gone far enough to really address the root causes of people's misery of people's discontent. He's been a government of really conciliation, and the numerous kind of electoral defeats since he's been elected with these referendums has put him in an even more weaker position and instead of really going on the offensive and pushing for the most radical transformations of society has been extremely conciliatory. He's really joined the US and their foreign policy attacks on Nicaragua and Venezuela and Cuba. He's also been a stalwart ally of the US in the Ukraine war, criticizing Russia openly being one of the only Latin American presidents to really go so hard against Russia. So these, all of these elements have to be taken into account when you think that people are rejecting the establishment as such. And this, you know, they saw that the Republicans, they saw this right wing as, as what would be an opposition to this system. So what people are saying, the left is saying this isn't time for demoralizing. This is a time to reorganize to reassess to re strategize and figure out how these fundamental changes, which is, which still are needed, right to pension, right to healthcare, right to education. These must be won by mobilization by organization on the street will of course be following this and all the other stories. Make sure to stay tuned to people's dispatch dot org on all of our social media platforms. Make sure to share and like it. Tell the show. Tell your friends about the show and we'll be with you next week. Hopefully joined by DJ.