 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Well, it's the 6th of May, the day after the 5th of May, which is the birthday of Karl Marx, a pretty important day in the international calendar. Also happens to be the anniversary of Bobby Sand's great heroic hunger strike ending. Bobby Sand's was an Irish socialist, an Irish republican who fought against British colonialism in the northern counties of Ireland. As we broadcast, give the people what they want, brought to you from people's dispatch, which is Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter. As we come to you live on the 6th of May, counting continues in the northern counties of Ireland in British local elections. It is likely that for the first time, a Irish republican nationalist force is going to triumph. If that force triumphs, the first minister of the northern counties of Ireland most likely will be from Sinn Fein. If indeed she is the first minister, then questions of the unification of Ireland, the decolonization of Ireland, will be back on the table. This is very significant. A time to consider colonialism. Significant. A time to consider colonialism. Recently, Prime Minister of Britain Boris Johnson made a speech talking about Ukraine's finest hour quoting from Churchill about Ukraine's war. Quoting from Churchill today on the 6th of May, George W. Bush, former US president, held a Zoom meeting with Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelinsky, where Mr. Bush talked about Churchill and the Churchillian moment and so on. Churchill, of course, needs to be said. An old imperialist Prime Minister of Britain, a racist, a man who's brutal, a personal example in what is now northern Pakistan and other parts of the world including in Sudan and so on, his personal brutality on the record. A new book by Tariq Ali on Churchill's record demonstrates this once again. I personally would just like to say that Churchill plays a significant role in the creation of the Bengal famine of 1943 where at least a million people perished because of Churchill's personal role. Churchill celebrated by Boris Johnson, celebrated by George W. Bush, Vladimir Zelinsky of Ukraine, not contradicting them on behalf of Churchill's victims. Well, Mr. Johnson, who made that speech about Ukraine's finest hour seems to have watched his party suffer great defeat in the United Kingdom in the local elections, looks like Labour is going to make a comeback. This is certainly not a vote for Kier Stammer, the current leader of the Labour Party, but it is a vote against Boris Johnson for the mendacity of that government during the COVID lockdown, called Party Gate situation. It is an attack on Boris Johnson for his callous policies of the lockdown and so on, and also because of rising inflation. Bank of England has put up its bank rate to 1%, going up by 0.25%, following the lead of other central banks in the advanced industrial countries. And they have put up their bank rate to 1%. So, they are all of them struggling to get a grip on the inflation, both fuel and food inflation, that seems to afflict the world. The Conservative Party looks to have taken a beating in the local elections in the British Isles, but the real eye should focus on what is going to happen in the northern counties of Ireland, including the new First Minister from Sinn Féin. And what will she do regarding the question of Irish reunification, and what will Ireland do with regard to the kind of imperial past that Britain continues today in its valorisation of people like Winston Churchill and its continual arming of a war that needs to end in Ukraine. One of the causes for the collapse of the Conservative vote, one of the causes is rising food prices. UN has a new report. Prashant, what's the story on the UN report on food? Right, Vijay. So, it's actually a pretty disturbing damning report. The fact that in 2022, we're still having to talk about hunger, we're still having to talk about malnutrition at a time when there is actually the capacity to produce so much the capacity to feed everybody on this planet. The fact remains that food insecurity is so severe. So, this report, the global report on food crisis 2022, presents some really alarming numbers actually. If you take a look at it, what is called category three, which really talks about the population that really is facing an urgent crisis. Acute food insecurity needs it urgently. That's 193 million people across the world. 193 million, that's an insane number. And this is in nearly 53 countries. And if you look at, for instance, some of the higher categories, that's 40 million people facing emergency, you're worse than about 500,000 people facing starvation and death. So, there's no greater indictment of the current world order than the fact that after all these centuries of human progress, we are standing in a time where 500,000 people are facing starvation and death. And like I said, not due to shortage, we have not reached the apocalypse yet of any kind. This is at a time when there has been pretty good food production in many parts, surplus in many parts. So, there's a lot of micro data if you take a look at some of the important aspects of the report. The most important thing being the fact that most of this hunger, most of this food crisis is very closely connected to conflict. And I think that when we talk about conflict, many of these reports because of the nature of, because of where they come from, because the nature of structures in which they're written use a neutral term like conflict. Whereas I think one thing we often try to say is the fact that there is no conflict per se. Such conflict always has somebody which is executing that conflict, somebody which is the reason for it. So, if you look at Yemen, for instance, we discover the country is worst effective. The only reason there is a crisis in Yemen is because the fact that the Saudi-led coalition backed by the West has persecuted this war for since 2015. There's a ceasefire going on now, hopefully it holds. But in the months preceding the ceasefire, we saw some of the worst violence since 2015. And what should have been a matter between the Yemeni people, the Houthis, the two sections of the Yemeni population were fighting, that's a different matter, but there was no reason for Saudi Arabia and its allies to invade with, there are absolutely no reason at all, except for imperialism, which is very clear. So, if you look at some of the other conflicts as well, you have for instance Ethiopia, where again we've chronicled over the past one year, the war, which really has a very clear geopolitical implications as well. It is also meant to impose that a part of the reason for the war was basically US strategy as well. There are reports which say that Biden administration before it came to power was involved in the start of that civil war as well. So these are I think questions that, from these reports, these are questions that come out. We say conflict, we talk about for instance refugees, a large number of refugees who are facing hunger, they are one of the most wonderful populations in the world but as we talked about repeatedly, where do these refugees come from? Many of these wars of imperialism that we saw in North Africa, that we saw in West Asia and while countries like the UK are now planning to send them to Rwanda, the fact remains that many of these refugees actually face horrible kinds of hunger as well. And most important thing, of course, the fact that this number is definitely going to rise in 2022 because of the war, of course, the sanctions the United States has imposed basically prevent Russia from exporting some of its important resources including fertilizers. Russia is the biggest exporter of fertilizers. Ukraine too, major exporter of food. So all this is going to get much worse. There is of course a no cold war briefing that we talked about recently which talks about global hunger. We've interviewed John Ross. It should be out tomorrow on exactly this issue, how the Ukraine war is going to worsen food insecurity. So even the reports predictions basically say that without taking 12 countries, 12 vulnerable countries into account already about 180 million people are expected to be in that category of acute hunger in 2022. So definitely the numbers are going to increase in 2022 as well. Very alarming and unfortunate situation, but I think we need to be clear as to what are the reasons for this as well. A very important story will be following it as usual. One of the obstinate facts of our time, the question of hunger will be definitely following it. Zoe, you and I were in Argentina recently. You walk down the streets of Buenos Aires. You see everywhere graffiti about abortion legal. You see pictures of the green scarves, which represent the legalization of abortion movement. Argentina recently had a historic victory where abortion was made legal in the legislature. Strange things taking place in the United States where it looks like the very opposite direction is being taken. The Argentinian people walking towards the legalization of abortion, which really is women's control over their lives. People in the United States seem to go in the other direction. Tell us what's happening in the United States. Well, it is a unfortunate moment for women's rights, for reproductive rights in the United States. This week, a draft decision of the Supreme Court was leaked to press. Politico published this draft decision, which essentially shows that the Supreme Court is strongly considering essentially repealing Roe v. Wade saying that it's the basis for Roe v. Wade, which is a due process clause in the right to privacy. It does not stand and essentially Roe v. Wade, which is the decision by the court, which grants access to abortion across the country, would be reversed. This would be a huge setback in the United States. We've been covering at People's Dispatch the last couple of years the serious challenges pose the right to the access abortion in the country. As people may know, the United States is a federal system. The states can pass their own laws without contradicting the national jurisprudence. Roe v. Wade stood as an obstacle to these conservative state legislatures to be able to pass extremely aggressive legislation. Even still, with Roe v. Wade, we see bills passed in Texas like SB 8, which would put a bounty on People's Heads of $10,000, who even helped people get an abortion. And so with the fact that the Supreme Court is now considering to revoke Roe v. Wade means that these people will have even greater ability to pass such extremely aggressive legislation may even outlaw abortion altogether. Since this draft decision was leaked, the Supreme Court justices have only released the statements condemning the fact that the decision was leaked saying that this constitutes an extreme violation of the Supreme Court, et cetera, et cetera. No words given about Roe v. Wade itself about their intentions regarding this. And so this has left a lot of room for speculation. Democrats are saying the only solution is to keep voting Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. But people in the streets have a very different message. And so since this draft decision was leaked by political, there have been mass protests outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the country, people have taken to the streets outside their own state legislatures to demand that the right to abortion be protected. And many people have rightfully raised that the fact that only a Supreme Court decision is what is protecting this right to abortion is extremely problematic. Since this was passed where we weighed in 1973, the Democrats essentially with this decision should have passed a law, should have codified this right to abortion in a law like they did in Argentina, like that has been done in many other countries. Because this means that when you have a conservative Supreme Court, they won't be able to reverse this decision. And so this is, many people are rightfully so complaining that the Democrats have once again been unable to actually stand true to their promises. And so now you see Joe Biden making statements that he respects women's right to choose, Speaker Nancy Pelosi making similar statements. But what we're seeing in practice is that the Democrats have not actually taken the necessary steps to protect the right to abortion. And so we're seeing massive protests taking place, not only to protect Roe v. Wade, but also to demand that legislature be passed. Women's Health Protection Act was just voted down in the Senate. And so essentially the message on the streets is protect women's right to abortion, pass legislation that can codify this right, and actually take these words to account. And so we'll see continued protests in the next coming days. Unsure if this draft decision will be made final, but I think what's true is that people are going to stand the streets and it may spark a new moment in feminists and women's organizing in the United States. Well, one hopes so, Zoe, because it is interesting that a country that so cavalierly lectures the world about human rights is really utterly backward in the question of women's rights and the right of women to have health care as a principle part, a complete and principle part of their daily existence. Speaking of lecturing the world, you know, we used to hear 10 years ago, Prashant, a lot of talk about Darfur and what's happening in Darfur. There's been great silence there. I was pretty shocked to read a story at People's Dispatch, which had a headline that actually threw me. The headline has the phrase, Deep Population Campaign. A pretty stark headline. What's been happening in Darfur? Prashant, the whole world seems to have forgotten Darfur, but People's Dispatch has not forgotten Darfur. Right, Vijay. So the story by our colleague Pawan, very interesting, because it actually, like I said, one keeps the focus on Darfur, which is often forgotten. But I think too, also tries to sort of go beyond some of the narratives, which are usually sort of, you know, better when we talk about it, which is that this is some kind of hotbed of tribal violence. You know, you have the stereotypes of ancient hatreds and, say, irresolvable conflicts, et cetera, et cetera, which sort of permeate most of these stories. But actually, if you look at what happened in it, talking about the massacres that took place over the last, around 10 days of April, and the latest estimates say that around, say, around 200 people were killed and nearly 100,000 people have been displaced and that's quite a big number. If you look at the overall number over the past two decades, it's in the hundreds of thousands, but even by that standards within 10 days is actually quite a large number. But actually, if you look at, you know, if you when talking to people and getting on, getting reports from people who are there, people, you know, who are part of various committees, part of the general organization that has been taking place in Sudan over the past couple of years, it seems that this is not some kind of reactive, randomized violence, but actually very organized violence which involves rapid support forces, which is one of the most, you know, dangerous and vicious organizations in Sudan. Now, this is a militia that was made out of some of the earlier militias in the region. It is commanded by the general called Hemeti, who's one of the most important people in Sudan right now. So most reports right now, most reports of the ground pretty much actually say that this violence was perpetrated by the RSF personnel, you know, and in a very organized fashion, bringing in a lot of equipment, bringing in a lot of personnel, very well-trained personnel, and the fact that while authorities said that the Sudanese army would protect people, that actually did not happen because there was a very minor deployment of these military personnel and who were quickly withdrawn, giving the RSF forces a free hand. Now, we do know that the RSF itself is also, you know, infamous for the massacre it did in June 2019 in Khartoum, where so many people were killed, many instances of torture, sexual violence, etc., taking place, all of which was attributed to the RSF. And this RSF along with some of their allies there, you know, seemed to be very much responsible for what happened in West Darfur as well. Now, the important thing to note is that there is also a huge issue of resources that is taking place here. This area region, you know, this region very rich in resources such as gold, diamonds, etc. And Hemeti's family is closely associated with those companies which basically have the contract to actually export this gold. So this is not, like I said, I think the economic aspect of this conflict and the involvement of key people in the power structure in Sudan in this conflict needs to be sort of investigated, talked about much more because this is very closely connected to the process, to what has been happening in Sudan even otherwise. The kind of the military coup that took place in October, the complete repression that is taking place. The very same people responsible for that are also very much responsible for these acts of brutal violence. So I think it's very important to sort of keep trying to cover some of these aspects as well. But a very important story while understanding and going beyond the narrative that has been usually talked about when we sit out. That's Prashant from People's Dispatch. Good reason to keep tuning in every Friday to give the people what they want. Also to go to the People's Dispatch website, see what the latest stories are. Prashant was talking about terrible violence taking place in Darfur. Also, of course, terrible violence that could take place in both Colombia and Brazil where elections are to be held in Brazil in October. Stunningly, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States came out and said that there should be no election interference in Brazil. Surprised to see that. I was also surprised, not so surprised actually, Zoe, to see a report about potential assassination of Gustavo Petro, who's leading the left alliance into the election in Colombia. What's the latest there? Because this is not an idle threat, right? In Colombia, it's not an idle threat. That's exactly right, Vijay. It's not an idle threat. And actually, I mean, Gustavo Petro, other left leaders are constantly receiving death threats, you know, threats against their life, threats against the lives of their family. But the latest that was released by La Cordillera, which is a paramilitary organization, seemed to hit a little deeper. And Gustavo Petro suspended two campaign activities in the Eje Cafeteria, which is a region in the northwest of Colombia. He has since appeared in campaign events. And in a very striking image, he's behind huge shields and security guards, because really he's received this threat and he announced publicly that he does fear for his life. And I think this is happening in a really tense moment in Colombia, where exactly 23 days out from the polls, this will be the first round of the presidential elections, Gustavo Petro is, and with his running mate, Francia Marquez, they're consistently polling in the lead of these presidential polls, might clinch a first round victory. And this is extremely worrying for Colombia's elites. We've covered it consistently on this show, on People's Dispatch. Colombia has essentially been ruled by the right-wing oligarchy for the past 60 years. And to have a progressive in office is a real threat to their interests. Right now, there's currently a armed strike being carried out by a paramilitary group, which is the Clan del Golfo. They're carrying out an armed strike, essentially telling all the people in the northern region, the Caribbean region of the country, they cannot leave their houses, they cannot go into the town squares. And this is because a big paramilitary chief, Otoniel, was extradited to the United States. They're carrying out this armed strike as a retribution, as a response, as vengeance, killing anyone who does not, who violates this order to not leave their houses. This is really the state of affairs in Colombia, where you still have large regions of the country that are controlled by paramilitaries, by drug traffickers who can at the drop of a hat put the lives of hundreds of thousands of millions of people into danger, where there's an active conflict that while this armed strike is provoked by the fact that Otoniel was extradited to the United States, is also something that's been backed by the United States that has been waging its so-called war on drugs in Colombia since the early 2000s. And what are the results of this that Colombia continues to be the largest exporter of cocaine in the world and still has large regions controlled by drug trafficking? And so it's really important to understand the context of Colombia right now while we see the possibility of a progressive government coming to power, there are still so many structural issues that are at play here. The question of drug trafficking, the links of the political elites to drug trafficking is a huge one. This is a similar situation to what we saw in Honduras where the president of Honduras is now, like Otoniel in the United States in New York where he will stand trial for charges of drug trafficking, but it's a complicated one. And so while the lives of Gustavo Petro, Francia Marquez are under serious threat, the population under threat by drug traffickers, by paramilitaries, it is so important that we not turn our gaze away from Colombia, where the people are fighting for democracy, they're fighting for peace, and the United States really needs to look at its role in perpetuating the conflict in giving support to these groups and hopefully the will of the people will be respected. Hopefully this arm strike will be over soon and that people will be safe in their homes. Colombia has a very strong history of political assassination going back to violencia in 1948, the assassination of Gaitan. And then when the left came above ground in 1990, I well remember when three presidential candidates were assassinated in that year. Three presidential candidates assassinated in 1990. That's the reason why this is not an idle threat. It's interesting, Zoe, that the CIA came out there, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States to say no electoral interference in Brazil, but of course, these governments that are so bent out of shape about human rights and so on will say nothing about this violence that is already on the table, as you say, it's not threatened. It's already an interference in the election in Colombia and the fact that there's this so-called arm strike in the North already an interference in the election. Violence, we had a story from Darfur, terrible violence. Another story from Colombia, terrible violence. Now news comes from South Africa, from Durban, from the Ikenana commune in Durban of the Abaklali-based mojandolo, the Shack-Dweller's movement, another assassination. Now it's important to recall we've covered Abaklali's activities for a long time. They are brave people who have been attempting to create housing, a world in fact, for the people who don't have homes, people whose lives have been set aside in post-apathite South Africa. Abaklali has faced violence of various kinds, both lawfare, people being arrested and then murder. The current person who was killed, Nukut Hula Mabasso had spent time in prison. She had already faced that lawfare, the kind of pressure against her. Ms. Mabasso was a leader coming back to Prashant's story earlier about the UN food report in developing a food sovereignty process inside the commune. These are brave people and their assassinations, one by one punctually in a way put forward to silence not only the leaders of this organization but wrap it up. There is a really powerful editorial at our partner organization New Frame in South Africa, very powerful editorial which I'd like you to go and read. In that editorial, the New Frame quotes from one of the leaders of Abaklali and that's Subhuzikode who said that there is a politic of blood is his phrase that he has used, a politic of blood, a politics of blood in fact. It's a powerful phrase. There is a kind of way in which assassinations, one after the other take place to silence people whether this is in Colombia where again on a punctual basis and I use that word punctually deliberately every time it looks like the forces of the people might prevail. There is an assassination, Gaitan, 1948. In fact, the violence that opens up is known as the violence in Colombia. It structures the history of that country. Now South Africa, in a sense, Abaklali is facing the violence, a period in its history of great Craig and why. What is the point of this? Some of it has got to do with questions of land. I visited this commune in South Africa. It's not prime land by any stretch of the imagination. It's not at the center of the city of Durban. Nonetheless, it's good land in a good part of the outskirts of Durban. There are land questions, but there's also questions of power. Some people simply don't want to share power, which sharing power is a synonym for democracy. Some people simply don't want to share power. They will use any means including assassination to prevent having to share power. And that's the kind of situation we're seeing in South Africa. We'll be coming back with that story as we have more details. Be aware that the assassination just took place. The body is still warm. We don't exactly know what happened here, but we do know there's a pattern. And journalism is built out of patterns, not entirely out of events. You've been listening to give the people what they want. What you want is an explanation for what's happening in the world. And we try to bring that for you. Let's hope there's interesting results coming from the North of Ireland. At People's Dispatch, you can go and read an interview that Zoe did with Chris Hazard. It's an interesting interview. Chris Hazard is one of the leaders of Sinn Fein in the Northern Counties of Ireland. Take a look at it. Travel to People's Dispatch every day. Refresh your mind. Have a read. See what's there. See you next week.