 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Give the people what they want. Coming to you a day of normal schedule. Today is Saturday because where Zoe and I are in the middle of a city called Glasgow in Scotland where the COP26 unfortunately friends it's called COP26 but it's nothing to do with the police convention. It's the conference of parties regarding climate change and it's Zoe and I and Prashant from People's Dispatch your favorite web portal for news People's Dispatch.org bringing you give the people what they want on November the 6th instead of November the 5th for which we apologize but what can you do? Here's the world of news people. Glasgow it's raining. I know we're in an Airbnb with all kinds of junk behind us. Sorry about that friends but we're in the front lines to bring you the smell of the protests yesterday big youth protests taking place a massive march. Lots of people trying to demand climate financing. I'll talk about that later. It's rainy. Today is the big March. Are we excited about the big March? Seems like maybe 100,000 people might come out today despite the rain despite all of the restrictions to get here and to participate. It'll be pretty historic. It'll be pretty historic but if some of this rain could be diverted to Iraq that would be a good thing because in Iraq the government's agricultural ministry is telling us that only one third of the durants one third of the land that is cultivatable is being cultivated as a consequence of a multi-year climate change induced drought friends a multi-year climate change induced drought. Only one third of the land can be cultivated this year. That's a direct result of climate change and my God are we confident about this cop? Sometimes I think it's not conference of parties but it's countries of polluters. The United States president Joe Biden comes with 85 cars and goes to sleep. You can't make it up. He went to sleep. This is a fact. Boris Johnson looked sleepy himself. They're not serious these men who govern the most developed countries. The countries with money, with technology, they're not serious. They have been blocking very credible, very good initiatives coming up from other countries in the world. Many poorer countries including small island states which are directly at the front lines friend of this climate catastrophe. They're going to face it first. Not only small island states, I know we often talk about small island states but also low lying coastal areas. The coast of Bangladesh for instance has already faced great dangerous erosion not only in the developing countries, poorer countries but also in the developed countries, the coastline of the Gulf Coast of the United States, Louisiana, Mississippi, torrential terrible hurricanes coming and tearing through people's lives. Is this a consequence of human produced climate catastrophe? Seems like it is. The difference between this cop now, 2021 in Glasgow Scotland and cop at Paris in 2015 is that in between 2015 and 2021 we've had, I don't know how many, we've had a series of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and they have made an impact. And you know what else has made an impact? How many people did you say today? Today there's an estimate around 100,000. Yesterday there were 25,000 youth on the street. 25,000 young people on the street. Yesterday Zoe and I met with 200 of them who came from Belgium on four buses. They took a long time to fundraise to get these buses and I actually don't know how they drove a bus across the English Channel but these are very smart Belgian children and young people I was very impressed with them. They put climate squarely on the agenda and whereas in 2015 the big countries refused to allow discussion of carbon emissions caps at 2021 cop they have to at least talk about it even though not seriously. Isn't that like a phrase for our times? Talk about it even though not seriously. Human rights on the table also because some of the impact of the carbon crisis is that there'll be human rights violations against people. There is no greater human rights open sore violation on our planet than the people of Palestine what they face. Rashad what's been happening in Palestine? I saw recently another 13 year old boy was killed but what's the story? What's happening there? Right Vijay today I just wanted to bring another update about a struggle we've been covering for a very long time which is that of Sheikh Jarrah and the fact that on Tuesday four families were offered a compromise by the Israeli Supreme Court decided to reject that compromise offer. Now we know that Sheikh Jarrah over the past few months has actually become a microcosm for the larger Palestinian struggle as well because these are people who were refugees who gave up their refugee status who gave the refugee status on the assurance of homes and now they're being told to vacate the homes in which they lived for decades and some Israeli organization claims that the land originally belonged to a Jewish community or Jewish groups and this is almost like a microcosm for the larger issue as well and it's not only the demand by the organization but also the fact that the Israeli state, Israeli legal system have all 100% sided with this organization so it's actually not at all surprising that Sheikh Jarrah became one of the triggers for this mass uprising that took place in Palestine over the past few months and on the one hand of course people around Palestine have been protesting around the world as well but also that these families have been determined that they're not going to exceed an inch so to speak so recently the Israeli Supreme Court offered them a compromise according to which they would be allowed to stay there as protected tenants now it's very important to know the terminology as protected tenants as long as they gave what the Israeli media hailed as a nominal wrench to the organization, to the Jewish organization and also the fact that these families would be allowed to be considered first generation settlers which means they could have descendants two generations of the descendants could stay there all this of course concealing the fact that basically what this meant was while legally they would be allowed to stay there in principle they had given away the rights of ownership to the other organization because you know they're not paying rent and it's not their homes anymore so that really is what it boiled down to and the fact that this was a compromise offered by the Israeli Supreme Court really speaks to how institutionally these families and the Palestinian people have been targeted throughout all these years so now what lies ahead is a difficult question because it is believed that now the court might pronounce a verdict it is possible that the court might favor the organization in which case these families would be faced with a situation where they have to leave now the last time this happened of course it led to mass protests and you know just because these are a few families in what is a small region in East Jerusalem I think doesn't take away from the historic significance of the struggle and the kind of resonance that you know the way it resonates with Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause across the world so definitely something to sort of you know look out for and watch out for as well because we've been seeing and the other aspect of course is the fact that Palestinian hunger strikers are you know they've been striking against administrative retention seven people are hunger strike the longest ones are around 114 days at least two people one somebody somebody or 114 days it's Kaid al-Husuf and the other person on 107 days today and just imagine people on a hunger strike for over three months and their demand is so is basic that the administrative retention policy not you know not be discontinued for them because one of the Kaid al-Husuf who's been in jail in jail since October 2020 and he's just been on administrative retention which is where they keep extending your jail term without mentioning any charges so Israel's solution has been that they have suspended the administrative retention which means that anything happens to these Palestinians it will be the responsibility hospital and Israel can claim that they were not technically in jail when something happened to them organizations warning that their health is in a deep crisis so wherever you look in Palestine whether it be the prisons whether it be your homes whether it be public spaces place a worship al-Aqsa mosque again you know raided by Israeli security forces on Thursday so in every aspect we see an attempt to raise the culture the existence of Palestinians and like you said it's one of the biggest open source of human rights violations on the other hand it is also one of the biggest sites of resistance that people see around us that we see around us today so definitely a lot of issues to keep watch you know Prashant all these stories they could have been written last year five years ago Israeli troops in al-Aqsa another person kill Sheikh Jarrah you know it's it's incredible how there's a repetitive nature to these protests the government of of Chile is toward the end of its term there'll be an election first round in November likely second round in December you know Chile as well there's a cliched quality to the news one Mapuche killed another Mapuche arrested this has happened to Mapuche that has happened to Mapuche this has been going on for almost 500 years Zoe update us what's the latest in the series of I mean I'm sorry to say it but I appreciate stories yeah well really it's it's a very tragic situation in the Mapuche territory while mapu so as we have all of these leaders coming to Glasgow talking about you know the need to protect the environment to support the people in the frontline communities of course the Mapuche people have been resisting to protect their territories from logging from the predatory action of capital in their territories been trying to recover the land that they were violently you know evicted from and as of October 12 Sebastian Pinera declared a state of emergency in the Mapuche territory it's called the Arauconia in Chile and that has essentially meant that the military has been occupying their lands and in this context to a young man of 23 years old Jordan Machacan was killed by a member of the armed forces another was gravely injured dozens of others you know with similar you know bad injuries and this is you know just a horrible situation because it is while these heads of state are talking about the need to protect the environment this is how they're treating people who are protesting to protect their land and this is a pattern that we're seeing quite frequently across Latin America right now using the state of emergency as a tool to quell protests to kind of militarize the response to these protests so in Chile and in the Mapuche territory this has been happening for years but you know Vijay you recently wrote an article with Tarwa in Ecuador Guillermo Lazo has responded to protests in the country in a similar way he's using the kind of excuse of you know drug trafficking and crimes to declare a state of exception in the country which gives the armed forces basically complete impunity to act how they want it actually has a clause in the Ecuadorian state of emergency saying that they will not be penalized for their actions and he believes that they're often treated too unfairly when they commit these crimes similarly farther north in Central America in Guatemala where the indigenous community has been protesting against a nickel mine where companies have been illegally extracting nickel from this mine that was you know technically that was supposed to be suspended and they had been protesting on the streets of Guatemala to block the mining company's trucks from coming in and in response to this what happens the president decrees a state of siege they completely evicted the protests and responded by raiding the homes of dozens members of the indigenous ancestral council by journalists who are accompanying this so this is a very worrying trend that we're seeing and of course in Chile this has resulted in the death of a 23 year old member of the Mapuche community and we've seen this militaries response across the continent, across the region and it's quite worrying and so we need to see I mean it's unfortunate that these leaders come to these big conferences with big words that we're going to invest and that we're going to you know enter into these partnerships fulfill these goals but when it comes down to it the people who are trying to protect nature and trying to conserve the environment and promote alternative solutions and it doesn't mean you know no extractivism across the board but for example in Guatemala they're asking for there to be a consultation that when they are implicated when their territories are going to be affected that they must be properly consulted and this is a ILO convention 169 and so these are very important to keep in mind as we're discussing you know combating climate change preserving the environment that these are the communities who are being affected and also being criminalized being assassinated and the Mapuche community is calling it continuation of the genocide continuation of the genocide you know some people use the term in Palestine permanent nakba permanent catastrophe it's not something that happened in 1948 I suppose continuation of the genocide means it didn't just happen you know when when old Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and so on these are permanent conditions but interesting friends you know you're listening to give the people what they want we bring you these stories every week on our show you read them at People's Dispatch you read them from Globetrotter you get a sense of what's going on and look at what's going on let's try to summarize our show today ok state of emergency declared in Ecuador state of emergency declared in Chile state of emergency in Guatemala why essentially to deal with protesters you know where there's no state of emergency declared in the planet earth there's a climate catastrophe there is no state of emergency during the pandemic there was a state of emergency declared interesting central banks during the pandemic raised or made created manufactured 16 trillion dollars central banks manufactured 16 trillion dollars in the developed countries to help businesses get through the emergency of the pandemic to get through the emergency they were called emergency conditions there's an emergency in Ecuador emergency in Guatemala emergency in Chile and you know we know what happens 23 year old killed there Palestine it's an occupation that's a permanent emergency again a 13 year old killed people from Sheikh Jarrab being evicted and so on pandemic that was an emergency I grant you 16 trillion minimum raised by the central banks the countries of the developed world pledged they pledged to put a hundred billion dollars here I said 16 trillion that's the T word trillion the countries of the developed world pledged to put a hundred billion dollars into a climate fund every year that was the climate fund to help poorer countries make a transition from what is called mitigation mitigation means taking care of the negative impact of catastrophic climate change for instance Iraq is going through a terrible drought now how to mitigate that well one way would be to build perhaps better piping Iraq has a lot of leakage in water pipes and there's therefore a lot of evaporation from the pipes well make better insulated pipes and so on that's mitigation finance and then the green transition finance so that country like India will not rely on coal fired power plants and perhaps use different cleaner sorts of energy non-carbon emissions forms of energy well into that climate fund are peanuts peanuts there is no emergency to fulfill that climate fund during the day of debate at COP when the heads of government and ministers were discussing climate finance there was a day set aside for this during that day what they essentially focused on was to prevent multilateral banks and so on from financing fossil fuel industries that's interesting that's interesting the World Bank didn't join it by the way just in case you're wondering which is one of the major financiers of fossil fuel industries but the sum of money put into that fund is extraordinary okay let's pause again just because I'm doing a lot of summaries because you might be losing the fact in the train of thought 16 trillion dollars raised to help businesses get through the emergency of the pandemic hundred billion dollars pledged annually for the climate fund right now you know there's crickets inside that fund to prevent banks and others from investing in fossil fuel industries they raised 18 trillion 1818 trillion not even near the hundred sorry 18 billion what did I say trillion no now I made a mistake 18 billion not even the hundred billion 18 billion for that and I want you to pay attention to something even that 18 billion is targeting the poorer countries in the world which are mostly reliant on coal fired plants and so on the principal carbon emitters are the advanced countries in the world and China and China largely emits because China is the manufacturer of the world it's emitting on behalf of the major consuming countries in the world they're just not doing anything they're not doing anything climate finance has got to be at the center of the discussion it is not at the center of the discussion place like Iraq it requires finance place like Pakistan requires finance unless we get through that other problems will you know be on the table many other new problems will arise in Pakistan lots of problems are rising what's happening there right Vijay again coming back to an issue we talked about on the show quite often which is which is the Pashtun Taaf whose movement the movement fighting for the rights of Pashtuns and a very important person in that movement Ali Wazir who has been the leader of that movement he's been in jail since December 2020 just a few days ago a court decided to invoke a charge of sedition against him so what of course this is crime of sedition is crime of sedition involved giving a speech which seems to be the favorite reason for invoking sedition for a lot of people so we have Ali Wazir who is in jail for over for close to a year and being charged with sedition on the other side of the spectrum of course is the fact that the TLP which is a right wing party in Pakistan and which just recently conducted a massive rally against the government of Imran Khan ended up basically getting all the compromises it wanted which means basically that at the end of the day the party which was banned for focusing on blasphemy the party which was banned for you know calling for violence against women this party and which was basically asking for the expulsion of the French ambassador this party basically will soon get recognized so what we have right now is two sides of the coin two sides of the spectrum in Pakistan where a left-wing progressive movement which sought justice for the Pashtun people of course the Pashtun Ta'afu movement in March 2017 in the region where because of landmines so many people have lost their lives so many people have lost their limbs and their demand was for justice for these people their demand was for compensation their demand was for removal of these mines their demand was for demilitarization none of these demands which have really been accepted but the leaders of these movements have been persecuted continuously so if you look at we have written about this extensively on people's dispatch many of these leaders facing case after case after case that's that's one hand of course on the other hand we also have many of these leaders and members being targeted by armed gangs for instance Ali Wazir's brother was assassinated just a few years ago in 2005 I believe many members of his family were also assassinated so the irony is striking right now because like I said you have two sides of the spectrum there's a TLP which has made blasphemy its key which is targeted minorities when a Christian woman was acquitted on charges of blasphemy this organization threatened to kill her but this organization actually gets legitimacy from the government there are signs that it might actually be unbanned on the other hand progressive activists people who are fighting for justice cause facing trial after trial after tribulation and today like I said whether it be India whether it be Pakistan whether it be many parts of the world just like you pointed out how emergencies are used to suppress activists sedition is so convenient a charge sedition is so convenient a term such an umbrella term any speech any active even in India right now the very draconian UAPA law has been imposed against various journalists some of whom have just treated about violence taking place in one state so this being the so it remains to be seen of course all the leaders have denied the charges they are going to fight the cases many of them are on bail but it's a bit of a bleak situation for the Pashtun Tawfus movement which is the Pashtun Pride movement as well as the leaders who are actually facing this amount of persecution and violent violence this is a terrible terrible story and I think the connection that you made Prashant between emergency decrees put forward by the presidents of South America and Central America and the link between that and the language of blasphemy and sedition in South Asia I think it's a direct line and it's very insightful that we put this on the table I think we should develop this a little more maybe make an atlas of different forms of the crushing of dissent how different kinds of language is used in different places we're in the middle of a period and I'm surprised we're waiting to the end of the show to get to this because Zoe seems to always report about elections in South America and Central America stunningly they seem to have more elections than other people it's of course not true other countries also have elections but we don't seem to pay attention to them and Prashant that's an indictment of your and my coverage I'm not sure what's going on but well yes there's been a coup in Sudan and so well the question of elections suspended for now there will be elections in India important elections next year the legislative assembly elections to Uttar Pradesh going to be monumental and I know we'll spend time you and I will keep coming back to that election just to catch up with the South American story nonetheless Nicaragua big election big big elections Zoe what's happening well this story is I think much more about US imperialism than it is about the elections themselves of course this plays a huge role but tomorrow Nicaraguans are going to vote in general elections they will elect the president as well as members of the legislation body and you know what has the US done ahead of these elections I think this is the important point here so in the past couple of years the US has been increasing its pressure against Nicaragua you know creating a lot of different narratives about the government being dictatorship being one of the largest violators of human rights that exists on the planet which you know as if you watch given people what they want I think we can point to a lot of other countries that have you know human rights records that are pretty high up there and the US has started to apply a pressure campaign on Nicaragua similar to how it's done against Cuba against Venezuela you know starting with some light you know light sanctions you know targeting some officials you know starting to add Nicaragua to the troika of you know tyranny that it considers that operates out of Latin America and threatens security in the United States and it's really you know group Nicaragua with all these other enemies of the US and you know this is also to deny the fact that Nicaragua if you look at Central America is one of the most stable countries economically in terms of levels of violence I mean we talk about Honduras a lot we talk about El Salvador Guatemala countries where thousands of people are leaving every single day because they're not able to survive and because they're not able to lead a healthy and safe existence in their countries because it's overrun by corruption by US backed leaders who do not have their best interests in mind whereas Nicaragua it's a lot more stable there is you know state support to many different sectors you know the situation of women we just published a piece in the chat about this all that to be said that of course Nicaragua's opinion of US's opinion of Nicaragua has its political motivations and so they have these big elections coming up tomorrow you know of course because of the stable situation in Nicaragua the people are quite in support of the government you know of course they may have their comms they have you know of course not every government has its contradictions but it's very likely that the Sandinista government by Daniel Ortega will likely come back to power and will be elected in these polls tomorrow and so the US in anticipation of this first this week carried out a massive censorship campaign on social media closing the Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts of very active Sandinista activists so these are not you know a lot of them are not government officials are just people who share news about what's happening in Nicaragua share information trying to get the word out because there has been so much censorship and their accounts were closed and actually an official sent out a whole Twitter thread saying that they had done the largest coordinated counter-attack against a troll farm and they go on to say people who are hired to do social media and they're tweeting from nine to five every day and you know they're tweeting these pro-government messages and I mean I don't know we have to ask ourselves doesn't that I mean social media management is a job and people you know have to tweet information out that's just part of what it is and so it's really this kind of and you know no opportunity to get these accounts back just completely shut down then the more you know crushing action that they did was to passing the rena ser act which was passed with partisan support yesterday in the United States and this essentially classifies Nicaragua as you know a threat a human rights threat and proposes a series of sanctions very crushing sanctions which you know only time will tell but will likely have a similar effect to what we've been seeing you know in Venezuela in Cuba and so this is really a dangerous and concerning sign and tomorrow we'll see what happens what will be the response of the U.S. political elites to these elections but Joe Biden has yet to sign the bill but it has already been praised that has been lauded by the likes of Marco Rubio and you know of course people on the other side of the aisle Troika of tyranny that's what the U.S. government calls some of these countries we are the Troika of truth that's Zoe Prashant and I'm Vijay they are from People's Dispatch I'm from Trotter we come to you every week give the people what they want Troika of truth if you like the name tweet about it see you next week bye