 Hello. Today is July 2nd. July 2nd being an important day because yesterday was July 1st, the 100th anniversary of the Communist movement in China. There was a big celebration there, which included Jackie Chan singing Defend the Yellow River. We'll come back friends to the events in China. You've just joined Give the People What They Want on all the channels. Coming to you from People's Dispatch with Prashant and Zoe, the co-editors of People's Dispatch and myself Vijay from Globetrotter. Great to be with you. I hope very much that you'll be with us, that you've been telling your friends about us and so on. Well, I want to start by saying that some news has come out from Europe from the OECD, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the main capitalist block, which has announced a new tax rate for multinational corporations set at 15%. Now, friends, this was a big negotiation, took place at the G7 meeting, took place in the bilateral meetings held by Mr. Biden. United States put pressure on many countries. Great Britain didn't want this, the city of London, a real gangsters' paradise for international corporations. Germany eager for it, a big battle among the Europeans, eventually an agreement comes into effect in 2023. Let's see how it goes. Is this really going to mean pressure on large multinational corporations not to be able to move jurisdictions? Is this going to mean that they have to pay a 15% threshold of taxation? All the devils are in the details. Devil is always in the details of agreements like this. But 15% from big corporations, more difficult for them to hide in tax havens, an interesting development. Let's see where we go. Meanwhile, speaking of tax havens, speaking of people not being able to be in charge and running for their life, news comes from Swaziland where the king, King Maswati, apparently not clear what's going on there, Prashant will tell us, apparently running for his life, running out of Swaziland. I hope he has a bank account somewhere in a tax haven, Prashant, because I don't think anybody is sympathetic right now to King Maswati of Swaziland. What's happening in that country? Absolutely, Swaziland is a country which people's dispatch we've been covering, our correspondent power has been covering for quite a long time. This is not something new, this is a process that has been ongoing for months, for years, through the activities of trade unions, through the activities of the Communist Party, other opposition parties. At the heart of these protests, and this where the king fled following massive protests that broke out in the country, was a very simple demand that democracy be representative, that the kings control over the economic, social and political life of that country no longer be allowed to continue as it is. In fact, one of the manifestations of these protests have been actions against property owned by the king, and the range of property he owns is incredible. He's in charge of a corporation which seems to have ventures in almost every aspect of life in Swaziland. So massive protests breaking out also against the fact that there is a parliament, that there's a prime minister, but of course the prime minister is appointed by the king, there's a parliament which can be disordered at any point by the king, the upper house of parliament is appointed by the king, the lower house. Again, there's what you call an arrangement of chiefs who have to approve the candidates that are appointed. So there's this huge situation where the monarchy, the feudal system basically controls every aspect of life in Swaziland. It's an absolute monarchy. So the protests against this have been building up for quite a few days. What we saw was that protesters trying to deliver petitions to members of parliament. One of the most basic forms of democratic protest, what is considered your right in almost every country in the world. And each time they try to do that, the police, security forces targeting the protesters, multiple attacks happening, massive crackdowns. At some point when the police did not do the job properly, when they refused, the army was brought in. Very scary numbers because on 29th and 30th, I think about 24 people were reported killed over 70 reported injured and these are definitely, these are definitely, this is definitely being underreported because there are also internet crackdowns that are taking, internet crackdowns that are taking place, which means communication is disrupted. The information that is coming in, for instance, from our sources in the communist party of Swaziland is coming to SMS messages to their activists who are in exile outside the country who have been providing these reports. So a very volatile situation and there are reports of children being fired at. There are reports of unarmed protesters, you know, agitating on the streets who have been fired at, policemen barging into homes and attacking people. So there's this complete situation of violence, but at the same time at its core, there's a clear element of instability as well, which I think the people, the trade unions, the protesting sections have realized that and that is how they take it forward. Reports are like you said that the king fled on the 28th of June. Now, it's not 100% sure, but there are various alternatives regarding how to take it forward. The communist party of Swaziland is called for a National Democratic Convention. They're very clear that they don't want any monarchy at all in the life of the people. And if you look at some of our earlier stories from Swaziland, there are very clear examples of the kind of wastage that the monarchy has led to the massive consumption of resources in building luxurious residences, in building luxurious other facilities at a time when the country has faced a huge amount of crisis and the kind of political repression that has also taken place under the monarchy. So the communists are very clear that they don't want any monarchy at all. Some sections trying to say that, you know, let's try to have a constitutional monarchy. But I think the overall sentiment on the ground, the indications are very clear. So very necessary to stand by, support, give solidarity because this is an issue that often kind of drowns out globally. Important to point out Prashant that Swaziland has a population of only a million people tucked in between KwaZulu and Natal in South Africa and Mozambique, a very small country, very significant political developments. You're only going to get that news at peoplesdispatch.org. Hope very much you'll go and take a look at a very good and long story by Pawan Kulkarni. Important story must be read. We're going to move then from the borders of South Africa and Mozambique from Swaziland. We're going to move across the waters to Colombia. Once again in Colombia, do we do stories other than terrible violence against people rising up for justice, Zoe? What's going on in Colombia? Well, Vijay, it's been a couple of weeks since we've given an update in Colombia, but very important to do so on June 28th. It marked two months since the national strike began in the country. While we're not seeing the same levels of mobilization that we were in maybe May and early June, the mobilizations continue and the repression continues. I think that's something that's really important to highlight because it has not ceased. While it's no longer on international news, that doesn't mean that it's stopped. It's quite concerning. Different human rights organizations, a report that was released on July 1st, stated that at least 84 people have been assassinated since the national strike began on April 28th. There have been over 100 cases of gender-based violence and this week there was a very concerning report reported by a lot of alternative media outlets that on the night of June 28th, which was, of course, the two-month anniversary, a 15-year-old was raped by the police officers there. There have been several cases of this, of sexual violence, of sexual torture that has been happening during the two months of strike. Some of the other figures, over 3,000 people have been detained and there are over 70 people that are still disappeared. And for anyone who has been following kind of closely the events that have been happening in Colombia, there have been over the past couple of weeks pretty horrifying images coming out of body parts appearing in rivers. The head of a young boy was found in the plaza in the Department of Varela de Cauca. His head, he was decapitated after being disappeared by police forces. And so I think it's really important that we don't stop talking about Colombia, the demands of the people as we've talked about over the past two months on this show and then all of our reporting on people's dispatch remain. They're calling for the government to stop the brutal persecution and repression of the people. They're calling for an end to neoliberal policies which make things like electricity, internet, access to education and healthcare impossible. I mean, I think at the same time we have to highlight that Colombia is currently one of the global hotspots of COVID infections right now. And the vaccine is privatizing Colombia. And so this is no longer, you know, the government is also distributing vaccines, but people can actually, individuals can buy vaccines. And so what does this mean in a country that has one of the, you know, global highest levels of inequality that people can now, you know, buy the vaccine? It is not being guaranteed. COVID cases are spiking. It's a really, really concerning situation. We have to keep our eyes on Colombia. On July 20th is the anniversary of Colombian independence and social movements, trade unions, left political parties have called for a massive national mobilization. I'm sure that the mobilizations will be continuing in coming days. You know, the youth particularly have been consistently on the streets mobilizing in these historic points of resistance in the, you know, near the bus stations, near the train stations, continuing to reclaim their dignity and demand that the government respect their life. If you get on a boat at Barranquilla in Colombia and you decide to go due north, eventually, if the current stone move you left and right, you'll end up at Santiago de Cuba. Now, you've mentioned that in Colombia, they are privatizing vaccines. It's also a COVID hotspot. Meanwhile, this week, news from the Cuban government comes, which is very interesting. Cuba, a country of 11 million people under a terrible embargo on the 23rd of June, 184 countries in the UN General Assembly voted against the... Well, it's not my language, but voted against the illegal blockade by the United States of Cuba. The reason it's illegal is it goes against the UN Charter. 184 countries out of 193 hold that view. Despite the fact that Cuba has been under blockade, essentially since 1959, despite that, despite the fact that there's only, well, there's only 11 million people on that island. Cuba has produced five vaccine candidates. Most recently, the Abdullah vaccine just announced by the important departments in Cuba. The Abdullah vaccine by good account demonstrates that it has efficacy of 92.28%. Now, my friends, this is a vaccine produced by a socialist country, a tiny country, 11 million people under embargo. It has a vaccine efficacy, 92.28%. This competes with Pfizer at 95% and Moderna, 94%, both mRNA vaccines. So here you have Cuba producing a vaccine which is as good as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine. I think this is very significant. Now, let us see whether Cuba is able to roll this out to other parts of the world. Production lines can be opened and so on. I think quite a historical development that the Cubans have produced this vaccine. And I find it interesting that reporting on this vaccine has been minimal. One would imagine this would be front-page news. Also important to point out, there are five vaccine candidates from Cuba. One of them doesn't require syringe. One of them is an oral vaccine. This has got considerable application in countries where there may not be the funds to buy syringes. Syringes are expensive. The syringe cannot be reused, as we know, given the kind of dangers of reusing syringes and so on. So an oral vaccine is an enormous advance. Let's see whether this oral vaccine can go into production, whether it can help bring vaccination from the estimate of 2024 to sooner than that. It's a bit silly, friends. It's silly that people say, well, you know, better vaccinate. Now in the UK, they're talking about a third jab, a booster jab. Well, it doesn't help you if you don't vaccinate India because, well, along comes the Delta variant from India. The so-called Anglo-Indian variant along comes that if you don't vaccinate other countries, you're not going to be able to protect yourselves. And I think the development of the Cuban vaccines, the five candidate vaccines, including Abdullah, very significant. I just want to remind people just a factual question, factual matter. Cuba is under Nimbago. Cuba is a country of 11 million. Yet it has produced five candidate vaccines. I think this is something reporters need to pay attention to. It's a good story to talk about Cuba and vaccines. I agree, but we're going to do a series of terrible stories. Let's move now. It seems like President Duterte in the Philippines. President Duterte in the Philippines is not going to come as a surprise to people. He has a kind of orientation towards guns and violence and going into the slums and showing people who's boss. Apparently news comes that he wishes to arm various groups, vigilante groups even. People's dispatch did a story about that. Tell us a little bit about Mr. Duterte and the arming of vigilantes. The proposal, according to reports, has been opposed even by some of the president's allies, involves the government arming private volunteer groups. He suggested that the government is open to it. Obviously, like in many other cases, the reason is that this is to better enforce the law. This is quite an alarming organization, civil society organizations, activist groups in the Philippines have reacted to this with a lot of alarm. We did this story about the Philippines. The last story we did was on June 17, in which three people including a 12-year-old girl were killed by the army in the Philippines. At that point, the army said that this was an act of self-defense. There's a particular word which indicates a culture of military armed forces, whether they be the police, the army, killing people and then saying that it was an act of self-defense because the excuse in the Philippines usually is that they were communists. So sympathetic to the communist, to ban communist party. There's even a word called red tagging which is used in the Philippines a lot where activists, workers, students, farmers, all of them are accused of being a communist sometimes after the death. So one of the key concerns raised by civil society organizations, one of the key concerns raised by activist groups is that something like arming private citizens which are essentially militias with sophisticated weaponry is just going to blow open the security situation in the Philippines and escalate the amount of violence that is happening in society which is already at an extremely high rate, an extremely uncontrollable rate. Many reports have been produced, for instance, the International Criminal Code, the chief prosecutor had sought to investigate the role of the government for this so-called war on drugs which has led to thousands of deaths. Again, later reports have pointed out that many of these deaths were, in fact, there was no connection to war on drugs. Many of these actions took place illegally. These were just extrajudicial executions. And now the prospect of arming private groups in order to enforce law just seems is likely to just completely double and triple the violent situation, the situation of violence that's there. And this just, again, escalates the possibility that this whole self-defense or fight back narrative that is so common in the Philippines right now is just going to keep getting. And we've seen all the classic signs of some of these horrible policies that are taking place. We know that there's an anti-terror law in place which has been used to go against a wide variety of cross-sections of people in society. We've seen how farmers, workers, activists, many of these people are targeted, like I mentioned earlier. So there's almost this pattern of escalating violence. There is this bogeyman of the Communist Party which is presented all the time. There is, again, the bogeyman of the war on drugs presented all the time. And now maybe as a last straw kind of a thing, we have, say, private citizens being armed. So very, very alarming situation right now because there's a very clear direction it looks like according to these groups in which the Philippines is going. And that is a direction of more violence and more killing and more persecution of those who stand up for democracy and who are standing up against the government. So very, very dangerous situation right now. Vijay, your mic has been cut. It would have seemed. I thought it was just me. No, you're still here today. Yes, sorry about that. Well, we're talking about journalists getting killed now. We're going to go to Haiti, where our colleague Lautaro Rivera at ARG Medios has been reporting about the killing of a number of journalists. A terrible situation there. Zoe, please tell us what's going on in Haiti. What has Lautaro been reporting at ARG Medios? Well, Haiti, another story that we've been covering pretty consistently since the beginning of the year. Over the past couple of years. Right now. I mean, what Lautaro has been telling us and what he's been reporting in ARG Medios and we'll be releasing a report on people's dispatch. You know, later on today is that the security situation, which has long been kind of a point of difficulty in Haiti has been has gotten much worse. So we know that since the beginning of the year. There's been. The country has been in sort of a political deadlock. Joe will say refuses to leave office, even though his mandate finished in February. He had called for a series of different electoral processes, including a constitutional referendum, which was actually set to take place last Sunday. You know, due to the massive opposition protests demanding that he step down, you know, expressing discontent with how he's managing the situation. You know, they were forced to postpone these elections, as well as from another series of factors. You know, parallely to the situation of political deadlock and of course influence and, you know, a product of this is also the, as you mentioned, the situation of growing insecurity. And on the very early morning of June 30th, you know, 15 people were killed in the Hades Capital Port de Prince and a really, you know, horrifying situation. Two of the people were killed. One is a feminist activist. The other a journalist. And, you know, these two people, they were in the private residence of the journalists. Diego Charles Antoine du Claire was accompanying him at his house and they were shot and killed inside of his house. The police, of course, have come out with a story saying that this was a retaliation attack because of some conflicts between armed groups. You know, the same at the same night, 13 other people are killed in shootings. And so, you know, of course, we have this is a very important situation to pay attention to because, you know, these killings come in a context of increased violence. There have been, you know, 12 massacres, 234 kidnappings, 10,000 displaced from this violence. And oftentimes corporate media will just write this off as this is the destiny of Haiti. This is how it is. Haiti is a violent place. There are violent people. There are violent groups. But I think what's really important is to kind of look a little deeper, look at where these criminal groups, you know, where is their funding coming from? Where are the weapons? There's a report from the camp. I think it's the national campaign for disarmament in Haiti that, you know, revealed that these weapons are all, you know, manufactured in North America and the United States. You know, there's direct links between a lot of these groups and the current government that refuses to leave office. And, you know, above all, the solidarity with the Haitian people who are now forced into kind of a lockdown situation because of this increased violence, don't really have any, you know, options. And the international community continues to prop up, I say international community to refer to, of course, the European Union, the United States, and all of their other kind of institutions. OAS, continue to prop up Jovenin Moise, who has, you know, not done much to deal with a security situation. Maybe he's benefiting from it. The people were on the streets en masse, you know, for months against his rule. So there's a lot of questions to be asked. Why isn't there more condemnation of what's happening? Why is the wire, you know, Western imperialist powers continuing to prop up this leader who is can be classified as a dictator as he overstayed his term in office. So, you know, always really important to pay attention to Haiti, pay attention to the reports that Lautar was writing on the ground from Haiti and, you know, a really horrible situation. The assassination of journalists, assassination of activists and assassination of civilians who have, you know, their only crime is just living in the city. Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in China. You know, I think 13 people met in Shanghai in 1921, sometime in July. Mao Zedong later said it was perhaps on July 1st, but I think that's one of those. It's a familiar thing in the old world. People don't know the exact birthday. They say, well, I was born in 1920 or 1921 somewhere around there. It's quite fitting that in China, it's 1921. Sometime in July becomes July 1st. Yesterday, there was a very big celebration in China and in other parts of the world, people offering solidarity. Yes, there are stories to be read at the People's Dispatch website about this all fine. Meanwhile, what is the other reaction to China? News breaks, Financial Times cover story yesterday. Brilliant story about how Japan and the United States have started to war game, serious war gaming in the name of a relief operation with their ships off the coast of Taiwan in the name of a relief operation. US officials telling the Financial Times that essentially they're planning war game exercises and have been doing this since 2019 when Shinzo Abe was the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Suga of Japan hasn't changed the policy. In 2015, Japan decided to walk somewhere away from their pacifist orientation. The pacifist orientation in the Constitution allowed this kind of aggressive military activity to take place in the South China Sea. Very chilling developments in the South China Sea. United States with so-called freedom of navigation operations has been running shipping very close to the Chinese territorial waters. We see in fact the Chinese director of waters being breached on several occasions. Now, friends, it's not just against China. News reports come from the Black Sea. News reports come from near Crimea. News reports come from the Baltic Sea of very close and serious provocations between NATO's warships and the Russian Navy. In the Baltic Sea, NATO has conducted sea breeze, a big operation, 30 different countries involved and so on. Recently, a Dutch frigate, Everton, clashed with a Russian boat in the Baltics. Meanwhile, the HMS defender, a British warship, coming up sailing right up into Crimean waters, provoking Russia because NATO says that Crimea is not part of Russia. Provoking Russia, instead of having a conversation of diplomats to talk about the status of Crimea, the status of the Donbas, the question of Ukraine, instead of having a serious discussion about that, the government of Boris Johnson United Kingdom has sent the HMS defender to go in there and provoke Chinese warships in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea. Extraordinarily chilling developments. Mr. Putin was asked in an interview, he talked to Ekaterina Berozavskaya. He told Berozavskaya that he's worried about the situation. He says, there was comprehensive provocations as Mr. Putin. It was conducted not only by the British, but also by the Americans. He gives details of a NATO airfield in Greece from which US strategic reconnaissance aircraft took off. He said the tail number is 63 slash 9792. It's classic Putin, an old KGB operative, always ready with details such as this, giving us the exact tail number of the US strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Very chilling developments on both sides of Eurasia. On the one side, inside China, the people are celebrating 100 years of their communist history. 100 years, this is of course not the age of the People's Republic of China, which is merely born in 1949. This is not what is being celebrated. It's the communist history. Xi Jinping gives a big speech and so on in Tiananmen Square. But of course, meanwhile, these very chilling developments, we'll be keeping an eye on this. We'll be looking at this carefully. We'll be reporting it carefully from People's Dispatch and Globetrotter. You've been listening to Give the People What They Want comes to you every Friday from peoplesdispatch.org and Globetrotter. We hope that you'll come back next week. We hope that you'll bring a crowd. We hope that you'll come and read our stories. We're doing all this for you. We'd love to hear from you. Take care of yourselves and see you next week.