 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello, today is October the 15th. You're watching Give the people what they want. Your weekly news roundup. It's not to you, of course, by people's dispatch. I'm joined by my colleague, Zoe, and we'll soon have Vijay from Blow Trotter joining us as usual for the show. I started with how today is October 15th. It's special for a number of reasons. The most important reason, of course, being the fact that today is the anniversary of the brutal assassination of Thomas Sankara, the great Marxist revolutionary from Burkina Faso. And this is a day when a lot of people reflect on what might have been if that brutal assassination did not take place because Thomas Sankara was bringing about drastic massive change in Burkina Faso that was radiating across Africa, across the global south, and was coming forth with a vision which really was transformative. So today is the day to remember him. Today is the day to remember his legacy. It's important to note that the trial of his assassins has started now. That's 34 years after his murder, the trial of his assassins has started. Among those being indicted, among those who are sort of being charged is his successor, his former aide and comrade, Blaise Campore, who became the president of Burkina Faso after his assassination, was in power until 2014 when he was overthrown by a people's movement. And now he's in the ivory coast. He's taken asylum. He's refused to take part in the trial as says another prominent military aide. And the trial is very important for a variety of reasons. Of course, there is the question of justice which Sankara's family, Sankara's comrades have been demanding for decades now. But there is also the question of the revelation of details and facts which remain hidden to this day. And key among those details is the question of what was the nature of involvement of the ex-colonial powers such as France as well as the United States. There are reports, for instance, in which there's Book Washington Bullets. You can read about how there are reports that officials who were associated with Liberia said Liberia's petrol emergency, for instance, clearly said some years later that there was definitely a U.S. and French involvement in the assassination of Sankara. And the reasons for this are pretty obvious because what Thomas Sankara was saying at that time was radical and continues to remain radical today. For instance, his views on the question of debt which today is one of the pressing issues of our time as we have discovered in the year, in the past year during the pandemic. What Sankara talked about was how officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had become technical assassins. And for instance, he said that we cannot repay the debt because we're not responsible for this debt. And this was the kind of questioning that was so essential at a time in the 80s when the IMF and the World Bank were resurgent once again when they were offering third world countries this package of austerity. We'll talk about that more later, which destroyed so many economies. So the kind of questioning Sankara was doing at that time was so essential, was so important. And his brutal assassination marked a very tragic end to not just his own life, but also to an entire experiment. Of course, a lot of other reforms in the area of bringing women to government, in the area, for instance, of land reform, in the area of food sovereignty, in all these aspects despite Burkina Faso being a relatively small country. Sankara was able to establish and achieve so much. And we talked yesterday to Kambale Musawoli, an activist from the Congo who was saying that even today for young Africans, what Sankara represents is the possibility of dreaming, is the possibility of realistic socialist change. So it really, France has said that it will release more documents regarding the assassination and the murder of Sankara. Some documents haven't released. They haven't been made public yet. Documents from the president's office at that time, Fransfabi Trahis, documents haven't been released yet. So there is a very clear demand for justice and there is a lot that possibly stands to be revealed, including what the United States and France were doing at that time is very clear evidence that there was definitely some kind of involvement. So we will be watching this. We will be covering this in the coming weeks and months as well. And what we can hope for is that not only is justice delivered for Sankara's family, his comrades, but also that his vision, his vision of a different kind of world, his vision of a global south, a vision of a third world which actually fights back in terms of creating a different system altogether is recognized, is realized. So that's what you call, from Thomas Sankara, of course we moved to another vital issue. I see that Vijay has joined us. Welcome Vijay. Which is that people who in some senses are continuing what Sankara talked about, continuing his vision and his vision through struggles, through popular protests, through attempts to build a different kind of systems. And as far as I understand, in the United States, there's been a wave of labor actions in recent times. So we will be talking about it. Yeah, well this wave is now being referred to on social media and in common talk as Strecktober because there's really a, not unprecedented because actually the United States, contrary to what many mainstream media wants to tell us, has a very rich history of labor organizing. But in recent months, people have been really organizing and fighting back against also decades of union repression against organized labor and many legislative attacks. And today, sorry, Wednesday night, 10,000 workers from John Deere, which is one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural equipment and machines, went on strike. It's the largest private sector strike in the U.S. history. The last time John Deere workers went on strike was in the 70s and they had a month-long strike where they actually won an important battle. And today they're back on the streets. They're back on the picket line to demand fair working conditions. John Deere, like many other large corporations in the United States, has implemented a tiered system in terms of treating workers. So the older workers who have been there the longest who maybe were part of these older generations of labor organizing demanding rights, they actually are able to keep their pension rights because John Deere and all these other corporations know that they can't, you know, there are agreements made, they can't really go back on them. However, for the people who are, you know, new hires, new employees, maybe less skilled as they like to say in the capitalist sense, they actually are afforded less rights. And so there's a tiered system. So people who are hired after a certain year are not given or do not have a right to a pension. They don't have, the company will not contribute to their pension. They won't ensure that they have healthcare after they retire. And so the workers were presented with a contract through the United Auto Workers, the UAW, one of the largest unions in the U.S. And, you know, they overwhelmingly rejected this deal because this tiered system, which existed before had two tiers, now the company wanted to add a third tier, guaranteeing even less rights to these workers. And it's really in a direct way to try to divide people. You can have some rights, you can't, you were hired. You know, so, and it's really interesting because the workers are fighting against this. They're saying it's not okay for some of us to have rights and some of us to not. And so now we're seeing a really impressive industrial action at 14 facilities of John Deere across the United States. Very, very important, as I said, largest private sector strike in the U.S. in recent history. And then on Monday, workers with the union that represents film crew workers in Hollywood are also set to go on strike. And so it's a really exciting time where, you know, of course we saw the economic crisis really come to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions lost their jobs. Millions were forced into the informal sector or into precarious, you know, no contract jobs without benefits. And people are saying, this isn't enough. We can't survive with this. They're organizing. Union membership is growing. The U.S., as I mentioned before, had, you know, very coordinated attacks against organized labor. So union membership had reached historic lows. Now we're seeing that being reversed. It's very inspiring these people taking to the streets, connecting their struggles to the struggles of other workers. And I think it's extremely inspiring. We are at People's Dispatch. Of course, they're going to be following Striketober. Very inspiring and excited to see what will happen in Hollywood next week. Well, I'm sorry I'm late. And all I can say is that, well, you know, I'm going to be talking now about the non-aligned meeting that's taking place hosted by Serbia and Azerbaijan. Friends, it's the 60th anniversary of the non-aligned movement. And I have to say, it's not a really, it's not a propitious time for the NAMM block. You have Azerbaijan, as I said, one of the co-hosts of the NAMM. Azerbaijan was recently in a war with Armenia. You know, it's a very unclear issue where the country should have the presidency of a multilateral body like that when it's in the middle of a conflict. But nonetheless, that's where we are. Serbia, of course, when it was part of Yugoslavia, one of the great founders of the NAMM 60 years ago. Now, again, in a weakened position, the NAMM, of course, putting forward the two main issues, pressing issues of our time, one of them, of course, being vaccines. The question of vaccines was at the center of the discussion. Not sure really if there was anything new put forward by the NAMM block regarding vaccines, but it's very clear that the U.N. General Assembly president, he said that he was looking forward to advancing some of this part of the NAMM agenda. There's deep frustration in the countries that belong to the non-aligned movement. Now, the majority of the world's countries, you know, deep frustration that the vaccine agenda hasn't advanced at all. There's really no discussion about the question of having a vaccine, you know, a moratorium on the patents, allowing patents to be set aside, allowing vaccines to be delivered and so on. Many countries, as we've already talked about, are already on their third, on their booster jab, significant that in some countries there's been no jab. It's important to note that in Ireland, the country of Ireland, the health ministry said, well, they're at 92% of vaccination, 92% of vaccination. By the way, friends, there are many countries, member states of the NAMM, where the vaccination rate is lower than 29%, let alone 92%. Yet the health ministry in Ireland, I thought quite sophisticatedly, said that this is too little, that they want to come closer to 100%. That's the objective for Ireland. I must say it should be the objective for the other countries in the NAMM. So one of the main issues at the non-aligned meeting was vaccine apartheid was really raising the question of vaccines to the fore. The other issue of pressing importance, and I know that Zoe and I will both be at the COP26 in Glasgow, reporting from Glasgow for the question of climate change, on the question of climate change. But that was the other big issue at the NAMM, raising the question of climate change, raising the question of mitigation, cost towards mitigation, cost towards shifting to so-called green energy and so on. That was on the table at the meeting hosted by Serbia and Azerbaijan. Now, once more, important to note that you can put this on the meeting, you can have as much discussion as you want about mitigation, costs and so on. But you know that once you get to Glasgow, the big powers are going to come and suffocate all the discussion. Joe Biden, president of the United States, has announced that he is going to send 12 high officials to Glasgow. 10 of them will be cabinet members, 10 cabinet members coming from the United States. This is going to be a suffocation of the debate. The US is going to drive the agenda. It's very clear they're not going to permit countries that are member states of the NAMP for having a major role at the meeting in Glasgow. So we're going to see what happens at Glasgow. We're going to see if there is further discussion in the UN General Assembly of the vaccine question. But by and large, I have to say, 60th anniversary of the non-aligned movement wasn't a very bold, wasn't a very, you know, well, I'm struggling for words here because I don't want to be too frank, but I thought it was a disappointing meeting given that it was a major anniversary, given the fact that so much could have been put on the table. Quite, I think, sobering that the meeting was quite banal. It was not really like a head of state meeting. It was like a foreign minister's meeting or perhaps even a health minister, environment minister meeting. It was a very mild gathering and, you know, it's not something that one should set aside because the NAMP is an important foundation for multilateralism or for multipolarity. Let's hope that at the 61st meeting of the NAMP, things are a little different. You know, we came to this story from the John Deere strike. We're going to go to another strike. This is the strike in Italy. Prashant, what's happening with that strike? Right, Vijay. It's an interesting question because, of course, in Italy, there was a massive strike that we saw last week. And this was on a variety of issues, a lot of which stem from the pandemic you mentioned, the issue of vaccines. Italy, again, one of those countries which is administering booster doses, but also imposing a lot of very strict restrictions regarding vaccines. And this has led to a lot of polarization for lack of better word, which has been used by certain right-wing elements conveniently to launch some massive mobilizations. And I think this is an issue that, you know, across the world, especially in Europe, it is something that we sought to be to watch out for because anti-vaccination sentiments combined with right-wing mobilizations are actually a very dangerous phenomenon across the world. They promote not only, I mean, of course, there is a massive health risk on the one hand, but also promote very problematic anti-scientific attitudes. They are a huge shot at the arm for the right-wing across the world. And so on the one hand, we have been having these mobilizations. And on the other hand, there has been the Italian left, the trade unions, which have been raising a very different set of demands and which are basically that the last one year of the pandemic has shown how in terms of policies, Italy has become so bankrupt and Italy is a very good case to examine this. One of the worst countries, worst affected by the pandemic in Europe, unemployment has risen by about one million in the past one year alone. And it is led by what today, what is supposedly great in the 90s, but today has been truly exposed, which is a technocratic prime minister. I mean, at some point, every country wanted a technocratic leader, but now the limitations of such leaders and politics have been exposed. But nonetheless, the Mario Rahi government is a complete experiment in technocratic politics and the kind of policies that is followed, the way it is stood by and stood behind the big industry as they are fired people across sectors is pretty appalling for lack of better words. So what the unions have been protesting continuously is exactly this policies. This is not the first strike. There have been many, many such protests in recent times. And the other issue, of course, was that some of these anti-vax protesters, the day before the strike, had attacked the office of one of the biggest unions in Italy, that is the CGIL. And they had ransacked the office, destroyed it, and at that point, the police were barely there. After that, of course, Rahi came out with a huge set of condemnations, but at that point when the union office was being destroyed, there was very little action. So this strike was also an attempt, an opportunity to register very strong protests against the government, the politics of the current political system for basically promoting this kind of right-wing mobilizations because it is the failure and the political bankruptcy of this system that has actually led to the rise of the right-wing. So very difficult times for Italians as a whole for Italy's left as well because they really have a huge challenge in terms of how to sort of move ahead and how to make sure that these mobilizations don't, you know, that the right-wing doesn't keep on growing because of the vaccination policies because the general lack of knowledge about vaccines because of the rumors and misinformation that is happening around vaccines. So all of these, I think it's also a challenge and an opportunity for the trade unions, for the left to keep raising these issues among their members, among their constancy and say take it forward. Right. So that's what's happening in Italy, a very important country to sort of keep an eye on in the coming weeks and months as well because like I said, a lot of what is being seen in Italian politics, in politics, in European politics, in politics in countries across the world are reflecting around this. So it looks like Vijay has been forced to drop out due to internet connections. So we shall move on to our next story, which is again, a story of resistance, of protest. It's one of those good weeks where not give the people what they want. We are able to report more protest than depressing news of hunger and violence and structural inequalities. So this here, we're talking of course about protests from Latin America, protests from the indigenous sections who have been over the years some of the most powerful upholders of democracy of human rights in the struggle against capitalism in the struggle against extractivism. So Zoe, take us through what has been happening in the struggle of indigenous peoples across Latin America. Yeah, well as you mentioned Prashant, it's been a very powerful week in terms of mobilizations across the Americas of indigenous communities because this week, the second Monday of October is in the United States, for example, historically celebrated as Christopher Columbus Day. In Latin America, this is the 12th of October, is celebrated as what nations call, it's hard to say because it's such a kind of ridiculous name. It's the encounter of two worlds. And so, you know, these holidays that were created by, you know, the government, the U.S. governments across Latin America and America are these, you know, horrific symbols of what was kind of the invasion of the Americas by colonizers, by the Spanish, by the French, Portuguese, British, and really they've become in some places kind of this nationalistic celebration, this kind of part of this process that tries to erase the history of genocide of the violent process of colonization that, you know, occurred in the Americas. And in response to this, of course, for centuries, you know, indigenous communities, indigenous people have been resisting this. They've been resisting the process of colonization, the genocide. And of course, you know, when these holidays became institutionalized there was also resistance. In the United States, this Columbus Day has been a strong point of contention. As many point out, and also factually incorrect, Columbus did not even, you know, in his voyages, he did not even arrive to what is known as North America. He, of course, was part of the voyage that invaded the Caribbean and, you know, of course caused genocide and ethnic annihilation there. But he really, you know, in the U.S. he didn't really have much of a he wasn't part of that. And so in the U.S. people have been for decades demanding to be eliminated and be replaced with indigenous peoples day. In Latin America, the meeting of two worlds day has been, you know, there's been a push to replace this. And in many countries is recognized as indigenous resistance day. In countries like Bolivia where, you know, an indigenous government actually came to power and brought forth the proposal of a plurian national state recognizing it's, you know, multiple indigenous communities, multiple indigenous nations. They, of course, do not celebrate the meeting of two nations. And so this day has been, you know, very important in neighboring Chile. They continue to recognize this colonial holiday. And, you know, of course, Chile is one of the places of greatest repression of indigenous movements that Mapuche people have been under constant attack. And so on this on the 12th of October, while we saw a lot of, you know, impressive protests across the continent, there was a very unfortunate incident in Chile. Mapuche people carried out a massive peaceful protest and they were met with brutal, brutal police violence, you know, pretty reflective of what the attitude of the Chilean government has been to this community. And in this repressive actions a human rights defender, Denise Cortez, was killed. The police are saying that she was attacked by a rocket that was a firework that was fired by the protesters. But multiple witnesses have said that she was hit by a projectile by the police. The infamous Carabineros in Chile. And so this week has just has been a lot of, you know, resistance, historical resistance, resisting this narrative, this colonial narrative that governments still are trying to impose in the U.S. There was also, there's been a week of protest organized by indigenous organizations and communities demanding that the Biden government take action on, you know, climate change, stop extractive projects which is one of the biggest issues for indigenous communities in North America from the tar sands, the oil pipelines, you know, just so many different fronts of struggle there. And so I think it's really important that, you know, on this week which represents so much history, so much contentious history and so much resistance that this really be lifted up, we can look at the example of Bolivia, you know, thousands of people marching in defense of the defense of the indigenous socialist government that has been there to defend the rights of indigenous people and really set an example for the world. So this is kind of the roundup of the week of indigenous resistance and indigenous people's day. I know tomorrow is world food day. We have people's dispatch along with other media projects have been involved in publishing a series on hunger in the world in the lead up to this world food day. So Prashant, what can you tell us about what's happening with hunger in the world today in India? Right, like you said it's an important day also because people kind of forget about hunger I mean when you're talking about the issues facing the world, many pressing issues of course, but the appalling fact that millions live in such precarious hunger is truly disgraceful it's something some people almost take for granted you know that's like so I think one of the important aspects of what we have been doing with the hunger series as well as many other organizations which I think Zoe will talk about is actually to put it front and center and in India's case it's especially important because just today actually reports came that India slipped in the global hunger index to the 101st spot and this is behind almost all its neighbors it's behind so many other countries, 101st on the index is pretty bad for a country of India's power, India's size, its GDP important thing of course to note in India's case is that the granaries or the government go downs as they call it are full to the brim India's had record harvests for quite some time now so it's unbelievable that say you know a country which has this is still suffering so badly in the global food index in terms of various indicators the government of course can testing it but I think the facts on the ground are pretty clear Zoe could you maybe take us through also what popular movements are actually doing on the occasion of World Hunger Day or Food Day it's a super important point because of course in hunger as major global problem in the 90s became very acute and there were many responses from the more corporate NGO sectors the concept of food security was emerged but popular movements said it's not enough for there to be enough calories going into people's stomachs and it's not enough for there just to be any type of food food is a extremely political issue how the food gets produced and so you know movements that are part of the international platform La Via Campesina which is a network of you know peasant movements agricultural movements across the world which also merged in this moment of you know struggle when the land and control over food systems became such a pressing issue and the emergence of kind of the neoliberal era they came up with the concept of food sovereignty and so when talking about food sovereignty it's thinking about the fact that people need to eat but they also need control over how food is produced how is it distributed and how people are able to consume this because when we look at the food production today I know at least in the Americas the use of pesticides is a huge problem so the food that most people get access to is highly toxic has a lot of chemicals what people are consuming is not even healthy and so La Via Campesina has you know come up with this concept of food sovereignty to say that nations need to be able to have the right to produce food for their people produce healthy food for the people they need to ensure this give support to small peasants who are actually the people who are able to sustain the world once again the COVID-19 pandemic gave us the clear lesson that even though marginalized sectors such as peasants such as service workers are seen as expendable they're the people who sustain our society and sustain our economy and allow us to continue surviving so in this week on World Food Day the Via Campesina is commemorating 25 years in the struggle for food sovereignty there have been organizing a lot of different activities to raise awareness of you know the victories they've had in certain places I think we've talked a lot about the landless world workers movement they've made enormous strides within Brazil to demand the right to produce food for the people to have the right to the land of course in many of these countries the system of land tenureship is also extremely unequal and so I think these are all really important concepts and ideas to think about when we're talking about who gets to produce food who gets to eat it and who gets to distribute it of course this is very you know on an international stage this is a very complex issue but it's things we need to be talking about when we're thinking about struggles for transformation and struggles for justice so stay tuned to the Via Campesina they'll be publishing a lot of different things we'll be launching the pdf of all the hunger stories tomorrow reports from across the world about the situation of hunger in these countries and the struggle of movements to be able to make that gap absolutely Zoe we began with Thomas Sankara of course and we end with World Food Day it's important because Sankara once said that he who feeds you controls you and I think that's important thing to remember on a day like this both the legacy of a powerful revolutionary and the challenges ahead in making sure that everyone is just able to at least eat so that's all we have in today's show this was give the people what they want brought to you by People's Dispatch and Globe Trotter we will definitely see you next week with hopefully more stories of protests and resistance of people building something else building something better not in the Joe Biden way of course but in a very very different kind of way so until then see you