 Hello, you're watching give the people what they want today is June the 25th. We have it's me Prashant and Zoe from people's dispatch Hi Zoe and we are missing our comrade and friend Vijay Prashad who's right now at a very important meeting in Caracas in Venezuela We'll come to that of course in a few minutes like I said today is June 25th It's a very important day in India because it marks the anniversary the 46th anniversary of the imposition of the internal emergency and this was in 1975 during the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi Now this was a very problematic day very dark day for India's democracy Even now there are a lot of accounts of it, there are a lot of reports of how people suffered For nearly 21 months democracy was pretty much completely suspended in India and the administration happened to the women's and fancies of the prime minister and mainly her son Sanjay Gandhi as well For India which had become a democracy in 1947 this showed the extent of how easy it was to actually subvert this democracy and ever since then there's been a lot there were a lot of efforts immediately after those 21 months when Indira Gandhi was defeated to make sure that it would be far more difficult to do that Now of course we are in 2021 it's been 46 years later A lot of people over the past many years have been talking about the emergency a lot because for many of the people who lived to those days these days especially the past seven years under the BJP government of Narendra Modi these days remind them a lot of what happened between 1975 and 1977 those 21 months because while there has been no official declaration of emergency there has been no formal subversion of democracy so to speak What we do see in India of course is the fact that there has been a hollowing out of institutions there has been a huge lack of accountability there has been a suppression, there has been attacks, targeting of critics of the government Laws are passed without the consultation of those who are going to be affected despite opposition So what we are seeing right now in India is of course not a formal emergency but many have called it an almost maybe informal emergency where the processes of democracy are very much alive, elections are held, people go to vote there is technically a free press but many have raised the questions that are these actually fulfilling their roles when democracy can be subverted to the massive use of money power which is where there is no accountability when the press in various ways has been pressured is playing a very psychophantic role many press organizations playing a very psychophantic role towards the government then really the question arises in terms of how do you sort of, what is democracy? Democracy is when there are checks and balances in place when the will of the people is adequately reflected So all these are very much big questions that are before India today We are also moving towards another month of the farmer struggle I think I believe it's the seventh month and again same questions as the farmers who spend all these months on the outskirts of Delhi talking about issues of their livelihood but those in power really not listening to them really not concerned about them while the supporters of those in power call them anti-nationals, they call them terrorists same thing with for instance student activists who have been protesting for a better world so to speak for Hindu, Muslim, religious unity suddenly being declared terrorists suddenly being declared you know say authors of some kind of conspiracy to disrupt peace So a big challenge as far as India is concerned right now and I think every year on the anniversary of this emergency this is something progressive people who want to build a better India remember this anniversary and ask themselves the same question that how do we make sure that those difficult days when so many people were in jail when there's a complete separation of democratic rights how do we make sure that those do not happen again So it's something to I think this reflect on in this show because this is a show where we talk about people's movements in the present of the past and their organic links Speaking about anniversaries of course another major anniversary being marked in Venezuela right now which comes from a very different political trajectory Kali's with it a very different sense of hope, a very different sense of promise for the world Zoe tell us what's happening in Venezuela right now where we're in Yes well yesterday June 24th was the 200 year anniversary of the Bicentennial of the Battle of Carabao and so this battle was one of the crucial battles in the struggle for liberation from the Spanish monarchy in the northern part of South America Simon Bolivar defeated the Spanish royalist troops some kilometers west of Caracas, Venezuela and this is you know in today's time when this region the same region of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador you know continue to face the forces of imperialism and the forces that want to dominate and colonize these lands this battle and this anniversary is you know all the more important this was not the definitive you know anniversary of independence of liberation from Spanish rule but it marked a very important defeat of these forces and so right now in Venezuela there are hundreds of social leaders you know activists trade unionists leaders in political parties from across the world you know we're talking Ghana lots of places in the Middle East North Africa Europe United States all across Latin America they're all gathered in Venezuela to commemorate this historic anniversary and to once again come together you know to manifest unity against imperialism against policies of the far right globally and using that kind of this you know incredible mystica and symbolism of the battle of Carabao to renew their efforts for unity and to fight against imperialism and so for the last four days people have been organized in different working groups you know discussing the battle of ideas and the importance of communication talking about women's issues and you know coming together again you know across people from across the world in different political formations to discuss what is the United People strategy to confront these topics and it's been really inspiring and really incredible and then yesterday when the when this bicentennial congress this global congress concluded there was also the 19th meeting of Alba Tesefe so as we know sorry there's a plane flying overhead right now but as we know you know Alba Tesefe is a platform the Bolivarian Alliance for People of our America which is you know was a big and important initiative of Hugo Chávez and Pierre Castro to create you know Latin American unity in the face of US imperialism and to create a space where countries in the region could come together for economic agreements for trade agreements and also for building political power and developing other projects in other areas so right now you know leaders again from across Alba countries from Bolivia from the Caribbean a lot of different Caribbean countries St. Vincent, Grenadine, Semenica various countries there have gathered in Caracas also to commemorate the Battle of Carraboa but to come together for of course this very important meeting of Alba Tesefe again in this this light of people's unity of course this is from the side of the government so we've had a lot of government leaders and they took really important strategic definitions on the key issues facing these countries right now which of course as we know the COVID-19 pandemic the region of Latin America has been very hard hit and of course you know with countries like Cuba with countries like Venezuela they have had the added challenge of dealing with the blockade in sanctions and yesterday again this has just been a really good week of news for Latin America because yesterday during the summit they announced that Venezuela would be buying I don't have the exact number in front of me but some millions of doses of Cuba's vaccine Abdullah so you know this is really showing the importance of having regional unity of building between left projects progressive projects and what does that mean how can that have you know actual material manifestations to better the lives of people and not depend on imperialist forces for their charity or for their kind of breadcrumbs that they're going to throw at these countries so really important time the battle for this anniversary has brought a lot of really you know incredible unity incredible developments in the region and I think that's it really and you know in that sense as I said the the the vaccine cooperation has been really important throughout the pandemic Cuba and Venezuela have also been working really closely with China and Iran to overcome you know everything that's been happening so I just wanted to hear Prashant what's happening in Iran we know there have been developments with regards to the US and their continued aggression there absolutely right because it's interesting that you mentioned that one of the aspects talked about in the series of seminars with a battle of ideas the importance of communication it's something we also truly believe in and it's also very clear that it's something that the United States is very worried about as well because over the past few days we got to know that about 33 domains including that of Press TV which is the Iranian news agency have been seized by the United States it's it's quite an unseemly site because you go to presstv.com and you have this glaring image which declares that this website has been seized by the it's because the domain name the US has control over that domain name Press TV is still functioning in at presstv.ir I believe but I think this raises a couple of important questions first of all you know the charge that's of course made is that the Iranians are spreading disinformation or misinformation whatever you call it of course what they mean in this context is that the Iranians were spreading information or publishing news which did not match the imperialist agenda of the US and there's really no other explanation of that fact because why would you go and seize the sites of you know very legitimate mainstream news organizations nobody is nobody has questioned that the Press TV for instance or Almasira TV which is run by the Houthis in Yemen they have provided very vital information about not only their own countries but about perspectives which almost never do not appear in the US mainstream media so despite all this talk about you know which the US and its functionaries are always happy to trot on about freedom of expression about the United States and the West being this kind of beacon of hope where people from oppressed countries suddenly come to speak up what we see is a very ugly kind of information grabs so to speak or a step in an information war where you just sort of do it to make a point and this is also especially depressing especially unfortunate because we do know that in Vienna right now over the past few weeks at least they have been talks to make sure that they were to try to find out how the US can come back to the Iran nuclear deal now yet again just we need to examine the situation because we have five or six countries sitting together to try to figure out how the US which walked out of the deal in 2018 can come back like which other country would be allowed this kind of luxury where you know you walk out of a deal and then you set conditions about how you think the deal is not bad and some years later once your government changes everyone has to sit together to figure out how you can come back and during all this time the people of Iran has suffered due to blockades due to sanctions we've read about how the COVID-19 situation in Iran was objectively worsened due to the kind of blockade and restrictions Iran at least and right now the Iranians and maybe the Russians the Chinese even the European countries are all working together to try to figure out how the US can come back how some kind of relief can be granted to the people in Iran and we have a step like this which just serves to vitiate the atmosphere Iran has a new president of course the United States and the West again going you know calling a referring to him as some kind of arch conservative and he may have whatever his politics is that's a different matter it's of course a far more nuanced matter than that but again we see this massive information war and a step like this is we talked about hybrid wars in the past which are waged against countries like Iran and Venezuela and Cuba and yet this is yet another example of a step like this where you just sees those domains so very unfortunate development we need to see how in the coming weeks whether this will impact the process in Vienna or not or you know whether this will lead to say a fresh stalemate because what the US sections of the US establishment would like is a fresh stalemate and it's a very simple reason because they want to expand the contours of the Iran nuclear deal so the deal was just about you know nuclear processing in Iran now they want to make it about ballistic missiles now they want to make it about the so called support Iran provides to various say groups various groups various legitimate organizations in the region which is Iran's business because it's a player in the region whereas one thing we often talked about in the past is how the US is not in West Asia but it continues to dictate terms in West Asia about how people should behave how countries should behave so all this pointing to a very dangerous trend you know there was some hope that it would get better after Trump left some in some ways it has maybe maybe on Yemen maybe in a couple of issues it has but the broad thrust of US policy still remaining the same towards Russia towards China towards Iran and for that matter towards Cuba as well and I think we saw a very good example over the past few days both of the kind of absurd policies the US is following and also support Cuba has so we're going to talk about what's been happening globally at the General Assembly and even otherwise yeah definitely I mean as I mentioned before it's been you know a good week in Latin America in terms of international solidarity and kind of a real show of strength and perseverance against US imperialism and so this week you know on Monday scientists in Cuba announced in a press conference that their vaccine the first Latin American vaccine the first anti-Covid vaccines be created in Latin America by Cuban doctors in Cuban laboratories of Dalla has 92.28% efficacy so that is really impressive and incredible victory I mean really just shows that even despite the blockade Cuba goes to all efforts to put the people first to put you know the growth and focus on science and technology on education on strengthening public institutions for the people's good and so this was obviously met with a lot of excitement and support and then on Wednesday was another historic day because it was the UN General Assembly and Cuba since 1992 has taken to the General Assembly to use it as a platform as it is of human rights of what should be you know respect international law to denounce the criminal blockade that is that it suffers under the United States and every year it's been presenting a resolution that essentially calls for an end to the embargo highlighting the devastating impacts that it has had not only on the economy because I mean just to say a number just in between April 2020 and December 2020 the blockade caused 3,586.9 million dollars of losses to the Cuban economy so that's a huge number I mean it's hard to even conceptualize because this is money that the Cuban government that the Cuban state that the Cuban people have lost because the United States does not agree with their government it does not agree with their policies but beyond I mean what that number also kind of says is that what does that mean for the impact on the lives of people and so this report they also outlines all of the impacts that it has had on the Cuban people access to healthcare access to timely service access to food you know all of these and the U.S. often says as it says in the case of Iran as it says in the case of Venezuela and of course as it says in the case of Cuba that this blockade that these sanctions that these unilateral coercive measures are not meant to be against the people but against the people in power but what we see in all of these cases as you mentioned in Iran as it is very clear in Venezuela and as it's clear in Cuba is that the people are the first to suffer that they suffer from lack of food so you know every year Cuba has taken to the UN General Assembly to pass to present a resolution which calls for the end of the U.S. embargo in the end of these measures and you know once again this measure was passed with almost unanimous support and I think what's really interesting which that many people have highlighted is that the only two votes against this resolution which is merely calling for respective international law basic basic you know rights of the Cuban people and its government to have autonomy and sovereignty the only two countries that voted against were Israel and the United States I think that's really telling especially given the current geopolitical situation and also to understand kind of the alliances that are created to maintain this domination the U.S. provides support to Israel and you know arguably a big part of you know why it's there in order for it to maintain its occupation of Palestine and its aggression against the neighboring countries and Israel is extremely ready to repay that favor I mean really it has no stakes in what happens in Cuba I mean of course Cuba has historically been one of the biggest defenders of the Palestinian cause and condemning the brutal Israeli occupation and human rights violations you know why else would they be voting against ending the U.S. embargo it's because they have clear allegiance to United States and are very ready to repay the United States for all its support in suppressing Palestinians so I mean this is again beyond it's a very important victory because it shows that the consensus is against the United States it's against its policy of genocide which is what they call the blockade one of the largest mass killings of people in history because this blockade has been going on for six decades so you know I think that's really important we have to highlight these victories we have to highlight these moments where it shows that the U.S. is isolated and you know it continues since its inception you know next week we have coming up both in Canada and the United States you know Independence Day where they you know created their bourgeois democracies and liberated themselves from colonial rule and you know both in the case of the United States and Canada there's a long history there beyond its actions overseas but of you know colonialism at home genocide at home and we've heard a lot of recent troubling reports from Canada Prashant can you tell us a little bit about that right so like you said it's I mean ironic because next week is Canada's so-called Independence Day but the key question here is of course yet another tragic discovery that has come up over the past few days which is that hundreds of unmarked graves have been found yet again of children yet again from a residential school so this is the second major discovery in the past few months we saw another incident where around 250 graves were discovered this time the number of graves is around 750 the number of children involved 600 this is it's atrocious it's depressing and it's it's almost difficult to explain because not explain difficult to conceive or for difficult to accept because you have say children hundreds and thousands of children who were taken from their parents children of various first nation communities in Canada who were taken from their parents and who were put in these schools many of these schools run by the Catholic Church of course and the whole point was to supposedly civilize them and this happened over decades you know up to the 1970s some of I think the last school of this sort we just call it Indian residential schools even the name is horrific it closed only in the mid 90s and children from across various communities taken into these schools separated from their parents separated from their culture there were multiple reports of torture of sexual abuse of physical abuse and so many deaths it's one of the most horrifying things these days there's been almost no accountability for most of these deaths even now the official numbers of the children who died are unknown the official numbers say it could be somewhere around 3000-4000 the actual numbers there was a truth and reconciliation commission which actually said that cultural genocide had been committed on the first nation on the people of the first nations on their children and the actual death count could be in about 6000-7000 of course it's still unknown the mass graves that were discovered there are in many of them there are no gravestones I believe which itself is a crime so in fact the Congress's first nation other first nation communities have said that they are treating these the sites of these mass graves as a crime scene because when you not only say give them the indignity of after all the indignity they suffered in life they do not even have the dignity of a name or recognition in death and I think this is common of course both to the in Canada it works in a particular way but the assault the genocide of first nation communities of indigenous communities very common across the western hemisphere colonialism at its most brutal people like to pretend that this was something that happened maybe hundreds or two hundred or two hundred years ago and that's something in the past we are sorry for it we didn't know better but that happened whereas what I think this shows is that many of these institutions continued and I think community leaders have pointed out that this is not something that is just somewhere in the distant past this is continuing today in terms of economic opportunities in terms of the discrimination that many of these communities face and I think that and I believe as far as I read we have seen media reports also the fact that survivors who have been fighting for compensation survivors who are fighting for these crimes to be recognized have been contested by the government so it's not even that despite all the voices that the liberal government might make in terms of how we are sorry and all that when it comes to the system they have been forced to fight pay legal fees to actually get the compensation that they deserve so I believe that this is definitely not the end of the story because these investigations are still going on after the investigation that in Kamloops residential school that let's discover 250 graves in May this one started and there could be many more such horrifying stories which come over the past few weeks we have seen media reports of some of the survivors of these schools talking about the treatment they face and these are heart-rending videos because you know they talk the kind of the indignity and basically how they were treated as less than human is very very difficult to listen to and the impact of this still very much continues in people's lives in the way governments function and we are talking about COVID-19 of course and last year we went to we went to the United States as we talked in the United States with representatives of the Navajo Nation as well who were talking about how even today the structural discrimination continues and I definitely do believe that I think we are going to see a lot more of this First Nation organizations definitely are going to mobilize for much more I think stronger response from these countries in terms of recognizing the crimes, the genocide that was committed so very very very difficult it's a story that's very difficult to read very difficult to write, very difficult to talk about and I think there is something that everyone across the world needs to follow to realize the true nature of colonialism and imperialism which continue today so yes that's something that definitely in the coming months we should be following up and you are watching give the people what they want and this is from people's dispatch and globetrotter we are going to do one more story which is again very connected to this global web of issues again from Latin America again a story of resistance as well because it's about bringing people into account bringing those into account Zoe what's happening in Brazil right now Yes well I mean you said it Prashant this is really the story of the moment it's about resisting a criminal government that refuses to favor the lives of the people that refuses to make any investments in safeguarding the lives of the people and this is the government of Boltonado you know since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic you know he's been the example of exactly what governments should not do I mean not only did he deny the severity of COVID-19 he called it a small flu he called for using a medicine that is not effective in COVID-19 and has continued to actually do this till this day you know and then since then once vaccine production started he actually has been blocking really important deals with the Brazilian government and pharmaceutical companies for the purchasing of vaccines this has come out recently investigations that the Brazilian senate has been carrying out in their investigation of Jared Bolsonaro and his you know responsibility in the high number of deaths in Brazil from COVID-19 just last week Brazil crossed the really kind of horrifying milestone of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 and I think you know it's really important as I think you know I'm here in the United States a lot of people feel okay COVID-19 is over everyone you know here the vaccinations are widely available you know people can go back to life as normal whatever that means you know that's another whole other thing to unpack but this is you know the virus continues and as we've talked in this show at length a lot of places across the world because of the vaccine hoarding of nations like the United States like European countries and you know the actions of the pharmaceutical companies to kind of hoard these vaccines and you know try to make profit from this is that it's a reality that's very strong in many countries so you know in Brazil some of the worst impacts you know especially when we're talking about indigenous communities the impact on indigenous communities in Brazil has been huge and so you know they crossed this 500,000 death mark and there have been constant mobilizations to demand that Bolsonaro resigned to demand that he be impeached all sorts to be voted out and so last week there was a huge mobilization I mean the estimates were saying over I think it was 720,000 people that were out in the streets in over 400 cities across the country you know this is a huge mobilization really really important people from all sectors of society from trade unions from left political parties a lot of indigenous communities have also been mobilizing out for Brazilian organizations because they've all been extremely hard hit by this policy of death, of genocide and there are over in you know and it's not just been on the streets but people in parliament have been extremely extremely active and there are over 100 requests for the impeachment of Jared Bolsonaro this is historic I don't think this has ever happened in history it hasn't happened in the history of Brazil and I'd be interested to know if this has happened in other countries over 100 requests for impeachment of Jared Bolsonaro for you know a slew of crimes not only for having to a pandemic but you know of benefiting these large landowners for you know calling for allowing environmental devastation and so all of these things this Saturday Brazilians are going to be out in the streets once again demanding out Bolsonaro in an end to the genocidal policies their slogan is vaccine in the arm food on the plate and so I think this is really inspiring we're with the people of Brazil and you know no more of these governments that take advantage of the people and that do not protect them in a time where the people's lives have to be of the first order absolutely vaccine in the arm food on the plate is really a powerful slogan I think to end today's show with because it represents the it so simply and elegantly synthesizes some of the most important demands of our time of the kind of issues that we talk about in give the people what they want you this is you'll be hearing it in a podcast form soon too will be definitely back next week until then please go to peoplesdispatch.org where you can find many of these stories you can find the coverage of them the follow-ups to them many of them very essential and what do you call as well as read articles from the global system as well where there is a lot of exit opinion writing from across the world so that's it for us today Zoe anything more no the struggle continues we salute the amazing victories of Cuba, Venezuela and they give us inspiration to go forward so I think that's it thank you so much for watching