 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. It's the 29th of October and you've joined us and give the people what they want brought to you by your favorite news portal, People's Dispatch, that's peoplesdispatch.org We have Zoe here with us from People's Dispatch. Prashant will be joining later. If he is able to leave his assignment and rush back to the studio to join us because after all, I want you to know that all three of us I'm from Globetrotter, Vijay. All three of us are practicing journalists and so we're off there in the field sometimes. We're not anchors sitting in the studio waiting to tell you a story. We're actually in the middle of things and that's where Prashant is. He is right now in the middle of reporting a story. He should be back with us soon. Well, it's the 29th of October we're at the threshold of COP26 to be held in Glasgow. Big debates breaking out already. What are the character of the debates? The main countries that seem to decide that they are the rulers of the world the so-called G20. 20 countries friends out of 193 will meet over the weekend in anticipation of COP26 in Glasgow. They're going to make some decisions over there. By the way, by their own accounting the G20 countries account for 80% of the world's carbon emissions 80% of the world's carbon emissions from the G20 countries but they're loath to actually agree on an agenda. Issues for instance of net zero emissions issues for instance of deforestation issues for instance of transforming the nature of transportation networks supply chains and so on just not on the agenda. Already battle lines have hardened. Western countries are demanding that China and India cut coal coal-fired plants that China and India make deep cuts in carbon and so on. That's the position of the United States which is going to arrive in Glasgow with about a dozen cabinet members Joe Biden in the lead pushing an agenda trying to say that it's China and India that are being stubborn and not accepting assigning the dotted line of surrender to development. On the other side countries like China and India are saying very well for you to talk about us cutting carbon but what about you who have exhausted your share of the carbon budget what about you making deep cuts and going to net zero you know not by 2060 or not even by 2050 not even by 2030 but what about next year it's on the table friends it's seriously on the table. United States arrives in Glasgow not sure if there's actually any leg to stand on because Mr. Biden who put a lot of of his eggs into the basket of infrastructure has not been able to advance his infrastructure bill which would have carried some elements of the great transition away from carbon emissions there would have been elements of the infrastructure that's stuck 1 trillion 2 trillion 3 trillion it's just money folks it's a choice between the amount of money we're willing to spend and the destruction of the planet seems like the U.S. Congress not willing to have a serious discussion about this it's going to be clear at COP in Glasgow nothing significant is going to happen but I don't want to leave you merely with a sense that nothing is going to happen because I want to remind you the previous COP was held in Paris to be held every five years it's delayed this year because of the pandemic in 2015 at the Paris COP an agreement was signed but at Paris I well remember the main powers mostly western parts but also Japan refused to accept even the concept of net zero refuse to accept the concept of net zero today as a consequence of two things one much better science series of U.N. reports the international the inter-governmental panel on climate change has produced superb reports saying look it's not enough to talk about keep a warming below two degrees Celsius that's the language of the Paris agreement keep warming below two degrees Celsius the IPCC the inter I keep trying to say interplanetary but what I mean is inter-governmental panel in climate change IPCC says no it must remain near 1.5 degrees Celsius warming cap it at that not 2.7 degrees Celsius that's catastrophic the science has made a difference it has made an impact there is now a broad movement built in most of our countries based on the science that's the second reason the governments no longer can just dismiss net zero the science has helped give power to the movement and will be filled with the movements Zoe and I will both be reporting from Glasgow we'll be talking to people in the movements we'll be talking to some scientists we're trying to understand what is it that prevents governments from delivering a proper agreement is it merely money is it merely the fact that they feel that a way to effect the bottom line for the big corporations is that it well it's something that we'll be investigating no doubt looking carefully at well Zoe let's move away from COP I know you and I are going to do lots of stories about COP we've been mugging up reading IPCC reports I mean you know I'm not a scientist and no are you but boy reporters we become experts overnight because we have to some parts of the world you don't need to study you don't need to study Ecuador you know that stuff like the back of your hand what's happening in Ecuador well I wouldn't go that far but well there's another series of you know mass protests in Ecuador if you know our viewers remember two years ago there were historic protests called the October uprisings where the people of Ecuador took to the streets to reject on mass these the increase in price of fuel in the country as well as other sets of neoliberal measures that the government of at this point Lenin Moreno had imposed because of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and they signed this you know massive loan and proceeded to you know cut education cut healthcare you know the script we've seen it in many countries and so this led to these mass protests that took place over 10 days the indigenous movements from the different regions of Ecuador converged on Quito students were in the streets unions and they were all coming together in these mass protests to demand reverting back the increase in fuel prices along with other measures these protests were also met with a lot of heavy repression in the time in 2019 they marked a before and after of you know recent Ecuadorian history they also gave rise to similar you know anti-neoliberal protests across the continent we saw in the same time Chile Colombia and Haiti there were also similar protests so these are you know really key and now two years later we're seeing movements take to the streets again and for very similar demand to demand that the fuel prices in the country not be raised and so Ecuador is one of the many countries in Latin America that actually uses the dollar as their currency because of the economic crisis at the end of the 90s they were forced to dollarize their economy and so currently the fuel prices were raised by Lenin Moreno Guillermo Lasso who is sworn in in this year many people feared he was going to be a continuation of the anti-neoliberal policies of Lenin Moreno of anti-people policies making the people pay for the crisis Ecuador has also been kind of in a tailspin of economic crisis since Lenin Moreno and essentially this week he decided to lift the measure that Lenin Moreno had imposed of increasing fuel prices but then fix the fuel prices at an incredibly high rate and so you know this is obviously met with a lot of rejection from social movements just to give the actual numbers regular gasoline is fixed at $2.55 and diesel at $1.90 and so imagine this is expensive this isn't dollar prices this is expensive even for the United States and in Ecuador of course minimum wages are much lower and what the you know movements in Ecuador have analyzed is that when you increase fuel prices you're increasing the cost of living across the board prices of food increase prices of transporting everyday goods is you know affected by this so this is really hitting first and foremost the working classes and marginalized sectors and so you know in his Ecuadorian tradition of you know not taking anything from the government sitting down they of course have taken to the streets been on national strike for the past two days the largest indigenous organization in the country the confederation of indigenous nationalities has called for permanent assemblies a way forward to resist these measures and continue their resistance you know Zoe you put the focus on the fuel prices which is you know basically catapulted people onto the street fuel prices is a key element in so many protest movements Prashant earlier this year in June and July we saw diesel prices in Sudan double fuel price produced serious crisis in that country nothing compared to what happened this week when the military decided to take over Prashant lead us into the events in Sudan right Vijay it's one of the most ironic things this coup considering the fact that the leader general Abdul Fateh Burhan conducted a coup against a system which he was heading so the fact is that over the past two years since 2019 there has been a transitional government in Sudan and we do know that earlier there was a mass protest the long time dictator Omar Bashir was overthrown the military in 2019 the military and the civilian authority certain sections of the civilian party struck a deal and you know there was something called the transitional government that is formed and the sovereignty council so Burhan was heading the sovereignty council and the important thing to note is that he had to give up that position next month so in November 2021 he was said to be replaced by a civilian authority and the military clearly had been building up to this because in September we saw some attempts at the coup we saw at least one definite attempt one attempt whereby soldiers were withdrawn from a key government building at that point of course Burhan came online and said that the civilians were to blame for reducing the trust in the military for that matter later there was a section of protesters who sort of appeared and demanded that the military take over so they started doing a sit in before the coup and all this culminates in October 25th where the military arrests civilian leaders as usual they take the prime minister Abdullah Hamdok in custody and try to get him to endorse the coup and he refuses so he is arrested for two days but what has now happened is that the battle lines have become clearer and if you have been following people's dispatch coverage of the issues in Sudan you would know especially in the stories written by Akali Pawan that over the past two years the sections of protesters the most radical section of protesters were always aware of this possibility and you know they were the ones who said that the Omar al-Masheed was overthrown in 2019 but the Sudanese revolution is not over yet because to take it to its logical conclusion the military needs to be moved out of positions of authority and it must be a completely civilian led government they are very careful they are very worried when sections of the civilian political parties start to deal with the military and even a few days before the coup there was a march of millions in across the country with around 1 million people participating in Khartoum where exactly this demand was made that the civilian rule should be restored a complete civilian rule so while the international community for whom for instance Sudanese military is convenient because they signed a deal with Israel so they issued their usual condemnations they threatened financial sanctions but they are fine with this transitional authority coming back to power a split system so to speak but I think the protesters on the street the left sections the progressive sections the trade unions they are very determined that the only solution is for complete civilian control and that is what the protest is going on on October 30th there is another major march that scheduled there in Sudan posters have gone out internet connection is difficult but still large-scale mobilizations are expected to happen so I think the story of the school is not over yet and it will be much easier for the military to do the coup than to maintain power so very important country to watch out in the coming days Prashant by the way has the African Union made any statement about the school I haven't seen anything yes the African Union has suspended Sudan's membership as well as I last checked but it's a larger problem that the African Union itself has been reduced to a bit of it's not really a very powerful entity nowadays considering that it has no major power so to speak so yes in principle they have acted but nonetheless question remains it is interesting how these things happen I mean here's a process that was has been quite difficult for the people because it seems that this transitional period hasn't afforded the people any hope you've got the pandemic of course you've got as we said earlier the fuel prices doubling people of Sudan facing the crisis earlier I talked Prashant about the COP26 African countries 54 of them they produce only 5% less than 5% of the world's carbon emissions 80% produced by the G20 countries less than 5% there's a lot of development needed in a place like Sudan none of these governments seem capable of putting that at the front meanwhile you're listening to give the people what they want now I understand you will believe that this is not exactly what you want you want hopeful stories you don't want stories like this look at what we've had COP26 Ecuador fuel crisis and protests Sudan military coup but underneath each of these stories are stories of people standing up at COP26 there will be tens of thousands of people at the people's march at the people's tribunal and so on arguing for a better way forward in Ecuador there are people on the streets people inside parliament standing up and saying we want to be counted we have a different opinion and in Sudan it's not that the coup is lying down flat as Prashant said on the 30th there will be another protest give the people what they want what the people want is a better world a different world it seems like that's what we as reporters keep running up against meanwhile inside the halls of the US congress wow that's a showstopper just that line inside the halls of the US congress you know the chief of staff of the joint chiefs Mark Milley he had earlier made news when he told Adam Costa and Woodward about how he had called up his Chinese counterparts to prevent war well this time he sat in front of the congress people and he talked about the so called hypersonic missile that the Chinese have fired in fact the Chinese have tested hypersonic missile well direct quote from General Mark Milley I don't know if it's quite a Sputnik moment but I think it's very close to that he said now the reference Sputnik friends is when the Soviets sent a satellite into space setting in motion in immense panic in the United States which allowed military spending to escalate even further even greater military spending just to be clear for this show I called up two experts who work in the arena of missiles missile and missile technology I asked them what's the new thing with the hypersonic cruise missile they said listen an intercontinental ballistic missile goes at 20 times the speed of sound it's incredibly dangerous missile there's nothing different about a hypersonic cruise missile it's just that the name is more scary and when they say Sputnik moment it's terrifying to people in fact what the Chinese have tested is nothing that the other main military powers United States Russians and others it's not that different from what they have and this is not going to change in a sense the the detente that functions between the United States and China because the Chinese are not going to be foolish enough to use a hypersonic cruise missile because then they will get obliterated because the United States has a much greater capacity and secondly this is now a quote from the US Pentagon's own reports the US Pentagon acknowledges that China has a no first strike policy which means China has said that it will not attack another country with nuclear weapons unless it is attacked with nuclear weapons that's called a no first strike policy China has an articulated no first strike policy United States does not have one this was acknowledged by the Pentagon now it's very interesting that while he was talking about all this stuff General Mark Milley then said we're going to have to adjust our military going forward we're going to have to adjust our military going forward this smells like trillions of dollars that the US military wants those trillions of dollars that Biden is trying to get into his civilian infrastructure bill guns or butter not clear in the United States the history has shown more guns less butter I hope very much for the sake of the planet that the people in the United States are going to fight tooth and nail for more butter less guns Prashant Zoe that's I suppose you know that's the story of stories there are other stories are basically footnotes to that story fuel prices doubling if there was more money towards green transition we wouldn't have to worry about diesel pricing but no we're going to have better missiles and less public transportation that doesn't require diesel moving on let's go now back to South America series of elections what will these elections be worth if there's a nuclear war Zoe but let's not get too bleak take us into the list of elections Latin America keeps they seem to have so many elections does South America have more elections in the rest of the planet Venezuela definitely has more elections than the rest of any other country which is a testament in many ways to their strong democratic process they've had over over 25 electoral processes in 1999 which is impressive they're one of the countries that has elections coming up in November but to do it more chronologically systematically just to give people kind of a preview of what we can be looking forward to in November November 7th general elections in Nicaragua these are going to be very crucial there's been a lot of ominous comments which I think we've discussed on this show before this is kind of gearing up to respond in the way that they know how to respond which is with increasing sanctions increasing political isolation of Nicaragua it seems like it's trying to take it to the next phase because it's the government ticket of Daniel Ortega of the Frente Sandiniza is slated to win these elections just because of their enormous popularity it's been one of the most economically stable countries in the region just generally not in chaos as its neighboring countries are people are content with the government and so it's the US knows this and that's why they're preparing to respond with sanctions and with other measures likely to say that these elections are fraudulent they have really stuck to the campaign of the rest of these opposition candidates which again we spoke about on this show they're not just some opposition candidates they have links to real criminal charges but this is how the US has painted it that's something to watch out for November 7th we'll be following that of course November 21st regional and local elections in Venezuela these are historic as well because since 2015 the far-right opposition which we Juan Guaido has emerged as kind of the figure head of this far-right opposition participated in any elections since 2015 because of the dialogue process that has been going on in Mexico which was recently put on hold because of the extradition or kidnapping of Alex Sab they had agreed to participate in this upcoming electoral process it's likely that will participate and hopefully with you know this renewed legitimization of the electoral processes in Venezuela it could lead to the lessening of some of the very brutal economic measures that the US has imposed on Venezuela some of the sanctions that it has against its financial markets its financial transactions the oil industry hopefully this will be a turning point make the conditions of life a little more bearable for Venezuelans this is really key even though they're just you know the regional local elections but you know the weight of the participation of the opposition is important on the same day presidential elections in Chile obviously Vijay you were just there and wrote a great piece speaking to some of these you know candidates and people who are you know participating in this new wave of politics in Chile you know as you mentioned the article Chile is the you know the home ground of where neoliberalism was born and it seeks to be the place where it will be you know put to rest and so we're seeing a resurgence of the left however in the latest polling the far right candidate cast has come out ahead of Bordig so it remains to be seen I think it's going to be a tight race either way there's going to be a second round in December but we'll see how you know these candidates line up in this first round on November 21st the following weekend November 28th it's a whirlwind but I just want to make sure everyone is up to speed knowing what to follow in November it can get crazy on November 28th Honduras has elections really crucial four years ago massive electoral fraud committed to put Juan Orlando Hernandez in presidency once again he has you know in some words he's driven the country into economic crisis social crisis political crisis you know complete lack of legitimacy we've seen enormous increase in the number of people fleeing Honduras because of these horrible socioeconomic conditions that Juan Orlando Hernandez has himself you know contributed and creating he's also deeply linked to drug trafficking in the country this will be really crucial the left is polling 17 points ahead of the right wing candidate from the national party will they commit electoral fraud like they did in 2017 it's remained to be seen and then also one last point for November Latin America since we're talking about it US backed protests in Cuba on November 15th also crucial part of this regional strategy of the US to maintain its grip on the region as we know these are insidious protests with very clear US backing and the actors that are promoting them have clear political aims to destabilize the country and push their agenda so thanks to look out for November it's a full calendar all the way from Cuba down to Chile a full calendar meanwhile the man who we admire because he was able to bring us an enormous amount of material about various forms of war crimes his health is deteriorating CIA plots to kill him Prashant as our last story take us to our friend Julian Assange sitting in Belmarsh prison how is the extradition going right what we saw was a bit of a a bit of a spectacle which is difficult to explain in the sense that it was an appeal by the United States of course British lawyers supported by the US representing the United States against the January verdict which had refused his extradition now one would assume that when somebody's extradition is refused that person would be let go surprisingly in Julian Assange's case the judge declared that pending appeals he should still be in prison which made absolutely no sense at all but nonetheless here we are so many months after it's October now and the prosecution presenting exactly the same arguments as before some of them even more egregious so to speak in terms of declaring that he would be treated basically most of the arguments consisted of trying to say that Assange was not a suicide risk because there was the psychiatrist given that evaluation may not have done X, Y and Z and that Assange would be treated well in a prison that he may not get a long life sentence so all of these arguments continuously presented by the prosecution to basically give the impression of the United States being a nice place for people to be in jail which is which is really absurd for multiple reasons but more than that fundamentally yet again the prosecution refusing to acknowledge the fact that he's a journalist which is what Assange's colleague that Assange is being persecuted he's being prosecuted for the crime of being a journalist and it's a statement I think that media organizations people from the press have stress from day one this is not a trial of espionage this is a political this is a trial against journalism so of course the defense bringing out the important point you mentioned which is that in 2017 the CIA was discussing ways to either kill or kidnap Assange which renders any kind of a trial now by the US lightly suspect because what the US now is saying that we're going to be treating him safely the conditions are not as bad as you think etc etc but these revelations recently showed that as just three years ago, four years ago they were planning to kill him so this alone should be reason for any court to automatically refuse the extradition please so we need to see what the high court of justice in the United Kingdom besides but I think for people who are protesting outside for journalists across the world the answer is very clear that there is no question that Assange has to be at least immediately that he has to be exonerated and the fact that what is the contributions he has made to journalism need to be recognized for what they are so it's maybe a sad ending to the episode but it's a sorry state in the world where someone who has done such exemplary journalism is being prosecuted for espionage so that's a very sad commentary on the world well Prashant and Zoe are from People's Dispatch People's Dispatch.org has been covering the Assange story from day one I'm Vijay from Globetrotter Prashant, Zoe and I are journalists three of us and therefore we on behalf of give the people what they want send our solidarity to our fellow journalist Julian Assange sitting in Belmarsh prison a political prisoner a journalist who has been mazled you've been with us on October 29th we'll be back in November to see you Zoe and I will be in Glasgow at Cop Prashant will be on the beat which is why he was a little late today getting the stories into you fresh fresh as a fresh chapati see you next week