 Okay, are we live? Are we on? Is it happening? It appears as if it's happening. We should just start. Okay, I suppose we start. Hello friends, welcome to, well, you know where you are, you're at, give the people what they want. One of the most amazing shows, did I say one of the most amazing shows? The most amazing half an hour, the most amazing half an hour global news program with Zoe from People's Dispatch and Prashant from People's Dispatch and me, Vijay from Globetrotter. Great to be with you again on Friday, we're on the People's Dispatch Facebook page live. Also, of course, a podcast, increasingly your favorite podcast on all the usual channels. We've been following a number of stories this week and I have to say it's been a very, very busy and difficult week, a coup d'etat in Myanmar, election coming up on Sunday in Ecuador and all kinds of shenanigans there. We're going to hear about that. We've seen the vaccine issue once again be on the table, reports coming out about billionaires and trillionaires or whatever they are getting richer and richer as people seem to struggle more with starvation. In the middle of all this, Prashant did an excellent interview on Sudan, which you can watch at the People's Dispatch page. Prashant, tell us what you learned about the current political situation in Sudan. Absolutely Vijay. So Sudan has been an issue we've been following very closely over the past few years, partly because in some senses this was a struggle that broke out against a long-term dictator. There have been many struggles. Of course, the Arab Spring struggles we all will be following. But this was also a movement which was very strongly anchored in the left in popular forces in trade unions. For instance, the Sudanese Professionals Association, which is a congregation of trade unions and the Sudanese Communist Party has been very active in the movement as well, you know, driving a lot of its agenda. So we spoke to Dr. Fati El Fad, who's from the Sudanese Communist Party. And the occasion for this conversation was that on February 4th, that's yesterday, this month is full of changes in Sudan, so to speak, because on February 4th, that's yesterday, the Transitional Council, which in name at least is supposed to be ruling the country, was expanded with representatives from some of the armed rebel groups, which were fighting the central government. Now this follows a peace agreement last year and this was hailed as a huge achievement, you know, as far as what is called the Sudanese Revolution, which overthrew Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Now, what Dr. Fati said, of course, was a very different picture because what happened after this revolution where Omar al-Bashir was overthrown, that happened in April 2019, was that sections in the military and sections in the opposition, they struck a deal and they sort of led cause what is called the betrayer, what he turned the betrayal of the revolution from the very slow betrayal of the revolution, stemming from the fact that a lot of these political forces, which were centrists, which of maybe liberal, were not willing to go all the way to overthrow the power of the military and the military establishment. So, we have seen this pattern in so many countries, you know, a figurehead or a dictator is overthrown, but the establishment very much remains in power. We have seen the same, for instance, happening in Algeria as well and around the same time. And the Sudanese Communist Party and for instance, what are called the resistance committees, the neighborhood resistance committees, which are in the forefront of, you know, running these agitations, organizing these agitations against Omar al-Bashir, they have been continuously pushing for the fact that, you know, there will be a full transfer of power to democratic forces to the people. Whereas what we are seeing is that the organizations which represented the democratic forces and the people, many of them have struck compromises with the military establishment. So, on the one hand, this is actually a news event which has been hailed a lot. Last year's peace agreement with rebel groups was, you know, widely celebrated. Some of these reforms at the level of the government, which is the establishment of this transitional council, there's a parliament which is going to come into effect in a couple of weeks. All these have been celebrated widely, but there's also a reality of the ground which is often, I think it's important also as media professionals for us to reflect because, you know, often for us, the story ends with the overthrow of a, you know, a dictator. Whereas the question, of course, is that a regime is often far more powerful. And Dr. Fadi also spoke very powerfully about the international intervention that was involved. The US, of course, very actively involved its Africa command, played a vital role. It got this new Sudanese establishment to normalize relationships with Israel. But the US is not the only party. There's the UK. There's the African Union. So all these agencies and countries, of course, also pushing their own agenda, you know, making sure that the neoliberal reforms continue, making sure that the promise of the revolution is not really achieved. The promise of the revolution being that all power, the power should go to the people. And the remnants of the military elite and the establishment should be completely evicted. So that was always the central demand of this revolution. So the Sudanese Communist Party is in a phase where it is launching a fresh wave of struggles. They have withdrawn from some of these governing bodies and they are all out on the streets with the resistance committees to demand that this movement continue and that this revolution continue as well. I must say the interview you did was excellent because it's so rare to hear from, you know, the movements in places like Sudan. I hope people will pay attention to what's happening there. You know, it's always interesting when the manifestation is at its highest. There's a lot of reporting of what's happening. You will remember that famous picture of the young woman with her finger pointed upward. That became iconic, became almost, you know, all over the place on social media. Once the manifestations died out and then the real process of building a new Sudan takes place, media organizations disappears. I was very pleased to watch that interview. And I think I know people's dispatch is going to continue to see what's going on there. You know, this question of transformation using the political process and so on. This has been so key in South America over the last 20 years. You know, just a few days ago was the anniversary of when Hugo Chavez was inaugurated, you know, in 1999 as the president of Venezuela, you know, that opened a process in the continent of new kinds of politics, new kinds of change. We saw after Chavez's inauguration, you know, new governments come including the government in Ecuador, Rafael Correa. Well, on Sunday, Ecuador is having another election. This time, as far as I saw in the opinion polls, the leader of the, of the, let's say the left, although, you know, it's very interesting. When we say the left, it's not that clear always, but the leader of the left poll, Andres Arauz looks set by the end of Sunday to have enough votes over 40% to be elected the president of Ecuador. Zoe, you're following this story. It's been an up and down situation in Ecuador, lots of rumors, information were picked up. What's happening in Ecuador? Well, we've been covering, of course, the events in Ecuador and the developments both on the show and then of course, the people's dispatch. And as you mentioned, Andres Arauz has been leading all of the voter intention polls over the past couple of months. The Union for Hope has a very strong chance of coming in first. The question is, will be helped by how much as we know in Ecuador, the Constitution says that you have to win by either over 50% or over 40% with a 10 point lead. And so that will be kind of the major battleground. Will Andres Arauz get over 40% and 10% over Guillermo Lasso, the millionaire banker and neoliberal candidate. Hopefully, yes. The other kind of elements that have been occurring in the foreground, in the background, sorry, have been major kind of accusations of really dirty campaign that has been occurring. Against them through fake news, for example, circulating a video from supposedly the ELN of Colombia saying that they support the Union for Hope and that they have close relationships with them. Of course, this video was debunked by an Ecuadorian bird specialist who said that the birds that you heard in the background of the video are actually Ecuadorian. And so there's no way that this video could have been filmed in Colombia. So, you know, really brazen disinformation campaigns that have been occurring. You know, a lot of, we've seen over the past couple of months how the far right has tried to block the candidacy of Andres Arauz, you know, first by disqualifying Rafael Correa and saying that Andres Arauz couldn't run. And now just using every desperate, you know, possibility to block them in the days leading up to this. We've seen a bunch of kind of worrying reports about a potential fraud being concocted, you know, this whole narrative similar to what we saw in Bolivia. Several people have pointed out to the, for example, Lenin Morena was in the United States at the end of December in a meeting with Luis Almagro and Marco Rubio as well as other U.S. officials. So I think as of now, people are kind of on watch, on guard, making sure that this process goes ahead smoothly. We know the importance of this process, what it means for the region, what it means for Ecuador in terms of improving the quality of life of Ecuadorians. As you said, this is a progressive ticket that is above all putting people's needs before profits and putting the Ecuadorian people's needs before the needs of the United States and international financial institutions. So I think we really need to be watchful. Yesterday, an international observer from Peru from the new movement, which is a progressive movement contesting the elections in April was detained in the airport for over eight hours on the order of Lenin Moreno. So these kind of irregularities, these kinds of, you know, bizarre occurrences that are all maybe part of this larger plan to concoct some sort of fraud situation we need to be really looking out for. And on Sunday, you know, 13 million Ecuadorians in Ecuador and across the world will be going to the polls and we'll see what happens. You know, there is, of course, a threat in Ecuador against democracy against the democratic spirit. This curtailment of the democratic spirit is something that, you know, we see in Sudan, as Prashant mentioned that that revolt took place. There was a hope to move beyond the military that has not been easy to do. When we go to Southeast Asia, you know, there was a coup by the military in 2014 in Thailand. And then there was a coup on the last day of January of this year in Myanmar, formerly Burma, the two neighboring countries, Thailand and Myanmar, both now with the military. In fact, it's an illusion to say there was a coup on the 31st of January because the coup took place in 1962 and has not really been overturned. Let's be frank. And if you don't mind, guys, just a little history lesson here, because in 2008, the Myanmar military decided to write its own constitution, the 2008 Constitution. I mean, in the parliament, the military has the ability, in fact, nominates one quarter of the seats for the parliament. And then two of the key ministries, including defense is just a military officer. There's no civilian control of the military. The military controls the civilian government. Under pressure from the Obama administration, which was really big on this pivot to Asia at the time, the military cut a deal with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was in house arrest. And Aung San came out of prison, a deal with the military in 2010, Obama administration sanctified the deal, and she became the so-called civilian face of that military. This deal lasted from 2010 to 2021. It's 11 years of this deal, by the way. But the military was still substantially in charge. The US, in its anti-China thing, made an agreement with the military. This is what they did. November 8th, there was an election, again a so-called election. This time, Aung San's party won over 80% of the vote. You know, thumping majority. The military's actual backed party was quite badly defeated. And the head of the military had made it very clear he wants to be the next president. He wants to step down from the military, become the next president. This is the sort of Egypt solution, you know, very keen on this. But the poor showing in the election, then the military accused Aung San over fraud. On the 31st of January, the new parliament was to sit. And long before, 10 days before, the military said we are doing a coup. I mean, if you go back, the military spokesperson, they all told, in fact, they informed the US government, we're doing a coup. This is all in the public record. It's not secret. And then they did the coup. Now, the world media was surprised. I was very much stunned when I saw BBC, there's a coup in Myanmar. Oh, goodness me. Let's have some context here. You know, the military was already in charge, always in charge. Aung San essentially became the civilian officer of the military. Let's be frank. I don't want to make any kind of dramatic statement, but there it is. Here's a dramatic statement. Well, she has called for mass demonstrations. There are mass demonstrations. And I very much hope that the way we cover this story is with the recognition of the immense power that the military holds in Myanmar. The immense power the military holds in Thailand. You know, in Thailand, even the monarchy, it's technically a monarchy. The monarchy is the political face of the military in the same way as Aung San Suu Kyi was the civilian face of the military. The military dominates in these countries much the same way as the military continues to dominate in Sudan. I just feel like, you know, reporters missed the plot with this coup story. I mean, I'm going to just say it again. I just feel like sometimes what coup are we talking about? You know, the military was always in charge. That was my reaction. Of course, one should condemn a coup. But you see what the American government did immediately. We're going to come back with sanctions. For what reason? I mean, for what reason? It's your ally, the military. Your military has been, you know, has been in power and you want to curry favor with the military. So it cut ties with China. See, part of the deal was in January. Senior officials from China came to Myanmar and offered the vaccine and all kinds of things. A lot has to be investigated there. You know, why did the military move against Aung San Suu Kyi at this period? The motivation? Is it just personal? The head of the military wanted to be the president? Is there something else? It's to be seen, but we need deeper reporting about both Myanmar and Thailand, you know, highly neglected. Talking about a country where its sovereignty has been curtailed. I mean, we've talked about Sudan, sovereignty curtailment, Ecuador, where the people are fighting for their sovereignty. By the way, it's fitting thing that in Cuba, two of their vaccines are called Sovereign One and Sovereign Two, you know, because they price sovereignty. Southeast Asia, I don't know about the sovereignty. And then we come to Haiti. I mean, friends, one of the least reported stories, Haiti, where its sovereignty has been for a very long time compromised. Roy, what's happening in Haiti? Tell us, please. This is a really important story that has gotten almost no news coverage. I mean, which is a structural issue. I think Haiti is constantly written out of the narratives. And essentially, you know, the people of Haiti have been on the streets since July 2018, mobilizing against Jovenan Moises, who is essentially only still in power because he has the backing of the United States. I think we have to make that very clear because there has been, you know, a concerted, organized effort, mobilizing against him for these past, you know, almost three years in July. But he has been supported by the United States. They gave him almost a free ticket to continue in office. And basically on February 7th, you know, this Sunday, his mandate expires. His mandate expires according to the Constitution. He must leave office. He, however, is saying that because of some, you know, irregularity of when the term started, when other things that he actually has until February 7th, 2022, he's also calling for a constitutional process to start in April. He's already written a constitution that has been a process that's been done unilaterally. So first of all, he's trying to extend his mandate by one year. He's trying to pass a new constitution. And this has, you know, of course, no support of the people. They've been since January, they've been on the streets to demand that not only he resigned immediately, but he respects the constitution that he'd leave office after his five-year mandate ends this Sunday. He is already, you know, there was a national strike held on Monday and Tuesday, February 1st and 2nd. Thousands of people on the streets across sectors, across political tendencies. I mean, the opposition to Moises is not only of the left. Of course, the left is a very important part in this, but it's really been of all political parties in Haiti who had wanted end to his corruption. You know, Moises has been implicated in massive corruption schemes, the embezzlement of Venezuela's Petrocaribe funds, which, of course, is a cooperation partnership to give cheaper petrol to Haiti and, you know, fund social programs, funds a lot of different programs in the country. These funds were embezzled by Moises and other members of the government. These have been some of the motivations of the process in Haiti. So they have enough reasons to call for his resignation. They've been on the streets demanding this, yet because Moises has the backing of the United States, because his time in office has seen also them turning their backs on Venezuela, turning their backs on regional integration. Of course, Venezuela has been there for Haiti throughout what has been a very complicated two decades with the earthquake, with the cholera epidemic. Venezuela and Cuba have been some of the biggest supporters of giving healthcare, helping them with social programs. And so I think right now the Haitians continue on the streets to demand his resignation, to demand that he respect the Constitution. But, you know, Haiti is one of those cases where the U.S. has constantly intervened in favor of the elites, in favor of maintaining their own interests in the country. And I've used international financial institutions, external debt to break down the country, to force it into submission, yet the Haitian people continue to mobilize. And I think we have to support them in their mobilizations. They're very brave mobilizations which have been met with extreme repression from security forces, and all under the watchful eye of the United States. So much power to them. I think this Sunday will be a crucial moment in their mobilizations. And if he is going to stay in office like he claims that he will, it will involve deeper mobilizations over the next coming months. So we'll have to keep an eye on that and defend the Haitian people and their Constitution. You're with us at Give the People What They Want. That was Zoe, Prashant and I are also here. If you're going to follow these stories, it's a good idea to bookmark people's dispatch, where a lot of these stories are put together. Often in collaboration with media partners around the world. The other day I was, I listened to a story from Laotaro Rivera on Telesur. Laotaro is with Arig Medios in Argentina. One of the partners with People's Dispatch are bringing reports from the ground right to you. Another partner we've talked about on a number of occasions is NewsClick, reporting from the ground on the farmer strike. Very happy to say that it had over 30 million viewers last month following the farmer's protest directly from NewsClick.in. That protest, frontline. It's a frontline struggle in the battle of people against capitalist agriculture continues. We've been covering this almost every week. Prashant, what's the latest from the farmer's revolt in India? Like you said, it's a protest we've been talking about almost every week because the dynamics seem to continuously change almost every week. What has not changed is the government's time really. They're talking about compromise, of course, but they are willing to repeal the laws which has been a national demand. Over the past few days, we've almost entered into the slightly more farcical aspect of the struggle because we have seen international, this has become international news. Despite protests taking place for over two months, this is not really that big in the international media, but we had Rihanna and a couple of other celebrities, for instance, tweeting about it and this really blew up. What was more alarming perhaps was the fact that the Indian government really took this to heart and it launched this massive campaign where it got Indian celebrities, Indian cricket stars, movie stars to all tweet about India being united and India against propaganda. Of course, there was a flurry of threats against all those who were tweeting in support of the farmers as well. But I mean, of course, this is a constant war that takes place in cyberspace, but I think the key issue here is that the absurdity of the fact that the Indian government gets so sensitive when, say, a couple of international celebrities refer to the struggle, whereas when its own people have been sitting on the outskirts of Delhi for over two months in the cold, there was rain in the beginning of January, it's brutal. Despite these brutal weather conditions, over 100 people have died in these protest sites. Old men, women, children, all of these people sitting on the outskirts and the government did not feel any of that anguish or you know that so it really points to the absurdity in some sense is almost the same. It's not just absurdity, it's a structural element here. But what's been happening basically is the fact that the government has barricaded all these protest sites, massive barricades with spikes, anything to make sure that the farmers don't have a great amount of mobility and are not able to express their protest. The internet connections were cut off in many of these protest sites as well. Even more dangerously, cases filed against journalists who were writing about it or covering it. A classic example being Bandit Puneer who was at a protest site and he was trying to cover instances of provocations that were being made towards the protesters and he was picked up on the charge of obstructing a public official, which is one of those classic charges you see across the world anytime. Somebody does not follow exactly what the police or the authorities want them to do. So here you have it picked up, he got bail only after a couple of days and the fact that a journalist who's on the ground doing his duty again being arrested also indicates along with the attack on the farmers as well the kind of repressive environment that exists currently in India right now. Tomorrow is a key day of course, there's going to be a chakka jam or a massive series of roadblocks across the country and I think it's very important also for those who are listening to realize like you said of course one that this is a frontline struggle but two also that this is an all India struggle because you know most of the visuals come from around Delhi, most of the media reports that are there come from around Delhi but this from the south of the country to the north from the east to the west we are seeing solidarity actions, we are seeing protests. Like you said Newsclick has been covering this specifically focusing on its Pan India appeal in Pan India you know reach as well because this is not just one group of farmers, this is a national issue and it's really time for the government to take on the sense of the fact. Yeah I mean the Indian Prime Minister doesn't seem to be paying attention to this in public. I mean you're quite correct. I think reporters need to hold authorities to account to answer the questions raised by mass movements. It is quite interesting how Greta Thunberg, Rihanna the British Labour MP Claudia Webb somehow their solidarity really bothered the Indian government much more than I think what's a very fundamental question raised by the farmers and by the majority of the Indian public. How do you eat if you don't treat the people who grow the food with dignity? I think that's the basic question on the table. You know I for my Globetrotter column this week I reported on another story which is just shrouded in all kinds of mystery. This is what appears on the surface to be a border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana and I looked at this very closely because I was following both presidents Nicholas Maduro and Irfan Ali's statements about the border dispute turns out the border dispute is not the real issue that could have been sorted out through the UN Secretary General's good offices. He was taking real cognizance of this trouble that was going on between the countries, very much solvable. Of course Exxon Mobil signed a terrible deal with Guyana, terrible deal with almost 80% of oil profits from this very disputed side to go to Exxon. Guyana was going to make nothing. The oil expert, John, he said directly that this is a fraud and I'm going to be speaking to him in a few months for people's dispatch as the story develops more. He was the presidential advisor on oil to the government of Guyana, very upset by the deal. The main thing is Exxon Mobil is paying the legal bills of the government of Guyana to challenge Venezuela's right to its understanding of the border. I mean it's extraordinary how corporations drive foreign policy, they put countries into a pickle as it were and we saw Mike Pompeo before the Trump administration left went on a tour of Venezuela's neighbors, Guyana, the Brazilian border region and Colombia basically to put pressure on Venezuela. Meanwhile, as Brazil de Fato, one of our partners from Brazil had reported very well that Venezuela decided to send oxygen to the city of Manaus where they ran out of medical oxygen. What sets the priorities people have? Here's the US government backing Exxon Mobil at a time when oil prices are at historic lows and supply is very high. They're pushing for a border confrontation between Venezuela and Guyana to suit their regime change policy. Let's be clear about this. Another one of these stories I should say which has got zero coverage outside Guyana and Venezuela. In Guyana, I would like to say Keiter News and particularly Kiana Wilberg has reported this extremely well. We're very happy to have this national news service really take the story seriously. What did we do today in this show? I mean, we went from Sudan to Guyana and Venezuela. All points in between Myanmar, Ecuador. What a show this is. I mean, at the end of the half, I feel exhausted. I feel like I traveled around the world. I feel like I traveled around the world as well. We have some excellent support from people who watch us every week. Very grateful to them for supporting us. You know who you are. We're very happy that you're there. We would like your feedback. We would really like your feedback. You can put feedback at the People's Dispatch Facebook page right to us. Our emails are all publicly available. Anything else, guys, before we close up? Let's stay tuned. Sunday, Ecuador, Haiti. I mean, the news doesn't stop and neither will we. The news does not stop and neither will we and nor do we sleep. If I'm totally honest with you. Bookmark People's Dispatch. Follow the Globetrotter stories at all the usual places. Come back next Friday. Listen to us as a podcast. You've been with us in a Bohemian-Bolshevik outfits. In our Bohemian-Bolshevik outfits. You're with us at Give the People What They Want. From People's Dispatch with Zoe and Prashant. And I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Glad you spent half an hour with us. See you next week.