 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news round up. It's Episode 143 from Give the People What They Want brought to you by People's Dispatch. That's Prashant and Zoe, peoplesdispatch.org your home for news about the world, about movements in the world. I'm Vijay from Globe Trotter. To be with you. We're going to start with a rather unpleasant story I must say. We first got, of course, news that a storm was brewing inside the Mediterranean Cyclone Daniel initially. Cyclone Daniel wreaking havoc in parts of Europe, north of the Mediterranean, Bulgaria, Greece and so on. And then it whipped around becoming Storm Daniel and struck the eastern part of Libya. Eastern part of Libya is under the control of a government which is not recognized by the United Nations. But it's headed largely by a coalition where the military strongman is Mr. Khalifa Haftar who of course used to live 10 minutes away from the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Washington before NATO, the United States and France destroyed that country in 2011. The storm Daniel broke two dams, Wadi Derna and Wadi Mansur flooding the city very rapidly. In fact, aviation minister from that eastern Libyan government said that it looked like a tsunami and that the city had in fact disappeared. Very rapidly it became clear that the loss of life was going to be catastrophic. In fact, it is now said that this cyclone, Cyclone Daniel is the most damaging cyclone since the 2008 cyclone Nargis which some people might remember also very, very great loss of life from Nargis. But Cyclone Daniel incomparable. About 12,000 people dead already in Derna and surrounding parts 12,000 people killed by flooding, flash flooding. This is a very, very high number for flooding deaths. You have numbers like this sometimes in earthquakes. You have numbers like this in war. But you don't have numbers like this from flash flooding. It meant that flood waters came so rapidly people could not seek higher ground. They could not escape from the city of Derna. Mustafa Al-Trabulsi, a poet in the city of Derna about three days before Wadi Mansur and Wadi Derna overflowed, had gone to Derna's house of culture where he gave a presentation saying that there was a danger because the dams had been neglected. Mustafa Al-Trabulsi left that meeting, went home wrote a poem about the flood about the possibility of a flood when the flood waters came three days later he perished along with the other 12,000 people of Derna a city where he was in fact one of the most important poets. This is a devastating circumstance but then again it is going to provoke its own debates and discussions. The world meteorological organizations had gave a press conference where he said that look if they had been functioning meteorological systems much of this could have been prevented. Others have said and there's now a call for an investigation inside Libya that the dams had been fundamentally neglected. Some say since the early 2000s without a doubt NATO's war against Libya in 2011 has destroyed the state in that country and in the course of the almost dozen years since that war there's been lack of regard for the destruction of the state of Libya. Absolute destruction of that state. There is very little accountability for that and in fact when the media reports that this is a tragedy a natural disaster it must be remembered that in fact the experts are saying that this disaster at least the scale of the disaster could have been prevented and it wasn't prevented not because of incompetence of this or that official although I'm sure there's sufficient accusations of incompetence once the investigation gets going but there's a broader issue here the state was destroyed in 2011 by a reckless and callous war persecuted by the North Atlantic treaty organization NATO United States and France in the lead that state has never been rebuilt the lack of that state is what impacted the people of Derna in a sense it's well worth adding the 12,000 dead to the war victims of the 2011 war and in fact the 12,000 is not even the final number because since the city and surrounding areas continue to be underwater the danger of disease is now galloping across the land no disaster comes with only one horseman of the apocalypse they all ride in and they ride at full gallop the situation in Derna is dire and continues to be dire we'll of course be following this closely as closely perhaps as others but with a sharper understanding that this is not merely nature acting against people but also people trying to survive from the detritus of extreme arrogant recklessness arrogant recklessness that should be perhaps a praise of part of our show today the G20 meeting the group of 20 took place in Delhi seems to me there was a lot of arrogant recklessness there when the government of India decided to put green colored plastic to cover over the poor Prashant a kind of arrogant recklessness I believe what happened with the G20 right I mean for those who follow India's politics of course nothing new in the way the event was organized as people have pointed out it seemed like it was an event organized by one person for one person and of one person which is the Prime Minister it was really an event meant to sort of from a domestic audience at least meant to portray him as a world leader as a global statesman as someone guiding the world etc etc this has pretty much become in a lot of how India deals with issues of international relations at this point but nonetheless a very interesting summit for many other reasons as well while of course this issue is something that has to be debated and maybe struggled in India but in a global level G20 summit was actually a pretty interesting one because the fact that one to be fair while nobody expected a joint statement out of it there was a joint statement in fact even last week I was thinking about it I was confident that they wouldn't be one but there was a joint statement that came out of it and that joint statement of course took a much let's say less harsher line on the issue of Ukraine than what happened in Bali last time which was a real point of division and of course the Indian government using it to sort of portray itself in a very heroic light but I think the larger political issue there which has been kind of widely acknowledged is the fact that the west was sort of to some extent forced to cave in on this issue because of recent geopolitical developments and now the real question is what really are these geopolitical developments that forced say the United States and its allies to maybe take a slightly softer line on this issue and it does seem that one of the key drivers at this point was the recent BRICS meeting the expansion of BRICS as a block which basically meant that there has been a lot of questioning of the role of the G7 the role of the G20 many questions regarding whether a forum like the G20 is even relevant anymore for the United States and its allies G20 has a particular significance it remains one of the few fora when it can sort of engage with countries in the global south and as many parts of the global south are seeing a very strong anti-colonial push we are seeing this in Africa we are seeing this in Latin America Asia it does look like there is a bit the countries of the global north the US and its allies are in a bit of a defensive position right now and that is believed to have sort of led to this softening of a position which finally led to the joint statement now of course there were some announcements regarding some infrastructure projects as well which at this point look a bit I wouldn't say dubious but nobody has really been able to figure out how these projects are going to be implemented and whether there is actually any need for these projects other than for a rhetorical push back against China's BRI so all in all quite a strange G20 meeting in the sense that what many experts are pointing out is that maybe this meeting to some extent saved the G20 for a while as opposed to it collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions but whether this is going to save the G20 for a much longer time is a big question the answer is probably no because I think history itself is the present whatever you call it is moving in a completely different direction and the G20 is probably a remnant of an older era countries of the global south they have their own interests they have their own agenda they are trying all kinds of forums regional ones, global ones it does not look like the G20 is going to be one of those well we will have to see for now I suppose in a way Prashant as we said last week the G20 is a little bit like the place where the BRICS countries and the G7 have a kind of neutral place to chit chat maybe it continues just for that meanwhile of course the international class struggle doesn't go to sleep these geopolitical realities take place but the working class trotting along fighting to establish itself under the sun in the United States in this in this setting fascinating Zoe the class struggle at the heart of the imperialist Behemoth what's happening with the united auto workers very very exciting development as of midnight Friday so just 11 hours ago workers at the big three auto mobile companies Solantis Ford and GM are officially on strike this is a historic strike never in the history of the auto industry in the US have workers from all these three companies been on strike at the same time the UAW has been in contract negotiations with these companies for several months they've made radical demands important demands radical only because at this moment organized labor in the US besides this recent teamsters contract had not dared to raise these things but they're not radical in the sense that they actually deeply respond to the needs of the working class at this moment that is suffering in a contracted economic crisis and as of this morning as I said workers at different plants of these three companies are on strike they're implementing a stand up strike so currently there are 144,000 workers that are part of this contract negotiation all of them are not on strike currently essentially the strategy of the UAW is to go several plants at a time start with some and then add more it's a pretty smart tactic because they're able to keep it fresh these are surprises both for the workers and for the owners of these companies able to create buzz in the news so very very very interesting again it's a historic strike they're calling for so many important demands 32 hour work week an end to this horrible tier system that exists in these companies this means that newer workers don't get the same benefits as full-time workers an impossible road to become to go from a contract worker to a full-time worker this is an absolute denial of people's rights sadly it has become the industry standard not only in the US of course but in countries across the world we know that the informal sector in many countries is the largest sector where people are employed in this means maybe they're self-employed maybe they're subcontractors and they're not able to receive the rights that they should be guaranteed health care this means retirement this means sick time so many essential elements that maybe 50 years ago seemed like in the United States that they were a given and now these are so hard to come by we're told this is normal that now people are entrepreneurs but the fact is is that this is just a blatant denial of people's rights and so very very militant organizing by the UAW they have an extremely exciting militant president Sean Fain he's part of this generation of radical union leadership that has rejected the conciliatory path that had been taken by labor leadership in the past decade where they conceded to the demands of the industry where they gave away demands that had been historic for example the cost of living adjustment had been a crucial victory of workers in the past and in past contract negotiations the UAW leadership had sacrificed this and this means that wages are not being adjusted to inflation so prices are rising and your wages are staying the same or in actual terms they're decreasing and so this is one of the most central demands of the UAW in these contract negotiations extremely you know Sean Fain he did a video where he received he held up the contract proposal the counter proposal of these companies and he threw it in the trash this is a union that's not going to concede to these weak demands of the companies they're not only fighting for these 144,000 auto workers they're fighting for the entire working class fighting back against corporate greed and it's definitely an exciting time we're going to see more and more strikes popping off at these assembly plants so definitely a class struggle heating up this is definitely a trend across the country across sectors and across industries it's a very important strike of course we look for people's movements to track both Zoe and Prashant at People's Dispatch editing the website around the struggles of people Vijay from Globe Trotter you're with give the people what they want Episode 143 an important episode because we're 7 episodes away from the 150th episode it will be a special treat I'm sure I know it's a treat for you to wait for us every week but 150 boy that's a surprise Prashant 150 episodes for us but 30 years of gloom for the Palestinian freedom project 30 years of the Oslo Accord I remember well Prashant when the Accord was passed Edward Said wrote and said this is a surrender this is not an Accord what's the record now 30 years later and how are the Palestinians viewing the Oslo Accords right which a lot of people going back to Edward Said say I think he described it as a worst sales for the Palestinians if I'm not mistaken and it's surprising how not surprising maybe but it's remarkable how accurate Prashant he was he was been proved because 30 years down the line I remember a bit of those times when you know there was a lot of talk about hope that there there was a Nobel Prize that came out of the Oslo Accords process and there was this idea that maybe finally after so many decades you know there would be some kind of peace but I think a lot of commentary now and over the past many years in fact I think it's focused on the fact that the Oslo Accords were set up to fail in the first place that they were basically a form of agreement whereby the Palestinians got very little in exchange for conceding a lot and over the years that gap has only increased because of the increase successive right wing governments in Israel because the extent to which Israeli society itself has been has has moved to the right because of the very nature of apartheid itself I would say in terms of how these policies have been implemented so it's no surprise and it's not the result of one or two bad actors that the Oslo Accords have failed so terribly it is actually part of that historical process itself starting from how those negotiations took place and today when you look at the situation it's it's pretty obvious the fact that while there was supposed to be two states the idea was a two state solution that there would be a Palestinian state this potential Palestinian state has been completely broken up today in by the Israelis through the through the walls, checkpoints the innumerable restrictions that are placed on the basic movement of Palestinians the possibility of a state has been pretty much completely destroyed at this point so talking about a two state solution seems seems almost archaic or quaint at this point considering what is called how Israel has created facts on the ground as they say and of course we've also seen a massive increase in terms of attacks we talked successive attacks for instance on Gaza which has become the world's largest open air prison we are seeing to be talking about a massive increase in the number of illegal settlements and the number of illegal settlers the number right now is around 700,000 and I think we are also talking about the Palestinian Authority itself which over time has completely lost its credibility among large sections of the population to the extent that they are often seen there have been massive protests against the Palestinian Authority in the past couple of years as well so keeping all this in mind I mean talking about the Oslo Accords that is 30 years I think it's many commentators have pointed out that it is pretty inevitable that it would fail what is interesting though is the fact that there are new waves of resistance which are breaking out now which have a completely different agenda which are not sticking to the idea of the Oslo Accords the promises of the Oslo Accords or believing for that matter this Israeli government or current or future Israeli governments are going to deliver anything they have promised and I think even the Israelis have given up the pretence of believing in any of these records or even using them as slogans talks haven't taken place for 10 years so I think it's a moment to sort of reflect on a very different Palestine from what was 30 years ago and you know and a very different kind of resistance what was 30 years ago and I think there has also been a huge amount of global solidarity we have seen campaigns like the BDS movement growing but also facing resistance which is probably also a sign of success so I think it's a moment to sort of look back but also recognize that this is a very different situation this is a very different Palestine we are witnessing right now and the Israeli agenda has been clearly exposed so the whole pretence of peace and the kind of promises they were made those have actually been completely exposed that's 30 years ago that the Oslo Accords was signed a gloom for the Palestinians over these three decades 24 years ago Zoe the United States and the government of Colombia started Plan Colombia which was rooted in the war on drugs the really depressing policy from the United States in collaboration with the Colombian government to criminalize small farmers and so on looks like a different kind of plan being hatched between the governments of Colombia and Mexico what's the new drug policy by these countries well just ahead of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Gustavo Perros trip to Chile where they participated in the 50th anniversary commemorations of the coup against Alvaro Allende they were in Colombia for the Latin American Caribbean forum on a new drug policy and they declared in the closing moments of this conference that the current anti-drugs policy that has been promoted by the United States and really imposed on the region has failed and they say over a million people have died in the region have been killed by this inhumane policy over 10 million people have been incarcerated in the United States mostly black and Latino people and this is just a failure of humanity and of course after they say it's been five decades of this anti of the war on drugs in different iterations and others yet today drugs are continuing to kill people the U.S. is having as an epidemic of this fentanyl crisis more and more violence in countries like Ecuador related to drug trafficking so it's clear that this is a failed policy this is not a policy that's had results the result of it as you said is to criminalize farmers is to criminalize people that the government wants to criminalize and just associate them with drug trafficking and essentially these two countries came together with representatives from across the region from across the Caribbean the most impacted because of this crisis not the countries with the highest rates of consumption but yes the countries that have the largest impact of drug trafficking roots etc to discuss what would the humane policy look like what would a policy look like that actually puts people first that puts social transformation at the center this is of course very challenging because how can you transform a response to a situation that is so deeply rooted in the capitalist crisis how can you transform the situation which has so many different illicit economies that have been implicated into it that have been again present for decades it's a very very challenging question I think it's a huge question not only facing these governments it's a question that the left has to grapple with how to address high levels of consumption how to address the fact that when people don't have jobs when people are desperate this is the sector that is most profitable these are questions that are faced that people are facing across the region from the united states to Argentina this is something that has to be grappled with and so this forum was the first moment in what's going to be a series of forums that are civil society and government forums to discuss a new anti-drug policy understanding that there are way too many victims from both the strategy that's been used to combat the drug trade the militarization of the regions forced eradication targeting small farmers but that also it's a pressing issue that it can no longer be that the poor neighborhoods are sacrificed that they're the health of the people is sacrificed because this is the only solution for people so a really important development and I think once again we're seeing that the leadership the moral leadership of leaders like Amlo, like Gustavo Petro who are standing up to united states and saying your policy doesn't work and we in the region are going to discuss and find a better solution I think it's again another very important advance and that hopefully there will continue to be outcomes from these dialogues that's Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico both of whom will likely be in Havana Cuba for the group of 77 which starts over this weekend 134 countries will be in Cuba that's about 80% of the world's population this is the G77 plus China China is not formally a member of the G77 but for decades now has effectively voted with the block the UN block and therefore it's known as the G77 plus C two other heads of state therefore will be in Havana most likely it's not sure whether Xi Jinping of China will come himself but also Nicolas Maduro will be there of Venezuela interestingly Mr Maduro spent a week in China very interesting week for Mr Maduro where he went to Shenzhen also got himself a new Huawei phone he also told a reporter who is asking him a question in English to actually speak in Mandarin because there was no interpreter from English to Spanish in the room I thought that was a puzzling little scene there I'm never one for an anti English position largely because English is a language spoken by tens of millions of people in Africa and Asia not just the language of Estados Unidos but let's set that aside during his time in China very interesting development took place because this is the 50th anniversary of the relations between Venezuela and China and at this 50th anniversary gathering between Maduro and Xi Jinping they elevated the relationship between the two countries to the all weather strategic partnership this is a significant level this is the level for instance of the relationship between Pakistan and China Pakistan one of the closest allies of China so it should not be underestimated the role now between Venezuela and China this all weather strategic partnership means that China and Venezuela will increase technological and industrial collaboration it should be said that Venezuela is one of the countries that already collaborates in the international lunar mission of the Chinese space agency Venezuela already is in that door as it were but this is going to increase in fact I feel some of the collaboration around development in Venezuela Xi Jinping at the meeting talked about some of the successes that the Chinese have had and how their successes don't have to be followed by carbon copy boy that's an artistic phrase carbon copy most people won't get what I'm talking about refers to typewriters in case you're interested I'm sorry about that showing my age that the Chinese model doesn't have to be copy and pasted you know in Venezuela but the Venezuelans could learn a few things and perhaps teach the Chinese other things very important development what this indicates is that it's likely next year Venezuela will be a member of the US I think there's great interest in countries like China to bring Venezuela in Venezuela has one of the world's largest known reserves of oil if Venezuela joins the United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Russia Iran Egypt inside bricks basically that's all the countries with energy for the future at least carbon energy for the future a very important development this elevation of the relation between China and Venezuela in one respect 50th anniversary of the relations between the two countries it's a 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine seems to me this elevated relationship between Venezuela and China is China snubbing its nose at the US Monroe Doctrine of 1823 you've been listening to give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch that Zoe and Prashan I'm Vijay from Globe Trotter show 143 over and out see you next week