 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 Give the People What They Want. Brought to you from People's Dispatch. Today it's Prashant. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Last week I was in Nepal, almost underwater. It's monsoon in Nepal and I was stuck in a traffic jam, couldn't join. I'm back now in Santiago, Chile. Zoe is also here, but not able to join us. So once again, it's two of three for two weeks. Show 141, edging up to the 150th show Prashant. That's a big deal in cricket. It's a big deal when you score a century. It's almost as big a deal when you're at 150. And good God, we're edging on to 200. Numbers, you know, in France, in the Elysée Palace, they must be worried. It's like bowling pins falling. They lose Guinea. They lose control in Burkina Faso. They lose control in Mali. When they come back to Niger in a second, they lose control in Niger. And then suddenly leaving the Sahel, going south to Western Central Africa and Gabon, a coup, unsuspected. Although Prashant, to be fair, we've been saying this is a contagion of coups. We don't know where it's going to end. Maybe next Chad, but none of us said Gabon. Absolutely. And in some senses, it seems almost, you know, it seems a very likely candidate now that you look back and that's one of the interesting things about these coups. Once these coups happen, it seems like, you know, it was definitely bound to happen or why it didn't even happen earlier. In this case, we are the Bongo family, which has been in power for 57 or 56 or 57 years, father and son, ruling with a considerable amount of support from the French, you know, France really backing this family for decades now. And you have an election which is held in what has been described universally as, you know, not really the best conditions at all for elections to be held in because the organization was apparently pretty bad. You know, at some point, there were a lot of restrictions. Elections laws themselves had been changed, which made it highly irregular. We have a report on it by a writer, Tara Priyas Singh was also spoken to sources over there. And what one of our sources told us was that even if this coup had not happened by the military, what would have definitely happened was would likely have been mass protests because the nature of the election itself was so suspect. The credibility of the electoral process was so suspect that it is very unlikely that, you know, they would have been actually acceptance of the results. And in many ways, you know, while of course, Yabon is in Central Africa, the issues of that region are maybe a bit different from that of Sahil. We will be talking about Niger soon, slightly different set of issues, but there are also some commonalities. I mean, in many countries in this region, you have rulers who have ruled for extremely long periods of time, all of them very close, many of them very close to France. And despite many of these countries being extremely rich in terms of resources, only a very small elite has benefited from the kind of, you know, from the wealth of these countries, while most of the people have not benefited at all. So it is actually, you know, many of these countries, the situation is very right for these kind of popular mobilizations overthrows. And like you talked about in many parts of Africa itself, often what happens is that it is a military or a section of the military that becomes a sort of conduit or that manages to channel what the general sentiment of the people is in that there is definitely what seems to be happening in Yabon as well. Now, what direction this group of military forces will take is a different question. It's still too early to say, you know, they may, they may hew back to the what do you call old line with some kind of changes or they may recognize what is definitely in a process across the region and take a much more different stance, especially with respect to how resources for instance are being mobilized. Yabon is one of the few countries which uses the CFA, France, that currency which is an enduring legacy of the kind of impact and control that France continues to have on its former colonies and, you know, it's very rich in terms of resources including, for instance, I believe manganese if I'm not mistaken. And one of the French companies, it's the world's largest producer of manganese ore. It has a very substantial mining presence in Yabon as well. I think about, there are, there are even now French soldiers in Yabon. It's a small number, 350 to 400, but French troops continue to be there. French firms have benefited from the oil licensing, when it comes to oil licensing especially. So all these processes that we've been seeing, all these structures we've been seeing in various other parts of the region, very much replicated, very much present in Yabon. And so you see yet another instance of pushback. There have been, I believe, quite a few celebrations inside Yabon itself in terms of after the coup took place, which means that the coup does seem to have answered what was clearly a demand, what was clearly felt by the people. And now, so, you know, like you said, very difficult and tumultuous times for the French who must be seeing, you know, like it's really like nine pins. And it's not just governments that are changing. It's also a vast wave of popular mobilization, popular anger, which is getting channelized to this. Very important that you mentioned popular anger. Also, of course, there are institutional problems. For instance, it is incumbent on the African Union based on the charter of the African Union to condemn these coups. African Union has once again condemned the coup in Yabon. This should not be read too deeply because it is, as a consequence, a reflex of the African Union's charter. Originally, the organization of African states based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which on 1st January will be a member of the BRICS block. It's a reflex of the charter that the AU has to condemn the coup as it condemned the coup in Yabon and previously condemned the coup in Niger. But pay attention to the fact that when ECO was the economic community of West African states and its peacekeeping function. This is again a curiosity Prashant because one has to wonder about an economic community having a peacekeeping force. That was not in the original charter of ECOVAS, but now it's become very much part of their work. When ECOVAS started making noises about a military intervention into Niger, the African Union said no military intervention. I want to emphasize this to show that even within the states of the African continent represented in the African Union there is a very complicated situation at play. Again, because of the charter they have to condemn the coup but that doesn't mean that they are not sympathetic with the situation on the ground. The mass struggles, in other words, creating a certain context for the AU to say no military intervention. A lot of loss of life. That hasn't stopped Niger's problems in many ways. Firstly, the borders have been closed by neighboring states. This has created a serious problem for supplies in Niger. Niger is having a hard time resupplying shops, resupplying petrol pumps and so on. There is a kind of economic war already on against the government and people of Niger. Point number one. Point number two, and I think this bears some reflection. ECOVAS hasn't stopped talking about intervention. There was a story that ECOVAS says is now fake, reported by Ajahn's France Press, which said that ECOVAS had the commission of ECOVAS had produced a report written in French in which they had said that there's going to be a nine-month transition program for Niger. What that would mean is that effectively, ECOVAS had come to terms with the coup and said that okay, there's a coup and now nine-month transition plan. I read the report in Ajahn's France Press and thought that's interesting. Very quick turnaround from ECOVAS. And then ECOVAS released a statement saying, wait a minute, that's fake. That's fake news. There's no such report. I found that fascinating. Here's a French wire service, Ajahn's France Press, releasing a report saying, well, we'll come to terms with this coup regime in Niger, which now has a civilian leader. And then ECOVAS says, no, no, no, that's fake news. Meanwhile, and here's the interesting way in which these stories are quite complicated. Meanwhile, Algeria. Algeria is playing a very interesting role in the question of Niger's coup d'etat in particular, but also of course because of the border with Mali and the relations with Burkina Faso, this has an impact. Algeria's president was in Moscow talking about, effectively, didn't use the phrase, but US imperialism talking about the role of the US dollar and de-dollarization and so on. And I say his government was very annoyed and they called in the Algerian foreign minister to a meeting with Blinken where he was scolded and told, look, this is outrageous. You can't be talking like that. All right, fair enough. That's fine. And then there was a telephone call, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Mali Fee on the last day of August had a phone call with Algerian Foreign Minister Attaf where she basically said the behavior of Algeria. Algeria saying that they wouldn't allow their land to be used or their airspace to be used for an intervention against Niger. Mr. Attaf had made this quite clear in some remarks earlier. All of this happening while there is a sense that confusion maybe. Let me put it this way. And even my report sounds a little confusing. Prashant, that's because the realities are confusing. Here's Ekoba saying we're going to have a transition and then saying, no, that was a fake report. Then the Algerians say you can't use the airspace. The Americans calling them in. Blinken and Mali Makhfi quite upset with the Algerians for their behavior here. The Algerian leadership is meanwhile saying, we are thinking about the change in the world scenario as the change in the bricks takes place. We're not going to take instructions from Washington, DC. Ekobas, military chiefs meet and say, well, maybe we should intervene. And then comes Abdul Fattah Musa, the commissioner for political affairs, peace and security of the Ekobas block who says, Ekobas forces are ready to go at any time into Niger. Very confusing situation. No clarity on the ground. It looks to me and if I can summarize this report, it looks to me. And again, this comes with, as it were, stories that are moving at such a rapid pace. It's hard to digest what's going on. But if I could summarize, it looks like the West is continuing to be upset by the coup in Niger. That's true. The West wants to find a way to reverse this coup in Niger, but without inflaming popular opinion too much. And therefore, instead of trying to do some kind of quick overthrow in Niger, trying to build a continental support for the Western position, this is not happening. And it's not happening because governments like Algeria, governments like, you know, in fact, not only Algeria, but I must say even Nigeria where there is doubt inside large sections of the elected body that are not keen on an intervention, they are also responding to mass pressure. Very important. Therefore, what you said about Gabon, that there are popular protests. There is mass support for this. It's going to be difficult to turn it around, particularly given the fact that your co-leaders in Gabon Prashant have been out there investigating corruption, arresting members of the family of Mr. Bongo, whose family is governed forever. It seems a little bit like the Haiti story, which I know you're going to come back to, you know, where Papa Doc and Baby Doc governed in Haiti from 1957 for decades. Very much similar with the Bongo family in Gabon. You're listening to give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch. That's Prashant and I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. We did a rather long section just now on the African continent and area, not covered with the kind of sincerity it requires, but so be it. Meanwhile, we're going to switch now to South Asia. Imran Khan, the great cricketer, one of my childhood heroes, the way he could move the ball in both directions. Entered politics, became Prime Minister, was overthrown. And now, God, what's going on in Pakistan? Right. It's interesting in the sense that a lot of what we're talking about with reference to Gabon and to some at some extent Niger, some of the structural issues very much applicable in Pakistan as well. What you're seeing right now is definitely the Pakistani establishment of the country's political establishment facing a massive crisis. There's no other way of describing it. So on the one hand, you have Imran Khan who was overthrown last year. And of course, that's a very interesting aspect. What was the role of the United States in that overthrow is actually now very open question because of a Cypher, a document that was released which talked about a US official giving an implying basically that they would like that to happen. But more importantly ever since Imran Khan was overthrown and a government was formed comprising the traditional parties of Pakistan and very clearly backed by the military establishment as well, which plays a huge role in Pakistan's politics. There's been this continuous attempt to foist cases on him. I believe he's accused in 150 cases right now. So, you know, as I'm ranging from all kinds of issues. So one of the major ones was something to do with corruption regarding the sale of gifts from the state treasury, what is called the Toshak Hana case. I believe it's around $500,000. It's a corruption case of around that amount of money. And Imran Khan was recently sentenced in that case and he was taken into a rest. But then a higher court basically suspended that sentence. But then again, Imran Khan was, but nonetheless he was forced to remain in jail because of this case regarding the Cypher we talked about this document. And now there is a case against him that this was a secret document which he played a role in leaking. So what is happening right now is a very clear legal battle between Imran Khan on one hand and basically the entire establishment on the other. And this is of course not the beginning of it. We saw that in May he was arrested. There was a massive nationwide uprising which took place. He was released after that. But after that what has happened is that the Pakistan establishment has gone after Imran Khan's party with the vengeance. Many leaders are declaring that the office park, declaring that they will either quit politics, many of them, you know, even leaving the party. So an immense amount of pressure that is being applied. And it is important to note that all this is happening because on August 9th the National Assembly of Pakistan was dissolved which means that elections are supposed to take place within three months. Now what has also happened is that the election authority has said that they are going to redraw the, you know, electoral constituencies and hence where we postpone. So now we're looking at maybe elections being held in January or February. But this basically gives the establishment more time to sort of try to disqualify Imran Khan in whatever way possible and make sure that he does not come back because what does seem to have happened is that whatever his record during governance was and of course Imran Khan did compromise with the IMF, etc. But especially after he was overthrown he has in some sense really been able to channelise the anger of a large number of people who are extremely upset at the economic situation and the security situation in the country. And the new government that came into power after that the coalition of these two establishment parties has really not been able to do anything to resolve the massive inflation, the kind of freefall that Pakistan's economy is going through right now. And so Imran Khan's popularity is actually surged since then also because of the perception that he was unfairly overthrown as part of a conspiracy. So all this put together this is given a lot of backing for him and it seems that the establishment forces are now desperate to sort of make sure that he and his party are not able to contest legitimately and properly in election because they fear that he might come back with a powerful majority and then their chances are they are in deep danger. Also important to know that it does seem like the military establishment also backing this attempt to persecute Khan's judiciary interestingly is quite divided it seems like because you have there's been a lot of to and fro between various courts, some courts declaring him guilty, others saying that the verdict was not right, some giving him bail, some instructing that he remain inside prison. So a very divided judiciary, a very divided establishment in every sense and so definitely we are going to see some very very rough months in Pakistan you know Iman Khan being in jail out of it, the full-fledged attack on the party. So very very important country to watch out in the coming months. Yeah I mean it's so important to look at Pakistan because it's not a small country it's a major country in the world one of the countries with the large population and so on. I just want to say that in October Tricontinental will be publishing a dossier written by Taimur Rahman the leader of the Pakistan Kisan Mazdoor party which is on the deindustrialization of Pakistan I mean underneath these political developments is a serious economic problem which seems intractable Prashant and I mean you know whoever comes to power is going to have to confront the same reality and putting the most popular politician in the country in jail is hardly going to be a solution. Now everybody pays attention to the question of the climate and the environment I mean the kind of reports that come don't even seem to explain the catastrophes before our eyes. We've already talked on this show about the wildfires in Canada wildfires in Hawaii the high temperatures in Japan over 50 degrees centigrade for a week on end and so on the question of the climate is really right there young people played a major role one way or the other in saying to older politicians it's our planet you're destroying you'll be dead and gone what about our lives and so youth have played a big role in various climate movements not only in the West extinction, rebellion and so on but also in Asia and Africa Latin America young people may be inspired by things they are seeing but they are also playing a big role from the Philippines out to South America young people and therefore it's sort of fitting that the UN committee on the rights of the child you know the United Nations committee on the rights of the child is based on a convention that was created in 1989 it's a pretty young convention they had not until now weighed in on the climate debate you know this was something that was happening in the intergovernmental panel on climate change it was happening at the General Assembly it was happening in the United Nations Environmental Fund UNEF you know it was happening in other places well now I think it's about time given so many young people paying attention to the issue of the climate and so on that the UN convention on the rights of the child is sort of weighed in on this issue well they release something and Prashant you know when you look at the UN documents they're so bureaucratic well it's called general comment number 26 on children's rights in the environment with a special focus on climate change that's the name of the text what the text basically points out is that children worldwide been fighting against climate change calling on governments to protect the planet now what the comment says is that children effectively have a right to a safe planet I think this is an important statement you know that children have a right to a healthy and sustainable planet with sustainable food available to them and so on in my opinion this is one of those interesting UN documents which I hope you know having been inspired by children's activism is now going to inspire more young people to get involved to demand for instance that you know they have a role to play I mean the fact is that the children are least responsible for the climate crisis you know calculations by that the UN has summarized show that every year 1.7 million children under the age of 5 lose their lives due to environmental damage that's a pretty large number Prashant 1.7 million a year of children under 5 losing lives because of environmental degradation environmental damage and so on you know that's a pretty important fact that they've lifted up the last point about this document that I found very interesting you know we talk a lot about trying to listen to the views of children and so on you know it's something that one says you know we must involve more voices of the affected parties children well what the UN did for this report is that it created a global advisory board of experts and a team of 12 child advisors age between 11 and 17 so a team of 12 children between the age of 11 and 17 work to support the work of this committee I mean I find this very interesting there's a young woman her name is Aniva 17 year old climate activist from the pacific islands okay when this document was being released Aniva made a comment and I want to read out this comment to me the general comment means worldwide change that is necessary as we move forward in fighting environmental issues and taking global action in protecting our planet for our generation and the generations to come it gives children a stronger basis in international law to enforce our rights to a healthy environment globally we are seeing more action for people to protect the environment through this general comment this will form an important part I thought that was a really impressive statement made by a 17 year old let's not underestimate young people 1.7 children under the age of 5 killed because of environmental damage last year their rights are now established and enshrined through general comment number 26 I hope more young people read general comment number 26 I hope that is circulated and inspires more young people to get involved I mean talking about environmental damage or degradation Prashant travelling to Haiti has been one of those things where you go in and you see the levels of deforestation and the impact this has had on the agricultural sector and so on it plays a cascading role with all of Haiti's other problems I think it's important we close out this section with your report on Haiti I mean quite a few developments actually the most recent one a very shocking one I believe 20 people were killed by gang members people marching people who are part of a congregation who are marching towards the headquarters of a gang in protest again saw the region dominated by a gang in protest against the violence that this gang was taking place this gang which calls itself the Taliban of Kanan of Kanan or how do we pronounce it is quite a strange name but in fact one of those many gangs which basically have largely taken over large parts of the capital port of Prinsen and even many other parts of the country and we have been hearing a lot about gang violence in Haiti for many many many many years right now and you know two years ago in fact I believe they had taken over large parts of the port fuel supplies were affected for instance and what is the the response often from many countries in the world especially the United States and its allies has been that we need to send some kind of a multinational force to Haiti to somehow suppress their violence from the gangs and restore security and it was part of this initiative that actually a delegation from Kenya recently visited Haiti and we have a very good report from our correspondent Tanya Wadwa and that who talks about it so delegation from Kenya visits Haiti to consider the possibility of Kenya leading a thousand member strong police force which will be deployed in Haiti to establish security according to them. Now it is very important to note that the idea of foreign intervention is something that the people in mass organizations of Haiti have been resisting very very very strongly now because their point has been that you know the reason we are facing the kind of issues that we face today which is you know mass poverty you know say unemployment gang violence all of this stem from decades of intervention you talked about the you talked about the dual leaders who were in power for the longest time but we also for instance have Jean-Paul Arrested against two coups to place one of the you know leaders with that very strange record of having been couped twice and then you know and this has happened again and again there was a UN force which is accused of all kinds of crimes including for instance introducing cholera so right now organizations and people in Haiti are extremely against the idea of any foreign force being brought in but this is the this is what they keep the international community keeps pushing in again and again there is no idea of for instance accountability for people such as Auryo Laundrie the de facto president who's been in power since 2021 after the assassination of his predecessor who was also a de facto president there was no question of holding proper elections in fact Haitian organizations are worried that this force might be brought in to sort of create the conditions to do so-called an election for the sake of it which will bring again the very same people back to power which will bring all the same issues back there will be no change at all so what they are saying is that you know let you know offer a solidarity yes but let us take control of our destiny and allow us an opportunity to do so so that has been the push from Haitian organizations so a lot of anger and even in Africa too in Kenya for instance organizations in the left have condemned the Kenyan governments attempt to sort of experiment with this idea of foreign intervention so at a very, Haiti at a very delicate time especially if this move to send a thousand members strong force gets ratified there are moves to sort of create a resolution for instance so I think that is definitely going to face a lot of opposition especially considering its previous record. Can you imagine Prashant here we are it's half an hour show give the people what they want which brought to you by People's Dispatch Globler half an hour show and we keep talking about military interventions military intervention into Niger by Ecovaas military intervention into Haiti by Kenya think about this world you know we've put on the table the UN convention on the rights of the child there's the United Nations there's an ability for people to talk to each other and yet here we are short program hundred and forty first episode of this program military intervention military intervention nine weeks to go till the one fiftieth program please send us those selfies give the people what they want brought to you People's Dispatch Globler to see you next week