 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news round up. If you follow the calendar, we're already in December. That means 2021 is almost over. Most of you have had this strange experience of no 2020, no 2021. Well friends, I'm here to tell you in case you haven't been following the unfolding of the Greek alphabet that we're at another alphabet now. And despite all the evidence, Europeans have blamed it on South Africa. Give the people what they want. That's our show brought to you by People's Dispatch with Prashant and Zoe. And I'm Vijay from Globetrotter here. Every week giving you the stories that you want but don't know where to find. Prashant, wow, another Delta Omnicron data. I didn't even know the Greek alphabet. Tell us about this new, this new. Sir, unfortunate way of learning the Greek alphabet. But nonetheless, the fact is that now we have the Omnicron variant. It's been declared a variant of concern. As expected, the response from the global north was simple, elegant. So to speak in their words, we just impose travel bans as quickly as possible on countries in Southern Africa. And despite all that we went through where, you know, people tried time and again to say, for instance, let's not say brand the virus with a particular region. Let's not give that kind of stigma. Nonetheless, that is nothing. Nothing seems to have changed in the close to two years that we've had this virus. So travel bans, of course, these have been very fiercely criticized by leaders of the Southern African countries. We have the Malawi and President, for instance, who said that this feels more or less like Afrophobia. South African President Ramaphosa also highlighting this point very strongly. And it's all the more ironic when you consider the fact that vaccine apartheid is still very much, at least one positive thing is maybe that a lot of people, a lot of media organizations in the global north are finally coming to realize an issue we have been talking about consistently, for instance, on this show that it is appalling how the vaccination rates in the world are distributed. So I think even now, according to the Africa CDC, I think 6.7% of the population in the continent is fully vaccinated and 9.9% partially. So just think of those numbers, not even 10% of the population of Africa has received one dose of the vaccine so far. And this is when countries in the global north are administering booster doses, there were multiple promises which have been broken of delivering all these vaccines. And I think in this context, it's important to note that one of the casualties, so to speak, of the Omicron variant was the WTO Ministerial Conference that is supposed to be held in Geneva because it said quickly off the blocks, quickly impose bans on travel bans and representatives in some of the southern African countries. And the meeting got cancelled. And then what happened was that the patent waiver proposal, which has been, again, we have talked about consistently, it's been there from last year, that discussion has again been postponed. And what would this patent waiver do? The patent waiver would enable a little more relaxation of some of the intellectual property issues around vaccines, around other COVID-19 diagnostics and other products, and ensure that maybe the capacity of the global south to produce some of this could be really mobilized and tapped so that there is at least some more hope for equity. And this proposal has been, you know, people have been talking about it for ages. Unfortunately, the WTO proposal cannot be approved until there is consensus. And there is this block of countries, the European Commission, of course, which represents the EU, the United Kingdom countries like Singapore, for instance. These countries, which are the center, which are the center of big pharma, so to speak, which have actually been opposing these proposals, this small hub of countries, and that is preventing this proposal from being accepted. On the other hand, what we've also seen is in Geneva and other parts of the world, people's groups, mobilizations taking place in large numbers. A key element of the fact is that I think workers across the world, in the global north, the global south, they've made the point time and again, they are very strongly in support of this proposal. They've been asking these questions of their governments, of their ministers as to why they are not willing to accept or push for the WTO waiver, the trips waiver to be implemented, and these governments have been silent on that. So I think, I mean, there's a lot of speculation about how the Omicron variant is going to progress with spread fast, you know, countries. Now there's again a renewed sense of fear in many of these countries. But the central question in terms of vaccine apartheid, in terms of our failure, to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as humanity as a whole, as the world as a whole is still very much exposed. So in that way, not much really has changed unfortunately from 2020 when the pandemic first emerged and these are very depressing signs. Nonetheless, mobilizations continuing. I would urge people to check out People's Health Dispatch, which is a collaboration of ours with our friends in the People's Health Movement. They've been doing some very valuable work chronicling these protests, chronicling the policy decisions that are being taken, chronicling the policy suggestions that are being made by NGOs, by trade unions on this count. So, you know, tough times ahead across the world, but hopefully there is some movement. Tough times ahead, but let's not forget that a small island like Cuba vaccinated everybody. You just go a little bit across the Caribbean Sea to Honduras. They've had an amazing election, Zoe, you're going to tell us about it, but the vaccination rate abysmal and therefore we're going to look for new variants. You were in Honduras covered it brilliantly for People's Dispatch, one of the few foreign journalists covered it with that kind of grip on the pulse of the country. What was it like and what happened in Honduras? Well, that's exactly right, Vijay. It was a great celebration of the Honduran people, this victory. You know, on Sunday, November 28th, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to different polling stations, speaking to people, you know, of course, ahead of the elections, different movement activists. And this week, of course, continuing those conversations following the victory of Zyomara Castro. And there's really, I'd say, the overlying kind of sentiment of the people is one of hope and hope for change. So, you know, as we've spoken about last week, these elections were really seeing a contest between a far-right candidate, Nazareth Forda, the continuation of, you know, 12 years of what the Honduran people have termed narco-dictatorship, which, you know, of course stems from the 2009 coup when the National Party essentially imposed itself through the military, through, you know, violently, I mean, through the, you know, forcing out the President Manuel Zelaya and imposing a model of a country which, you know, was really based on the exclusion of the majorities and the privileging of a very few through the militarization of the country, through cutting back on key resources and, you know, through the impoverishment of the Honduran people. So, in this moment that a left-wing candidate like Zyomara Castro of the Libre Party, of course, the Libre Party in alliance with several other progressive forces is able to triumph at the polls is really a sign of the, you know, exhaustion of the people but also the triumph of people's movements because, to be honest, the conditions in Honduras today are extremely dire. As we mentioned last week, over 70% of the population in poverty, extreme poverty also, you know, in a worrying state, vaccination rates, of course, COVID has been, you know, just another example of how the ruling class and the elites in Honduras have taken advantage of state resources to enrich themselves and not provide for the people. There's a famous case of corruption with, you know, a loan that was granted to build mobile hospitals. Only 10 were built, and the rest of the money just went in the pockets of those who are ruling. And so there's great hope that with the victory of Zyomara Castro, it will bring an end to, you know, over a decade of siphoning of public funds for these elites. People are really hopeful that education, healthcare, housing, basic services will again be a right for the people and that, you know, this really concerning number of 70% of the people in poverty can be drastically reduced with really simple policy changes. Zyomara Castro and her government plan, there's 30 points for the first 100 days of government, and these are really remarkable points, and they really respond to the direct demands of the people's movements in Honduras. For example, suspending the granting of any extractive concessions on rivers, mining projects, logging. This is extremely important given the fact that the majority of social conflicts in Honduras derive from these territorial disputes. Another really important one is, you know, fortifying the struggle for justice for people who were killed during this 12-year period of dictatorship among those Bertha Casares, others, political activists who have been murdered who are not as well known, also freeing all the political prisoners who were unjustly, you know, put in prison during this time. So it's a really important moment. I think it gives a breath of fresh air to the people who were just about ready to migrate in mass again if the National Party had committed doctoral fraud. So there's a really positive environment right now there. I think people are anxious for all of the important changes that need to be made, and it gives, you know, once again another boost to the continent in terms of building this regional unity and defying U.S. imperialism. It's the second country in Latin America that overturned a coup at the ballot box. We just saw Bolivia do the same thing. Very brave people crossing the Atlantic again, Palais-Coburg in Vienna. Very important meeting under-reported. This is the meeting, the seventh round of attempted talks to restart, well, let me back up because that's the way CNN would report this. In 2013, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany sat down with the Iranians and opened a two-year process of great negotiations around the question of Iran's nuclear program has to be said. Iran has a right to a nuclear program because Iran is a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty also under international atomic energy agency, you know, surveillance and regulations. So they cut a deal largely under pressure from the United States and Israel, also Saudi Arabia, also perhaps the UAE, although they played a slightly backhanded game there. They passed what was known as the joint JCPOA, joint something or the other, I keep forgetting what it is, joint comprehensive plan of action, can't think of a more bureaucratic name for this colloquially known as the Iran nuclear deal. Well, that was put together in 2015, stringent surveillance of Iran's nuclear program and so on. Then out of, well, not out of nowhere, very well thought through. United States under President Donald Trump decided to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA in 2018. Since then, there's been bewilderment. What to do? Sanctions ramped up against Iran, the phrase maximum pressure used by the Trump administration and repeated by the Biden administration. Very severe sanctions against the people of Iran. Iranian people wanted to come back to the table, although they have made it clear, they don't want to renegotiate the JCPOA. They already did that between 2013-2015. They just want the United States to remove sanctions and come back to the process, stop the kind of hybrid war being driven against Iran. That was the tempo. Iran had an election, United States had an election. United States removed Donald Trump brought in Joe Biden. Apparently more reasonable, not sure if that's the case when you look at the facts. In Iran, the government is definitely a much more nationalistic government. Foreign minister, the top negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani came to Vienna, to the Palai Koburg, essentially to talk about the change political climate. He went over his time actually on the plenary day. He said, I need to explain to you the political climate in which you are operating. Very important remarks he made. Well, here's the interesting thing. The Iranians put the following on the table. Sanctions must be withdrawn immediately. They were backed by negotiator Wang who was there on behalf of the Chinese government. Also backed him up, walked out of the hall on Twitter. He wrote the following, the US should lift all sanctions inconsistent with the JCPOA against Iran and third parties including China. That was put by Wonky who came out of the hall, tweeted that immediately. So number one, sanctions must be removed immediately. Secondly, the Iranians are saying that in the six previous rounds of negotiation, nothing was agreed on. Those were just draft documents. Meanwhile, the Europeans and the West coming at it from a different perspective, saying that no, no, in the last six rounds we've agreed to 80% of matters. Iranians said there's no agreement. Nobody signed anything. Those were draft documents. But the worst of all, as the negotiations began on Monday, as the conversation started, in fact, before negotiations, Israel began to leak the story saying Iran is enriching up to 90%. The European coordinator, Enrique Mora raised this question. Now, where the Israelis got this information? Not clear. Ali Bagheri Kani of Iran said this is a bogus made up allegation. It's not true to be seen. Not true says the Iranians. Others agree with Iran. It's the Western countries that are scratching their heads and saying, well, what about this issue? What about it? It might be manufactured. Israel seems to manufacture a lot of things. On people's dispatch, we talk about Israel quite a bit. They seem to have manufactured a new report about the Great March of Return. Prashant, what is the new thing that Israel has manufactured? So-called facts on the ground, correct? Absolutely. It's actually an Israeli investigation into what happened during the Great March of Return. And I think for many of us who were observing the news in 2018, especially March to May, there was a steering site of Palestinians in Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the world, marching to the border fence or whatever you call it every Friday to protest, one to demand the right to return of all those who were pushed out of their homes in 1948 at the dissidents, to demanding an end to the inhuman blockade that Israel and Egypt have been imposing on Gaza since 2007 continues to this day that Israel and Egypt to their whims can even block crossings which deliver essential goods is nothing short of a crime against the people of Gaza. So these protests continued for over a year and a half until late 2019. You know, almost every Friday people marched sometimes it was hundreds, sometimes it was thousands, sometimes it is tens of thousands of people. And those, you know, who were watching the footage there, it was very clear that Israel had, you know, Israeli soldiers were shooting at them and this was not accidental shooting or heat at the moment shooting, this was very deliberate policy. Now, what happened was that Israel had a policy of open fire, I know what's called open fire policy, according to which these soldiers who permitted to shoot and around 230 Palestinians have not more were killed during the great march of it and protest, many of the shootings. Over around 13,000 people I believe were injured and of course Israel investigated these incidents and now there's been a report by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights at Bethlehem which is an Israeli organization on this investigation and it proves what a complete farce this Israeli probe was into these atrocities by its own soldiers. And it's a very important report to read because the report is titled unable and unwilling because it refers to when the International Criminal Court intervenes in an issue. So there is speculation that Israel investigated these atrocities in the first place only because it did not want the ICC to get into the issue because the ICC cannot enter an issue once a country takes it up. So there was this farce of an investigation conducted where first of all none of the cases of those who were injured in this protest and we have thousands of people including around 150 people whose limbs had to be amputated. None of these cases were even taken up. The only cases that were taken up were deaths and even these cases they were just completely airbrushed many of them are under review many of them were dismissed due to various reasons. So far one Israeli soldier has been given one month of community service that has been the only punishment given so far and it's important to note that all the investigation is of a low-level Israeli soldiers. There is no investigation of the people who designed the policy according to which soldiers could be executed. There is no investigation of the people who gave the orders. The only people who are under investigation are the soldiers who executed these policies and again there has been very little justice done in this count. So what we saw, the protest by the Great March of Britain protest were one of the most significant protests in recent times in Palestine because it showed that despite over a decade of a blockade, despite the inhuman conditions that are being faced by them Palestinians continue to show that Israel's farce of an investigation into the crimes of its policy makers, into the crimes of its soldiers, it has completely whitewashed them, shows that at this point Israeli government and the Israeli establishment basically are just perpetrating crime after crime. We saw that this year again there were bombings in Gaza. So what is technically accountability? Investigation is supposed to ensure accountability whereas this investigation was just clearly used to basically shield everybody who is responsible. It is a, you know, it's a complete subversion of the idea of justice. There's no other way to describe it. And I think it's an important report to read because it shows the extent to which the entire Israeli establishment is colluded in this impurity. Well that's very important and I hope people will go to People's Dispatch to read about it, People'sDispatch.org of course the Israelis forever demolishing houses in the West Bank in East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah still under threat. Evictions, demolitions, not just the Israelis doing it seems that the Brazilian government has gotten the act once more trying to evict 450 families. Zoe, what's happening in Brazil? So, you know, as you and Noam Chomsky wrote in a open letter, you know, evicting people during a pandemic, you know, and evicting people at any point really should not be allowed. And this is precisely kind of the you know, basis on which people in Brazil have been resisting a series of evictions put forward by local courts and so the Landless Royal Workers Movement in Brazil in, you know, across Brazil the way they operate is they, is that, you know, landless families occupy usually abandoned lands that has either been in productive or the owners which are most of the time on large corporations have not been paying their taxes or they have been using, you know, slave labor on these plots of land and you know, under the Brazilian Constitution it is legal for these lands to be returned to the state and use for productive purposes. And so it's under this kind of legal premise that the MST has been, you know, replying lands for the past several decades and turning them into productive spaces where formerly landless families poor families are able to live produce work and create new societies really. And so in this case that's been developing over the past couple of weeks families at the Maria Le Vive camp in Sao Paulo in the state of Sao Paulo were being threatened with an eviction order and this eviction order was in direct violation of a decision from the Supreme Court of Brazil which said that no evictions in urban areas or in rural areas could take place during the COVID-19 pandemic understanding, I mean, of course the threat that having more people on the street during a public health crisis really poses not even, you know, getting to the fact of what there should never be evicting people and putting them on the street. But that being said so the judge decided that even despite of this Supreme Court order that these families should be evicted they've been living there for over three years they've created productive areas where they're growing plants they're growing food there's schools, there's community centers for the kids and just two days ago the Supreme Court ruled that this no eviction order of rural and urban areas should be extended until March and so amid a wave of protests in response to this eviction order and other evictions that were taking place across the country because this is not only something that happens in Sao Paulo but really it's a common pattern across the country. This has given some new hope to the families of Marielle Vive that hopefully with this new Supreme Court order they will have more grounds to fight their eviction. The struggle is going to continue MST has been mobilizing people across the country and internationally to stand up and say no evictions during this time I mean their slogan is no evictions during Christmas you know appealing to this sentiment of how are you going to leave people on the street in the time that's supposed to be about being with your family you know coming together after such a long and hard and so their struggle continues it seems that with this ruling it does give them a favorable leg to stand on even though the judge once again ratified this eviction order they are going to stay in the camp and resist. We've seen this happen throughout the pandemic and of course before the pandemic of the you know militancy of the MST really standing up against these judicial bodies that above all are protecting private property as I mentioned a lot of the all of the campments of the MST take place on lands that have been unproductive have used slave labor or have been violating environmental regulations and so really they're doing a service to the country of Brazil they're producing healthy food for people they're giving homes where homes did not exist giving people productive livelihood being able to subside economically but instead of viewing all of the incredible positive things the MST brings the Brazilian state has time and time again tried to criminalize the movement say that they're you know violating the basic tenants of you know private property and the constitution but really they're the people who are saving Brazil in such a critical time of horrible poverty of you know the worst economic conditions and social conditions seen in decades. That's Zoe coming to you from Brazil she was just in Honduras an intrepid reporter running across one part of Latin America to the other Zoe of course is with People's Dispatch so is Prashant peoplesdispatch.org go and see it bookmark it read it every day I spent this week reading the new UNDP report on Afghanistan key report UNDP says that Afghanistan already in bad shape with 80% of its budget essentially from foreign aid that gone to virtually zero its external reserves about 10 billion to 20 billion depends who you ask also frozen a lot of it frozen in New York City they say that this year the estimate contraction of the economy by 20% already and the estimate by one year from now by December 2022 the economy will contract by 30% this is enormously bad last year the per capita income in Afghanistan was about $500 $500 a year they estimate it has already dropped to $350 $350 half of the Afghan population says UNDP cannot feed itself half of the Afghan population 9 of 10 Afghans have slipped into poverty friends this is an enormous catastrophe really reported people have just stopped seeing what's happening in Afghanistan at most you'll get a small report about some atrocity or the other by the Taliban those reports are not doing justice to the Afghan people who are going to starve into a winter and let me just inform you in case you don't know it but winters in Afghanistan are harsh and difficult roads are closed impossible if food doesn't get through the passes before the roads close people will starve now they may not all starve to death but they will lose a lot of weight the UNDP said that this contraction is worse than the contraction faced by Venezuela as a consequence of the sanctions which was an enormous contraction Lebanon saw great contraction so we're going to keep an eye on Afghanistan I'd like you to some good news to end the day today yesterday in Buenos Aires a massive demonstration right in the heart of this great old city people came out to protest under the banner of UTEP a big union essentially of excluded workers they came out there to fight for a couple of laws one law a packaging law is about changing the way in which goods are packaged this has both got an ecological impact and it has an impact for workers' lives and livelihoods it has an economic impact because what the unions are saying they don't want to see Coca-Cola and other companies produce enormous amounts of plastic goods as it is there is a giant it's called the great pacific plastic patch sitting in the northern pacific ocean three times the size of France it's a big island made of plastic horrifying the Argentinian workers are saying we don't want to contribute to this we need our companies to recycle and so on well the American chamber of commerce got into the act as far as we learned from Juan Graboy one of the leaders of UTEP wrote a terrific piece which you can read at people's dispatch Juan Graboy writes well the American chamber of commerce officials walked around brandishing their American express credit card sending parliamentarians on a junkie to Washington DC at the time of the vote because they wanted this bill to be defeated the people who collect trash also want less plastic and so on because they don't want to deal with it through trash and so on the second bill is a bill about the territories of the indigenous people they want that to be put forward not to be allowed to lapse to continue people protesting on the streets of Buenos Aires very inspirational they came out there with their masks on carrying massive decoys that were made to look like plastic bags saying no more of this in Argentina not now not ever who's saying yes to plastic big corporations many of them domiciled in the United States you're listening to give the people what they want we've been giving you what you want now for I think it's 56 episodes coming to the end of the year we really need to hear from you we hope you still enjoy our show if you have any suggestions let us know that Zoe she's in Brazil he's in Delhi both of them with People's Dispatch I'm Vijay from Globetrotter see you next week