 Well, okay. Are we on? According to the internet. We said we're on. Oh, that's amazing. Well Okay, check with reality. Good idea. Wait a minute. I must say that We might want to take a second to before we start just to check with reality. You're saying reality says It's happening and I'm recording on audacity. So that's even more reality I'm glad that you remind me. Yes So the moment that's set up Okay, so here we are Just to make sure that we're all set. It's the 12th of March today in 2021 It's a good day to be alive as every day is a good day to be alive It's the one year anniversary almost well a year ahead a year and a day of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pandemic by the World Health Organization You're listening to give the people what they want your weekly every Friday, which is weekly show on global news in half an hour with Zoe and with Prashant from people's dispatch one of the top movement storytellers at peoples dispatch dot dot com Dot org, sorry, it's one of those things And I'm Vijay from globe trotter back with you Happy to be here. I wanted to start guys with the mention that today is the day when the Biden administration is going to Hold a meeting of the quad the quad being the quadrilateral quadrilateral security dialogue With the governments of Japan, Australia and India This is quite significant because it's the first innings first opening of the Biden administration They say they're not going to emphasize China. That's what they say Although I must say that's not really Credible because China will be Will be at the at the heart of this You know, it's impossible for them not to put China at the center and just before this meeting The US military essentially said that is part of their Pacific Defense Initiative They're going to be spending they've asked for a doubling of the Pacific Defense Initiative budget to five billion dollars It's a considerable amount of money. They're going to militarize Guam even further And the head of the Indo-Pacific Command went before Congress Mr. Davidson and made the claim that well Of all things he said that they are not just preparing a military buildup on China to threaten China But Admiral Davidson said they are preparing for a war. I think people need to take this quite seriously I was surprised to see how little coverage there is on Davidson's remark when he said that they are in fact preparing for a war and he said that there are many threats to the United States But China's only credible threat That's the language that Davidson used and Davidson also said that because it's credible It's likely that the United States might need to go to war with China before 2050 He put a date to it before 2050. We're at 20 21 Some people might say well, that's a long way to go, but he didn't say at 2050. He said Before 2050 and these are two nuclear powers One of them threatening war against the other the Chinese for their part have had a very sober reaction China did not say that the Quad meeting to be held today 12th of March should not be held China said continue hold it. That's fine. But Meetings like this multilateral meetings should not be held in order to persecute one country By the way guys, I just want to Just want to put on record that when the Chinese said this as a principled statement In other words, it's okay to have a block of countries meet, you know, even on a regular basis the quad for instance India, Australia, Japan You know the United States can meet on a regular basis, but it should not be Have as its main agenda the prosecution of hostilities against a country As you know, as I said, this is a specific claim, but they made a principled objection. This applies to the Lima group Which has been meeting for the last several years led by the canadiens By countries in latin america like columbia for instance at the heart of this Their objective of course to prosecute a hostile environment for the government of venezuela to overthrow in fact The government in venezuela So I think what the chinese said about the quad meeting on the 12th of march a very high level meeting It's ahead of governments meeting That the quad it can meet but they shouldn't have as their objective regime change in china and that of course applies to the lima group But I was thinking about this. This applies in a way to nato as well You know, what is the objective of nato nowadays? Is it a defensive agreement against whom? They're talking about a middle east nato now a pacific nato an asian nato Is this really the direction one should go in and and i'm going to say that next week at people's dispatch and globetrotter I'll be writing a piece on the quad After this meeting and have been spending some time reading us government documents this week I gotta say it's pretty chilling. You know, it's not comforting I was also happy to listen to the speech given by President lula of brazil the former president of brazil who's acquitted of all charges Happy to hear his speech where he basically said People in brazil shouldn't be taking their orders from the united states There's a very strong speech. He talked about the u.s. Dollar He also said, you know, we need to develop our own understanding of where we live in the world Seems to me. This is very much what the chinese said in their statement with regard to the quad Zoe you followed what's been happening in brazil. It's quite exhilarating. I suppose for the people there To have lula out. It's in a way. What some people are saying is the pink tide Versus the toxic sludge What's happening in brazil zoe? Well, it's a very good question vj and I think it's important to take in a moment because you know in brazil Of course, we have this amazing news about lula being acquitted Cleared of all charges of all convictions more properly Um in the in the midst of a very very challenging moment for brazil So we've been talking about on the show a lot brazil has continued to break record numbers of confirmed cases of co vid Of deaths. Um, and so in the midst of this kind of deepening crisis There is this incredible beacon of hope And of inspiration, which is the fact that on monday March 8th the supreme court minister edson fakim He essentially cleared lula of all convictions that were made by the court in kurichiwa Um in the operation car wash case and this is not necessarily for the reasons that we You know know in of course of the judge being extremely partial meeting with the prosecution team This was actually on the fact that uh, it involved They he ruled that this the court in kurichiwa did not have the competency because to rule in this case Because it did not involve petro bra. So it's kind of a technical Um decision and now lula will be retried in brasilia But of course, it's a tremendous victory in a case that has shook brazil for the past couple of years Since you know, of course, since the case started, but of course has intensified. Um over the past five years You know with the the coup against dilma with the continued attempts to just wipe out the workers party through slander Through this, you know concocted case by the right wing I mean, we had a really great conversation with daniel jiovanas who is a reporter from brazil de fato He actually was covering, uh the lavajato case the operation car wash case when it was happening in 2016 2017 In kurichiwa, he was following all of these rulings by Sergio morto following the prosecution of operation car wash, which is led by delton daniel And he was talking about, you know, they've always known that this has been a politically motivated case Um, you know, we have delton daniel. He does a power point presentation And he just puts lula's name in the center of this power point and then puts arrows towards him with all of the corruption In case that i'm taking place in brazil. I mean, it's ridiculous. This was before lula had even been officially charged with anything There's just been a constant media war against lula. There's been, you know, the mainstream media partnership with The judiciary has been key in this. I mean, there's so many elements to unpack here But I think finally this monday of first kind of sane ruling in the case A first ruling that takes a look at the evidence takes a look at what's really happening and says, okay Actually, these convictions were not correct. Um, they can't be Validated and so there's going to be a new hearing Uh, a key takeaway from this ruling is that lula now has his political rights back And what does this mean in the 2018 elections? You know lula was supposed to be a candidate He in april 2018 He was denied his appeal from bs corpus. So he Was arrested and he spent the next 580 days in prison. There were multiple multiple Attempts to register him as a candidate, you know, the landlifts were a workers movement did this impressive You know tens of thousand person march called the free lula march to demand That lula's political rights be respected There was a hunger strike which saw militants from the mst from trade unions Going to hunger strike to demand that he be allowed to be a candidate But of course As we know one of the main goals of having a prisoner was to deny him of this political right But now with this ruling and of course, he did not contest in elections, which ultimately elected boltonado Um with this ruling he'll be given his political rights. Um, there's a lot of talk that he's going to be the presidential candidate in 2022 He's not confirmed this publicly yet, but I think it really signs a positive Positive turn in brazil and hopefully a return to democracy a return to a people-centered policies and at a really crucial time right now I mean a crucial time because the covid pandemic is you know Continuing to escalate in brazil and I was interested to see zoe that right after lula's speech Bolsonaro put a mask on um, you know, well, you know, it's a it's a fig leaf But I suppose a fig leaf is better than no fig leaf Meanwhile, of course in south africa another country another part of the bricks block um, we see the um escalation of Of of the covid pandemic and then you know an old friend is back in south africa the dispute between the students and the government over fees This was a big debate Several years ago the fees must fall movement in south africa Back again seems to be police firing rubber bullets tear gas in the middle of a pandemic Bystander killed prashant people's dispatch has been following this um South africa shouldn't they be focusing on the pandemic there we are police firing rubber bullets. What's happening? Absolutely, which I in fact our friends with new frame have done a couple of good really good stories on this and followed this up and the fundamental issue like you pointed out is again Something that's actually common throughout the world the fact that at this time of crisis Governments have continued The broad framework of neoliberal policies. They have continued to sort of you know, what do you call? Not allow not provide any relief at all and a classic example is what's happening right now because of the university Which part of that what we're seeing is that nearly 8 000 students were not allowed to register because of their Historic historical debt they owe to the institution and at a time when for instance You know students have even those who are working have students who are working have a little avenue to employment You know, you know sources of revenue have come down. There's all around The poverty has increased at that point of time. You have a university You have an entire government actually privileging the collection of you know debt Our big privileging debt as a key factor when it comes to admissions And just the idea that 8 000 students in one university alone are not allowed to register shows you the extent of the problem And this is just one part of it. The university was also considering increasing fees At this point of time again, it shows the sheer insensitivity of you know, the system So have when you instead of talking about debt relief, which is what students not only in South Africa But across the world have been demanding for instance, we saw very similar demands in the United States You see similar demands across Europe, but instead of all this we have say governments and educational institutions acting primarily as say agents of the status quo pretending as though nothing has changed In the last one year and it's bad enough that student debt is an issue Even in a non pandemic year the fact that you know students have to spend their time Studying while thinking about how much they're going to owe is itself an insult It is a blow that fear. It's an attack on the future. It's not even it's not just an attack on the present It's an attack on the future as well But that this happens in the year of a pandemic is all the more atrocities And we see the students of course starting to protest from March 5th onwards on March 10th again, it is Even the police minister call it crazy But the fact is that a man in his 30s who was coming out of after doctor's appointment was shot and killed And here we had students protesting peacefully. You know trying to raise their voices trying to sort of Convey to the government. They were they were not going to be they were not willing to accept What the university has done and we have a person an innocent person shot dead just because The police basically Went wild so to speak for lack of better word and again This also is very clear is a very clear indication because we've seen exactly in South Africa the same kind of attitude Of the police towards all kinds of popular struggles And this is something that the national union of metal workers of South Africa also really highlighted that This is the kind of police response. It happens when Miners protest when Workers at say also nickel protest workers across the country protest. This is what happens when saftou did a strike Last month. This is what happened is where their organizers were dragged in so we see also A very insensitive a very brutal police system Which sort of solmos has made violence a common practice in responding to those who are asking for their rights And the students are continuing the protest Of course, they're calling for what is called a higher education debt bailout and they're demanding that the university actually admit everybody and then Pressurize the state for that not only that university but universities across the country Students movements across the country pressurize the government for a higher education debt bailout And I think the important thing across the world is to realize that Uh, nowhere in the world is this impossible for the you know, giving a student debt bailout or you know Wiping out student debt. We've seen candidates in the across the world contest on these platforms even the numbers are clear that financially it is possible it's just the lack of political will and the refusal of say Authorities across the world to leave that paradigm of seeing education as a commodity And so I think these protests are definitely going to continue in South Africa and across the world with very similar demands You know, in fact, um last night the students at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi Kept the central library open because what they're also protesting, you know fees is a very important issue prashant But also just the fact that they've been shut out from education last week unicef the un Agency for children reported that 168 million children around the world haven't been to school They say that 214 million children have lost three quarters of their school time last year By the way, the bulk of these I'm looking at the report the bulk of these are in latin america and the caribbean In parts of asia and so on it's it's where where you would expect It's a pressing need to think about not just the digital divide but the electricity divide You know places where there's insufficient electricity How are you going to have digital education? You know, people can't afford to eat? How are they going to buy a computer? It's a much more It's a malevolent thing. So when these students at jnu in delhi said open the central library We want to come and study what they mean is we don't have access to computers to study at home And you're raising the fees. I mean, this is a very serious issue Again, well reported. I must say by as you said new frame in south africa newframe.com highly recommend it Of course, you know, it's a headache whenever we talk about columbia. It's a headache Something happens in my head when I think about how many people keep singing to get killed there And then of course the government makes some outlandish statements I was shocked to read that piece at the people's dispatch site What, you know, a senior government official, what did he call children zoe? I mean, it's ridiculous. We're talking about children children trying to get to school 168 million children not being in school last year and what does the government in columbia call children? war machines So outrageous, right? What's happening? Yeah, I think every time we talk about columbia It's it's sort of a painful topic because It seems that the genocide of the people of columbia just continues unabated And there's almost no international attention on this. Um, and I think that's why we keep bringing it up because it's just such a pressing topic The atrocities that are being committed are so great that it's it's just we can't we can't ignore it. Um This week essentially reports surfaced You know, there's an ongoing Armed conflict in columbia just for people to know, uh, you know, several large guerrilla groups have demobilized But there's an ongoing armed conflict The columbian army is one of the biggest in latin america. It regularly carries out military operations So on march 2nd, it carried out a military operation Abombing of what it called a FARC dissident camp. So as we know the FARC demobilized in 2016 But of course, you know, the government has all but respected the agreement So several splinter groups from the main demobilized group have, you know, rearmed engaged in combat There's a whole that's a whole nother kind of a story to go down but essentially the government had identified one of the camps of these FARC dissident groups um and bombed it on march 2nd Uh and basically what has come out in recent days through media reports independent media reports from the ground journalists home on mortis Was that at this camp? There were minors. There were a lot of minors present So when we're talking about, you know lack of opportunities for children lack of opportunities for youth columbia is of course one of the most unequal countries in the region And you know youth are some of the people who are suffering most from this without access to education without access to proper resources A lot of youth in columbia Of course find themselves Either recruited to the national army because they're actually it's obligatory You have to join the national army or pay a fine and a lot of uh young people Actually find themselves in illegal armed groups and what you know for whatever reason this happens through sometimes forced recruitment And a slew of other reasons. So there were minors in this camp That was bombed and essentially the minister of defense has yet to acknowledge this Um, he's yet to acknowledge that minors were killed in this bombing a and home on mortis. This journalist was on the ground Uh, essentially uncovered that as many as 14 minors may have been killed in this bombing and was You know upsetting is that this is not the first time that the columbian army Has an authorized military operation authorized from the minister of defense has killed Minors in a bombing and then of course denied it. They've both denied it and also said that children Are trained to be war machines in these camps and that once they commit a crime They cease to be children and they become criminals And so I think that's really important to underline is that the government Does not want to take any responsibility for the structural issues Which bring children to have no other choice or be forced to be drawn into this armed conflict Which has been going on in columbia for 60 years It takes no Measures to protect the lives of these vulnerable children And then it violates international humanitarian law and several lawyers have pointed out That this bombing was not necessary the point of a war is to not annihilate your enemy The point of the war is to pacify a situation and to have a Solution to the conflict for the columbian army would prefer to kill all of the adversaries And this and it doesn't matter of their children. It doesn't matter what state of vulnerability they're in They have no interest in this and so I think it's just another very upsetting violation of human rights, of course, you know, there have been a couple of social leaders that have been killed this week It just continues And of course, you know, they continue their embarrassing attack on Venezuela for human rights violations They say whereas the own their government just continues to massacre children So I mean this this contradiction this atrocity just continues We have to keep highlighting this also want to mention at the end of the month columbian movements and organizations are organizing a people's tribunal To try the columbian state for these crimes of genocide for these, you know crimes against humanity So I think it's something to pay attention to your movements are not just standing by They're denouncing the government and they're going to all instances possible to call out the government for their illegal actions Your with us that give the people what they want. That was uh, zoe alexandra from people's dispatch talking about columbia um, you know, we've had some emphasis here prashant on Children, uh, we talked about the unicef report 168 million children out of school zoe is emphasized the murder of these children in columbia The indecency of the columbian government to call children war machines Of course in israel prashant and in the occupied palestinian territories Children have been considered to be war machines for a very long time and they've the indelicacy of the israeli government They've used words worse than that phrases worse than that I follow bet salam on uh, twitter and so on and I have to put myself through some of the videos That they post these videos Recently from masafariata in the occupied West bank of these children being arrested have been they're grotesque with videos prashant I wonder if you could walk us a little bit Through what the israeli state has been doing to palestinian children Absolutely which are in the sense that I think one of the issues Especially since we talked about last two three issues is the fact that uh, many of the incidents we talk about are actually reflective of Some very strong structural crimes that we're seeing that these are none of these are isolated incidents But actually reflective of you know an entire system a very entrenched system So to speak and I think the incident you talked about is yet another example of that because You have five children between the ages of eight and 13 who were picking up fruits or plants or whatever settlers who were from a nearby illegal outpost Which itself is a crime according to most countries in the world according to all laws that exist Come and scare these children then call security forces The security forces come and detain these children and you know, they're threatened and then they're released and The two oldest children who were 12 and 13 From that group are asked to come back next week for further quest thing and apparently the logic behind this is that According to israeli law if you're above if you're 12 or above you can face This kind of legal action Now this is just children being children and this has been so normalized Which I think is the important thing that we need to keep Realizing here that this is not a one-off incident This is not as you know liberals often are happy to say a case of bad apples so to speak Which is the argument always thrown about okay. Okay. There's some Why people doing some mistakes, but this is actually structured Structure and a very good example is the fact that every year over 500 children are prosecuted or they face legal action by Israeli authorities that at least 140 children who are currently in Palestinian children who are in Israeli jails right now and I think this is uh, you know Like I said the key aspect of this whole fact is the Of this incident is a fact that this is so much centered around The settler Colonial Israeli state the illegal settlements the illegal outposts This is where so much of the violence takes place whether you look at Villages being demolished whether you look at people being threatened Whether you look at children being threatened or detained these ways and this is a clear case of apatide as many many organizations have pointed out and yet you have for instance the united states Pretending as though israel is a beacon of democracy. You know you have almost is nauseating Discourse or dialogue around it which again and again ignores the realities of the ground that It's the men women and children of Palestine who every single day are facing these kind of atrocities And even the risk of they're almost there some some sort of Desensitization happening because you know, there's this avalanche of Regular news every day. So I think for people's movements across the world. It's so essential to have this issue very much Front and center because solidarity with palestine is I think It is probably one of the most important movements right now because it's a it's a global struggle that is I mean there is no struggle for democracy for justice for any kind of rights without talking about and standing with the palestinians including these children who For just for picking up plans allow going to face police action and questioning week after week It's it's it's it's stunning. And I think Coverage of this is so important. I mean these are after all children the children of of palestine children of colombia Again, the children who've had no school for a long period There's some things that happen to language, you know, this idea of of War machines the term used in in colombia or this idea that you know, these children in palestine are a terrorist or whatever Language plays a big role. You know, we forget that the government of honduras, for instance is effectively a coup government So is the government in thailand And of course, so is the government in Myanmar in in what used to be Burma I've done a story for globetrotter on Burma, but recently un women has been speaking out about sexual harassment of women arrested by the military People protesting on the street a very large number of women picked up because a large number of women have been protesting We need to keep an eye on Burma as we need to keep an eye on honduras in thailand I mean, I think missing out on on what's going on in these countries Is is is something we shouldn't do? So we'll come back to Myanmar on another day We just went through international working women's day on the 8th of march Today is the 12th of march. So happy international working women's day But it's not over yet. I'm told on march 13th. That's on saturday, zoe There'll be a festival in a few quick seconds. Can you please tell us orient us to that festival? Yes, um the international week of enting pure struggle, which is a platform of social movements organizations from across the globe Of networks who are all united in the struggle against imperialism have come together and are putting on a really special festival Which will feature culture music You know a couple of statements and messages of solidarity In honor just to honor this women's struggle that has been so crucial over the last year We know women, you know are some of the the majority of the frontline workers the essential workers But continue to you know engage in deep and necessary struggles for their rights and for equality so Definitely tune into the festival tomorrow It's going to be streaming on youtube and on facebook at the International week of enting pure struggle also an album movements. So you don't want to miss it Be there 9 a.m. Eastern 11 a.m. Brazil and as such it follows. So please tune in and do not you won't want to miss it You won't want to miss that festival just as you don't want to miss give the people what they want every friday Coming to you from zoe and prashant from people's dispatch Go along and bookmark people's dispatch dot org You will get some of the best movement storytelling and you learn about columbia Israel and palestine you learn about The quest for young south africans to have an education Give the people what they want comes to you from people's dispatch also globetrotter I'm vijay happy to be with you this friday as we are on every friday Um, I suppose we'll see you next week if you tell us that you still want us We'd love to hear from you. Tell us you want us. It'll help us get motivated to come back week after week To give you a snapshot into the world Are we okay zoe prashant? We're okay. Okay. See you next week. Farewell. Bye. Bye