 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. 100 shows and we really hope that you're enjoying joining us every Friday and listening to the news bad news today to start with very bad news Julian Assange publisher of WikiLeaks a journalist a man who stood up for press freedom who revealed war crimes by the United States government in other western countries in Afghanistan in Iraq a man who built a website where people could come and deliver various kinds of information but of course much of the interesting information was classified including emails from people which should have been you know with information that should have been in the public record Julian Assange who as a publisher really harassed and I'm going to use the word in italics. The powerful with the ability to not only get a material given to the WikiLeaks website it's very important that Julian Assange is not seen to be somebody who goes out then finds the information. No, the information is given to a website, a website which protects the identity of the whistleblower of the leaker and so on. Mr. Assange had a unique capacity to package that information very, very, you know, intelligent way in which he worked with major press houses, including the Guardian in Britain, the New York Times in the United States. Lahornada in Mexico, the Hindu in India, respectable newspapers worked with WikiLeaks through those caches of information produced by and large by Chelsea Manning who under great courage she went out there and downloaded information from a government website. Didn't take any assistance from Mr. Assange. Mr. Assange has been sitting first in the Ecuadorian Embassy after which he was in Belmarsh prison, appalling conditions in Belmarsh prison. Nils Meltzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture whose book came out just a few months ago said that Mr. Assange has been tortured, mental torture certainly and there might even be an aspect of physical torture lack of medical care and so on. But certainly mental torture is what Nils Meltzer alleges. Now, middle of all this, just when it didn't seem to be possible, UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel has said that she will sign and has signed the order that allows the extradition of journalist Julian Assange to the United States. The United States had put together a claim on Mr. Assange that was actually quite terrifying. The claim was that Mr. Assange violated various laws and in fact committed near treason, if not treason itself. These official secrets acts violations of very severe punishment, including of course the possibility that Mr. Assange would lose his life if he moved to the United States. That was the challenge made by his lawyers in the British courts, the British Supreme Court denied these challenges in the case over to Priti Patel. And in the middle of a crisis in Britain, I want to underscore this the middle of a crisis in Britain, the Bank of England just reports 11% inflation. Patrick Airport has shut down most of its flights this summer because they don't have staffing. COVID is up. Britain is in the middle of an internal crisis with Prime Minister Boris Johnson fighting for his political life in the middle of all this rather than deal with their own problems. And Priti Patel decides to take time out to sign an extradition order for Mr. Assange. I want to put this in another framework. Priti Patel has also been at the forefront of a campaign to deport migrants to Rwanda, a racist, hideous campaign that she has been leading. I think one cannot but see the extradition of Mr. Assange in the same framework as the deportations of innocent migrants fleeing violence and hunger coming to the United Kingdom, being put on planes possibly and shipped off to Rwanda. Nothing wrong with Rwanda. I'm sure that it would be a lovely place, but these are people who also fear for their lives in places around the world where they fled war and corruption and danger and so on. That's the character of Priti Patel. If it's Priti Patel versus Julian Assange, I suppose one has to stand with Julian Assange since after all this is a question less of any kind of violation of US law and more a question of press freedom, a serious question of press freedom. Certainly not at the World Trade Organization Prashant, they have their 12th ministerial going on. I've tried to report these things for years. I was the only reporter in fact at the UN conference on trade and development UNCTAD. Not sure what the press corps is able to find out from the WTO. Right. This has been not a very friendly meeting to those who have been trying to pursue a different agenda or a more progressive agenda in the World Trade Organization. In fact, it's been not welcoming at all. And for good reason. In fact, if you look at what has been this ministerial conflict conference, conference was very significant because it was a place where the trips waiver proposal was being discussed. A lot of other issues also being discussed, but one of the most important things was the question of the trips waiver. And now people who follow the show we talked about is insistently remember that the proposal first came in 2020 just a few months after the pandemic, you know, broke out and India and South Africa had pushed the proposal. It called for waving a lot of the IP related stuff around COVID-19 related products that's vaccines, diagnostics, tests, so much of it, medicines for that matter. And since that time, the richer countries have consistently blocked any attempt to get this done. And although it seems patently commonsensical that at a time like this, we should not be worrying about profits. At a time like this, you know, the, say, profit lines or something, pharma company should not be of concern. Nonetheless, there was a very concerted attempt by a number of rich countries, especially in the West to block this proposal. And that continued for two years. And today, there's been an agreement, a final agreement, but that agreement has been widely and loudly being condemned by, you know, people's movements, health rights organizations across the world because it falls way, way, way short of what was originally proposed. So there is no actual waiver of patent or IP rights as far as COVID-19 related products are concerned. There's just some concessions made regarding, you know, export of vaccines and that too, this is specifically restricted to vaccines. This does not include diagnostics. This does not include medicines. This is despite the fact that the WTO itself has said that these are priority areas. It says that six months down the line, we'll discuss it. But, you know, already it's very late and finally what has come out is now even worse. And we need to sort of see that this follows two years of a long process. Like I said, in which countries such as Switzerland, the European Union, for that matter, have played an extremely regressive role in preventing any kind of advance on this. The United States claim it supported the waiver, but in principle, it was also a bit of a stumbling block. The developing countries really tried their best. About 100 countries have supported this proposal. Yet what happens is because in the WTO, you need a complete consensus for something like this to pass. This has been delayed. You see that something like this very similarly is happening in issues such as food and fisheries. In a lot of these places where organizations, people's organizations are calling for the WTO to get out of many of these areas where, you know, decisions are not being made in the favor of the people at large. And this is a very classic example. We've had more than 6 million deaths due to COVID-19 so far officially. If you look at the excess deaths, the recent report that came out, the numbers are even more staggering. And we've had, and even now I think in low income countries, a number of people who have been vaccinated is probably overall less than 15%. So despite all this, what we're getting is a very, very poor, very, very limited kind of agreement. And the World Trade Organization has completely and consistently backed and sided with the corporations and the rich as well. So very disappointing result. And in fact, it shows how broken this entire system is. It shows how broken the negotiation framework is that just a few countries together can lock what is of such vital importance to all of humanity. You know, Prashant, this question of the WTO is going to be looked at carefully because on the table are things like food subsidies, on the table are things not only of vaccines. I mean, in this time of inflation and hunger, the food question is a priority and the WTO is simply not moving on it. Zoe, let's go to you because we have a couple of stories I want to sit with you on. These are both neighboring countries, Colombia and Ecuador. First, let's go to Colombia about the election, which is on Sunday. Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez are going to be picking up the standard against a very interesting man known as the... Well, some people are calling him the Trump of Colombia. All the poor Trump. His name now is basically used to describe all these odd duck people. Take us to Colombia for Zoe. Well, it is going to be the second round of the presidential elections this Sunday, June 19. This has been a contest, an election that we've been watching very closely, of course, of people's dispatch and on this show give the people what they want. A lot is at stake there. Not only, you know, who's going to be the next president, but really what is going to be the future. Is it going to be a project led by people who have been immersed in social movements who are making very clear calls for peace and justice and for all rights for all of the marginalized communities and all of the working people in Colombia? Or is this going to be a country led by someone who has a very kind of vague anti-corruption, anti-establishment who is quickly aligned with the furthest right sectors of Colombian politics? And so really it's two opposing projects at play here. This has been a trend, of course, across Latin America. We're not seeing people who are on similar footing facing off. These are really two projects, one of life and one for many that they consider one of despair, of misery and of death. And so in this contest coming up on this Sunday, there's been a lot of irregularities. There's been a lot of kind of shady business going on yesterday. There was supposed to be a final debate between Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernandez. This was ordered by the court, yet, yet this did not occur. This did not occur because the right wing candidate said that, you know, for some reason or another, Gustavo Petro, he alleged that Gustavo Petro was not ready to make the conditions for this debate to happen and that because there wasn't a clarification by the court, he would not participate in this debate. And so, you know, it's not just a question of a debate, but this is a chance for the Colombian people to see two candidates discussing their proposals, having a clear discussion about what their plan is for the country and Rodolfo Hernandez refused to participate. This has been condemned not only by Gustavo Petro, who was really pushing for this debate so that the people can actually get a clear sense, you know, since this first round election for them to be able to discuss their proposals. But of course, a lot of human rights organizations, political organizations have also condemned this kind of irregular withdrawal from political life and really giving this other dimension. And in addition, this week has also been a very concerning week in terms of attacks on the fundamental rights of the people, because there has been kind of a mass witch hunt against activists who were involved in these national strike last year. Dozens of people this week were arrested, there were arrest warrants put out for key social leaders that were involved in the uprising last year. We have to see that this is happening in a context where it's possible for the first left candidate could win the presidential elections. It's not a coincidence that they're putting out a clear message saying that those who participated in this uprising, those who participated and supported these proposals for change, demanding structural reforms are being hunted. They are being put in prison. They are getting arrested. This is commonplace in Colombia that every time they're on the cusp of change, there is a heavy crackdown from the right wing. The powers that be show that they still have the upper hand and so it's very worrying. There's also been, I mean, if you look at the social media pages of the far-right party Centro Democrático, which is led by Álvaro Ribevelis and currently the president Iván Duque, it's just a barrage of fake news of saying that Gustavo Petro is supporting this thing, that thing, just trying to completely vilify him, vilify him, vilify Francia Marquez, say that Colombia, that Petro is going to reactivate the M19 guerrilla group, which was demobilized in the 90s. All sorts of things which are completely ludicrous and the only purpose they serve is to instill the people with fear, is to create this environment and this uncertainty in the country, which Colombia has been suffering for over 60 years because it has been involved in this armed conflict. And so, you know, we really have to be looking at Colombia this Sunday. There were allegations of electoral fraud in the last rounds. It's important to keep our eyes on there. It's unclear what's lining up in terms of numbers. It's been a really close call since a lot of people have joined either one candidate or the other since the first round. So it's really going to be a day of kind of thing. So interesting period in Latin America. Two days ago, I was in the office of Morena, which is the party, the National Regenerative Movement, the party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the first leftist president in Mexico. By no means are they going to be as far left as one can imagine, but an interesting period in Latin America will be looking closely on Sunday to see if Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez can prevail. Well, you're listening to Give the People What They Want brought to you every week from People's Dispatch. That's peoplesdispatch.org. Zoe and Prashant are the editors. I'm Vijay from Globe Trotter. We're going to stay, actually, with South America. Just going south from Bogota, the capital of Colombia, across the border, we have Ecuador. Startling scenes in Ecuador, in the capital, Quito. Unbelievable things. Zoe, what happened in Quito? What's going on now? Well, for people who have been following Ecuador for the past couple of years, it might look like a scene from October 2019 where hundreds of thousands of people had taken to the streets when Lenin Morena was president. He attempted, because of an IMF agreement that he had signed, despite agreeing that he wasn't going to do so, he had implemented a fuel price hike along with other measures which were going to hit the working people of the country. And so hundreds of thousands took to the streets. It was a massive mobilization. Indigenous communities came to the capital and mobilized. We're seeing this once again. Since June 13th, peasant and Indigenous organizations across Ecuador have been mobilizing and raising very similar demands to what they were raising in October 2019, which is a decrease in the fuel price hikes, support for small farmers, and generally across the board against these neoliberal policies which Guillermo Lasso, when he was running last year against Andrés Arauz, he was saying that he would make a commitment that he was not going to implement the same policies that his predecessor Lenin Moreno had implemented. This was a promise because he saw how much the people rebelled against these policies. However, once again he went back on these promises. He has been implementing these policies. And also as we've covered at People's Dispatch, it has been a very tumultuous moment in Ecuador. There has been an increase in massacres taking place in prisons. An overall general discontent with the government, with the way it's been handling the security problems in the country. And now with these policies that have been hitting the working people, CONAI, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ecuador, the largest Indigenous organization in the country, is one of the organizations that has been on the streets. And in a surprising move, the Ecuadorian government decided to arrest its president, Leonidas Issa, who is a very, very strong figure. He was very present and very visible during the 2019 uprising. He gained a lot of recognition and notoriety. And he became president of CONAI. He was arrested this week by Ecuadorian security forces due to his participation in this national strike that's taking place. And it was immediately met with widespread rejection. People mobilized even more. More people joined the national strike. More people have taken to the streets since then. The government was really forced to release him after 24 hours of his arrest. And there has been more fuel to the fire. More people out on the streets. We are seeing a similar situation to October 2019. This was the great October uprising. During this time, during this uprising, seven people were killed by security forces, and that really left a mark on the Ecuadorian society. We've seen a lot of heavy repression by security forces against these mobilizations so far. There have been none killed, but people are on the streets, in neighborhoods, on the highways and communities across the country to demand that Guillermo Lasso make good on his promises, make good on the promise to not raise fuel. We're seeing, you know, across the world, you mentioned the UK before. Global inflation, global price hikes. The governments, the only response that they have is to make the people bear this cost. This is their only response, and the people aren't having it. The Ecuadorian people have overthrown presidents. They've made a lot of change on the streets, so it's likely that we're going to see an increase in mobilization in these coming days. And Guillermo Lasso should really figure out what to do because we've seen president after president in Ecuador be forced to go back and really change their policies based on the street mobilization of the people. I often think, Roy, that governments need to take statistics seriously. One in three people in Ecuador living in poverty, that's going to increase as global inflation is at its highest point in 40 years. One in three people in Ecuador in poverty. That's a disturbing statistic. Save the Children came up with an even more disturbing statistic. Yesterday, my flight was delayed by seven hours. I had a chance to read Save the Children's new report Prashant on the blockade of Gaza. Horrible, horrible finding. 80% of children with mental health problems, depression, grief and so on. 15 years of the blockade of Gaza, although much longer time of the occupation of the Palestinians, take us to Gaza, Prashant. I have a lot of attention on that report and very rightly so because it kind of describes in graphic detail the impact on children, many of whom I believe the number is around 800,000 for whom their entire life, their entire reality has been one of block being blockaded in Gaza by Israel with the connivance of course, we eat it very important. Remember that and of course the United States in the background. Like you said, 15 years since blockade has begun after Hamas won an election. Again, interesting considering how much people keep talking about democracy and all that, especially in the West and that was the spur for this blockade of course. And in those years, we've seen everything. We've seen multiple attacks by Israel. We remember the 2021 assault, but even before in 2014 and 2019, we saw multiple attacks by Israel on Gaza saying that they were targeting armed groups, but definitely it is the bulk of the population, the population which bore the bulk of the damage. If you look at for instance something as basic as poverty rates, I believe the numbers say that in 2020, I think the numbers were that 60% of the population is under the poverty line, under the 80% or 80% need humanitarian aid. And one of the most unbelievable things about this blockade is how Israel basically has so much control over the lives of the people of Gaza because even this few checkpoints through which vital supplies, supplies like medical medicine, supplies like construction material to build houses, supplies like say food for that matter, all of these are controlled by, these checkpoints are controlled by Israel, which at the slightest provocation often blocks one or two of them, makes it even more difficult for any kind of basic supplies to pass through. And this is a great example was after 2021, after Israel bombed Gaza for nearly continuously 11 days, then even to rebuild it was so difficult because the fact that again supplies took much more time to come in. We know that the agriculture of Gaza has been affected. We know that fishermen's range to which the distance to which they can go to fish is completely as per Israel's whims and fancies in terms of, at any point of time they get put forward in arbitrary restriction. We also know that when it comes to even during COVID-19, even the supply of vaccines was completely conditional upon Israel's mercy for lack of better word, mercy in quotes. And this really, this is what a, it's very difficult to imagine any other place in the world where this is happening. This is a unique, and this is not just occupation. This is, and there's a reason Gaza has called the world's largest open air prison because this is, this is I think even more than an occupation. This is a general imprisonment of over two, nearly close to 2.5 million people. The important thing to note of course is that the people of Gaza have continued to resist. We saw the Great March of Return, which was this burst of defiance that went on for months. And even after that we've seen continuously that there's been, you know, no stopping of the resistance and all. And I think really the big question here is for countries across the world because Israel has made its characteristics extremely clear. There is no nuance or subtlety. There is not even any attempt to pretend that they're trying something else. There's a reason why across the world the calls of apartheid, the calls of genocide for instance are increasing. It's becoming, you know, more and more organizations are realizing that. But really the question is for the leaders of the world. We know that Joe Biden is going to be occupied West Bank in July. He's going to Israel as well. And it's for people like Joe Biden to answer that, you know, how do they continue to support this brutal blockade of over 2 million people? How is it possible in today's world that this can continue? So clearly unfortunately no insight to this very, very brutal blockade because Israel's policies as far as Gaza seem to be very, very clear. So that's where we are at right now. Important to say, as I said earlier, 15 years of blockade, 70 years of occupation, tough times for the Palestinians. So much focus elsewhere. The behavior of the Israeli government now declared by the UN and other established agencies as an apartheid government. The behavior of the apartheid Israeli government simply not making headlines. Save the Children's Report should have been on the front page today of every newspaper around the world simply isn't. 80% of the children in Gaza, as Prashant says, most of them have lived their lives under this blockade. All Palestinians virtually have lived their lives under occupation. Yes, focus on Ukraine, not on Palestine. We know that this is the case today. But let's focus a little bit on Ukraine in the remaining time. We have fast track into the European Union. Interesting development, lots of Baltic countries, lots of countries, you know, in the former Yugoslavia and so on had to wait for years. Not easy to join the EU, but apparently Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Schulz, the heads of government in France and Germany, eager for this. Boris Johnson in Kiev again, second trip by Mr. Johnson while his government decides to extradite Julian Assange while his government fails to deal with the question of inflation. His government can't even get holiday goers to their destinations in Majorca and other places that the British typically go to. Ignoring all of that, including party gate, Mr. Johnson in Kiev again, again saying we're going to, that is we meaning the Europeans and the United States going to arm Ukraine, continue this war. Ukraine has a new US ambassador, her name is Bridget Brink and she told National Public Radio that this is going to be a long, grinding, tough war. Neither the United States nor the European countries seem to have any appetite to establish a dialogue, start coming to an end game, looking for a way to actually negotiate between Kiev and Moscow. Simply not on the agenda for them, there is a real denial of peace even though in reasonable outlets also in the West we don't have to go further than the West to see this and appetite is growing among people who know a few things about war, who know a few things about Eastern Europe and appetite is growing for so-called land swaps for dealing with the question of Crimea, Mariupol, perhaps even Odessa, what will be the status of Odessa. All of that is on the table amongst reasonable people, not on the table amongst people such as Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and so on, who are egging on the government of Vladimir Zelensky to continue to have a fight against Russia rather than to sit down and negotiate. The negotiations have largely fallen apart, the Track 2, Track 3 negotiations largely fallen apart. The arms that have been promised to Ukraine are simply not coming. Actually that's an interesting revelation. This is again in the Western media, you don't have to go further than that. The promises of tanks, the promises of surface-to-air missiles and so on, lots was promised, very little has been delivered. Pay attention to this, that means that the Ukrainian people are going to be pummeled because the expectation is that they're going to have this heavy artillery and so on, they simply don't have it. It's a moment when people need to reflect on their own sense that I'm going to cheer for a war at whose front lines I don't live. I think that reflection must be on the table. It is time again to think about the discussion and so on. It's simply not there. Well, Johnson, as I said, Boris Johnson, Premier of the UK in Kiev. It's interesting Prashant and Zoe that Britain made a big deal of Brexit of leaving the European Union and now they're making a big deal of bringing Ukraine into the European Union. I'm confused, frankly. I don't understand European politics much. This was not a five-minute report on European politics. I don't claim to understand it. And one of the features of journalism is for the journalist to have an understanding of the places they are reporting. Zoe has lived in Colombia, has an understanding of the places she is reporting. Prashant understands the places he is reporting. I don't claim to understand what's going on in Europe. One country which made a big deal of leaving the European Union is now championing the other country's entry into the European Union. Go and find somebody who can explain that to you. Ask Boris Johnson. Perhaps the British public needs to ask him that question in Yorkshire where there's a by-election. Well, you've been listening to give the people what they want, brought to you from People's Dispatch and Globetrotter. A number of media organizations will soon release a statement about Julian Assange. I want to make it clear that we at Give the People What They Want stand for press freedom. We stand with publishers such as Julian Assange. We hope that the majority of the world's people will understand that this is a serious threat to press freedom, a serious threat, a very, very serious threat. Thanks a lot. See you next week.