 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news round up. It's the 26th of November 2021. You're joining us for Give the People What They Want brought to you from People's Dispatch and it's two co-editors Prashant in Delhi and Zoe in beautiful Tegucigalpa Honduras. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Lots of news to bring you getting right to the point about 20 hours ago a coup began to unfurl in the country of the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands north of Australia just to the east of Papua New Guinea a sovereign country where the Prime Minister has been under threat the Governor General has declared a curfew an emergency protesters surrounding the main government buildings buildings on fire particularly and this is significant buildings of people of Chinese descent. A lot revolves around the fact that people of Chinese descent over the past two years have been targeted by groups that have called themselves Malaita for democracy. The entire anti Manasseh Sogaware the entire movement against Prime Minister Sogaware began in September 2019 when Solomon Islands decided to no longer recognize the country of Taiwan as the representative of China and instead to represent the People's Republic to recognize the People's Republic of China as the legitimate heir to the seat in the United Nations and so on. When Mr. Sogaware's government recognized Beijing a movement developed backed by the United States and the Australians. In fact US Senator Marco Rubio plays a role here building up Zionist Christian forces to attack in the one instance the government of Mr. Sogaware on the other instance to go after Chinese nationals and people of Chinese descent in the Solomon Islands. This is very chilling because the United States and Australia have allied with right-wing factions inside Solomon Islands essentially to destabilize the country. Please follow what I'm saying. There is no internal political problem in Mr. Sogaware's government. He was elected by a democratic process. Nobody contests the fact that he has to finish his mandate. This is not a contested fact. Mr. Sogaware's government hasn't done anything to provoke a coup of this kind. In other words there is no dramatic economic law against landlords or something like that which would bring landlords into the streets and so on. There is no provocation other than the mere fact that in September 2019 the Solomon Islands decided to recognize the government in Beijing. That was sufficient. Now right after this coup attempt began to unroll in the capital city of Honaira Australian troops landed in the airport in Honaira the so-called self-defense force. Australian Prime Minister Mr. Scott Morrison made a statement that the troops would be there for weeks. He has designated the word weeks. Now it's important to recall that weeks can go on. After all it's not a question that after 10 weeks, 20 weeks, 30 weeks it's still weeks. Even 100 weeks later it's still weeks. So he has not actually put a deadline. Furthermore, speaking to people in Honaira I discovered that they fear, many people fear that there will be a new detachment of Australian troops this time not just the self-defense police type troops but military. This is quite a sensitive issue. Does Australia have the right to enter sovereign country? Where is the role of the United Nations? Where is the outcry that a democratically elected government is here being pushed aside in a coup attempt? Not much is being said about this around the world. We are going to follow this at People's Dispatch at Globetrotter and of course next week at Give the People What They Want. A serious matter in Solomon Islands. This is perhaps not only for the Solomon Islands but this is perhaps a new kind of paradigm that we're going to look at countries, especially small countries that make sovereign decisions having the decisions overturned by these kind of coup attempts and then intervention by foreign powers in this case the military of Australia. We're going to move from one coup in the Solomon Islands not exactly a finished coup but an attempted coup in the Solomon Islands to another coup, the coup in Sudan. Prashant, what's happening in Sudan? Right Vijay, it's interesting you pointed the dichotomy here because the coup in Sudan is not over either because the contest is still on and we'll talk a bit more about it. The developments of the last week fairly well reported the fact that Prime Minister Abdullah Handog who was overthrown in the October 25th coup by the military has now been reinstated as part of an agreement he signed with the military. Now this is a very interesting agreement especially the fine print because while Handog has been reinstated there has been welcoming noises from the west the United States and other countries. The important thing to note of course is that Handog does not bring the political force which initially supported him in back into the government. So Handog is going to be head of a government of technocrats. Important word to note of course that technocrats always mean that there's no politics which clearly is really what the military is going for over here. So Handog is going to be heading a government of independent experts the forces of freedom and change which are centrist forces not left forces not radical forces, centrist forces which struck a compromise with the military in 2019 to form a government even they have been excluded from the new agreement and they are in anger rejected Handog although apparently there are moves underneath to try to support him. So yesterday that's Thursday so another massive round of protests against both the coup and the agreement between Handog and the military protesters calling it a betrayal a compromise of cowardice many such terms calling the old slogan the people call for the fall of the regime which echoed through all of northern Africa in the 2011 protests very much finding resonance in Sudan as well. So the important thing to note here of course is that you find the detail finer details of the agreement as reported by colleague Power points out that the agreement in this agreement between Handog and the military Handog basically agrees that there was no coup on October 25th so while the army the military led by Abdul Fateh Al-Burhan dissolved the transitional government took complete power nonetheless the fine print of the agreement basically says that the army chief took action depending on the circumstances or cognizant of dangers posed to national security those are the exact words so what we have is basically what do you call a move by Handog to legitimize the coup now Handog has of course claimed that this is to prevent further bloodshed this is to protect the Sudanese blood is precious is what he said but the important question here is why is blood being shed blood is being shed because the military and the security forces are firing on people over for at least 42 people have been killed since October 25th when the coup took place these were not people who just died randomly on the streets these were people who were shot who were attacked so clearly when the prime minister says that blood has to be you know blood is precious lives have to be preserved the responsibility of that lies in the military which conducted the coup the responsibility of that lies with Abdul Fateh Al-Burhan the leader and other generals so right now what has happened is basically that the position of the left sorry the position of the left which is the Sudanese Communist Party the Sudanese professional association that's a confrontation of trade unions who from 2019 have been arguing that the military cannot be trusted who have been arguing that the military will sooner or later force its way back into power and remove all civil elements this position has been vindicated yet again and I think that's one of the most important takeaways because for a long time people were comfortable dismissing them as radicals and extremists who could just not take compromise on supposedly on the path back to civilian government but this October 25th coup by the military has basically proved that they're right and even the centrist forces are now taking to the streets protesting against his agreement so from what we've heard from reporters from reports on the ground what we've heard is that there is mass rejection from all sections of protesters of this agreement between the Prime Minister Hamburg and the military so definitely protests that escalate yesterday was one major round we can definitely see more and more protests one danger here is that the western powers international community might use this to sort of legitimize the coup okay we have a civilian figure head back in power so that's a good sign so let's reduce the pressure on the military let's take it for granted so that's one big risk that the protesters are worried about but they also know that they never really received much solidarity anyway and they're very determined that they're going to continue this fight. We started the show today Prashant with Solomon Islands where a coup began just about 20 hours ago we moved into a coup that well has been ongoing in Sudan for now some time both these coups in one sense unfinished because nobody has actually acknowledged that the coup has legitimacy and neither in Solomon Islands in less than 24 hours nor in Sudan over the course of several months there was a coup in Honduras in 2009 in many respects that coup also is an unfinished coup people have not come to terms with it there's been an attempt at the ballot box to overcome that coup Zoe you are in Tegucigalpa you've been meeting people all across Honduras what is happening with the coup that exists in the Honduras and in the elections that perhaps might finally overturn it well it's been an interesting week I arrived in Honduras on Saturday and since then have been traveling to different parts of the country meeting with different leaders and activists in Honduras hearing their perspectives about what these 12 years since the coup have really meant and what these elections on Sunday mean to the country I think it's exactly right in the sense that this coup happened in 2009 in June and the democratic order in Honduras has not been restored so there have been three electoral processes but they have all been considered by and large to be illegitimate in the sense that not only in the vote counting was their fraud committed I mean many of us will remember 2017 elections where there was hundreds of thousands of names invented and these votes coming in from regions where there weren't people and overturning the irreversible trend of the opposition winning against the far right national party this of course that's a mass protest but you know this is the continuation of what's been happening is that once the coup happened it was you know approved by the international community by the United States and the national party was able to cement itself in the institutions of the Honduran state and since then you know it's really hard to say that there has been democracy in the country because from every element from campaign financing coming from drug trafficking from you know silencing the opposition through incarceration and through assassination of course the case of Berta Casares is one of the most well known but there are dozens of people in Honduras who have been killed over the past 12 years through decimating the public sector denying people the right to education and the right to health care and just destroying all possibility of them to have futures in the country this is also part of this continued coup against the people and the denial of you know their right to democracy and their right to be able to live in peace and so I think there's a lot of anticipation about the elections on Sunday but one thing is very clear for the people is that even if the vote is clean what's been happening leading up to the elections is really atrocious I mean because the opposition is polling so favorably the national party has resorted to you know ridiculous tactics buying people home appliances directly distributing cash to people on the street I mean really really insane hard to believe that this could be happening but it is and so you know hopefully that on Sunday the vote will be you know respected that there won't be another electoral fraud process but for really democrat democracy to be restored in Honduras it's a long arduous process one that you know social movements have alerted to that has much more to do with you know refounding the country and rethinking the structures the institutions which have been all subverted and you know through the coup of course capturing you know the judicial branch capturing you know so many different bodies of the state and turning them against the people in favor of you know transnational corporations and so you know hopefully the winds of change will be victorious in Honduras that is by and large speaking to anyone on the street it doesn't matter if they're you know far right sorry you know a left activist progressive everyone wants change the situation is untenable migration is at rates unheard of then the conditions that people are suffering are just no longer possible they want change they need change and if there is no change there they really fear what's going to happen a lot of people have already spoken about waves of migration going to pick up in a very big way the US doesn't want this the regional countries don't want this and so you know we'll see what happens on Sunday and hopefully by and large the vote will be respected in that the process of storing democracy in this country can begin I think people need to go to peoplesdispatch.org immediately bookmark the page Zoe has been covering the elections talking to social movement leaders did an interview very good interview with Padre Mello highly recommend the stories there and of course Zoe since you are in Honduras and have been traveling around you will be giving us a sense of what's happening there this is an election coming right after the election in Chile right after the election in Venezuela as we say on this show give the people what they want which is news about Latin American elections so there we have it now all across the world just as the Latin Americans keep going to the ballot box workers in many parts of the world have been on strike there was a major strike of South African workers work in the kind of Walmart of South Africa there have been workers in India on strike just a few days ago partly in solidarity with the farmers whose struggle continues despite a major surrender government of Narendra Modi there's been a strike wave that we've seen in places like Tunisia and so on endless strikes of course the epicenter it seems to me Prashant is on the largest retailer in the world and that is Walmart this Walmart struggle tell us about it you being very kind with you and sparing the actual biggest conflict here which is Amazon but of course today is a historic day in the sense that it's what's called Black Friday massive sales Boradza that takes place in the US many other countries of course coming soon is what is called Cyber Monday another big round of sales and I think over the past few years you sort of crossed a particular moment where I think across the world people have realized that Amazon is a problem many big tech companies are a problem but Amazon especially is a problem because during the pandemic it became a $1 trillion company sorry a $3 trillion company and Jeff Bezos became the first person to become to have a net worth of $200 billion and if you look at the amount of taxes they pay the kind of work conditions a lot of this has been extensively reported and of course for instance Amazon workers not being able to get bathroom breaks or for the matter that Amazon has prevented unionization in many parts of the world the most recent incident being the Bessemer warehouse in Alabama just one warehouse organizing was such a big threat for such a multi $1 trillion company but the key question I think across the world has been how do we sort of fight back in a world where say Amazon is so representative of the kind of world we have today the network it has stretching across countries where products are made and dispatched and there is no single manufacturing point there are huge warehouses there is so much of commerce the big question was how do we sort of say fight back again such a giant like Amazon despite its very problematic practices incidentally I think it pays about just about 1% taxes something in the US so I think one of the interesting things over the past few years has been this coalition that has emerged called Make Amazon Pay Coalition and what it has been able to do is I think unite a variety of say organizations unite a variety of platforms a variety of ideas and present it as a single campaign against this behemoth now for instance we know that Amazon treats its workers badly there has been a lot of reports about that we know that it indulges in union busting tactics we know that it has deals and agreements with countries which are horrible human rights records which companies which are huge polluters and their own right we know that there have been multiple other kinds of violations in the world which put small producers at risk so what this coalition has basically brought together is all these interests presenting a series of demands to Amazon starting from something as basic as you know say increasing pay you know giving a more clear appraisal system a performance review system to even more slightly more complex topics like how Amazon handles data or how Amazon web service works with companies which are massive polluters or demanding more action from the company itself its core functionalities in terms of climate change so this is the kind of platform that has come up in the form of make Amazon pay I believe at least 20 to 25 countries actions are I have either taken place or are going to take place in the throughout the course of today these include government workers in Bangladesh these include say you know workers in the United Kingdom who have been trying to organize these include coalitions of IT employees and Amazon workers in various parts of the world number of important trade unions big trade unions actually which have been fighting in the forefront of workers' rights in Italy for instance both C.Cobas is part of it, CGI earlier won a victory against Amazon as well and in South Africa again a very big protest taking place activists in India, Australia so many other places so what we actually see is this is something that probably provides hope because we are also this kind of a campaign shows that the tide is perhaps turning now Jeff Bezos went to space recently of course you know he thanked the workers of Amazon which is really the heights of truth for lack of a better word but I think what we are seeing right now is the building blocks of what could soon become a much larger campaign we do know that in response to the pandemic there has been a decision in principle to impose a 15% tax on big corporates across the world where it will actually be implemented something that remains to be seen it was actually dilution from the original proposal which is much higher but what has been happening over the years is that multinational corporations have basically been able to twist laws, labour laws regulatory laws across the world and actually entrench and embed themselves in such a way that they actually spend the least amount of money so in some senses make Amazon pay is at one level paying the workers for the work they are doing but also in some senses paying back to the world for the amount of profit it has been able to extract over the course of the year over the course of the years so that's actually I think the heart of this campaign it's really inspiring to see that such a wide variety of people are able to you know from such wide variety of sections are able to mobilize against such a big company and Amazon has kind of become ubiquitous for many of us continues to be so that I don't think is going to change but the fact that there is this growing wave of awareness could actually mean that in the coming months and years we see something which is you know we see and if something people can do something with Amazon the hope is that the same might happen with Google and Facebook or also facing their own sets of challenges so can we envision a world where big tech can be regulated through global coalitions because it's increasingly clear that individual countries can't do it there is no political bill they have too much money to throw at this causes at political parties definitely not the case but can global coalitions of this sort be what you know sort of are able to at least halt the advance of some of these big tech companies I think that's one of the big questions that we need to see in the coming months and years it's true we have to see that's Prashant from People's Dispatch important place to go and learn about strikes all around the world social movements of different kind other co-editor of People's Dispatch Zoe Alexandra sitting in Tegucigalpa Honduras if you took a flight from Tegucigalpa and just flew directly eastward you'd land in the Dominican Republic where in 1960 three sisters Mirabel sisters were killed because they were against the dictatorship of Trujillo 1999 important day was set in honor of them that day was the international day for the elimination of violence against women Zoe tell us a little bit about the day well we should honor the Mirabel sisters and all people who fight against dictatorships but tell us a little about the day and what has been happening in the 16 days that follow the 25th of November I mean I think it's it's very fitting that you share the story you know about what these why these Mirabel sisters were assassinated by the dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic because I think that really sets the tone for what this day means because it's about commemorating and fighting you know against violence against women and women who are in struggle not only women who are in struggle but every day you know women especially as you know many feminist organizations women's organizations have seen throughout the pandemic women are really holding up society how would we have gotten through and how are many countries continuing to get through this lockdown this you know moment of economic paralysis of deepening of inequalities if women were not you know carrying out you know the reproductive labor that they are always you know doing in society and so I think this day has been of utmost importance you know specifically in Latin America because it's where it's been most commemorated and a moment to come out onto the streets in struggle because you know the feminist struggle is one of street action of mass mobilization of coming together in you know joy and also in mourning you know as I mentioned of course the pandemic has deepened a lot of these inequalities and with it there's also been you know of course increases and feminicides violence against women with the crisis of capitalism deepening becomes even more pressing matter these things have not gone away patriarchal violence is a part and parcel of the capitalist system and so you know this day is one of struggle of fighting against capitalism of fighting against patriarchy and of reaffirming the importance of these struggles so you know across the continent and you know and it's starting to be recognized again of course across the world as well and last year you know because of the pandemic there weren't as many tensions but this year we saw people once again take the streets in Brazil the landless world workers movement which has a very very strong women sector was on the streets in several cities demanding you know of course an end to the patriarchal violence which is seen in the homes in the workplace but also you know the overwhelming patriarchal violence of the Bolsonaro government in Honduras as well women were out on the streets the you know the dictatorship has been one that's been extremely violent I mean they have been some of the most affected by the policies of the national party and so it's just an important day of struggle and leading up to human rights day I think was what you're referring to on December 10th which is you know these two really crucial moments of remembering what are our fundamentals and what are we fighting for and what are what is going to allow us to chart a course towards a more just world where everyone can live in equality and dignity and have dignified lives and I think you know today Vijay I know you're going to talk about it now but I think the plan to save the planet is you know part of this struggle and is part of about our role as movements and as you know people on the left to really to really build towards well Zoe you're sitting in Tegucigalpa where there's a beautiful sky above your head and that beautiful sky above your head and of course is our horizon you know struggles by people like the Mirabel sisters and then those that fought to get in 1999 the establishment of the international day for the elimination of violence against women and then all the people that continue to agitate on these 16 days that are conventionally regarded as the days of human rights from November 25th the international day to eliminate violence against women all the way to human rights day December 10th we've I suppose forgotten that we have a foundation to make a better world so 26 research institutes got together under the leadership of Sasha Laurenti the secretary general of ALBA TCP that's the old treaty created at the initiative of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in 2004 well these six research institutes have produced a document you can download the document from the tricontinental.org I know that people's dispatch will also have a story about the big launch event that was held in fact today where we had leaders like Jaupedro Stede from the landless workers movement give a very very pointed and important reflection we had people from the world march and women we had people from La Via Campesina we had people from movements all around the world socialist movement of Ghana and so on give their very important intervention about the nature of this plan which is not so much a plan but a set of principles on which to struggle struggles for instance of the Amazon workers about whom Prashant had been had been speaking before friends you're listening to give the people what they want which is what we hope you want and we come to you from two projects we come to you from people's dispatch and that's where Prashant and Zoe are the co-editors people's dispatch for my money well not much money but 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