 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Well, Yovit, give the people what they want brought to you by People's Dispatch. That's Prashant and Zoe on the front lines bringing you the stories of mass struggles. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Interesting things happening in South Asia. On the one side, the Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilal Bhutto making a very disparaging remark about Narendra Modi. Very strong comment calling him the butcher of Gujarat, protest breaking out inside India against Mr. Bhutto. And then in Arunachal Pradesh in the town of Tawang where there have been clashes in fact between India and China since the 1960s. Another clash on the border. Difficult borders for India on the one side China on the other side Pakistan, decades and decades of strife. Very difficult to advance the cause of the people in that context and yet one of the oldest mass organizations in India. The All India Kisan Sabha about 86 years old this year has elected a new leadership. Now you'll remember the great farmers protest in India in 2020-21 which People's Dispatch and our partner Newsclick had reported on with great diligence and with bringing you the people's voices. Well, the All India Kisan Sabha has a new leadership. It's our friend Biju Krishnan. We congratulate him for being the new General Secretary Ashok Dhavle. Another old friend is the President of the All India Kisan Sabha so congratulations to them. Some good news some bad news in South Asia on the borders it's tough inside the mass struggles continuing to germinate. Not such mixed news in Peru and yet the masses continue to be on the street Zoe. That's exactly right the masses continue to be on the street. Since we gave you the last update the nationwide protests against the coup that was carried out against Pedro Casio continue as of now death toll from the police repression against these protests is around 21. This number is fluctuating it continues to rise. Yesterday was the first day of the national emergency that the acting President Dina Bolwarte decreed across the country and this has seen increased levels of militarization across the country. A lot of the areas in the mountains where there's large indigenous and peasant movements that have been mobilizing that have been blocking airports. Their protests have been met with extreme violence and repression in the area of Ayacucho. Just yesterday seven people were killed a lot of these young people 1620 22 years old. They are on the streets demanding that Dina Bolwarte be removed that the Congress be dissolved that there be a constituent assembly that Pedro Casio be released. And above all above these in addition to these sort of political sounding demands it's that they are able to have a voice in politics. Peru is a country that has really been built on the far right clutching onto power. We saw it during the 16 months of Pedro Casio being president despite the fact that he was elected by popular vote despite the fact that he against all odds became president of Peru. A rural teacher who's from the mountainous region of Peru. Despite all this they did not let him rule they did not let him take forward the campaign promises. They did not let him have one day where he wasn't being pressed with some charge or another where the media wasn't publishing reports about his family about every single thing that he did. And so this is really what people are mobilizing against is this far right rule that seems to just clamp down on every possible avenue of life in the country where the people even if they go to the polls and say that they want this person who's promising constituent assembly who's promising that there be no more poor people in a rich country, even despite all this. They see this president removed in what they see as an unconstitutional way, going against the will of the people. And so that's why we're going down there as people dispatch we're going to be dispatching out today, hopefully being able to bring you the voices of the people who are mobilizing. There's so many diverse different organizations and movements on the streets that are all basically there to demand a return to democracy but a true democracy is democracy where the voices of Peruvian people are actually listened to and where they have a say in what happens in the country. Very important that you're going to be reporting from there of course, as Jose Carlos and I showed at people's dispatch and for Globetrotter, the sticky fingers of the US Embassy all over this coup d'etat against Pedro Castillo, an ugly business. Meanwhile, in Washington DC this week, US President Joe Biden brought together almost 50 heads of government from the African continent. This is interesting. In a few months ago, the US government released a strategic white paper on Africa, where the US government was concerned about the role of Russia and China on the African continent. Interesting that the US government focused in that white paper principally on its global rivalry with the Russians and Chinese saying that China is investing too much in Africa China by the way conducts four times the size of US trade with Africa, and that Russia is sending in mercenaries. Interesting again that this is the attitude of the US government, given that the principal problem for the African continent is not really, you know, whether China is investing or Russia is sending a few hundred mercenaries. The principal problem is the debt crisis, and that has not been addressed at all. The UN conference on trade and development shows that 60% of African states are in levels of high debt distress. This was not brought up even once during the three days of the summit, the US Africa summit. Interestingly, when it comes to the question of investment and so on, the Chinese government actually has forgiven $14 billion of loans just in the last few months. And as well, this question of Russian mercenaries certainly Russians are in, in various countries in the Sahel, they were there in Mozambique and so on, but they're just a few hundred compared to thousands of troops of the United States, France and Britain, and no mention of that. Also, this question of Russian troops, particularly in Burkina Faso, has now created a slight problem in Ghana. I know we're going to talk about the Ghana IMF deal in a few minutes, but it's good to point out that the accusations of Russian interference in Burkina Faso has created a little diplomatic crisis in Akra Ghana, where the Burkina Bay government has really pulled up the Ghanians, saying that you can't make these kind of flagrant comments about Russians in Burkina Faso and so on. Well, Mr Biden made two promises in this summit, and I should for the sake of being a good, clear and balanced reporter mentioned them. One of them was a $55 billion pledge to invest in Africa. It's not clear exactly what this money will be for. A large part of it seems to be, at least here's the language around food insecurity on the continent. Now, I read the summit statement, looks like a lot of it again is private public partnership. Hello, alarm bells should ring. Private public partnership. We're talking about food insecurity. What this means is greater access onto African soil of US multinational grain and food companies. That's what it looks like to me. This looks like another US subsidy to its own corporations to go and take advantage of African soil, rather than money that the United States gives to African states, so that they can build their own kind of food security or in fact food sufficiency, you know, a program. So the $55 billion, very hard to say what this is really. Is it money for Africa? Or is it a hidden subsidy for US corporations? Not clear. Secondly, Mr Biden promised, and my goodness, this was the highlight of the show. Mr Biden promised to make a trip to the African continent. And I just want to read exactly what he said. He said something very interesting. He said, be careful what you wish for because I may show up. Well, you just said you might come. Then he says something curious, being the president of the richest country in the world. He said, the poor relatives always show up. The wealthy ones never show up. The poor come and they eat your food and stay longer than they should. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in your home countries. Not exactly sure what Mr Biden is saying. Is he a poor relative? Is this a disparagement of the poor? Well, odd kind of statement. In fact, the United States is very much present on the African continent. But as I said earlier, not so present diplomatically, not so present in terms of investment and the commercial development, but really quite present in terms of its military footprint, including African command, which recently had moves to get involved in Zambia. So quickly before I hand it over, there's a really interesting story about the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and the United States cutting a deal about the copper and cobalt. And I'm going to return to that next week because that requires more time for that story. But let's quickly switch off back to Ghana Prashant, another IMF deal. Wow. I mean, the US may not be very strongly diplomatically present in Ghana, but the IMF definitely is and its board is in Washington. So that's a statement to consider. But yes, the 18th agreement between Ghana and the IMF, at least the staff level agreement has to be reached. The IMF board has to be approved. It's for a sum of $3 billion over three years. And the response, the collective response in many sections of Ghana seems to range between, you know, not again, and outright anger, which is what we are seeing right now because we spoke to Quasi Prath Jr, the General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, the interview should be out in a day or so. But one of the interesting things he pointed out was the fact that citing that old statement that, you know, if you keep doing the same thing and the results the same that what you make out of it. The fact is that despite 18 agreements, the economy of Ghana is in shambles. Latest agreement is expected to lead to an increase in value at a tax. It's expected to lead to an increase in the price of petroleum products affect pensions, all kinds of impact. Government spending might be also cut down because of that. And I think underlying this is the fact that often countries like Ghana, we had also talked about this in the context of Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier, end up going to the IMF because that has become in some senses the wisdom of the elite, so to speak, that, you know, there is no real solution in terms of how to sort of solve the economic problems of Ghana. There's no attempt to, for instance, increase domestic production, increase domestic capacities. It just seems to be an effort to sort of manage the economy somehow till the time comes for the next loan to be taken from the IMF. And that's what the labour unions are saying. That's what the left is saying. In fact, there's a lot of, there are many possibilities that many of these organizations will take up industrial action against both this loan as well as the state of the economy. The state of the economy is really bad because petroleum prices have doubled, prices, some food items have increased by around 500 times. And one thing Kuizipath told us was that this is all the more ironic in Ghana considering that it is such a rich land in terms of resources, immense gold resources, one of the largest producers of cocoa in the world. It has, there's a biggest artificial lake, it's beside the Atlantic Ocean. Despite all that today, Ghana imports tomatoes, Ghana imports fish for that matter, you know, clothes, you name it, so much of daily essentials are being imported into Ghana. And the question really is, why is that the case? Why is that a country with such resources, which has such fertile soil is importing even food? And I think this is the very central question that many countries across the world are confronting. The productive sectors have been pretty much entirely wrecked or destroyed. And it's just, the economy is existing largely on the basis of borrowings. Ghana's debt is in fact over 100% more in terms of debt, more than 100% of the revenue is spent on debt servicing, which is an unsustainable solution. Its currency has in fact been one of the worst performing in the world. So all this put together, there is complete chaos, so to speak, in terms of the economy of the country. And at times like this, all the political elite has to offer is that, you know, old and weary solution that lets somehow go back to the IMF. So we are in for a couple of very restive months, maybe years in Ghana, definitely, you know, the trade unions have been in the forefront of opposing both the kind of, you know, reforms and policies the government has instituted and this agreement. It's interesting because the current government had once said that we would not go to the IMF. It had, you know, staked its prestige on the fact that it would refuse to go to the IMF and now it's back then again. So, you know, in some senses, a very disappointing story, but in some sense it's a very familiar story because this is really part of a pattern. You've seen this in Latin America, you've seen this in Africa, you've seen this in Asia and in all these places people suffering, you're suffering and struggling to even get the most basic goods. So whereas all the resources are expropriated, for instance, gold, the benefits that mining companies are making are immense at this point of time. So keeping all that in mind a very challenging time for Ghana's people. Very challenging time for Ghana's people. This is give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch and globetrotter. We look at this very closely because this is going to impact the lives of billions of people around the world, these IMF deals, they're all the same kind of deal. In fact, wealthy bondholders almost had a riot when they were told that they might take a haircut on the Ghana deal a few months ago. There are powers at play, there is a class struggle at work. We're going to come, speaking of class struggle, to Brazil where the fight doesn't seem to end, the election is over, Mr Lula has been ratified as the next president. Looks like they're still in the middle of all kinds of tussles Zoe. Well, that's exactly right. Some of the violence that we saw following the elections, the road blockades by the Bolsonaro supporters, the allegations of fraud and this whole climate of fear and rejection and hatred that had really been brewing in the months leading up to the elections when it was clear that Lula was the favorite candidate has continued and we're just 16 days away or 17 days away from when Lula will be sworn in. This is just to mention it's it's called the Festival of the Future. It's going to be a huge affair. There is already 17 heads of state that have been confirmed. Dozens of artists, the biggest artists in Brazil are confirmed to play at this wearing in ceremony. Yes, there is apprehension because this past week, Bolsonaro supporters essentially rioted in the capital, Brasilia. And this is worrying because a lot of the the mobilizations that had been happening, the road blockades were really limited to the south of the country, the Bolsonaro strongholds, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina areas where Bolsonaro was receiving a majority of the votes in this past elections. However, now that there is there was this writing in Brasilia which happened following the arrest of one of the Bolsonaro supporters. There is concern about is this a preview for what's going to happen on January 1 when Lula is being sworn in. Is this just a one day thing? How could this continue in these riots they burned public buses they targeted a lot of public property which are kind of symbols of working class access to the city and working class access to society. And so it's very symbolic that these are the things that they would target. And also the fact that they're doing this just two weeks before Lula is set to be sworn in is perhaps the sign that more could be coming. There's no clear information yet if there are plans for them to mobilize to Brasilia to do as there was a lot of talk before the elections that a January 6 capital Washington DC's kind of scenario could happen where it's really a confrontation of the centers of power. So we'll definitely be following this but in other news. Many several names have been confirmed for Lula's cabinet. Interesting names and one thing to keep in mind is that as Lula and his team are building this cabinet as they're envisioning what the next couple of years are going to look like. It's important to keep in mind kind of the country that they're inheriting. So for example in the building of these cabinets during Bolsonaro's term because of the massive cuts that he made to the public sector a lot of ministries for example were combined. A lot of ministries that were formerly ministries made secretaries. And so this whole process of transition is about the rebuilding of the state of Brazil of rebuilding these institutions of understanding what are the strategic priorities. And so in that sense we see that Fernando Dada our friends who we spoke to when we were both VJ in Brazil. He has been named Minister of Finance and it's interesting I say this because under Bolsonaro this this was part of just the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Economy had finance playing an industry. And in the transition team they've decided and foreign trade sorry. And so they in this transition team they decided to divide all these three up because for example industrialization during Bolsonaro's term was severely was face huge setbacks. As we mentioned on before there were thousands and thousands of companies in Brazil that were forced to close. Brazil is at a low in terms of exportations and they're in their industry and so this is going to be a strategic focus Lula needs to focus and he said this time again on re industrializing Brazil making it productive again. Giving it the sort of economic autonomy of the needs in the area of the foreign ministry. There is sorry Mauro Vieira. This is important he has already he is a seasoned diplomat was already the diplomat in Argentina Croatia. He has already stated that he will establish relationships with Venezuela the democratically elected government of Nicolas Mauro this is a key shift in the region. Other ministers are about four other confirmed. There's a historic singer from the state of Bahia who's going to be Ministry of Culture. So these are some of the names the cabinet is shaping up to be interesting representing the different areas of Brazil different regions and interests and and I think in the next couple of weeks we're going to see the full cabinet. We're also going to see what happens at the swearing in what's going to happen with the Bolsonaro thesis will be following that. Well hope there's not going to be a repeat of what happened in Washington D.C. on January 6 but you never know. Meanwhile, off to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I mentioned earlier there's a deal between the DRC Zambia and the United States about raw materials. People's dispatch is running a two part series I just read the first part by Tanupriya very much liked it. Prashant what's what does she say about what's happening in the Congo. Right. In some senses continues a topic we touched upon a couple of weeks ago which has to do with the activities of the rebel group so to speak M23 the armed group which has been leading an advance in the regions of the Congo. And what we do know of this rebel group of course is the fact that it is definitely supported by Rwanda. Interestingly just I think yesterday also Anthony Blinken made an appeal to Rwanda to sort of, you know, help control the M23 which itself says something considering that Rwanda is a US ally and the fact that such a high level, you know, official Rwanda's government makes this kind of an appeal really exposes the situation so to speak whereas on the ground it's of course well known they have been innumerable, you know, innumerable documents that prove that the Rwanda is basically backing this M23 group, but the fact is that Rwanda does enjoy impunity because of its ties to the US because of its role as an imperialist proxy in the region. The latest news of course is the fact that they have been meetings between the M23 group and the army of the DRC. There was a ceasefire agreement which took effect somewhere towards the end of November but reports have emerged that in the aftermath of the ceasefire there has been at least one massacre in which anywhere between 150 to 300 people could have been killed and the M23 has been considered to be responsible. Now the M23 at some point said that it was honoring the ceasefire then it said that it stopped fighting but there were more reports of more fighting. So this I think sort of brings us to what is the central question here and something our friend Kambali Musawali has over the years pointed out again and again especially in interviews with people's dispatch where he has said that this is the legacy of decades of violence perpetrated by the DRC's neighbors Rwanda and Uganda on that country and the reason for this violence is pretty simple and obvious in the sense that it is largely for the mineral wealth of the DRC. The DRC of course has always been the target of such attacks. We remember the great Patrice Lumumba of course was the victim of an assassination but even in the following decades and what happens right now what is happening right now is in some senses the open loot of many of these resources. For instance, we know that I think I believe gold exports from Uganda have really sold in recent times as well. And you know all this I think brings together the key question of what does it take for justice in the region. And we do know of course that Uganda is facing fines, a fine has been imposed on it of about 325 million US dollars a part of that Uganda has been paid. Rwanda has not been brought to justice because it has not signed the Rome Statue. But we see that despite such enquiries taking place, the enquiries we talk about had to do with the times around 96, 98, the early part of the century. Here we are in 2022 and Rwanda continues with impunity aiding this rebel group and actually one of the interesting things about this year's offensive, there was an offensive in March as well, is that the M23's ammunition, M23's weapons have also really improved which indicates that it is getting that kind of support from an outside player. So despite the fact that there is documentation despite the fact that there are multiple reasons why the Rwanda would continue to support this group, there has been no real change in the situation so to speak. So calls for truce, even declarations of truce often not really working on the ground because of the backing this group enjoys. And while it does suffer setbacks at points of time it keeps coming back with offensives in the region. So a huge amount of displacement that has taken place both this year and in the previous decades as well the numbers running to hundreds of thousands. And at this point the DRC also facing a crisis of governance its own, the legitimacy of its own government is also very much in question. But the fact is that as Kambali has pointed out that until there is democracy actually in Rwanda until there is democracy in the DRC the possibility of not only a stop to the violence but also the possibility of the resources being used for the people of that country. Both these possibilities are very difficult to achieve as long as these such governments continue to enjoy impunity and are supported by countries like the US. So the second part of the story will be coming out soon with more of these details so to read the story. Yeah that's a story by Tanupriya the People's Dispatch website on the M23 rebels. Go have a look at it it's at peoplesdispatch.org. Now we started our show today give the people what they want with Peru where there's a historical national strike coming up putting pressure to release Pedro Castillo to bring back a kind of democratic process against the coup data enforced by the elites and perhaps the US Embassy. Yes okay meanwhile the United Kingdom convulsed in a winter of discontent once again like the winters of the 1970s. Every day an advent calendar worth of strikes daily strikes in the UK one day 40,000 workers from the transport workers union the RMT led by the quite remarkable. A Mick Lynch always a good person to watch clips of Mick Lynch the leader of the RMT union 40,000 of them on strike mass disruptions in the rails. The next day 100,000 nurses from nurses from the Royal College of Nurses demanding a 19% increase in their salaries. Then 115,000 postal workers you see as you turn each advent calendar instead of a little biscuit or a chocolate you're going to get strikes this year in the UK civil service workers over and over again strikes waves one by one why they're all arguing. Listen, there was a pandemic you kept talking about us as as essential workers, and yet our wages are stagnant, yet our working hours have increased, yet the conditions of work up poor. When are we going to see some of the benefits of the post pandemic bump. Oh no says Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the UK blame it all on Russia and the war on Ukraine. Strikingly, the Bank of England and the Central Bank the European Central Bank led by Christine Lagarde made bizarre statements in the middle of this winter of discontent because both the Bank of England and Christine Lagarde European Central Bank have said they're going to hike up interest rates well interesting to look at Madam Lagarde statement of why the ECB wants to hike up interest rates. This is what she says wage growth is strengthening supported by robust labor markets and some catch up in wages to compensate workers for high inflation. wage growth is strengthening. I took a look at wage growth both in the Eurozone and in the United Kingdom. If you break it down by class, certainly there is no wage growth in the sectors near minimum wage to 100% above minimum wage. You're not seeing wage growth that is why the Royal College of Nurses have been on strike asking for 19% increase. It's precisely because wage growth is not strengthening. In fact, the reason why there is inflation, it has of course partly to do with the Russian war on Ukraine that has a part to play in it, but it's largely because of the post pandemic disruptions, a lot of it with the supply chain bottlenecks. A lot of it has to do with the massive spigot that was opened up by governments during the pandemic, put a lot of money into businesses that itself has an inflationary impact on the economy. And then of course there's the profit taking by giant corporations. It's amazing when one looks at the billionaires and the near trillionaires, how well they are doing now. So, United Kingdom, great winter of discontent, heat prices rising, workers are getting squeezed on both ends, prices are rising, wages are flat, no wonder they're on strike. You want to go into Britain? Don't go and see the king, go and stand on the strikers line. You're listening to give the people what they want, brought to you from people's dispatch and globetrotters. We're never on strike, but we're always with the strikers. See you next week.