 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Well, we're back with you on give the people what they want, or at least I'm back with you. I was away last week because couldn't get any connection, but here we are Prashant and Zoe from People's Dispatch, your intrepid website that brings you news from around the world. I'm Vijay from Globe Trotter. Happy to be with you again. Today's the 18th of November. Lots of news to get to. I know that a normal news show wouldn't start with this story because they would think, well, what are you doing with this story? Shouldn't you start with politics? But my God, it has been so interesting to watch the global tech meltdown. So interesting to watch the collapse of Bitcoin companies and so on. So Prashant, what is going on in that world? I mean, it's almost difficult to say. I mean, right now, if you look at Twitter, some of the top trending topics are talking about, the entire site collapsing. There are reports saying that it's really doubtful how the companies even going to survive. And it's been less than a month since Elon Musk took over. So it's in the history of capitalist running firms to the ground. So it's probably a record considering how quickly he's been able to completely gut the company. And of course, there's just one aspect we know that Facebook, laying off close to 10,000 workers, what do you call it? I mean, 11,000 workers. And Amazon, of course, announcing plans that they would find another 10,000 workers. And like you said, the whole crypto scam, all this together, there's been a lot of focus on technology and the way it plays a role in our lives today. And it's very interesting because I think we've been so used to big tech. The crypto aspect is a bit different. We'll come to that later. But we've been so used to big tech mediating our lives in so many ways. They've become gatekeepers for us in the way we understand the world, in the way we do our politics. In the way we read, study, analyze everything that sometimes it's kind of, it's not really, we really don't sense how ultimately they are essentially just basic firms, which are built on what are essentially very often very shadow fundamentals. And all it took was Elon Musk one month to basically wreck the company in pursuit of his own megalomania. So it's going to be quite difficult to see what it's difficult to predict at this point. I mean, it seems that at this point, politics is easier to predict than what's going to happen to Twitter, the next cryptocurrency in the coming months and years. But I think this is definitely a real blow to the culture of say this, this halo that a lot of these tech titans sort of constructed around themselves of being geniuses of being people who are visionaries. In fact, there's a very interesting article in business inside, I believe, which talks about how many of them truly genuinely believe that their children and their descendants are the ones who will save the planet and hence are therefore preparing for that. But I think the power, the crisis of the past month or so really tells us how hollow these claims are. And it's unfortunate because I think a lot of people still taken in by the claims of many of these individuals, again, who come from a particular background who make assumptions talking about how we have the solution to the world's problems and these solutions are inevitably always so technocratic, so narrow. So I'm willing to consider the experiences of a vast majority of people who are struggling for their day to day lives in day to day nest cities. So, and this kind of connects to I think already seven is which is going to be talking about the idea that there is this easy technocratic fix to, you know, or the easy technical fix to so many of the problems around the world is what is being busted again and again. For instance, Sam, Sam bank and freed, you know, who ran this massive Ponzi scamp in the name of a crypto exchange. Basically, you know, he was one of the huge believers of philanthropy. He was talking about, you know, how, how, how you, how you provide a new kind of philanthropy, new kind of donation, gave billions of dollars to the Democratic Party, by the way. And so, but again, what happens is all of this was basically a huge farce, a kind of scam built on basically taking a large amount of money making promises that he was absolutely not able to keep. And all it took was one, one pinprick, so to speak, one slide and then it collapsed and the whole edifice completely crumbles. And I think this is what we're seeing time and again, Mark Zuckerberg, you know, Facebook, of course, responsible for so much around the world. Now he's pinning all his hopes on virtual reality. And again, the company is losing money as well. So I mean, I think it's very, very interesting and important point for people across the world to sort of understand as well as look, look into the future. There's been a lot of talk about master and which provides very important culture as opposed to what Twitter does, which is built on very different solutions. We are thinking of moving there. We'll be announcing that soon. So do take a look. Well, artificial reality, there could perhaps be no greater artificial reality than the meeting at Sharmal Sheikh in Cai, in Egypt, a resort town on the Red Sea, far away from protesters and so on. Zoe, COP 27, the conference of parties, give it to us. Well, there is a lot to say. As you said, it is sort of this virtual reality. I mean, taking place in Egypt where probably the worst country in terms of political repression, over 60,000 political prisoners, as we've spoken about before, the imprisonment of Allah has been really front and center in this COP. A lot of different spaces and meetings have included different calls for his release. He was, we reported on people's dispatch that there was news of the signs of life after he started a no water hunger strike. That's on one hand. Another huge hit of the COP 27 has been the advances that Lula, the incoming president of Brazil, has made in these spaces. He has really taken the world by storm. I think many people are seeing that Lula is going to be one of the key global figures in the next period, providing kind of a moral compass for a lot of nations around the world being able to galvanize efforts in the global south to not only tackle the very pressing issues of hunger within Brazil, but also global challenges of the environmental crisis. He's really put this front and center, which is why he went to COP 27, even being a president-elect, which this was actually criticized by Bolsonaro. He called him a usurper, despite the fact that Bolsonaro did not go. That's another key highlight that we have to point out, especially because of the Brazil coverage we've been doing. Again, we've written extensively, Tano Priya Singh, our reporter has written extensively about the efforts of the global south, especially the small nations, the small island nations, Pakistan and other countries to bring up loss and damages and climate financing. This has been a demand of the global south countries above all in the past several conferences. Only this year was able to make it on the agenda. As the COP is finishing out in its final days, this is the main push and it is receiving the most pushback from the US and Europe, who believe that they don't have to actually pay for their crimes against the environment and against humanity. I think it's interesting that in this space, COP 27, we highlighted this on a social media post, but this is a conference that's sponsored by the largest multinational corporations that exist, Coca-Cola, Unilever, other corporations that are historically responsible for so many of these environmental crimes. It seems ridiculous that a conference that's supposed to be about saving the planet can be held in a country with mass human rights violations sponsored by multinational corporations that are destroying the planet we live on and a lot of leaders who essentially want to get off scot-free and not have to pay for their crimes. So I think it's so important that while we must salute the important advances being made in the space of COP 27, it's also important to point out that many of the actual solutions for this environmental crisis are not even going to be raised in this space, which is changing the system of capitalism. As we know, capitalism is the primary responsible for this crisis that we're seeing today. The method of, you know, extracting resources in an unbridled way to further capitalist accumulation is really, we can see in every single different context, this is the primary reason behind it. And I think it's important to point out that international people's assembly has put out their position on the environmental crisis, which is highlighting what is the system that is responsible for these crimes, what are the impacts of it in all the different levels, especially being a space that is majoritly made up of movements, people's movements in the global south, a lot of peasant movements, people who are directly affected by this crisis. But really at this point, the entire world cannot hide from the impacts of climate change. This position also points out the fact that a lot of the pandemics are going to increase because of this, because of climate change. There are so many different impacts on the peoples of the world and it is the people of the global south, the most poor and dispossessed nations that are going to be facing this. And so it's so important that this perspective also being taken into account, understanding that it will never see an actual platform in a place like COP 27, but that this cannot be ignored. I think Nicolas Maduro in his speech, he might have been the only person who brought up this anti-capitalist perspective, but it can't be ignored because at the end of the day we know that capitalism is the problem here. So it has to be remembered. At the COP, for instance, there was a discussion. Now it's important to remember that the COP is not the police, but the conference of parties of the UN framework agreement on climate change. It's a very important thing because their governments are treaty bound to advance the agreements made, not only the agreements made in the original treaty, but at each of the conference of parties. This is the 27th of those conference of parties. At this discussion, a story broke out as if from nowhere that Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia are going to create a quote unquote OPEC of the forest. In fact, of course, this idea was on the table in Glasgow at COP 26, where the three countries made an agreement to come together and negotiate together on questions of deforestation and climate change and carbon capture. Now remember that in COP 26, it was the government of Mr. Bolsonaro, not the government of Mr. Lula that agreed to enter this process. Over the course of the year, the Brazilians have paused the process a couple of times and only recently indicated a restart. This is interesting. The Brazilians have indicated that the Brazilians coming back to this idea is going to play an important role and it appears directly from in fact, this first speech that Mr. Lula is going to take the question of the Amazon very seriously. Now, in the rainforest last year, 11 million hectares of rainforest was lost. That is a considerable amount of deforestation. Not all of that is in Brazil, but a lot of that is in Brazil. At the same time as Mr. Lula made his appearance at COP 27 and this idea that Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia would come together since the three countries represent 52% of the world's rainforest cover. That's a considerable amount. But at that same COP 27 in Sharma Sheikh, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, made another plea for an Amazon block. The countries in South America that share the Amazon amongst themselves might come together and shape a block. This is important. They might end up being an opaque of the forest with Brazil, Democratic Republic, Congo and Indonesia, but also I think it's important to add in countries like Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and others that in fact are Amazonian countries and have therefore a stewardship and responsibility. Same actually goes for the question of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other African countries might in fact come into this negotiating block. What is this block about? In fact, this is not just a block to make protection of the Amazon an important issue. They are principally going to talk about carbon markets and finance. That was the agreement at Glasgow. These are quite neoliberal solutions by themselves, but still that's what actually brought Mr. Bolsonaro to the table. It wasn't some sort of protectionist attitude towards the Amazon uproar. Mr. Bolsonaro put former executive of lobbying companies in charge of regulation of the Amazon rainforest. It doesn't have an instinct toward that, but there was money to be made here and this carbon market issue, I think perhaps attracted them. Well, now it's to be seen whether a block that is to protect the rainforest is going to go far deeper than carbon markets and carbon exchanges and so on, which effectively commodify the rainforest further and see whether you can make money in a kind of arbitrage. We won't cut our trees down, but what are you going to give us? Well, there's a lot to be given. Norway's environment minister at COP 27 put back on the table the fact that Norway, one of the world's richest countries, that might surprise you, but remember that Norway is a major producer of oil and natural gas. It has one of the largest sovereign funds in the world. Norway has pledged a billion dollars to protect the rainforest. This project had been again halted by Bolsonaro, but the Norwegians have put the money back on the table. So it's not a question merely of arbitraging this issue. Do we go and cut our trees down or do we take money? Now the issue is will there be a different attitude to the rainforest to be seen, to be followed. Interesting to watch Mr. Lula in Sharma Sheikh essentially being guided through his meetings by mainly indigenous Brazilians who very much prominently talked about the protection of the forest. Well, so much for that. You're listening to give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch and globetrotter. Great places to get the news. The news including surprisingly for some strikes in the United States. Zoe, tell us about them. Well, it is one year and a month since the strike October, which was the very fun plan words that was made last year when there was a wave of news of strikes across new sectors in the United States. And this unionization drive has continued. The US is one of the countries with very, very low unionization rates primarily due to kind of the attacks on public sector. You know, of course the industrialization has a large the majority of workers in the United States employed in the service sector where there's low unionization. So in recent years, as we've been following in people's dispatch and especially with our report on Natalia Marcus, the growth of unionization in areas that have traditionally been areas where there's just kind of no union territory. So coffee shops, Amazon warehouses, these have been the front lines of some of the most interesting and dynamic union organizing efforts that we saw very important developments on university campuses with graduate student workers who also are traditionally a group of workers who are not considered workers, they're considered academics who are working for their personal advancement, but no, they are workers and they were in a massive strike, continued to be in a massive strike across University of California campuses and Starbucks workers who organized one of the largest single day strikes in their organizing history. So these are two key developments in the University of California campuses, 48,000 workers who are organized with the United Auto Workers Union, which might seem confusing because they're university workers with the United Auto Workers Union, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. That's the union that is leading all of the organizing efforts in these campuses. They're fighting for a better contract for better rights. This is also one of the most precarious working sectors. Currently today in at least US academia, these positions that graduate student workers have are extremely exploited. They do not have good pay conditions. A lot of international students are in these positions also have extreme disadvantages. Women have also spoken about the fact that they don't, that they're spending most of their salaried child care, which disincentivizes them from even participating in academia. So this is a really interesting strike because it's bringing up so many different elements that are key labor demands, but also are really addressing systemic oppression in many areas of academia. And they're trying to address the systemic oppression and exclusion of different people through their demands. So I think it's a really important and interesting strike to watch. Again, it is the largest strike of university workers. 48,000 of them are on strike across University of California campuses. So at universities across the state of California. And then we have of course the Starbucks workers who have also been on the front lines of really interesting unionization efforts across the country. They picketed at a hundred different locations. There's been a lot of advances, but also attacks on their unionization efforts. The management has really attempted to kind of muzzle and clamp down on these efforts. A lot of people have faced retaliation for their organizing, been fired and other measures. And so they're fighting back against this demanding that the company sit down and take their demands seriously and not block these attempts for them to form unions, which has been happening in a lot of different locations, even closing stores at time. So very, very key strike November. Not really sure if it's as catchy as strike October, but there they are on the front lines demanding rights especially. And I wanted to mention that this Saturday there's going to be a really interesting event at people's forum about the paths of peace in Ukraine. The people of the U.S. want peace. The people of the U.S. want labor rights and they want dignified conditions for life for people across the world. So that's the report from the U.S. But now moving to a place where things are a little more complicated perhaps, which is the Democratic Republic of Congo. We talked about how the BRC is going to be part of this OPEC of the forest Prashant, but meanwhile inside the forested regions of eastern BRC, lots of tribulations. Right, Vijay. I mean, it's actually a conflict that has been going on for a long time and the most recent bit of news concerns the M23 rebel group which has made some advances once again coming close to the city of Goma which is a very important city in the DRC and we saw a similar round of attacks and fighting a few months ago somewhere around May and that time we had spoken to Kambali Musawali, our colleague and friend who is expertly time and again pointed out taking us beyond what seems obvious in this issue and one of course the fact that the M23 group is backed clearly by the DRC's neighbor that is Rwanda important to remember of course that Rwanda is one of the major US and British proxies in the region all of us remember of course that it's also an ally of the UK in its infamous migrant plan to relocate refugees but Rwanda has a much more deeper and bloodier history in the DRC as well Rwanda and Uganda were involved in the two invasions the DRC in 1996 and 1998 millions of people have been killed Rwanda has never been brought to justice for that in fact Uganda was at least brought before the international court of justice there was an order that a fine of around 325 million be paid for war crimes Rwanda was never brought before the ICJ because it has not signed the Rome Statute it has not had jurisdiction but both Rwanda and Uganda have considered as Kambali's and again have continued to support these rebel groups and the important thing to note here is that the M23 is not a new group the M23 was there in 2012 you know it was there in another name it was there in various other names from 1996 onwards it was earlier called the CNDP before that it was called the RCD before that it was called the AFDL through all of this pro all of this what has continued is the fact that the loot of the DRC's mineral resources has been the fundamental point that is there and you know Rwanda has become one of the biggest exporters of Koltan you know Rwanda claims that it's you know the Rwandan group the army often claims that it is supporting militia to kind of fight other militia etc whatever but the fact is that what is basically happening is a whole scale loot of the mineral wealth of the DRC and this is happening in the hands of a through military that is Rwanda which is backed very strongly by the western powers so now we do know that there are regional interventions that are taking place right now I believe a regional military force is also being deployed but I think you know while this might temporarily halt the M23 it might prevent M23 from taking GOMA maybe for instance then it is not a sustainable answer to the problems that the DRC is facing which is that the DRC is essentially been attacked continuously by various proxy forces Uganda also has its own Uganda also Uganda's soldiers have also entered the DRC claiming to face in the past claiming to fight another rebel group but again with very similar results so that's where we are at right now the DRC is a very very important country in Africa of course people always talk about the mineral resources but more than that in terms of its strategic importance in terms of its history of being an anti-imperialist power and anti-force of anti-imperialism this is long tradition which has made also the DRC very strategically important so we do know that you know it's essential to sort of you know watch and talk more about what's happening in the DRC because this is LUT and this is LUT which is of importance to the world because these resources are used for some of the most high-end products for time we began by talking about the tech meltdown but a lot of the base materials for this technology the technology that runs our world today actually comes from countries like the DRC so this kind of LUT is really really condemnable and it actually goes to show the kind of impunity that allies of the United States continue to enjoy well while the conflict rages in the Democratic Republic of Congo while the Democratic Republic of Congo's head of government and others at Sharma Sheikh were thinking about this forest you know alliance with Brazil and Indonesia in Indonesia was a major summit of the G20 countries now it's got to be put in context there have been a series of summits in Southeast Asia and in East Asia recently meetings of the ASEAN the Association of Southeast Asian Nations they are a trading block Biden United States President went there at the sidelines of ASEAN meetings between the South Korean President Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Biden they affirm their security alliance in Northeast Asia then coming down to Bali great consternation in the government of Indonesia because they worried that there would be chaos at the G20 meeting after all at the G20 meeting there would be the Russians the United States Chinese everybody would they even be able to come up with a unified statement that was actually the problem entering the Bali summit of the G20 in fact people were saying in Indonesia that the Indonesian government had a so-called plan B in their back pocket they didn't have to use plan B it turned out because one of the great feats of Bali in my opinion was that they actually were able to put together a joint statement this is very important because during that meeting there was that mysterious missile that flew and landed in Poland killing a few people initial word was that this was a Russian missile fired into Poland very quickly thereafter everybody had to walk this back and say no no it was a Ukrainian missile that was perhaps from an anti-missile system that went in and got led astray into Poland and so on the head of NATO rather disingenuously said well you know we agree it was not a Russian missile but in principle it's the Russians fault that was the attitude the very fact that they were able to walk out of Bali this statement I must say is an act of some commendation for the Indonesians and others who were able to bring things together. Let me just stop for a second if you open the Bali declaration it starts with the statement that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues a very interesting statement in the Bali text it says that the G20 will collectively carry responsibilities that our cooperation was necessary to global economic recovery to tackle global challenges and so on but they very quickly said this is nothing to do with security it has to do with global trade and inflation and all those other things now whether you can separate the politics from the economics the security from trade that's another matter it's been shown that this conflict in Ukraine is actually also about economics because it's created a cascading impact on inflation and so on. Nonetheless there were some interesting issues here I think there was a recognition that nobody is going to be able to easily save the recessionary economies around the world the bulk of the economies in the world now entering recession in 2008 the Chinese effectively bailed out the world economy by providing liquidity along with India into the international monetary system but also by basically revving up the engines of the Chinese economy and becoming the locomotive for the world system in 2008 they are not prepared to do that today for reasons also fragility inside China as a consequence of the zero covid policy and so on so no saviours were found at the Indonesian meeting of the G20 in fact the only good thing is that nobody decided to go into a confrontation and escalation Xi Jinping and Joe Biden shook hands and said everything is okay Mr Biden later said this is not a kumbaya moment meaning this is not a happy moment but indeed it was Biden was forced to make a comment which I think is interesting Biden said that we will vigorously pursue a competition with China that's okay vigorously pursue a way but not perhaps by using armed means I think that was an interesting revelation much more to say about the G20 there will be other opportunities you've been listening to give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch globetrotter coming to you every week we are going to change the time next week we are going to come to you an hour earlier than we did this week this whole business of time changes very confusing very annoying so we are going to shift to an hour back I believe we will announce that but be with us again next week an hour earlier nice to see you again see you next week