 21st of May 2021, you're with us and give the people what they want, your favorite, favorite weekly global news show with Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch, peoplesdispatch.org, where you go every day, two or three times a day to get your news. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter, great to be with you. The guns are somewhat silent over Palestine, somewhat silent we should say, the bombing in Gaza has slowed and stopped, but of course the occupation of the Palestinian people continues. 21st of May, we're happy to see that the excessive violence of the Israeli bombing has stopped, we're of course interested to see what happens out of it as the various Palestinian factions attempt to open a political dialogue with Israel, which is the occupying power in this instance. United States government, total blank check from Joe Biden to Benjamin Netanyahu, not even any kind of conciliation, no red lines provided, nothing, absolute impunity to attack the Palestinians, war crimes committed, entire families wiped out. When will there be an action report, after action report? When will the United Nations be able to come in, take a look and see in a forensic way what has happened? It's important that we take this particular stance regarding bombings of particularly Gaza, because we've had such bombings in the past, 2014 for instance, no real after action review by international observers, no real review. It must be said that at the international criminal court in the Hague, special prosecutor Fatima Ben-Souda has opened a file, has an open file on the various war crimes committed in the Levant region, she has a file open, she's been taking notes, a lot of pressure on Madam Ben-Souda and the prosecutors at the international criminal court to not look at what's happened from Israel in particular, a lot of pressure, a lot of that pressure coming from the United States government. Nonetheless, at some personal cost, the international criminal court trying to live up even marginally to the Rome statute that set it up, has opened this file. We hope that investigators are able to enter Gaza, to enter the West Bank and East Jerusalem, take note of what happened in the past 10 to 15 days. Now it needs to be said, previous investigations have been forbidden from entering any of the Palestinian territories by Israel. Israel is the occupying power here and it has used its control over the borders to prevent United Nations officials, to prevent human rights monitors, prevent special rapporteurs from getting access to the occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza. It's got to be said therefore that whatever after action review takes place, it may not get down to telling us exactly what happened. The bombing of media houses in Gaza City, including of the Associated Press are a chilling reminder that the press are tempted to get muzzled. I would like to put on record, the Associated Press was given one hour and other media houses, one hour to leave their building, in fact 45 minutes to leave their premises. If Prashant Zoe and I were told you have 45 minutes to leave where you're sitting right now, we would not be able to carry even a fraction of our equipment out of the building to get to safety. Nonetheless, a few days later, the Associated Press, having been attacked by Israel, fires a young reporter because she had a history in college in the students for justice in Palestine. It must be said that the Associated Press, which was attacked by Israel, then does Israel's work by firing a young reporter, a young editor on their team, who for merely having a position on what is occurring between the Israeli state and the Palestinian people, this should be on the record. And I hope people inform the Associated Press that such cowardice in the face of aggression cannot be countenanced. At least that's what we believe, at give the people what they want. Again, there is a ceasefire, rubble is being cleared, bodies are being found. There will be through the Palestinian Ministry of Health, there will be an accounting of the dead, there will be funerals, there will be ululations, there will be sadness in Gaza, but at some point there has to be justice. None of this can happen without justice. International solidarity for the Palestinian people was at a high point this last week, a high point. Dock workers in Italy refused to allow ships carrying weaponry to Israel to proceed. This was a very high point of solidarity. In South Africa, again, we saw workers across the spectrum protest, including dock workers, refusing to load ships en route to Israel. We want to show you a little bit about what that looked like because the protests of the South African workers, well, that was something else. Right. What we were seeing was a picket today morning by the South African Federation of Trade Unions and many other organizations, including the National Union of Metalworkers in South Africa. Very powerful, very militant agitation. South Africa, of course, has a long history. The South African left the trade unions have a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and they also really understand the nature of apartheid and it's a connection. They have explicitly drawn time and again, progressive and left sections in South Africa about the apartheid that they faced and the apartheid that Israel has been indulging in today, which I think is something that needs to be called out because there are many who are even willing to go to the extent of talking about human rights violations or atrocities, but the true nature of apartheid needs to be called out. And what you were mentioning yesterday was an action by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union. These are dock workers and they refuse to unload a ship called Zim Shanga, which is owned by an Israeli company. And this was done on the call issued by a Palestinian Trade Union's Federation. So I think in addition to protests, of course, one of the powerful aspects of resistance, global resistance and global solidarity has been these kinds of actions, especially around commercial enterprises. We have the BDS movement of course, but we also have these kinds of actions around the world happening, so they're very important. Also, continuing with South Africa, yesterday was a very important day for the left-wing progressive forces there also because George Bonono, an activist with Deputy President of Abhala Libas and his colleague in the movement, Mahfi Fekasela, were released on bail and we discussed their case last week, of course, where they were put behind bars along with another comrade of theirs for the most on the most absurd charges. They were accused of so-called plotting a murder in an open meeting. And whereas they had been very clear that this was a fact-finding meeting and they were investigating a case. And for that random reason, they were put behind bars for a number of days. And yesterday they were released on bail. And our colleague, people this much, Paavan Kulkarni, spoke to George just a few hours ago, George, very defined, calling his stint in prison as a learning experience as like being in a university. And one of the interesting things he talked about was the importance of these land occupations. The land occupations, which are clearly a thorn in the side of the South African government, in the side of the African National Congress-led system, because the secret of these occupations is that they refuse to see the dispossessed, the homeless's victims. And an interesting thing George pointed out was that the occupation which he really, from where he was arrested, that is in Durban, they have a political school called the France Fanon School. And the France Fanon School's role is to impart political education to the people living in these occupations. And these occupations are completely constructed by the people themselves. There is no support from the government. There is only active opposition, active hate, active violence against these people. So this clearly a very radical moment and a very important moment for our whole time, because I think in the global left, this is a question that we need to address, urban spaces, towns, the issues of the homeless and the best the governments try to do is maybe treat them as recipients of a certain kind of welfare. Whereas what we're looking at in South Africa with Abhalali's work is a very active citizenry, a very aware citizenry, a politically conscious citizenry who refused to take injustice. So a great moment with the release of George and his comrade and their case will of course continue the next year I believe is on July 16. But nonetheless, I think Abhalali's struggles are going to definitely be an inspiration for all of us in the coming weeks and months and years as well. And so we'll be closely following this case and we urge everyone to do so too. You know, we began your comment talking about solidarity by South African workers for Israel. Roger Waters is called for Israel to be removed from FIFA and UEFA, the two football federations. You know, football of course has always had a very political and a politically charged role in the world, you know, including when the Algerian National Liberation Front created its own football team. Now it turns out that Colombia is most likely not going to be able to host the Copacup because of the unrest in the country, hideous violence, you know, video released showing the police using terrible lethal force in Kali against four young people. Zoe, what is going on with this escalating violence from the government of Ivan Duque against the people of Colombia? So, you know, as we say and give the people what they want, it's another update from Colombia, but it's impossible to turn away because I think the situation is so critical right now. You know, on Wednesday it marked three weeks, three weeks since the beginning of the national strike, which of course, as we've talked about on the show, extensively started as a protest against the tax reform law, but really has grown into something much, much bigger than that. And, you know, you would think that after three weeks of constant mobilization, road blockades, neighborhood assemblies, you know, people raising really legitimate demands with the government that the government would back down, would demilitarize the cities, would stop attacking protesters. But what we've seen is a constant intensification of the violence and just brutal, brutal repression of the people. I mean, you know, eyes were really focused on Cali, but recently in the past couple of nights, Bogotá has been really the center of this police repression. There have been, you know, consistent mobilizations at a transportation terminal in the south of the city called Portal Americas, which protesters have renamed the Portal of Resistance. And so they're reclaiming these spaces. And I think this is a really interesting element to point out, is that, you know, in all of these mass uprisings, we see people going to the sites where they have been dehumanized, where they have been stripped of their dignity. So we see in Palestine, people are going to the checkpoints. They're going to the places where the oppressor takes away their dignity. In Colombia, this is at the at the transportation terminals where people have to, you know, pack in and travel hours to reach their jobs, where they get paid nothing. And so protesters have been gathering at this place night after night in Bogotá. And night after night, medics, press, protesters have been fired at, they've been attacked by police. And Iván Duque has shown no signs of backing down. He actually even called for a full militarization, a full deployment of the police forces to break all road blockades and saying, this isn't the way to protest. And what's interesting is that road blockades are as how people are able to, you know, win their demands. There was a reform to the health law, which would have seen a further privatization of health care, which in Colombia is already inaccessible. There was already neoliberal reforms to health, the public health care system, you know, a decade back, but this was even going to further privatize. That was repealed. And of course, we know that this is only done through organized resistance, through road blockades, through all different forms of protest. And yet these protesters are being called vandals, criminals, terrorists. And they continue to criminalize, they continue to attack people. But what we're seeing is really beautiful on the streets is that the protests are growing. There's such impressive and beautiful elements of arts and culture, you know, musicians taking to the streets, you know, we've seen this video of people playing El Pueblo Unido jamás era vencido. I mean, it's a really beautiful thing and the people in Colombia continue to wake up and they're not backing down anytime soon. So we have to keep our eyes on Colombia, have to keep our eyes on Palestine, and the people will no longer accept that their dignity is taken from them. Well, today is the 21st of May 2021. It's the 118th Friday when the Iraq or the movement in Algeria has met on Fridays to have mass demonstrations. This is a movement to deepen democracy in Algeria. Algeria is at the threshold of a parliamentary election on the 12th of June. The government has done odd things. It is on the one hand pledged to improve the democratic procedures for the election. On the other side, they seem to be cracking down on the Iraq and other groups. Prashant, people's dispatches often followed stories such as this, where it gets swept under the rug. We don't see much coverage in many parts of the world and so on. Could you tell us a little about what's happening in Algeria? It's a difficult, very complicated situation because the Iraq protests, of course, were instrumental in removing the long-time president, sorry, Abdul Aziz Bouteflika in 2019. And this is, I think, an issue we come back to very often here that what happens after a major achievement or a revolution or a revolutionary movement, so to speak. So, of course, Bouteflika was overthrown, but like in many other countries in the region, the elements of his establishment still remain in power. And this includes the business, the business elite, the military elite, the political elite. So all of them have remained in power. And the Iraq protesters from the very beginning were clear that remote one man does not change the system because it continues in various forms. And we've seen the same in Sudan. We've seen it in Egypt, many other countries. So the protests have continued, like you said, it's the 118th round of the protests. And in 2019, Abdul Majid Tapune, in December, he was elected as president. And he's really blown, blown hot and cold with respect to the Iraq movement. So, like you said, on the one hand, he's promised, he's praised the protesters, talked about their admirable qualities. On the other hand, there have been continuous arrests of protesters. There have been continuous arrests of journalists, the case of Khalid Rarani being the most prominent one, but a number of other journalists as well who have been arrested, you know, long court proceedings, some of them have got bailed, some of them are behind bars. And the interesting thing is throughout this, the protests have continued. They've had a material impact because the protests have been significantly influential in ensuring that the voter turnout has actually been very low in various elections. So on the one hand, the election in which Tebune himself became the president had only a 40% turnout. And there was another referendum on the constitution where it was around 25%. And this really shows that the Algerian populace has increasingly lower and lower trust in the political establishment and elite. So what has happened basically is there's another round of elections coming up in June, that's on June the 12th. And the government is very determined that, you know, they're very worried about being embarrassed yet again, because what is more embarrassing in a democracy than the people refusing to exercise their rights? So it's one of the ultimate forms of protest. So what happened was that the government proclaimed a law recently saying that all protests had to happen with authorization, which is a clear attempt at suppressing them. Nonetheless, people came out onto the streets last week on the occasion of Eid. From the reports that we're seeing on the ground, protests are taking place today too. The full extent and dimension will only be, you know, unknowable in a few hours. But clearly the Algerian people deciding that they are not going to give into these threats and, you know, cynical manoeuvres by the government, because they're very clear that until this entire establishment is removed, they're not going to stop these protests. It's a remarkable achievement. 118 weeks of people coming out onto the streets, so much has happened, COVID has happened, you know, there's been repression of all sorts. But and it's not even that this is, it's also a bit of a chaotic moment in some senses. And but nonetheless, they've every week, they've come out onto the streets and it's a really interesting example of how political engagement has continued even after a landmark moment like the deposition of Bouteflika and how for people, for these protesters, structural change is the key. And I think we see that in so many countries, we see that in, we see that for instance in Lebanon, we've seen it in various ways in Iraq. Everywhere there has been that demand that, you know, changing figureheads is not really what the, it's no longer, it's not what the people are going to be satisfied with. You know, this idea of the weekly protest is quite significant. And it's not always the case that the weekly protest will translate into political gain. You know, the Iraq has been going now, as you say, this is the 118th Friday, it's pretty militant, pretty, you know, dedicated people on the streets and so on. No necessity that the mass of people in Algeria will vote for the parties that take the Iraq position and so on. This was always a worry in Chile. I've been to many of the Plaza de la Dignidad protests on Friday, also on Friday, also, you know, very militant protests started by high school students over the public transportation fees being lifted some years ago and so on. There was never going to be a guarantee that that sustained protests would translate into votes. And yet, and yet, there was a constituent assembly election, there was municipal elections, there were other local body elections. The left seemed to do pretty well in Chile. Zoe, what was the story? Yes, this was a really, you know, exciting and incredible victory for the left in Chile. We talked last week about how, you know, protesters were on the streets consistently starting, you know, with the protests that started with transportation fee hikes. And I think, you know, this idea that something that's part of this new liberal economic model of, you know, making the people pay for transportation, increasing, trying to kind of make up the fiscal deficit through charging the working classes, was really able to wake, you know, wake up the Chilean people and bring them to the streets and demand these structural changes. And not just demand that Pinera is no longer president, even though he's going to continue to finish his term, but demand that the constitution itself be changed, because it's not just about who's in office. It's about how this country is structured. What are the, you know, priorities in the constitution? And as we mentioned last week, you know, this is a constitution that was drafted during the dictatorship of Pinochet. It was what was able to, you know, implement the model of favoring profits over people. And so, you know, what we've seen last weekend is that in the elections for the constitutional convention, in the elections for the municipal bodies that the left has really come through, because the people know that's what they were on the streets for. They wanted an alternative model, they wanted change. And what the conservatives were offering in these elections was to block any potential changes to the constitution and to essentially not allow any progressive measures to be implemented. And so, you know, the independent candidates and candidates from left parties won the majority, and the conservatives won only 37 seats out of the 155 member body of the constitutional convention. This means they don't have the votes that are necessary to be able to kind of put this veto on any changes. And, you know, left and independence having the majority means that this body will really have the possibility to create these changes that the people want. We've also saw some really historic, you know, victories of mayors that were elected for different, you know, bodies, which is really great to see. And, you know, presidential elections are going to be happening in September, if I'm not mistaken. And Daniel Hadway is, you know, the presidential candidate for the Communist Party of Chile. We'll see how he does there. But we already know that whoever becomes elected president, at least they're going to have to respond to this new framework that is written by the people, for the people, and will hopefully be putting the interests of the people first. And this has been an inspiration across Latin America to be able to channel the force from the streets into electoral victories. Well, say her name, Zoe. Say her name. The new mayor of Santiago is a 30-year-old Erasi Hasler. 30-year-old communist comes out of the student movement. The student movement of 2011 joins the youth, communist youth movement. She's 30-year-old friends. She is the new mayor of Santiago. Santiago, some of you will know, is the capital of Chile. Around the same time as this election took place, the new government in Kerala took the oath of office and came in. They have promised yesterday to abolish poverty, taking a page out of the book written by the Chinese who abolished poverty this year. Incredible, incredible advances taking place before our eyes. Don't get so demoralized friends. There are some interesting things happening in the world. Not so interesting things happening in the world of European belligerence. We know that there is this unnecessary pressure being placed on China by the United States trying to resolve trade issues, to resolve economic crises through militarism. United States built up the Indo-Pacific Command, built up its so-called freedom of navigation maneuvers alongside Chinese waters. A lot of tension over Hong Kong, over Xinjiang, over Taiwan. Saber rattling at all sides. We saw the conversation in Anchorage, Alaska. Now increasingly, French naval vessels, French militarized naval vessels, destroyers and submarines joining the Japanese and the United States in military maneuvers off the coast of China, talking about hemming in North Korea. We've seen the HMS Queen Elizabeth, a new aircraft carrier from the United Kingdom with U.S. Marines on board, U.S. aircraft on board sailing now towards the South China Sea, trying to put pressure on the Chinese. A totally unnecessary maneuver, pandemic not in control in the United Kingdom. United Kingdom still struggling with how to define its Brexit border in the Irish Sea, on the border with the various counties in the North and so on. Unresolved tensions there. Meanwhile, they've sent the HMS Queen Elizabeth with U.S. troops on board to put pressure on the Chinese and actually quite stunningly, German battle groups, German warships, also sailing into the South China Sea. The difference here is that the Germans want to have it both ways. They are both doing the so-called freedom of navigation maneuvers, but they're also pulling into Chinese ports, coming into Chinese ports in the show of friendship. The world needs to wake up to what's happening. The fact that a large number of military assets are being moved into the South China Sea to intimidate the Chinese, not something that is very useful in a world that needs collaboration and not confrontation. But that's precisely what we're seeing, the opposite of collaboration, a lot of confrontation. I wanted to say this at a time when there is some turbulence in the financial markets, occasioned by the Chinese government's crackdown on Bitcoin, on the U.S. government's crackdown on Bitcoin, and then Elon Musk making a most unbelievable statement. You must wonder, what's the link between the militarization around China and Bitcoin? Elon Musk makes the great unbelievable statement that he did not realize how much energy was wasted generating Bitcoin. This is the person who's supposed to be the great tech guru of our time, what a young child would know that it requires massive overheated servers to generate the kind of calculations necessary to keep track of Bitcoin. Elon Musk pledging not to pull out of the Bitcoin market, but nonetheless, no longer will take payment in Bitcoin. What does this have to do with the militarization? New fronts of contest between the United States and China, these new fronts of contest will be over digital currency. The Chinese are going to release a new digital currency soon. Will it be a way to reconcile trade outside the dollar? Will that put more pressure on the United States and its economy? Will the saber rattling continue? Keep your eyes on that, friends. Lots of things happening in the world. This has been give the people what they want. What the people want is reasonable government. They'll see that from the new government in Kerala. They'll see that from the newly elected people in Chile. If the election on June 12th in Algeria is fair, if it is indeed clean, we may see that from an upsurge of people from the Iraq movement entering the Algerian parliament. We might see this in Zambia where the Socialist Party of Zambia just went and registered themselves for the presidential contest later this year. We might see reasonable people come into office and drive us in a reasonable direction to good governance and collaboration around the world. We might see that. On the other hand, we might see Joe Biden standing on a tarmac at a US air base, his finger in the face of Rashidat Leib, the only Palestinian in the US House of Congress lecturing her about Palestine, and then condescendingly telling the press that he, Joe Biden, will make sure that nothing happens to the family of Rashidat Leib in the West Bank. He, Joe Biden, like a mob boss, will make sure that Rashidat Leib's family is fine, but not the family of other Palestinians. We hope very much that there will be an after action report on the violence, the excessive violence of the Israelis. You've been listening to give the people what they want from people's dispatch and that Zoe and Prashant superb, superb reporting today, guys, really superb. And me, Vijay from Globetrotter, we'll be back with you as we are every Friday. Don't forget to let us know that this is your favorite show. Don't forget to tell your friends, your family, and so on. Bring a crowd, bring people. We don't mind it if we become a big hit show. We really, really don't mind it. We're not trying to remain in the underground. We want to come up above and into the light. Thanks for being with us. You guys, anything else you'd like to say? I love your shirt, Vijay. Joy Division, one of the great bands. From Bohemian Bolshevik to Punk Bolshevik. We're making the transition as the summer is coming. See you next week. See you next week.