 What number are we? Number 12 12. Good. God. Well Friends welcome to give the people what they want Which comes to you sorry about that which comes to you every Friday In the evening in India in the morning in the Americas with Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch and me Vijay from Globe Trotter It's a pleasure to be with you as you know We're on Facebook live, but we're also of course a podcast On all the the normal platforms you can you can yes, I know I know My camera was moving around Well this week is World Social Forum it also is the World Economic Forum will come back to that because the World Economic Forum come off it What are they going to teach us now? The world is still in turmoil. There are strikes everywhere We had told you last week that on the 26th of of January Indian farmers were going to enter Delhi Prashant, what's the latest story with the Indian farmers and the struggle tens of thousands of farmers Revolting around the country. What's happening Prashant? Absolutely, it's a very critical situation right now because what we are seeing is that The I'll come to the protest of course on the 26th but what we're also seeing is that there is a very concerted attempt by the state by Right-wing forces that have an affinity to the ruling BJP to disrupt this protest to you know Unleash violence wherever possible. So around Delhi there is definitely an air of tension because there have been a number of attempts of this sort So to go back to the 26th The plan of course was that the farmers who have been camped around Delhi for over two months They reached Delhi on number 27 They set out on the 26th of November that they would enter Delhi in tractor parades And there were three parades that were planned. The roots have been decided with the permission of the police Of course the tractor rally began on the 26th morning Most of it was peaceful as per everything that had been agreed upon. It was an amazing logistical Manoeuvre so to speak considering these thousands of tractors from three different points entering a congested city like Delhi. It is a very What do you call a very remarkable logistical move one section of the farmers though did Break away from the determined and they went into the heart of the city They were confrontations with the police some of the farmers ended up at the Red Fort in Delhi Which has a lot symbolic in the pad simple symbolic significance for the people of India because of his history and stuff And they were some of them hoisted and flag religious flag on the ramparts as well now Because there's a movement. There's often, you know, people expect for this is weird understanding of where people expect Movements to sort of always be obsequious and only listen to what the authorities say There's often a lot of chaos a lot of disorder in this case There is a lot of speculation and the farmers movements have made it very clear that what happened on that day was not the plan And that there were probably some Sabotage of provocateurs who were there in that spot trying to sort of push things in that direction And people even have been identified people close to ruining BJP who were involved in that kind of activity But nonetheless, this has been used by the ruling establishment and by the media Which is especially alarming to sort of paint this picture of these protesters these protesters who have been Around Delhi for two months You know struggling for their rights against these three horrible farm laws to paint these protesters as terrorists And this has been an extremely if you look at the reporting on that day, it was Say all the TV channels the expressions range from outright, you know, branding them as terrorists On on air to this kind of shock and concern Because the farmers had actually entered the city of Delhi the people had entered their capital There was just the shock and concern and Horror and anger among the media as though, you know that the capital of the city is not for his people So that it was very disturbing aspect in the media on one side on the other hand Definitely the state seeing this is an opportunity to maybe break the farmers agitation So after the 26th for the next two days, there were reports of cases being filed You know, there was a lot of statements being made which were in that direction Yesterday that's on Thursday night. They tried to evict the farmers from This region called Ghazi poor which is on the border of Delhi in the state of Uttar Pradesh And that move seems to have backfired because the farmers leader over there Akish take care He sent out a very emotional message Talking about how he was willing to sacrifice himself to keep the protests going and this seems to have led to a fresh Resurgence the movement there are reports of mobilizations taking place all across Delhi Meetings taking place gatherings taking place calls have been given for farmers to come back some of their bull left to come back to those protests and With this suddenly that I wouldn't say the tide has turned but there's been a bit of a change in the mood So right now it's still very tense because the farmers are very clearly angry because They have been patiently waiting for two months to get a hearing and the government has not responded in a Meaningful way according to them and instead it has been branding them and all kinds of negative ways And there are right wing elements on the loose which are trying to sort of paint this as some kind of you know Anti-national activity so right now a very tense situation. It's a very significant struggle. They've got solidarity from across the country So I think in the coming days, especially for our viewers for our listeners It's very essential to keep watching India because the 26th was in some senses Maybe even a beginning for a fresh river mobilizing as well. So that's a scene right now and you know when you say watch India, of course, we are asking people to Watch follow newsclick.in for really the best coverage Directly from the front lines of the farmers struggle. It's newsclick.in The farmers of course are fighting to end to have the repeal of three outrageous laws Which you know end state intervention into the farming sector price supports and so on I just want to put Something on the table The European Union spends 65 billion dollars a year subsidizing its farmers The United States government has spent 1.7 trillion dollars over the past 20 years Subsidizing its farmers and yet it's the IMF and others that say that farmers in other parts of the world Must not receive state intervention. So the issue picked up by the Indian farmers is actually not just for Indian farmers I think, you know, we should see this as a global defense of Agriculture in the agrarian life It's not just Indian farmers revolting right now. We go over to the Americas I was reading a reported people's dispatch about Healthcare workers in Peru on strike a long strike from them Zoe, what's happening with the healthcare workers in Peru? Yeah, well healthcare workers in Peru have been on strike for the past two weeks since January 13th You know demanding really basic Really basic demands of you know quality PPE You know timely payment of salaries Peru is a country that has you know super privatized systems So for example, there are a lot of contract workers who haven't been getting their salaries on time They're also demanding. I mean above all which I think is interesting to see is more of a structural demand and increase in the budget of health of the public health sector in Peru because it currently makes up 2.4 of the GDP of the GDP of the health budget is the health budget in Peru So they're they're really demanding, you know that the state invests more in the sector which should be a pretty easy demand given the fact that we're in the middle of a pandemic and We've seen time and time after again that the public health systems are really the only Systems that are able to take care of the people that are responding To this to this crisis yet. They're still in the negotiation process. They're still I mean It's a massive massive strike and of course when health care workers go on strike. It means that You know, there's I think they always are trying to guarantee that there's a timely delivery of services But it really is putting their lives on the line To make sure that this that their demands get met and of course the demands are not just for their own personal fulfillment and betterment You know, of course having salaries is not just one's betterment, but they're really demanding that The sector be improved for all Caribbean society. So They've been on strike since the 13th. It is likely to continue and of course as we've talked about it, you know a couple months ago on the show actually proves currently in a political crisis after the parliamentary clue and so It is a structural problem in Peru of underfunding the public sectors Taking this money for, you know, the the pockets of the Congress people And so I I think it's really valiant that they're pushing this at this moment Seeing the power of People's uprisings in Peru and what that can accomplish and that hopefully hopefully they'll be able to to get this really important demand which is increasing funding for the sector and by the way another On on the same mountain chain of the Andes There's is exciting news for, you know, a country that's been similarly embroiled in neoliberal crisis and Which is Ecuador another country that has seen their public health sector be You know utterly dismantled under the over the last four years really under the government of Daniel Moreno And you know, of course the people have been waging very very strong battles against neoliberalism in the country and currently, you know As we mentioned last week the electoral race is hot and heavy and This next Sunday February 7th, you know, Ecuadorians will head to the polls and the latest Poll is saying that Andres Arauz who is the progressive candidate who is vowed to, you know, reverse all these neoliberal policies I mean, as you mentioned last week, there are some of these Policy moves that Lenny Moreno has taken, you know, are trapping Ecuador into for several years But you know where where possible Andres Arauz has Has committed to bettering the situation He has a very clear plan on how to deal with this economic crisis, which I think is really important It's not just big ideals and values of, you know Humanism, but he actually has a clear root on how to pull the country out of this crisis and he's polling in first It is remains to be seen if he'll be able to clinch the 40% that he needs To win in the first round. He's currently eight percent eight point eight percentage points away from Winning this and of course that would be amazing if he won the first round, but we'll see what happens And that will be really interesting to watch. It's happening February 7th next Sunday Yeah, I mean, this is a key election There's a series of elections on the western flank of South America this year Ecuador Peru and then in Chile and I think we'll be following each one of them with a great deal of interest and Again people's dispatch is the place to to learn about what's happening around the world what struggles You know taking place around the world. Don't forget to visit the site I wanted to talk a little bit about what's happening in Davos You know in in Switzerland where the world economic forum is meeting once again the annual meeting So rather anodine meeting once again the agenda coming out of Davos the so-called Davos agenda Seems to be basically warmed over last year's agenda. There's very little in there. That's of interest The chinese president Xi Jinping made a fascinating speech calling for a more collaboration less confrontation Including in macroeconomic policy setting of the policy agenda for countries China the one country expected to grow this year Maybe up to 7.9 percent growth, which is very high depending on how this new strain of the vaccine impacts china This year last year china grew by 2.2 percent is the estimate. We'll get the exact number later That's a fair amount of growth given that most of the world's economies You know had a narrowing had a decrease in in growth Well, growth is not the only issue the issue is of course that china has seen the Abolishment of poverty in the course of the year And so for the chinese president at Davos to talk about the need for Collaboration should be something that people welcome because it's basically the locomotive of the world economy at this time During this meeting every year oxfam the british charity releases a report on inequality every year This year's report, you know, it was expected because the evidence that oxfam accumulates is actually based a lot of it is based on Prior research that was released, but there's just something in it That made me feel ill That is that the 10 richest people on the planet earth 10 people Okay, there's I don't know what the current number is 7 billion of us on the planet earth 10 people not 10 Million not 10,000 not 100,000 whatever just 10 people that means The fingers on my hands 10 people increased their wealth by half a trillion dollars during the pandemic. I mean You know jeff bezos, of course in the lead it is just mind rattling to see what this means I was very interested inside the report to learn You know that There's a lot of details in the report. It's quite interesting One of the the places where I felt You know again quite troubled Was I didn't realize that afro descendants in brazil are 40 more likely to get covet 19 And you know the the impossibility of getting Vaccines into places like brazil and other parts of the world Is related to this 10 people making half a trillion because this half a trillion dollars Is more than you need to get two vaccinations to everybody on the planet earth I mean that's who it's stunning is just the increase of wealth would be enough to vaccinate everybody And to put paid at least to some extent To the pandemic, but you know, I mean how far are we? From this it's it's pretty extraordinary Instead of course, we don't have clarity and collaboration We have the kind of things that's going on in poland Where it's in the middle of a civic crisis, you know, I mean is this the moment to have to push a hard right agenda? I mean prashant Poland, you know people's dispatch has covered poland. Is this the time To push a hard right agenda. Shouldn't we be taking a position of collaboration to lick the Vaccine I mean to lick the the pandemic to move an agenda of humanity. What's happening in poland? Absolutely, it's it's quite disturbing as you pointed out primarily because We've covered this in one of our earlier shows as well. It was a supreme There was a constitutional court judgment in poland in october Which are basically barred abortions in case of fetal defects now Poland already has a very restrictive abortion regime It's only allowed in case of rape incest and threats to the life of the mother and fetal defects were also there until october when it was banned and This had led to mass protests in poland, of course The national women's strike Razem the leftist party there So civil society groups the entire generation of young people coming out the streets and protesting against This constitutional court judgment talking about how they had the right To autonomy the right to decide over their bodies over their sexual health and how the government had no right to do that And for a while these protests Did make an impact the government was sort of forced to go on the back foot a bit. It delayed the adoption of this judgment But what happened on venice this venice was that suddenly it was announced that The justification for this judgment would be published in the journal the government journal Which basically means it's adopted and this again spurred another fresh round of protests They have been calls for protests today tomorrow until the 31st by the national women's strike for instance and yet again, like you said this points to the sheer Absurdity of the hard right in some senses. It's not absurd. It's actually to be expected But if you look at the law and justice party government in Poland, this is part of very very long-term agenda that they've had The last time the protests broke out. We talked to our comrades in the rasem who talked about specifically this issue then The issue of abortion the issue of social conservatism Is not something that just came with this government Of course, it was a product of the post communist regime that emerged in during the communist regime abortion was legal and the post communist regime makes this Say packed with the catholic church as zofia malice said of rasem that they make this packed with the catholic church whereby, you know, they concede some of these agenda and then as time passes this agenda as further and further established from the state The law and justice party, of course, has taken this to a much much further degree in Poland Similarly in Hungary, there's a fittest party which is of a very similar Ideology, but the law and justice party has also done something very common I think our viewers across the world will recognize it which is it has massively tampered with the judicial system So starting from the constitutional court the supreme court. This is what trump has been doing This is what's happening in india in brazil in so many places You know, you sort of enact this lawfare in its various forms And the judgment we saw in october was in some sense is a culmination Of that lawfare where, you know, your entire judiciary is Taken over by the right wing across the world. They identify that this is one key place where They can, you know, hold back the progress of society hold back the progress of the ideology and thinking of Young people really who want to build a very different world. So the judiciary against serving is a very strong barrier to this the way forward it's still a bit still unclear because The what this means in immediate terms is again huge difficulties for Women in poland, of course At least 100 100 150,000 women travel outside poland every year for procedures because of the restrictions That number is probably likely to increase But what we can I think also say is that This struggle and the kind of movements it has generated for instance, national women's strike. They become a very permanent part of poland's political landscape as well and despite the law and justice party and despite its control Over the judiciary. I think that these movements will nonetheless continue to push You know their agenda push their demands on the ground until they're met You know this whole business This is grotesque. I mean honestly, it's a 21st century and I think editorializing on this issue is perfectly permissible. I mean in argentina We just saw the brave Long-term struggle people to get the right to control women to control their own bodies and you know Let's be precise about it. This is about abortion and it's it's ridiculous. It's a medical procedure It's so heavily moralized. It's not just in poland 25th of january was is celebrated in honduras is women's day zoe there was I mean Honduras, you know prashant talked about women who leave poland to go get Treatments that requires money to leave in honduras women don't have recourse to that kind of money What do they do and what are they what were they doing recently? Yeah, I mean talk about pushing hard right policies in the moment of complete complete, you know crisis And deep economic um distress You know honduras we've spoken about on the show before and we've at people's dispatch. We've covered it very closely But you know honduras has been immersed in a deep deep social political economic crisis I think really since the coup in 2009 and On january 1st, uh the national National assembly in in in honduras decided to pass a law that essentially bans abortion Uh rebanding abortion because uh honduras is one of the countries in latin america where um abortion is criminalized There's it's not legal in any exceptions women go to prison for having abortions And this this law essentially bans abortion Again and makes it almost impossible almost impossible to legalize abortion. Um And of course, why would this be the interest? Of a government in the midst of such a horrible crisis. I mean we saw a couple weeks back Thousands of people leaving honduras, you know forced to to flee their homes because of this crisis But it what's interesting to point out is that after the coup in honduras one of the first things that the government did was ban misoprostol, which is uh, the you know One of the in the morning after pill also So, I mean the the the agenda against women in honduras has been there since day one this conservative agenda um And then another thing to point out is that this is a country That has some of the highest rates of violence against women So, you know, not only are women, you know forced to get abortions because of product of rape and other things when In other countries if you're raped, you do have a right to abortion in a lot of countries even in latin america where it's a lot more restricted And honduras you do not um, and so I mean estimates Say that between 51,000 and 82,000 abortions are performed in unsafe and cleansed signet conditions And we know that those conditions are condemning women to potentially death and beyond this also It's one of the countries with the highest rates of femicides Um, so really it's it's abhorrent. It's abhorrent that this kind of law would be passed in the midst of its crisis The law also Bans same-sex marriage It takes a very, you know unnecessary Hardline position and I think it's really It's it's it's horrible. Um, but the women of honduras are continuing to organize and they're continuing to push for their rights because they have always Mobilized, I mean we see there's so many Incredible honduran women that have you know stood out in the in the past decade in terms of their You know determined conviction to mobilize against the regime against this dictatorship, which is just full of You know horrible contradictions I mean this is a government whose president has been accused of of drug trafficking But in us courts in us courts has been accused of drug trafficking yet. He has he has the You know audacity to crack down on women's rights to you know Not respond to any of the horrible situations that we've seen on Development hunters over the past a couple of years So I mean it's really All of my all of our solidarity and support to the women and honduras who continue to resist Despite such, you know adverse conditions And also want to point out that the the candidate in the upcoming presidential elections Um for the libre party is a woman. Do you want to talk to us? So I'm sure we're going to be following Uh, you know her her development her candidacy and what's you know, what are the prospects and honduras for enacting change The women of honduras the women of poland both together I just want to recommend to viewers to look at the tricontinental publication corona shock and patriarchy and the reason i'm bringing it up is You know 70 percent of care workers around the world are women And when there's all this rhetoric about, you know Privileging or putting ahead essential workers and so on you're attacking the women's right to a political life Essentially, I mean i'm making the situation in honduras and poland a political question It's not just a medical question. So please take a look at that. The text is called corona shock and patriarchy um Well, you know, it's not been uh an entirely negative week because on the 22nd of january um A treaty went into force which I wrote about for people's dispatch and globetrotter Um, this is the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. It's essentially a banned treaty nuclear weapons are banned By a general assembly resolution. Of course the nuclear weapons states, uh, don't accept this and they haven't Uh, you know either sign the treaty or in fact, they they they boycotted the signing day The the the day of the vote they didn't show up So they didn't abstain they didn't they just didn't come they didn't take their seats I mean, there's a real snub at 122 countries that took a very serious decision to ban nuclear weapons um in the article I decided to go back and reflect on the writing of wilfrid burshet because He has moved people like myself is a great australian journalist who in 1945 Went over seven hour train ride from tokyo to hiroshima He was arrested as soon as he arrived in hiroshima Less than a month after the atom bomb fell on that city and while the u.s. Government in tokyo was saying that There is no After effect that the radiation dispersed, you know because the bomb explodes above the city But yet went and saw fish dying in rivers and so on and I just wanted if you don't mind to read the first Bit of of that story. He says in hiroshima 30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world People are still dying mysteriously and horribly people who are uninjured by the cataclysm From an unknown something which I can only describe as atomic plague. This was written in 1945 It was headlined in the daily express as a warning to the world 1945 we are in 2021 122 countries have come together and said ban nuclear weapons Uh, and they are being pressured by the nuclear weapons states United states is pledging to spend trillions of dollars to upgrade the arsenal Has now very dangerous. Um, you know battlefield nukes You know deployed around china. Um, I really want people to pay attention to this ban treaty and to Read about it to find out about it educate others about it. You know for us as reporters We bring stories to people we bring you the story, but that's not our job Our job is to bring you the story. So you take the story to somebody else So we are asking you to take our stories uh into your own conversations with people Campaign on the stories if you feel that it's something that you can campaign or should campaign on Um, what we do is only one part of the process. We would very much like you to take the process forward Every week you join us here at give the people what they want We have a superb producer. So rangya is helpful not only in setting everything up, but also Providing the links if you watch us on on facebook live um, we very much want you to go to um People's dispatch and follow the reporting that takes place over there very much want you to do that um, but of course you'll come back Next week and join us and listen to us again on all the podcasting platforms because I mean, I know this show is chock-a-block. Somebody wrote to me recently. Is it can you make it an hour long show? I'm not sure we have the stamina for that Prashant zoey, would you like to go to an hour? I'm not very sure. I think there's just too much to talk about nonetheless Half an hour show as its own. Yeah It's a very difficult question Right. It is a difficult question zoey. You're interested in an hour long show. Are we happy with half hour? um, I'm interested in giving the people what they want. So, you know, that's uh The will of the people it's the will of the people on the other hand It's a it takes a lot of effort to bring a show like this. We are a community And we enjoy bringing it to you. We'd like you to please Tell other people about give the people what they want share our program We really do enjoy doing this You know, the nice thing about the three of us working together is that there really is no tension between us So come back next week for give the people what they want with zoey and prashant from people's dispatch And myself vj from globetrotter A group of three no tension between us not sub tension in the world. See you next week Next time