 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. It's mid-March. You're with Give the People What They Want, brought to you from People's Dispatch that Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter. It's a 164th show coming to you every week except when we can't get to you because one of us is travelling or we're having some problem getting on. But we're always looking for stories for you and I think that's the main thing. Situation in Gaza remains perilous. The question of bombardment has not abated. Now war, terrible bombardment braided in with starvation. Again, for the second time, Israeli forces bombing unarmed civilians as they come to gather food desperately hungry in the month of Ramadan, unable to have anything meaningful on the table for the Iftar meal to break the fast, least of all the Suhur meal at the start of the day. This particular attack taking place at the Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza City. Over 20 people killed. The hospitals in the area around the Kuwaiti, around about many of them just terribly damaged. A couple of them in fact not operatable. The doctors and nurses in the hospital are facing starvation. Medical directors have said that they don't have any food to eat. They themselves are under stress and they were unable to actually care for the wounded that were brought in as a consequence of this strike. It is being called the second flower massacre. The first flower massacre was in the last days of February when the Israelis attacked convoy of trucks that came into Gaza City. Gaza City is in a state of near famine, famine which is unbelievable. Reports on the ground say that people are so desperate they're going out and cutting grass and eating the grass. It is at that level of desperation, looking for foliage that can be cooked and so on. Again, to remind you, this is at a moment of Ramadan when this is an important period of meditation, of reflection, of fasting and so on. Very difficult to fast in this context, very difficult to honour what people want to do. In that particular flower massacre, the first on record over 100 people were killed, perhaps 118. It's important to point out that in this period, the Israeli military has destroyed Palestinian fishing. So it's not only a question of not allowing aid into Gaza, a paltry number of trucks, about 100 a day. The capacity of just Rafa on the south, bordering Egypt is 500 trucks a day. About 100 coming in now, just Rafa has 500. There are other crossings. Israelis not allowing humanitarian aid in. But the question is not just not allowing humanitarian aid in. Israel has deliberately attacked sources of food. As I said, wiped out almost all the fishing boats that used to ply the trade in the Mediterranean Sea. It's very difficult for people to understand this. But Gaza, prior to the 8th of October, was in fact quite a thriving place. There was markets, there was the port of Gaza, which the Israelis bombed in the first week of their attack and actually made the port inoperatable, which is why the United States is talking about building a temporary pier. The actual port of Gaza has been destroyed. I'm saying this because it's also important to remember those early days of the bombing when the Israelis destroyed bakeries. Again, it's no point bringing flour in bales into Gaza. There are no bakeries or very few bakeries that have the ability to turn the flour into bread. I don't think this has been sufficiently talked about. But the attack on food supplies, the attack on the fishing boats, the attack on the bakeries, preventing humanitarian aid to enter, trucks to enter with food, all of that is actually a defined war crime under Protocol 2 from 1977 of the Geneva Conventions. Indeed, when the Rome Statute was being negotiated in 1998-1999, it draws the language from the 1977 Protocol of the Geneva Conventions and says that inflicting starvation upon a population in war is a war crime. These are identifiable war crimes, but before we move forward, I just want to leave you with an important statistic. There is already an estimate of 23 million tons of debris in Gaza as a consequence of the bombing. I want to repeat that, I think this is actually going to make an impact and maybe it's worthwhile saying if you pile it up within a square meter, will this go all the way to the moon and back? It's a lot of debris, 23 million tons. Experts who looked at this estimate say it will take years to clear the debris. The real question is where will the debris be taken? Will it be taken into Israel? Will it be dumped in the Mediterranean? This is a serious issue. In this period, part of that debris is chemical toxic materials. Israel has used chemical weapons. They are estimating that the damage to the climate as a consequence of this war is extraordinary. Another massacre at the Kuwaiti Roundabout. Another terrible, terrible occurrence in a long-standing genocidal situation in Gaza. But not so different, my friends, in Haiti. Another unfolding catastrophe. What's been going on in Haiti recently? Well, on Monday, it was announced that Arielle Henri, who's been the acting Prime Minister and President, would resign. His resignation comes at a moment of increased instability in the country, increased levels of violence. I've been covering the situation in Haiti, of course, very closely with the past couple of years. We know that Arielle Henri, again, I said acting because he was never elected as Prime Minister or President of the country. He took over after Jovenel Moyes was assassinated in July 2021. Moyes himself had been facing protests for overstaying his rule and for violating the Constitution. His rule was already considered illegitimate by the Haitian people. There had been mass protests, especially around the date of February 7th Constitution Day. A huge uprising against Moyes going on for several months until his assassination. Again, he was assassinated in July 2021 in very, very dubious circumstances. There have been many investigations into the perpetrators of this crime. Was it political rivals? It was carried out by different mercenaries, some of them from Columbia. But the point being that at the point that when Arielle Henri takes power, seizes power, there's already an institutional crisis unfolding. Arielle Henri is backed by the core group, by this group which has been dictating essentially Haiti's political choices and future. It's made up of representatives from the United States, Canada, France, I think a EU representative and a UN representative sounds pretty similar to the same powers that have actually been wreaking havoc on Haiti for the past several decades. This essentially is supported in this position because of this international backing but since he took office in July 2021, there has been mass opposition. Opposition amongst progressive and civil society groups which shortly after drafted up the Montana Accord which charted out a plan for transitioning to a more democratic structure and also a lot of opposition from the gangs that have been growing in strength and in power over the past several decades and have actually been strengthened greatly under the rule of Arielle Henri and also under Mois, his predecessor. Just because of the brutal economic policies that they have passed, we know that also there had been mass popular uprising under Jovenel's presidency not just because of his violation of the Constitution but because of economic policies that he was imposing on the population because of his involvement in corruption schemes which saw necessary money that could have gone to rebuilding the education infrastructure to just public infrastructure in general to assuring Haitians a right to a dignified life that was siphoned into the pockets of these political elites from Moises party, etc. So right now we're at another juncture where once again the international community is attempting to intervene in what's happening in Haiti. We know that in October of last year the United Nations approved a special mission an international mission that wouldn't be a UN mission because they know how unpopular the UN peacekeeping troops were have been in Haiti because of the again atrocious violations that they committed under Minousta. This multinational security mission was set to be led by Kenya with a thousand police officers who were going to participate actually Ariane Rhee was not able to return to Haiti in the middle of his resignation because he was actually visiting Kenya to finalize this deal. Kenya has since pulled out citing that they cannot go to a country where there's actually no recognized authority. The deal was also widely unpopular amongst the Kenyan population the court had intervened, the parliament had intervened. So we'll be following this very closely over the next couple of days over the next weeks. We know that the Haitian people have been clamoring for independence, for sovereignty, for an anti-colonial debt and the end of meddling of powers like the United States, France and of course the UN which has been promoting foreign military intervention for the past several decades there. So we'll be following this story very important. It's very important. Look at where we started on give the people what they want. We started with Gaza, went to Haiti and I'm afraid before we have the possibility of even another good story Prashant, you are taking into another conflict which is Sudan. Today that 15th of March is 11 months since the war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces in the very notorious paramilitary organization. The war, the civil war coming on the heels of rivalry between the leaders of these two forces who were in fact in cahoots for the longest time suppressing any attempt at democratic any attempted building a democracy in Sudan continuously suppressing the protests that were taking place and it's very important to remember that I think anytime we talk about this country it's a point we emphasize quite a bit that the generals who are today fighting each other and creating so much havoc were the generals who are once together and more importantly they were the generals who the people on the streets relentlessly opposed to no avail because the international community so to speak continue to engage these generals continue to emphasize that these generals are going to be part of the solution and clearly they are not been part of the solution. And now you know 11 months into this war we have a situation where the world food program has basically said a million people are you know are trapped in the words they used are in a trap in the spiral of food insecurity and it's not just in Sudan it's also about refugees in other parts who have gone to South Sudan for instance or who have got a chat for instance but in Sudan itself we have millions of people who are internally displaced you know really suffering the impact of that I believe 90% of the people are facing emergency levels of hunger and unfortunately the world food program other aid agencies not able to reach many of these people because of the kind of warfare that is taking place we have a story this week from our colleague Pawan who talks about what has been happening in the Ghazira state which is considered the bread basket of Sudan a very important region where a very important irrigation project bringing water from the Nile has a you know is located and all of those areas have been completely destroyed by the RSF and the article really relates or details how you know what all the RSF has been doing including looting a very important WFP world food program warehouse which could have which had resources to feed at least 1.5 million people and you know they've been consistent attacks on farmers they've been farmers are either fleeing or they're being extorted sorry extorted for their supplies by RSF personnel and those who resist in fact there are these resistance committees all across Sudan who for years have been maintaining this resistance to the various military forces who have been in the forefront of these protests for democracies wherever these resistance committees have emerged the RSF has especially been harsh on them they have been killing members of these resistance committees they have been sort of abducting them in many cases looting health centers and pharmacies at a time when diseases like cholera and dengue and malaria are already rampant and considering the fact that people are already very weak due to hunger they're even more vulnerable to many of these diseases and right now the situation in Sudan is worse and to such an extent that its impact is going to be felt for generations which is something people are wanting about we have children and the elderly women all of whom are in extremely bad situation health wise and across all this time there has been no sustainable solution in terms of negotiations because the two generals who are backed by a number of regional players are continuing this sort of this warfare which stretches across the entire country the RSF does seem to be an advantage in many of these places and in many of these places the Sudanese armed forces have retreated withdrawn drastically which has been harshly criticized by many of these resistance committees as well so 11 months into a war very disturbing and depressing situation in Sudan and like I said hundreds of thousands of people millions of people for instance struggling for food right Prashant that's the war in Sudan there's of course the continued tension in the eastern part of the democratic republic of Congo we've got the war continuing in Gaza the genocidal war in Ukraine you can start from Ukraine and almost go directly south there's a meridian of conflict that inflicts that part of the human planet a terrible situation we're trying to find the best way to tell the story about the democratic republic of Congo it's important for people to know the politics of what's happening and not only bemoan the war and of course at People's Dispatch the reporting on the conflict in Sudan is all about the politics it's not just about a kind of charity driven look towards suffering and so on it's about the politics of the war very important coverage give the people what they want brought to you from People's Dispatch Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter moving along I didn't say that we're going to have any stories today that are uplifting although on the other side of it Mr. Javier Mele of Argentina Zoe seems to have one way or the other suffered a little bit of a defeat not a catastrophic one but a little defeat tell us about it well I think it's safe to say that the cracks are starting to form and that Mele who came in with this extremely outlandish machismo I am the best I'm going to save Argentina I'm going to end the political cast abolish social justice he had a very optimistic perspective on how he was essentially going to run Argentina into the ground and actually he's come up with some opposition and of course we know that the trade unions have been mobilizing social organizations and movements have been mobilizing this was to be expected but he's actually come up against some of who we thought were his allies and we know that so essentially the defeat he suffered is both the fact that his presidential decree suffered a defeat in the Senate yesterday this is crucial and I'll get back to that in a minute but also he created sort of a political pact which is called the pact of May and this was in order to bring some of the governors of the different provinces close to his program and sort of commit themselves to carrying forward his political program which essentially involves a lot of economic cuts and mass austerity so he creates the pact of May with you know trying to broaden a bit his coalition and support because conservative and center-right parties were split on Millet because his some of his program actually goes directly against their interests as business owners as members of the bourgeoisie who have been you know not had a dollar as economy actually believe in the importance of a central bank many people who are governors of the provinces who believe that actually they do need a budget to function and Millet sort of put that all in jeopardy and essentially his defeat in the Senate of his presidential decree we saw some of these internal divisions amongst his sort of broader base of support start to appear and one even with his vice president and so she presides over the Senate there had been a demand from opposition senators to actually take make sure that the decree went to debate because Javier Millet proposed this decree in December this decree involves many different modifications to labor laws that takes away overtime it makes it easier for people to get fired it eliminates very essential labor rights which is why it's been challenged in the courts it's been challenged by opposition parties people have been mobilizing on the streets against it and the Senate and a lot of parliamentarians have also expressed their rejection in saying when this comes so it's been because it's presidential decree it already is in effect but it has to be ratified by the both chambers of the legislature and they were trying to delay this trying to delay this knowing that it would be met with all this opposition and Villaruel who is his vice president essentially was forced to call this session of a debate on the presidential decree and it was defeated and Javier Millet has gone to Twitter to essentially rant about all of the people who voted against it and even her who called the session she's facing the wrath of their own base because she actually called this session into effect so he has this defeat of his presidential decree it's not deactivated yet it still has to go to the chamber of deputies but this is an important setback it shows that he is not almighty and he's essentially on the back foot because he's lashing out against all these people who he thought would support him and his vice president who is from a different political trend in a sense not necessarily this libertarian trend but a more traditional far right conservative trend she is also sort of feeling the heat and taking a bit of distance so important developments in Argentina these cracks are crucial we know that people are the governors are rallying around Axel Kilosov who's the Buenos Aires governor he's being really been a crucial player in leading this institutional political resistance to Javier Millet of course we're going to be following this very very closely in the coming weeks as well Javier Millet the gift that keeps on giving constantly a defender of what of the west as he calls it an interesting man the west the west which was hit perhaps harder than other places Prashant including South America in a way by the COVID-19 pandemic pandemic is not disappeared seems to keep coming back here and there what is it now four years what an anniversary tell us about the four years yes it's been four years since the official date is of course March 11th when it is declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and it's a strange time just a few months ago so we heard that of course the death toll from COVID-19 hit at 7 million and of course this is the death toll as for official records various estimates say that the death toll could have been as much as 21 million because from day one there was a big question as to whether governments across the world were revealing the actual death toll or were actually even capable of maintaining a proper record calculating the death toll that occurred due to COVID-19 pandemic but I think the key question at this point is really that how do you sort of what really are the lessons that you learn from COVID-19 and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that it does look like we haven't learned many lessons yet I think the most important sign of that is the fact that there's something called the pandemic treaty which is being discussed right now there have been many rounds of discussions our discussion got over just a few days ago we're going to have another round of discussions starting on the 18th of March and the pandemic treaty will finally be discussed in full the full text the final draft will be discussed during the World Health Assembly in May and when you look at the discussions around the pandemic treaty we've had a couple of interviews on that as well what comes across is the fact that as far as many of the countries of the global north are concerned no real lessons seem to have been learned because the same issues that were there in year one of the pandemic the fact that patents were playing a huge role in preventing the transfer of technology preventing the transfer of vaccine that also called intellectual property regime continues to be an issue when they are discussing the pandemic treaty as well just to sort of quickly explain the pandemic treaty is supposed to help us overcome future pandemics be prepared for future pandemics so the idea was that we take all these lessons from COVID-19 and then kind of apply them but it seems like that's very far from the case so we have the question of intellectual property we have the question of the fact that financing has not properly been addressed even if you do find out that there is a pandemic that is kind of building up what do poor countries what are the countries of the global south how do they manage the resources to combat it that really has not been sort of clarified yet to the satisfaction of countries of the global south the technology transfer again not adequately addressed and all of these if you remember in 2020 in 2021 these were questions the world was struggling with the fact that the big pharma companies were able to make billions in profits while countries in the global south especially in Africa were not able to even vaccinate large segments of their population the kind of vaccine imbalance we saw over the years when we had countries in the global north throwing away vaccine doses while African countries were struggling to even give one dose to their populations all of these questions remain very much unaddressed equally important question that if the public health system itself across the world we work with the people's health movement to publish the people's health dispatch where almost every week we have these stories workers in the public health sector across the world struggling for resources so all these years later there is no real acceptance of the fact that you need to invest in the public health sector if you want to combat pandemics if you want to combat diseases many questions were posed regarding other diseases such as TB the treatment of all of which took a huge blow because of the pandemic so I think four years down the line I mean like you said on the face of it we don't really have the pandemic is no longer receiving so much attention in the media but its impact continues to sort of affect us and it does look unfortunately like a lot of lessons have not properly been learned and I think for movements across the world for health movements across the world that really is and that struggle continues on almost daily basis even now we have our story health workers in Kenya for instance preparing to launch a major round of industrial major round of industrial action for very similar causes protesting against those kind of reforms so like I said where the pandemic may not be on the headlines may not be in the longer the struggle is to continue and one of the places hit hard by the pandemic of course is India where you know the debate about it has been muted well India is in an interesting period right now entering the election season April May will be the big general election it's probably the largest democratic election in the world I think in terms of numbers of people who participate ballots that have to be dealt with hence it takes place in phases just as the ongoing election in Russia is taking place in phases such an enormous land mass Russia in India it's not the size of the country which is of course huge but also the number of people a big scandal already on the table regarding the elections which is something called the election bonds or the electoral bonds where effectively this is a shell for raising funds from mysterious donors unnamed donors to political parties the ruling party apparently by whatever data is available has taken advantage of 50% of the electoral bond fundraising only the left has rejected the bonds and has moved the high courts the highest court in the land the supreme court to consider this as a violation of the democratic principle it's a big debate in India whether it is well worth allowing your democratic elections to be in a sense bought and paid for now it happens all over the world there's a lot of money in politics that itself is a broad question but in India through the electoral bond scheme they've created a in a sense almost a secret vehicle for raising money into political parties meanwhile while this is happening the Indian government decided to fast track a law that was passed in 2019 in which provoked at the time a great deal of resistance within the country the law is called the citizenship amendment act but it comes alongside a national register for citizens and so on the general orientation of this is for instance the CAA is to allow people who are dissidents, asylum seekers refugees from the countries that neighbour India to enter India through a very easy route now the issue is only non-Muslims are on the list for the CAA this is seen as a form of discrimination related to that the national register of citizens is supposed to register people in India to catch out illegal immigrants there's a great fear that the target will be against the Muslim population of India that was the core of the protests after the 2019 period it is back on the table the government has fast tracked this at a time when elections are going to occur using this perhaps as a wedge issue we're going to come back and talk about the elections in India because that requires a much broader conversation but for now yes elections April May of this year in India one of the many elections being held around the world yes the issue of money in politics very much on the table and yes the wedge issue an anti-Muslim issue also right at the centre of the debate we're going to come back to this we need a lot of time for it but you've been with give the people what they want brought to you from the people's dispatch that's Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter we'll see you next week it will be show 165