Fires rage. Gunmen shotere mass at 18 protesters overnight and people. Ured over 800 the latest bloody crack on and nationwide protest against corruption and austerity, which has killed 220 people overall. Youth are not asking for jobs or services. They want radical and real change of power. They have offered is nothing. We are fed up with them. Amy then mass protest against neoliberalism continues in chile , despite a reshuffling of pablo cabinet. Pineras chile has changed and the government must change with it and these two challenges and times. Amy we will go toto santiago. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The United Nations special envoy for syria is meeting with the Foreign Ministers of turkey, iran, and russia in geneva today, where hes arguing for the fragile ceasefire in Northern Syria to be respected. We are strongly appealing for the ceasefires to be respected and that we have also been appealing for a nationwide ceasefire to come in to effect. We do believe the fighting going on is just another proof of the importance of the political process in a way that can help alling out the problems in of syria, including in the northeast and obviously in idlib. Amy turkey says that Syrian Kurdish fighters have still not fufully withdrawn from a s swatf Northern Syria near the turkish border. Under the terms of the russianbrokered ceasefire, these Syrian Kurdish fighters are supposed to leave the area by today. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have already fled Northern Syria after President Trump abruptly withdrew some u. S. Troops from the area, clearing the way for the turkish invasion. The United States is, however, continuing to station troops in syria to guard oil fields. Defense secretary mark esper said monday the u. S. Will respond with overwhelming military force to keep forces backed by russia or syria from taking control of these oil fields. On sunday, President Trump said the United States is protecting ththe oil. Pres. Trump oil is, you know, so valuable for many reasons. It fueled isis, number one. Number two, it helps the kurds because it has basically been taken away from the kurds. Ththey were able to live with tt oil. Number three, it can help us because we should be able to take some come also. And what i intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an exxonmobil or one of our Great Companies to go in there and do it properly. But we are protecting the oil. We are securing the oil. That does not mean we dont make a deal at some point. Amy that was President Trump speaking on sunday as he also announced the alleged death of baghdadi and a raid in syria. During the speech, he claimed by dotty whimpering and crying and areaming before he detonated suicicide vest. Ththe new details reveal situatn room livestream of the ray did not have audio. Beast reports where . Washington, lt. Col. Alexander vindman is slated to testify to congressional lawmakers as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump withheld military aid from ukraine in order to pressure ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden and his son, hunter. Vindman is the top ukraine expert on the National Security council. He is the first witness to testify who listened in on trumps july 25 phone call with ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, in which vindman says trump appealed to zelensky to investigate biden. Vindman registered two internal objections over the matter. Objections at the time. In his statement, vindman writes i did not think it was proper to demand that a Foreign Government investigate a u. S. Citizen, and i was worried about the implications for the u. S. Governments support of ukraine. In iraq, masked soldiers opened fire with liveve ammunition eary tuesday on a crowdwd of antigovernment protesters in the shiite holy city of karbala, killing 18 people and wounding more than 860. The latest assault brought the death h toll of iraqis killed sisince prprotests erupted in ey october to over 220. In baghdad, thousands defied an overnight t curfew in tahririr square to prprotest government corruption and widespread unemployment. Iraqi Security Forces fired tear gas at students who joined the demonstrations. Yout areh not asking for jobs or services. They want radical and real change of power. They have been rolling us for 16 years but have offered nothing. Amy well have more on the protests sweeping iraq later in the broadcast. In saudi arabia, Top Trump Administration officials are joining financial industry executives at a saudi investment forum, ignoring International Calls for a boycott over the kingdoms gross Human Rights Violations, its disastrousus war in yemen and the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by saudi operatives one year ago. U. S. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trumps soninlaw and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner are leading the u. S. Delegation this week to the future investment initiative, known as davos in the desert. Also attending are indian Prime Minister narendra modi, brazilian president jair bolsonaro, Top Hedge Fund managers and the ceos of citigroup, credit suisse, and hsbc. On capitol hill, boeing ceo Dennis Muilenburg is scheduled to appear before a pair of congressional committees for the First Time Since two deadly crashes of 737 max airliners, which killed a combined 346 people. His testimony follows a report in the Washington Post that top boeing executives failed to intervene after two top pilots at the company identified problems with automated Flight Control software that would lead to the crashes in indonesisia ad ethiopia. The Justice Department is also conducting criminal investigation against boeing. Democratic president ial candidate senator r bernie sanas has endorsed chesa boudin for District Attorney in San Francisco. Boudin is running on a platform of ending cash bail and dismantling the war on drugs. He is the child of Weather Underground activists kathy boudin and david gilbert, who were imprisoned when boudin was a child. He was raised by former Weather Underground members bill ayeyers and bernardine dohrn. Inin silicon valley, over 2500 employees of facebook have signed a letter calling on Ceo Mark Zuckerberg to reverse a policy that allows politicians to post false and misleading advertisements. The letter calls on facebook to hold political ads to the same standard as other ads, warning zuckerbergs policy allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy. Meanwhile, a San Francisco activist has registered as a gubernatorial candidate in order to run false facebook ads of his own. Adriel hampton registered for californias 2022 election on monday, two days after facebook removed this ad which falsely claims republican senator Lindsey Graham supports the green new deal. Look at the science. Admit that Climate Change is real. Simplyly put, we believe in a green new deal. Amy included is a false auto shop to picture of linindsey grgraham arm in arm w with alexandria ocasiocortez. Although facebook took down the video he made not as a candidate, he is hoping as a candidate they will keep it up. In more election news, a a North Carolina state court has effectively thrown out the states congressional districts map over partisan gerrymandering to benefit the republican party. The threejudge panel ruled the maps, drawn by republican lawmakers in 2016, violated the North Carolina state constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech and free elections. The judges also said they were ready to postpone the primary elections, if necessary, in order to have the new district maps redrawn. The Trump Administration has extended work permits anand deportation relief for more than 200,000 salvadorans with t tps,r temporary protected status, until the beginning of 2021. The announcementnt came as the u. S. Andnd salvadoran governmens signed agreements to further collaborate on antiimmigration policies. The steps include deploying u. S. Customs and Border Protection officers to el salvador and expanding biometric data collection. In arizona, a 33yearold mexican woman has died while in the custody of u. S. Border patrol. Shes the second person to die in Border Patrol custody within a week in the state of arizona. The Pima County Office of the medical examiner said the mexican woman likely died from profound dehydration and kidney failure, probably as a result of an extended journey through the desert. Immigration activists have long accused Border Patrols prevention through deterrence policy of pushing migrants further and further into the deadly sonora desert, where thousands of people have died or gone missing since the 1990s. In france, an 84yearold man attempting to set fire to a mosque in the Southern City of bayonne opened fire on worshipers monday, injuring two people before fleeing the scene. He was later arrested. The man, claude sinke, previously ran in a local election as a candidate for the farright National Rally party of the farright french politician marine le pen. In canada, 15 children and teenagers have sued the federal government over Climate Change. I am suing the canadian government because theyre an action is costing me my health and my future. Amy thats one of the 15 plaintiffs whose lawsuit argues that the canadian government continued to contribute to Greenhouse Gas emissions despite knowing for decades that these emissions fuel Climate Change and disproportionately harm children. In peru, a graduate student has madede history by y becoming the First Student to write and defend a doctoral thesis in the indigenous quechua language. Roxana Quispe Collantes graduated from limas san marcos university, the oldest her parents ande americas. Wi grandparents and said the language is being resurrected in peru. Even before our memories, since the time of our ancestoto, our languauage was present not only in technology, but in engineering and cosmology. Our ancestors and our language are very rich in knowledge and wisdom. It is being rescued and revitalized. Amy and protesters in more than a dozen cities acrosthe Uniteded States gathered esday for r a day ofof outrage to demand juste for the black women who have been killed by police. The protests were honoring the life of 28yearold atatiana jefferson, who was shot and killed inside her owown home bya white Police Officer in fort worth, texas, earlier this month. The officer shot her through her own bedroom window while responding to a nonemergency Wellness Check called for by a neighbor because jeffersons front door had been left open. This is activist Tamika Mallory at the protest in new york city. Silent,say if we are folks will believe that we are ok witith the violence and oppression that is happening to our communitys, and we are not ok with it. We are not ok. We are angry. We are frustrated. We are tired, and we are outrage. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin todays show in california, where residents across the state are bracing for a day of strong winds as Climate Changefueled wildfires continue to burn from los angeles to northern california. After a chaotic weekend of Mass Evacuations and blackouts that left m millions in the dk,k, firefighghters in sonoma, califofornia, made headwaway mo, containing 15 of the massive kincade fire that has burned nearly 75,000 acres in the region and destroyed at least 12123 homes and struructures. But as high windnds pick up agan today, f firefighters stilill fe an uphill battttle in combating at leaeast 10 blazazes raging gs the ststate. Public utility giaiant pacific s electric will shut down the power grid for nearly 600,000 more customers in northern and cecentral californrnia tuesday n ananticipation of the dangerouos weather. Amy in Southern California, firefighters are combating the growing getty fire, which sparked in one of Southern Californias most opulent communities monday, forcing thousands to evacuate and destroying eight structures. This is Los Angeles Mayor eric garcetti. We have fires all the time in los angeles, but our ability to knock themem down in past years was much stronger because we did not have these extreme shifts of wind, shifts of weather come extreme shifts of extreme weather that dumps rain as we saw in january, provides fuel here i in october. Amy fires in california are typical this time of year, but the length and severity of the states fire season has grown due to Climate Change. Of the more 4000 firefighters working across the state to contain the blazes, at least 700 are california prisoners. While salaried firefighters earn an annual mean wage of 74,000 a year plus benefits, prisoners earn 1 per hour when fighting active fires. Well for more, were joined by two guests. In boston, were joined by leah stokes, an assistant professor of Political Science at the university of california, Santa Barbara and researcher on climate and energy politics. In San Francisco, were joined by ariel kelley, the ceo of corazon healdsburg, a bilingual Family Resource center based in northern Sonoma County. Welcome to democracy now leah stokes, you are just in Santa Barbara and you have just written a piece, and oped piece where you make the connection. The Corporate Media and im not just talking about fox, im talking about cnn and msnbc willll bring us in less coverage of these fires, very critical to cover these fires. They dont make that connection is much with Climate Change. What is the proof . Well, we know from research, from scientists, that Climate Change has dramatically worsened fires in the west. There is research that says fires have gotten 500 more risky as a result of Climate Change, and two times more area has burned because of Climate Change. Thatow the drought california has recently come out of is also caused by Climate Change, yet some of these deeper stories about what is happeninig in california, what is happening across the United States with Climate Change, are not told by the media. Instead, it is just a focus on the fire, that proximate causes, and not a focus on the fact that we have already warmed the planet by one degree celsius and we are headed in a very dangerous direction. Juan professor stokes, what about the role of pg e, the big utility there, blamed for some past fires as well because of malfunctions of its equipment and its decision to go into bankruptcy . Could you talk about that, the role of the utilities . Pg e has played a really Important Role in the last two years of fires. It is cucurrently inin bankrupty and part as a result of that. It has an estimated 20 billion to 30 billion of liability as a result of these fires. In 2017, number of people died in a very deadly fire in northern california. They got worse last year with the camp. Paradise, california, where 85 people died. Those liabilities are now on pg es balancnce sheets. There are e a lot of pple suing the company, therefore it is in babankruptcy proceededings. It is s clear the utitility has gotttten all it could anand shod and must do to preventnt these fires. But it i is also f facing rereay extreme weatheher that we have t seen before. So we should definitely be holding that utility accountable, while also talking about Climate Change. The fact that if one utility from just two years of fires has up to 30 billion in liability, what wilill that mean for our ininfrastructure and organizatas across t the United States as Climate Change worsens . Tweeted monday instead of spending 10. 5 million lobbying our politicians, and 4. 5 billion on stock buybacks for investors, pg e should have invested in tree trimming and infrastructure. Heres the result over 2 million californians without power. Lets go to California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking at a News Conference on monday. I recognize this moment generates a tremendous amount of anxiety. The images that people see not only the kincade fire in northern california, but now the getty fire in Southern California and los angeles generate concern. But this, interestingly, is a moment in california that is very familiar. We have had a below average fire season to date. What we are experiencing at the moment is slightly above average. It is the high end of the average for this time of year. It does not feel that way, but in fact, it is the case. This state has been well resourced. The state has been very forthright in terms of repositioning assets to the degree we never have in the past. Amy so that is the governor of california gavin newsom. We want to bring ariel kelley into this conversation. The San Francisco chronicle reports that a pg e transmission tower in Sonoma County malfunction near the origin point of the kincade fire just minutes before the fire started. If you can talk about how the state of california is dealing with the overall population, and the particularly with a population you deal with in northern california, and that is the population of immigrants and particularly the concerns of the undocumented in times when they might need government help. Yes. Well, i would say it has been quite a week. I, myself, am an evacuee. I live about five miles from the first town that was impacted by the fires, the first homes that were lost late last wednesday night. It is true it is very agricultural community. Manyny of our residents work in agriculture. Predominant industry. As the evacuations continue to grow further and further south, we are now seeing as of yesterday about 190,000 people were evacuated from their homes. I think, fortunately, yesterday, we saw some evacuation orders lifteded for the westernrn partf sonomama county so people will e able to return to their homes in a small section of the community. But still, hundreds of thousands of people remain without power. The Cell Phone Service is down in many parts of marin county and sonoma countnty. The cellll phone towers operate off of batteries that many of those e batteries only have like 72 hours of battery life, so the commute occasions are completely next to notothing. Peopople are living in their ca, in shelteters, at lararge event centerers, faiairgrounds. There is a real sense of trauma in the community. I thinkiel kelley, Sonoma County has about 38,000 estimated undocumented across the state of california, 40 of the entire state population is hispanic, significant percentage of that is undocumented. But all of these Government Services that are available in terms of disaster, the undocumented cant take advantage of. Or cant utilizize. How is this being dealt with . That is correct. Fortunately, our local governrnment, State Government resources, as well as all local shelters are no questions asked in terms of documentation status. Tents 2017 when the last time we went through this in Sonoma County, we realized there was a lot of education that needed to happen with our immigrant community and our undocumented community to let them know that all of these shelters and Immediate Emergency Services were available to them. There is a lot of Government Agencies involved during this type of emergency. So there was some concern historically about who are these agencies that if i go to red cross shelter, and i going to be putting myself or my family at risk of deportation . Fortunately, we have done a considerable amount of education since 2017, so we have seen more of those families being comfortable coming to the shelters and seeking refuge and support. But you are correct. Fema funding is not available to undocumented immigrants. So it is realllly important t tt we as a community, we are doing a lot of fundraising right now industry bidding cash right now to people at shelters who have no gas money, no money for food. I met a family two days ago who fled with moments to spapare as the fifire was coming down the hill on wednesday night, left with nothing. They have been for days with no shower, no clothing except for the pajamas that were wearing when they were leaving. So providing immediate aid to those families is really u urge. We are raising funds and disturbing funds through my organization to everyone in the community who needs help. A double whammy here with the president of the United States going after california. , want to ask professor stokes saying california cannot limit fossil fuel emissions in the way they want to, Greenhouse Gas emissions. I want to ask ariel kelley if you could start by talking about the pressure truck has put on ofifornia around the issue immigration, how that impacts people now under enormous pressure from the fire. Certainly. Since 2017, we assume President Trump and a lot of the rhetoric against the immigrants all across the country. I think people are still concerned and fearful for their safety and security living in california. You see it manifest in thehe yoh and having trauma behavioral issues because of the stress their parents and family units are u under due to the rhetoric coming out of washington. Amy and professor stokes on this issue of President Trump trying to make illegal california limiting Greenhouse Gas emissions . Takenmp, since he has office, has been rolling back environmental legislation and regulations acacross the board. It is very clear he wants to make californias life more difficult. California has been a really important leader, not just in the u. S. , but around the world in terms of reducing its Greenhouse Gas emissions. He has gone after that both through automaker roles that california has a right to set, as well as through telephones decision to have a cap entry system with quebec in canada. I think this is extremely wrongheaded. A lot of legal scholars feel trump has very little to stand on with these cases. But he is certainly wasting a lot of time while we are watching a really big disaster unfold across the United States. It is not just about these fires in california that are caused by chahange mohammed Climate Change. So Many Americans are expressing the effects of Climate Change. Instead of having leadership and action from our federal government, we have a climate denier in chief who is completely abdicating responsibility on what is creasing the a climate emergency. Juan professor stokes, senator Bernie Sanders tweeted that it is time to begin thinking about Public Ownership of Public Utilities. But theres been a long history in the u. S. , especially in the west, publicly owned utilities that arose out of the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century, really. You are kind of skeptical as to whether this is a solution to the kind of problem presented by the california utility. Could you talk about that . Of pg e bankruptcy proceedings, theres been a move by San Francisco to try to take over a piece of that utility. I will note the unions that are part of pg e oppose that effort. I think it is going to face a big uphill battle. There are some reasons why cleaving off a part of pg e into a municipal utility for San Francisco, i dont really feel it makes s sense because what ty are going to do is have a huge amount of iron risk and liability for the rest of the pg e territory, which theoretically will not be under that San Francisco municipalities control. My concern about some of these campaigns that are playing out, particularly in San Francisco as well as in new york city, to try to turn existing private utilities into sort of cityowned Public Utilities, is they are breaking up these larger utitilities in a smaller urban areas whehere we have progogressives. And that is great. Bubut what happensns to the resf thsyststem . The e fact is, public utilititin california have been some of the biggest opponents to the states clean enerergy laws. In 2002 when the first clean energy l law was passed, it applied to pg e but did not apply to Public Utilities because they resisted it in the first place. So i think there is some complex history in terms of our rrual electric coops and Public Utilities addressing an ownership change will somehow fix all of these problems come i dont really think that is quite true. Although i do support the campaigns that people are running as a way to bring more attention to these really critical issues. Amy i want to finally ask ariel kelley about the situation of october being the peak fire ofth but also itit is the time the great harvest. Looking at an article here in 2017 for farmworkers and sonoma counties fabled wine country, the kincade fire poses a daunting set of risks in october not only fire season in california, also the peak of great harvest in areas not imminently threatened some workers labored through the heat and dangerous smoke to retrieve some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of grapes that had yet to be harvested. Kaiser health news warning about the health risks farmworkers are facing. What kind of warnings are you putting out . How are people being helped . Have direct i information. I was there physically on thursday morning when a group of farmworkers who were staying at our evacuation shelter left the shelter to go back out to the fields to do just that, to go pick grapes, and left without masks, left on a b bus with ther employer. It is s heartbreaking. Environmental justice unfolding right before us. These workers are out there and incredibly smomoky c conditions. I was a dangerous conditions with the fire risk being as high as it was in that moment. I think it is a real issusue for our commmmunity because there ia level of lack of voice for those workers and being a able to say, i dont feel safe o or i neea mask. We need to be mandating if workers are outdoors wororking n these smokoky conditionons thaty need to be given masks or forced to wear them by their emploloyer just to prototect their r healt. Im looking at the longterm Health Impact of those outdoor workerers. We know there is some real lifethreatening potential injuries that can occur in just being out in tho c conditions. It is very concerning. Amy i want to thank you both for being with us. Ariel kelley is the ceo of corazon healdsburg, a bilingual Family Resource center based in northern Sonoma County. And thank you to leah stokes, assistant professor of Political Science at the university of california, Santa Barbara and researcher on climate and energy politics. This is democracy now when we come back, were going to talk about iraq, the massive protest that have rocked the country. Over 220 protesters now dead. [music break] amy this is democracy now , im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we turn now to iraq where masked gunman shot dead 18 protesters overnight and injured over 800 people in the shiite holy city of karbalala. Nearly 225 iraqis have been killed since a wave of antigovernment protests swept the country last month. There protesters in karbala were attacked while they camped out in the citys education square to protest corruption, lack of jobs, and pooror public service. Meanwhile, in baghdad, hospital officials said four people died during protests on monday, another 109 were injured. The Iraqi Government declared a curfew between midnight and 6 00 a. M. In an attempt to quell the growing movement. But hundreds of iraqis defied the curfew by staying in tahrir square, the center of the protest movement. No to the curfew. The curfew is one of their filthy games and tales. Now they say vehicles are banned. Now they say everyone who does not go into the office will face severe punishment. We will remain here even if we lose 1000 martyrs. Amy on monday, the Iraqi Parliament met for the First Time Since the protests began. Lawmakers voted to dissolve provincial councils and cut the salaries of some highranking officials. But the Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Alsadr dismissed the measures as a sham and called on the Iraqi Government to announce early parliamentary elections. We are joined in toronto by yanar mohammed, president of the organization of womens freedom in iraq. She splits her time between toronto and baghdad, and recently returned from the kurdish region of iraq. Last week, mohammed testified in front of the United Nations in geneva in fronont of the commite on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Yanar mohammed, welcome to democracy now we want t to ask about the killg of baghdadi. I want to start off with these mass protests, 220 people dead. Why are people protesting and what about the government response . And the start, it was the youth asking for jobs and that was more than a momonth ago. Graduate youth asking for jobs to be recruited into government. Their response was being tear gassed. And there was another demonstratioion in the s same te of peoplele who had lost their houses. It caused they brought a bulldodozer and brought them do. In october 1, there was support for them in the protesters began to go down t to public squares d ask for jobs and basic services. And the way the governmenent tracked down after demonstrators and ththe way with which they cl bloodily shot the millennial demonstrators made all of the people angry, so it began to grow and grow until the people were no longer asking for jobs or services. Their main demand was the downfall of this government. It grew and grew whilile the governmentle became more violent. In 28 days, it became the honorable thing privy iraqi family and every iraqi in theual to go down demonstration squares, which have spread all over iraq. In t the public squares and in e main intersections of the cities. And everybody is out there and it has turned into a National Uprising where everybody has agreed on n the issue that the Iraqi Government cannot continie like that. T. The want the downfall of Iraqi Government. The teargas is also suffocated so many people. If you notice on the pictures and the video clips on facebook, it became the honorable thing to go down in to the squares wearing the masks against the teargas. Young women, young girls, Senior Citizens everybody is out there. They are distributing food to the demonstrators, and especially after the killing of the millennial youth who were shot in the head call bloodily by the malicious and by the police and even by the iranian militia who were spread around snipers for the demonstrators. Become a social phenomenon that cannot be silenced anymorere. Amy what you make by the call of alsadr for new elections . Is he part of the e Political Class of iraq or is he part of the opposition . ,hat is your sense of his call will that be sufficient in teres of thehe protesters . S . The clalasss part of thatat were broughght forwardrde americans in 2003 and eventually when they made the government in 2005. He played this very smart, claiming that he is opposition while he was in the parliament, he hasas etc. Bowl number of s s cononsiderablble number of ss in the parliament. Had he wanted to eliminate corruption, he could have done it a long time ago but he has his ways of sabotaging the demonstrators shins whenever they start. And this is convenient for him because he can gain more seats in the government in the next round and he has done it over and over again. Alsadr is structurally a part of the Current Islamic government, the corrupt government of iraq. And this time he was unable to sabotage the movement. Itit is on the streets. He meant to stop it with his allies who are the iraqi communist party. It did not work out. To save faceem had and say they are quitting from the parliament so as to have some foothold with the people because the people are all over the streets in iraq now. It is a general uprising. It is the power of the people. The government is reallyy nervos and still cracking down on everybody, killing its way around, tear gassing its way around, and it is not leading them anywhere. Alsadrs time is sort of past. Juan amazingly, we are here next to nothing from the Trump Administration or the u. S. Government about the amazing killings that are going on here. Trump loves to rail about what is happening in venezuela or other countries, but here you are seeing hundreds of People Killed and virtually nothing coming f from the white house. Ask him, to the iraqi oil stop pumping for a single minute throughout this whole ordeal . No. That is where hihis concerns ar. He said itit loud and clear many times that going to iraq in the middle easast was for the oil. R him, iraqi peoples lives does not anan anything. G. I dont know if any peoples lives mean anything for this president. I feel that our president in a rack, our president s in a rack and Prime Ministers share this issue with donald trump. They are the same wavelength, the same mentality, do thehe sae thing. Can youar mohammed, talk more about the significance andhe masked man in karbala a lot of the protests have been in shiite areas . Government was built onn its strength was t divided and conquered. The Iraqi Government was built on lets say a sectarian foothold and their strength through out the years was to oppress the sunni population of iraq and to turn them into enemies come into al qaeda and isis. So a all of this time they were treating them as the enemy from where e all of the fighting coms and all of the e resistance com. But what happenened during this uprising is that the main strength of the demonstrations came from the shiite foothold in the city of baghdad, what is called the sadar city. The demonstrators are the sosocalled shiite youth who are the strongest in asking and demanding the downfall of this government. Of thisectarian claims government that the enemy is in saudi arabia and that the enemy is an sunni suppoport where t ty aratattackingg t the Iraqi Government, those claims dont hold ground d anymore. The main demonstrations, the strongest demonstrations were from that shiite parts of the iraqi cities and karbala where it is called the holy city and the pilgrimage place. That is where the demonstrations are the strongest. And that is where the crackdown was the strongest on their own youth. There are claims the iranian thoseas will have filled cities. Thousands have come through the border. They are doing the sniping and actually burning the dedemonstrators with gununs of. Some weapopo we have n not seen before. So when they come and burn the peaceful demonstrators, who only hold the iraqi flight, it is precedent. A rack has reached a point where the peoples power the people who are in the tens of millilis realize finally that it is their decision, not the decision of somebody sittingng in the whitie house were in the green zone or in some other country. They are in the strtreets, and most of them dont want to come back. Even a curfew that was announced many days before, the people have gone on purpose with their cars to the streets after midnight, celebrating just like a carnival. Everybody is out there waybrating in a euphoric their liberation from being fooled by y this iraqi governmet who claims the name of religion to be wanting the best for the iraqis. It is a corrupt government. It is an oppressive government. It took us back so long in time. We are not living in modern times, not living the modern times in iraq. In such a rich country, the millennials do not have a job. Everybody is poor while the green zone is living in filthy richness, and they split it was somebody else. The iraqi oil is for them and is, andbody but the iraq that cannot be anymore. Amy i would like you to read the words of nobel pepeace laureate nadia marotta, that yazidi human rights who was kidnapped by the Islamic State and held as a sex slave for almost three months in 2014. She welcomed the news of baghdadis death, tweeting on sunday baghdadi died as he lived a coward using children as a shield. Let today be the beginning of the global fight to bring isis to justice. Those captured alive need to be brought to justice in an open court for the world to see. Justice is the only acceptable course of action. We must unite and hold isis terrorists accountable in the same way the world tried the nazis in an open court at the nuremberg trials. I am wondering your response to the announcement by President Trump of the death of baghdadi . Saysdia is right and she we should celebrate the death of such a c criminanal. But the story does not start with him. The story starts with who created him. Where was he e groomed and traid fofor months and monthths . In which prison was he supported to recruit other of his inmates into al qaeda and later on turning it into isis . D death did n not mean much for people in iraq because our enemies are sitting in n the green zone. They are ruling us. They are rubbing off all of our wealth. They are oppressing us. And once we say no to that, they are shooting us in the head. That is what their signature in the first weeks of the demonstrations, shooting demonstrators in the head, hitting them witith teargas boms in the head. Many of my friends were killed and some of them are lying down in the hospipitals. And some of them had to run away from hospitals because the police are coming and picking them up from the hospitals. So in the time when n the people are in war with their enemies, with their own baghdadis in thte green zone, what would the killings of another baghdadi somewhere me to us . I dont think it means much. I really sympathize with nadia murad and all of the yazidis and the people in western iraq who suffered frorom isis crimes and attacks. But at this point, our enemies are somewhere else. , thank youmohammed for being with us, splitting her time between toronto and baghdad, and recently returned from the kurdish region of iraq. Last week testified in front of the United Nations in geneva, switzerland. Speaking in front of the committee on cedaw, or the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. When we come back, we go to sent . , chile. Mass protests continue despite the president reshuffling the cabinet. Stay with us. [music break] amy they are a chilean group. This is democracy now , im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we end todays show in chile, where president Sebastian Pinera faced a new set of mass demonstrations monday as he fulfilled the promise he made to appoint new members to his cabinet. As pinera addressed the nation monday, hundredsds of protesters had already gathered outside the president ial palace in santiago, waving flags, honking horns and demanding his resignation. They were quickly dispersed by Security Forces with tear gas. Later in the day, hundreds once again rallied at one of the citys central squares. The reshuffling of his cabinet came after more than a Million People flooded the streets last friday in n massive peacaceful demonstrations over inequality, high cost of living, and privatization. The protest drew more than 5 of chiles population and followed days of widespread civil unrest and a Violent Police and military crackdown across chile. A threemember team of the u. N. S Human Rights Commission was previously scheduled to arrive to chile monday night but chilean media reports that the Anonymous Team of investigators dont yet have an exact date of arrival. At least 18 people have died with more than 1000 more protesters shot and wounded since the mobilizations erupted october 19. Amy the protests in chile began in response to a subway fare hike, but at the root of the mass mobilizations are demands to dismantle the countrys neoliberal policies, including the privatization of healthcare, utilities, Natural Resources and chiles pinochetera Pension System, which is currently controlled by private corporations. For more, we go to santiago where were joined by pablo abufom, member of the solidarity movement, an anticapitalist and feminist organization in chile. Also an activist with no mas afp, an organization seeking to the pinochetera privatized Pension System in chile. He recently published an article in jacobin headlined its not about 30 pesos. Its about 30 years. Pablo, explain what is going on not just in santiago, but all over chile right now. Thank you for having me on this show. First of allll, because of the extent of the Human Rights Violations during the state of emergency, we need this International Attention in chile. What were seeing right now is a massivive civil and social unret due to 30 years and more than 30 years of social crisis. As you said, after High School Students organized massive evasion of the subway fare in jumping the turnstiles, millions joined that movement to protest not just the cost of living, but ino the conditions of life chile under highly privatize system. So since last friday after hundreds of thousands of people went out to protest the repression against the High School Students come only after five hours of civil unrest we saw the president declaring a state of emergency and taking the military out to the streets, try to quell this social unrest. And after that, after so many years of trying to recover from a long dictatorship of almost 20 years, you have an open wound in the Chilean Society when you have the military on the streets. And that is another thing that we have to take into account when understanding this practice is that trauma of Chilean Society of having the military on the street is open again with this repression and Human Rights Violations. Juan i want to ask you, pinera is in office now. He had previously been in office. In between, there were two terms of Michelle Bachelet was considered part of the pink tide, supposedly, and latin america. There were no basic changes against the neoliberal policies in chile and privatization under bachelet . Well, that is why that slogan became so known during this crisis. The idea that it is not about 30 pesos, not about the subway fare hike, but about 30 years of neoliberal policies. So the continuity of the regime of the pinochet regime in terms of the economic and political during thepolicies two coalitions that govern the country in the past 30 years, it is very clear for many for the people in chile. So even the governments of bachelet and other social called socially government and chile have basically continued to deepen the neoliberal policies and keep privatization in place. So when you have Public Health care system and Pension System that are completely taken by the logic that is her for that is for profit can understand people are basically living and poverty in chile. And when they not, theyre basically taking debt to pay not just for cars or luxuries, but also for basic stuff like food and housing. Who so you have bachelet served before and after the two terms of pinera. Now she is returning as head of the u. N. High commissioner for human rights to investigate, as you pointed out, the human rights abuses that are going on right now in chile around these mass protests, when you have e a Million People out in the streets. She herself a torture survivor under pinochet, her and her mother held, her father ultimately died in custody. Can you talk about the significance of this . But also, you have the leaderless uprising and you have the more organized sectors that you are also very much a part of, like the teachers, the unions, and what you see happening right now with them . One thing is, we hope the u. N. Human Rights Commission coming to chile makes a difference. We know Amnesty International is also sending trying to investigate for report. And we have the National Human Rights Institute giving out reports every day. Of course, the figure of bachelet is very important in chile. She became one of the first president s after the massive, huge mobilization of Students College and High School Students in 2011. And after that, we saw the real that is so regime entrenched in Chilean Society that even when you have a government that is saying it iss going toto make reforms in terms of responding to social demands, we see the demands for Free Education became just more scholarships. Even for private Higher Education institutions. So the whole system of transferring public funds to private companies is still in place, even during those governments. And then in terms of the social uprising that we see today, it is basically people are fed up with the system. We can tell this by looking at the response of the people to what the government has been doing. On monday, the government announced they were going to freeze the subway fare hike, those 30 pesos we were talking about. And then people continued mobilizing in massive protest and demonstrations, not just in santiago where the subway is, but in all other cities in the country. We see there is the government calling thehe political esestablishment for a new social agreement,t, and people are stil on the streets. So we can tell that people are not really looking for that kind of response by the government. They are looking for structural change in terms of the social rights of social provision, some kind of social security, and definitely the levels of violence that we experience in Chilean Society. And so that means when we see the unions, the big trade unions and the teachers associations and the social movements like the Environmental Movement and the feminist movement are promoting demands that are deeply felt by chilean workers and Migrant Workers who have become a very important part of our society in the past 10 years, we see it as part of the problem but it is not enough. It seems people are looking for radical, structural change, in a change or verging. It seems we are basically looking at a practice of the capitalist and colonial information of the state in chile. The unions are already calling for another general strike tomorrow. The port workers and minors are organizing for a stoppage of their work in the minds and in the ports of chile. That means this is not going to end so easily as the government thinks. They change the cabinet. They put new faces, young faces in the cabinet, but it is not making a difference because it seems they are not really taking into account, not really considering the nature of the civil unrest that is basically a social emergency that we are living. Amy we want to thank you, pablo abufom, member of the solidarity movement, anticapitalist organization in chile. Also an activist with no mas afp, an organization seeking to reform the pinochetera privatized Pension System in chile. You can go to our website at democracynow. Org to see our continued coverage of the protest in chile in both spanish and english. That does it for our show. Democracy now is currently accepting applications for paid 6month internships here in our new york city studio. 6month internships here in our new york city studio. Learn more and apply at democracynow. Org. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]
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