Transcripts For RT The Alex Salmond Show 20240714

Issues surrounding walters bunk or treating it has already cost one journalist her life just to clarify most of the beautiful country and a great place to visit where already you can watch all of the season see just how much of these topics we covered she is of course being available on r. T. Dot com on alexs facebook and on you keep. Now to the politics of protest in morden scotland the last 4 years has seen a growing wave of demonstrations in favor of Scottish Independence from modest beginnings after the Referendum Campaign of 2014 these marches have been gaining ground and momentum largely ignored at 1st by the Mainstream Media and guarded by the some suspicion by at least some in the s. N. P. Hierarchy the crashes campaigners have been turning in growing and impressive crowds as they march across the country we asked some of the campaign as the Scottish Independence whether they are completely peaceful marches it and scotland are really making a political definite alex transfers to the organizers of the latest much in aberdeen just last saturday and then to some of the people who were instrumental in organizing early march and also to the organization have light streamed every evades forcing their presence on to the political agenda imo joined by from the granite city of the Mumbai Police a deficit one of the organizers of the. Last week and these marches have been taking place right round scotland the been gathering stones gathering numbers gathering the meant some but do marches like that really make a difference and with even the biggest market share of one 100000. 00 people there are some to say well thats 5000000. 00 plus people in scotland not telling up at the march do these marches make a difference they absolutely do and they show the colts to be a normal selfgoverning country in a very positive light we need to Exchange Information and ideas the behavior is impeccable and the amount of people that you see all this is my 1st march or id love to go all but maybe marching is not my thing but these people they partake in street stolz deliver leaflets etc so theres a wider range of ways that these groups throughout scotland are growing mushroom ing and connecting. Some of the protesters. The seal across the world the been lots of arrests and powerless in london and moscow in hong kong the scottish marches seem to pass with them or a rest stop or anything why is that to these i think because our vision for scotland is for a better place another scotland is possible we want to see Better Outcomes for all the people that live here it doesnt matter if youve been in scotland 5 minutes or 50 years youre scottish so with that positive light behind it and to be fair as well Police Scotland have just been so supportive an excellent every single march to go on theyve just been sterling so we march with hope in our hearts and a smile on our faces and we are pretty convinced were going to get there the latest pool as youll know is 53 percent and i believe rising so we know were getting there as well but these marches attract count of demonstrations of people who are for the union theres only tension between the 2 groups is that as the march proceeds well not really all the marchers know that that small band are not representative no of the minority who want to stay in the u. K. We just smile and whistle and carry on the high of what would be a standing memory from i. R. B. And smarts laughs out of the just arriving in the castle gate and looking back down union street and see in that sea of blue stretch all the way back so these would be the wave of blue saltires the National Flag of scotland tories are absolutely and actually the cell tower is the oldest National Flag in the world i mean the cell tower is no come to signify to us not to scotland it signifies hope signifies a better country for us to live in it signifies an end to Nuclear Weapons and a fairer greener country which is our aspiration and i think the aspirations of the whole movement well to this or thought a little bit of history thank you very much for joining us from the the granite city of our boom its a pleasure alex thank you well thats the most recent and upon the smarts and scotlands knowledge and city of our bean but to talk about the early days of these marches a caught up in edinburgh with money sing and when the mcdonald whos speaking in a personal capacity. Well this lovely sunday did it but im delighted to be joined by money sitting by when the big carrot when you started this campaign of demonstrations and i mean if you have. 100 people showed up on that was you know it was quite disheartening that people started marking us on nothing i was out going to make any impact how much hes going to be asked to tell you nobody cared you know theres a after 2014 defeat you had over 100000 people on the cube was if you told me dont you have all this is where you had your big a bit of money to model the user you had all the way from here to here where for dawson it is all we did to him you know most of us with the cube of the station lost the d. N. A. Remember independents my you know sort of interesting so when we dont we shouldnt question of the memories of the shes a mile a memory was the way it was a 100 people you could shave by to someone and then you could answer them by. This so small compared to today. Over 100. 00 maiden. Find you could start at the back you have seen hey jimmy back out to see the fine i have you go i thought i drank. Something awful is. Trying to spoil something you know i know march is fossil impossible. To make people think you know the Mainstream Media peters as a minority but assures that we go on the norm of a big force on issues of one people praying for one cause when b. When you go out to your last year if you suddenly realise my goodness this is going to be 100000. Your thoughts there well our life student the march to the front on the numbers come and then that oh my you could feel the fly i didnt have the parts of hey many see of course im not a friend and just this really heartwarming scene a vivid a coming together that is why not. On the one cause youre not just going for the big numbers are you willing to state that youre thinking of is all going to come. To the people as the people to the marches and what theyre faint in there are a lot of people tightness our skin could become a payoff could become comfort so. Late to this thread for fellows i want in the country because they say i was i would look back in the baltics and be admonished a how one of the baucus mt kisco and some other thing in its history and that was say oh. So youve had this momentum gathering behind democracies. And its self anough familial the obviously your objective is not just to keep the view of the beg and beg amount which is that youre trying to have a weight of political bio evidence can you point to me saying that you know having that discussion effect on the population be getting people talking about independence again touched on how they dont as we went to dumfries i was 10000 people now thats. 10000 pieces a bag number and one of the biggest things weve seen because business is coming out and smiling because we dont welcoming marginal as more hatred compared to other marches that take place in scotland stuck in the stone age but it will coming and people want to be part of the something new a new scotland a new a new scotland everyone wont know but the miracle of television i know you have a couple quick so to un. Ranking your money thank you very much having spoken to some of the independents campiness and i talking to the organization which has live streamed every single one of these marches kevin get me from independence live welcome to the alex. How ya likes. To be on your must have seen the growing a number i mean you know when you started covering the 2 people and i dug up what was yeah. But the fast part one thing we actually like. Is really reaming was that we have it to 300. 00 people in glasgow out of ember shelagh alone these few cheer on the green pouring to. A separate group at the glasgow summit. So was that your lead because eventually at least the boxes were being ignored or mocked by the Mainstream Media was in the palace live other sponsor that to get the message across its a centrist and you know why students agree we bypass against you need to end they can do the mobile phone now and then if he sent chairs to get in contact with us well show you how you do if youre good you know so a given the success of a live broadcast by a mobile phone or by other means of across the country are you going to move into other Media Outlets now where weve got a new plot for for getting information a discussion to penns cetera and as for started until i thought radio so thats been going since us yet its still soft launch. Still trying to get more people to do a coin 10 photos but you know its quake same and we also we can run were radio through life streams and stuff so its quite an interesting mash of technologies and its all good love and kevin thank you for appearing on this mainstream. Show there are problem not from just all good. Like you. Join us after the break when alex interviews 2 of the most celebrated political activists of recent years from both sides of the atlantic. Seem. To shape our. Culture. And in. The trail. Find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. You know when they. Make out you give me my best stuff but its still is human and we said. Were just at home not how long. Is enough. But ill tell the most companies you know if i can i give them says you know. When i meet with. Some pretty big dollar bills yeah you know he goes from getting you know just to say hes just putting you know your uncle. Someone them to me its you know. You see him in the middle you i dont know you kind of this. Little kid is he. Always be in this but not all the time he comes to your list to see him to no money so do you see her as a normal man because he. I. Hurried. Welcome back to discuss the effectiveness of political protest alex turns 1st to veteran campaigner for human rights Peter Tatchell the motto of the one person protest from red squid in moscow to the pulpit of cancer because the Peter Tatchell 1st came to public prominence as the. Thats the labor Party Candidate and the bobbin see byelection one of the most bruising contests of the 20th century the last 40 years he has continued to the headlines of one of the most courageous campaign if the human rights in general. In particular in this city is weve looked at the politics of protest for the last century in recent years some of the Great Campaign some rock against racism in the 1970 s. All the worlds a moment of you somebody whos been involved in many of these campaigns but also has specialized as a a courageous Single Person Human Rights Campaign on the way to be joined by Peter Tatchell peter welcome back to the like sam im sure glad to join you again there are you as a human rights activists a bill of the last 40 years or so youve been involved many of the protests but youve also had a bit of a specialty in the Single Person campaigns are you in a group of people making a point is that because you believe that the subjects that require the sort of attention that was some of the highlights of all of these sort of campaigns well all of the single or small person protests were very secretive had to be kept very secretive because they involve to surprise such as ambushing president Robert Mugabe of zimbabwe in london in 1909 such as going to the pope of the archbishop of canterbury dr george carey the year before in 1980 mostly these 2 in terms of the this is what Robert Mugabe will still pursue in the gutter with the u. K. Foreign Office Nobody else still in that the pomp of his power. Is hotel in london a bit to your personal cost of other book about what exactly happened there well together with 3 other members of the of the beauty Group Outrage we sought to make a citizens arrest the president mcgarvie on charges of torture this was an l g b t plus issue it was about torture and so when he drove out of his hotel james. Hotel near victoria we ran in front of his limousine forcing it to hold i open the rear car door amazingly it was unlocked and pretty much door rest under charges of torture and it is the law president Robert Mugabe i hereby arrest you as a citizen under International Law because of your abuse of human rights as above exactly and you should have seen the look on his face did he say i mean he is very dark skinned but a visible action pallor came across his face hes jaw dropped his eyes popped here with his hands in front of him like a frightened 10 year old kid i think he probably thought hes going to be killed which i thought in my mind now you know what your victims feel like and we are going to kill you were going to take you to a court of law well have a chance to defend yourself so harm then the these henchmen promise upon your village a good way of the germans to get the hard cuffs on the president while we of course some of the police which is the requirement under the power of citizens arrest the police were not interested in the legal dossier we had for his arrest instead we were arrested and present mcgarvie was given a Police Escort to go Christmas Shopping in harrods the one of the other of the marshes as you mentioned you occupied the pulpit of the house bishop accountability just as he was about to deliver these stuff homily. How did that go well we had tried to have a dialogue with the archbishop george carey for 8 years he refused to meet us or anybody from the old you plus community so thats why in desperation of the last resort we went into his cathedral and all we did was walk up into the pulpit and we held up placards highlighting the antigay laws that he was supporting like the right of he said employers shouldnt dances have the right to sack someone from that because they were gay they should be no legal recognition of same sex relationships that same. Couples who arent fit to foster or adopt children etc and then i simply deliver the multitude of sermon which was on the lines of discrimination is not a christian value would describe the father member it will g. B. T. Commuters said peter wasnt. I think some did yes but the upshot was that i was arrested. And eventually charged under the ecclesiastical courts jurisdiction act of 860. 00 formally part of the brawling act of 5051. 00 and under that law its illegal to interrupt a minister of religion in a place of worship the archbishop was so embarrassed when it got out that we only did this after he refused to meet us for 8 years that he did eventually meet with that has been a Christian Movement he did dramatically reduce his lobbying of members of parliament to oppose go equality and he did prompt other bishops in the church to speak out in favor of l g b t rights so i have a very positive impact so 20 years on. The rate certainly in terms of mileage recognized in the u. K. With the exception of Northern Ireland again looking back people would say well look at that protester the more the going for because what seemed a protest one of the a prosecution that at the time was the excepted the law or most of this law and whats right when i look back you know when i began in 1967 at the age of 15 there were so many things that seemed insurmountable odds like apartheid was in full swing and people thought it would never change but it did thanks to the contribution of millions of people in south africa and worldwide. About margaret thatchers poll tax you know she said it was not negotiable there wasnt going to be no rowing back on the poll tax but eventually because of the mass protests she did recant and the poll tax is now history so for me protest is. Is the life of a democracy all the rights of freedom we have are the result of protest thats how it began protest and then eventually parliamentary change of course youre campaigning career over these decades youve been largely associated with equality of campaigns but thats not been your only campaigns and did you have any campaigns as a boy i think one of them was for Aboriginal Land rights thats right and against the Death Penalty against australian involvement in the vietnam war against apartheid. Multiverse campaign and for me i believe in the principle of universal human rights for everyone regardless of who they are but later this attach will put up the personal cup of. Moscow i think that was a major news for the 2nd zone the globe saw the body of the Technology Must of made the protests easier facilitated put it much easier to organize much easier to mobilize lines under the people because social media provides such a ready instant access it without receivers got to langley of all im rick and lonely you continue your protests thank you very much thank you. To pick this summer of political protest into context alex tend to Medea Benjamin the american political activist cofounder of course pink and the fair kid at the secret Global Exchange but there benjamin foamed of course 5 of code pink welcome to the alex salmond show nice to be on with you out medea this Summer Season the Extinction Rebellion in london weve seen the protests and more school about elections the julies wrong im in france the spectacular protests in hong kong in recent weeks are we living through an age of protest are we back in 1968 or is it just the social media everything is happening across the world i think the protests around the climate are new and are global and are a huge and theyre only going to grow as this is a planetary issue that affects us all but then in some other areas i think were seeing less for example we saw in the middle east all of the uprisings around the arab spring and that spread from one country to another but now that it looks like the results of those were not so positive i think thats put it damper on some other protests in the middle east for example so i think were constantly seeing ups and downs in protests but around the climate this is enormous and will only grow Medea Benjamin youre one of americas most celebrated activists across a range of causes in human rights how has your campaigning been affected by the social media age do you do things differently know as a result of social media actually the issues that i am most involved in which is trying to stop wars have been harder to organize not critically because of the social media age but just because the wars have become so buzzy theyve gone. And on for the last 20 years its harder to get people out on the streets so thats an example about how the issues there are still extremely important but social media isnt a nudge to galvanize people if its not something that is really getting them home and really affecting them immediately so i think social media can be a key to mobilizing like we see in hong kong but they also think that before social media we had enormous protests we had mass protests around civil rights issues in the United States when there was no facebook no twitter no instagram looking up but age of campaigning the most famous perhaps campaign of the recent generation do you think about it can society as made progress across the range of issues or in the champion age is a sign a signal for a vashon in the United States well certainly weve made progress over the years and we are making progress than forcing our government to deal with issues like getting us out of the wars weve been in for 20 years or issues around the. Police brutality racism issues but they have in the age of trump there are so many issues we have the crisis of immigration and our borders we have the issues of increasing white supremacist the we have the issues. Our protest but then we have the other side protesting as well the people who want to take away womens rights to abortion the people that want to show their ability to use hate speech openly and are in our streets so there are protests and. Both sides but i do think that we are constantly making progress its just that new issues keep us during the trial we feel like we have whiplash because were always going from one crisis to another more recently visited my home country of scotland to campaign against the Trident Nuclear system how did you find protesting in scotland well i think its a time where there is not as strong as protest against Nuclear Issues but there certainly was a lot of excitement to ballot independence in scotland and now independence with mean the end to having Nuclear Submarines based in scotland so i found a lot of excitement around that and what message would you have for the more comfortable establishment in the your country and in others about the intention of Medea Benjamin to continue your campaigning i think that the issues that were facing whether its war or climate destruction and continued raises the fight for democracy around the world theyre not going to go away those are issues that 9 we myself included care deeply about these are lifelong struggles and people should get involved in it get active because the more of us that get active the sooner that were behind is the result on these issues and the better our world will be for it but the event of an thank you so much keep on campaigning thank you nice to be on your show. In our series on political protests we filmed fire and white in looking at the history of activism stretching from working class cars go 100 years ago to middle class london of the present. In the modern world the impact of protests has been amplified by an extraordinary amount in the age of social media this allows demonstrations to not just be substantially better attended but also to have much wider coverage whether its with a line on this topic media too often look askance at demonstrations especially those in their own countries however the successful demonstration across more than just a Much Negative and impactful social Media Coverage it took was a cause that people are prepared to believe in often at substantial price no cost that much at least has not changed in the last century. Join us next week when we turn from the International Politics of protest to the parliament to politics or big brick sit in the u. K. With pother back from be set in 2 weeks time well the m. P. s change from 91 to be just to fighting on the point where were joined by 2 key commentators who predict the fireworks to come so then from alex 9 all that issue is good bye and we hope to see you. In this community there are people who believe that its ok. Its really hard there are no jobs and you see the kids ask and as a parent. I can come up with lots of arguments theres a lot of conflict in the game between the cost of the conflict i would say over those around money their money has made. Us want to know each other. Each other this could be just the state of california alone to make 6000000000. 00 a year off to prison complex just to get some point in your life where. You dont care and. So your care might anything. Sex drugs are special survival. When customers go buy your supplies. Now well reduce some lower. Thats undercutting but whats good for market is not good for the global economy. Would. Put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president. Or somehow want. To go on to be prochoice which is what before 3 in the morning cant be good. Im interested always in the waters in the. West should. I go to. Russia calls on the u. N. To prevent a new alms race following a u. S. Missile test on the collapse of the i. N. F. Treaty. Tribal councils a state visit to denmark to calling remarks by its Prime Minister nothing she had rejected his offer to buy greenland cooling the proposal. And Aid Organization oxfam lashes out at g 7 countries ahead of the summit this weekend and accuses their policies of driving political and equality. Equality hot rich increased over the last year. Well the brits Just Brilliant as was growing the wealth of the poorest office