Transcripts For CSPAN2 2016 Left Forum Opening Plenary 20160821

How would you respond to that . Have been there. In 2009, i get the anger. I think some people arent different stages than i am because everyone starts at some point. I mean, we are setting up a political battle that our kids and grandkids will be fighting, so thats a privilege of living in a free society is that you must constantly attended to this. We are just getting to the next level. This wont be decided in our lifetime. Its just not how it works. Its a generational battle. Evers as a result i think some people are at a different point in this marathon than others. When i first got involved in politics it was before 2001, and i was not for george bush. I was raised in a family of hardcore democrats. I was prolife and ive always been unequivocally prolife because i come from a ive been protected. Second amendment for the non biography to a . Exactly. So, i guess the more educated i got in the more mature i became in the eyes opened a bit more and i realized the need for responsibility. I threw myself into it and i was angry i was angry because i felt i had been betrayed by the ideology that brought me up. You might even remember this, i mean, as you know host i do. Guest i think some of the people that are out there right now are where i was eight years ago. They are exactly where i wasnt because of that want to give them grace because they will see in time. Thats kind of the ray it is i remember absolutely unrelenting and going after some of these are elected elected officials. I organized people to phone a bomb them. Then, i think, the longer you are doing it and you realize there are better ways to go about this, maybe more calculating ways to even go about this you just grow into it and i think that is what some of these people are experiencing. As a result of that, i give them grace because i have been given grace and there are a lot of people out there who have everything in the world and have every reason to hate me because some of the things i let against them eight years ago and yet they dont, so i think that comes with it. Host many conservatives traditional hardcore conservatives will agree with a lot of the content of flyover nation. In the 22nd sales pitch why should someone who might be what you sort of disdain as a coastal elite lefty who doesnt get it, why should they buy and read the book . Guest if they want to win eight election or debate the need to get this book so they understand the people they need to convince them where theyre coming from, what issues these people prize and why they feel the way they do about these issues and how you can talk to these people without condescending to these individuals and you can also find Common Ground because i do get into that in the book. They might actually have Common Ground and you can build a lot of stuff off of Common Ground. Thats building a coalition, so thats why they need this book is. Host flyover nation thank you so much. Guest think you. Appreciate it. Cspan, created by americas cabletelevision companies and brought to you as a Public Service by your cable or satellite provider. This is the tv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Hears her primetime lineup for the sending it. Beginning at 7 45 p. M. , former president ial advance man josh kane talks about his experiences. His book is authors crypt. On our weekly afterwords program at 9 00 p. M. Eastern time, Seymour Hearst describes the killing of osama bin laden. At 10 00 p. M. , reports on water scarcity and climate change. We wrap up our sunday evening primetime lineup at 11 00 p. M. With a look at the life of robert f kennedy. That all happens tonight on cspan twos book tv. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] that evening. Good evening. Can you hear me . All the way the back . All right. You can all be seated. We have a few strikers coming in, but thats alright. My name is stephane, representative of the board and is my job to welcome you. Thank you all for coming. We are sure this will be a wonderful form. I attended my first forming 2010, like many of you as a spectator. It was amazing form. I saw doctor cornell west and i knew it was something i wanted to be a part of from that moment, so during 2011 i started my doctorate id joined up and back then we were talking about occupy wall street. 2016, we are talking about a democratic socialist gaining millions of votes throughout the country. Times are definitely changing. One thing that has deftly changed, maybe not for the better is that prices in new york city continue to ravage the working class. Back in 2011, when i was an intern we were completely unpaid when people asked what my compensation was i said infinite supply of pretzels, to his lawyers marxist advice. That unfortunately is still the condition we are in today, so all of you have been given some difference envelopes on your seat and that is as cast in you to open your hearts, mind and your wallet to contribute to the form. We know that fundraising is difficult. You need to be innovative, creative. I am forcefully for you all am neither of those things, so im going to blatantly rip off a very Successful Grassroots Campaign fundraising scheme right now that goes like this. The left forum does not accept contributions from millionaires and billionaires. We have no super pack, we are relying upon millions and that when i say millions, i mean, dozens of Campaign Contributions from folks just like you. In all sincerity, those contributions go to wonderful things and i will share a bit of a left forum costs up with you. I make good source of gossip because if that growing influence of the form we have been approached from activism leaders across the nation asking us if they can form in their city, so we are sincerely talking about extending the left forum outside of just new york in addition to the conference we have here to other east coast cities. In fact, there is even the conversation of bringing left form of the way to californias golden coast. We consider these things great successes, but you can only do them depending on the contributions from all of you folks. Enough about money, to capitalist for me. I went to kick this off with a bit of fun and that is going to start with a revolutionary poet from los angeles california. He has been featured in the la times. [applause]. So, a rage rebellion revolution; right . Thats the theme . Here we go. Washington redskins, confederate flag, sort, the dollar canon the scholar, the kenyan, the ivy league history. The ways and means of victors, keep their victims on the state of virginia asked prevention, clark smith wesson, wagon, bloodshed, the crown of public, housing covenants, to davey crockett, were drugs is a whirring young bloody christmas. 15 to to life, west baltimore, plymouth rock, jamestown in the rio grande, stolen lives, stolen land. Heres the nation, package complete, please, escorts, skinhead, klansman, hate down public streets. Very same police quote us to meet cannon fire on black boys in hoodies and mexican kids with shaved heads. They are killing our kids. Half the nation applauds because they think, they think that a white womans a purse has more value than a black boys life. Heres the nation, hellbent, 1 , genocide, pipeline, underfunded schools to overcrowded prisons for nothing but a life in and out of the systems system stripped of innocence. Children, suspects before students, young girls, boys before victims. Heres a nation that eats its young. Not a democracy. This is not a republic. This is an openair prison industrial scale plantation, anything and everything you have ever gotten from the system at mathematical assessment. Cost of doing business, hands moving, stomachs zooming, job description, genocide build on slavery by thieves posing as messiah, thomas jefferson, mission accomplished. Picked by brick, grade by grade, slayed by slave, heres a nation, keep you in place with power over fear. National defense, which if you would stand against it. Whose side are you on . [inaudible] [inaudible] this is the state of the union killing our children. We are at war. [applause]. [applause]. Thank you. Of course, the left forum would not be able to be here today if it wasnt for the good folks lobbying on our behalf. So, everyone we will bring up jared markovich , a distinguished Professor John j college and the criminal justice who received his doctorate from the department of history from the university of wisconsin and has been teaching at john jay since 1970 and a written extensively about the Way Corporation have undermined that environment and workers in our community. [applause]. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you on half of the students, faculty, staff and Even Administration of John Jay College of criminal justice. Of course, you know we are part of the great City University of new york and yes. Who is you youre from the City University, alumni, students, faculty . Yes, way to go and you know and all of you know that we are in the midst of a war against public higher education. This is a war that we are engaged in. We are fighting back again and we are winning some of the battles, but the work is on. And we have to really emphasize that when the state is not fund public higher education, this is not a economic decision. Of this is a political decision that is a reflecting on our students. They are making this political decision because our students are predominantly students of color, students of the workingclass, students who are immigrants or children of immigrants and we are in the midst of a tremendous fight back against that. Part of that fight back has been successful. The students and the professional staff, congress, our union was successful in stopping any tuition increase this year by the state legislature. [applause]. But, the faculty and staff have been working without a contract for six years now. Working without a raise for six years. And just this past week, the union had a vote of its membership or whether we should authorize a strike to be called by the union leadership. I am proud to announce that 92 of those who voted, voted for strike authorization. [applause]. But, we need your help. We need your solidarity. We need you to join us in this defense of higher public higher education. Thank you very much. [applause]. Thank you much, professor. Last and not least, your host for the evening, a woman who needs practically no introduction. Executive producer and host of the Laura Flanders show. Her books include bush women, tales of a cynical species and true democrats take back politics from the politicians. Please give a warm welcome to ms. Laura flanders. [applause]. Thank you. Lets hear it for all of the organizers and participants of left Forum Opening plenary 2016. Thats you. We are here to take on one particular parts of the conversation at the left to form this weekend, capitalism and militarism at humanities parol. Now, i would say when we have a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, barack obama awarding a distinguished Public Service award to henry kissinger, our humanity is more than not parol and it tells you a thing or two about the nobel prize. But, there is other news to discuss as well. We have the first muslim mayor elected in london. [applause]. We have 2. 4 Million People contributing to the Bernie Sanders campaign. [applause]. A man who has not force one the use of drones. When donald trump proving in case anyone wondered why supremacy white male patriarchal supremacy is live well and deadly and we have an election on our hands. While we try to build a movement that will move beyond this electoral plan. I dont need to tell you that capitalism today is characterized by massive and increasing inequality, in case you forgot. Earlier this year, it was reported 62 people on the same wealth as half of the world, 3. 6 billion. Only nine of those 62 are women. Wealth and power accumulates at one pole while big misery exploded together. Having exploded native land and insulate people , now it seems to be worn empire that are keeping capitalism on life support. Thank you for the poem at the beginning. We see it in the us and the rise of racism and fear the way local Police Forces are armed with surplus military weapons in the use of public fund to pick your mere scenario forces and invest workingclass people to fight each other. Goateed on here and internationally by divided conquers surveillance techniques and inflammatory rhetoric of white supremacy. On my program, but Laura Flanders show which you can see on our podcast, people regularly at request about when we come to. Most recently, jeremys cahill, no stranger to all of you considering the legacy of peace activists recalled her movements have become increasingly separated, Racial Justice and economic justice. War and peace from wages and migration drain. From the times cahill recalled when black power activists spoke and called him the most dangerous white and why. Weve come a long way. Howre we now to understand the connection and i think that is the challenge of this evenings planner he is trying to understand the connection between, for example, extreme policing and mass incarceration and extreme pilfering and profiteering and resource extraction. Most important way we will talk about where the cracks are in the system, what Peace Movements, peace and Justice Movements are developing and tackling empire. What kind of leverage, both in and beyond the military Industrial Complex, the workers and others actually have to disrupt the onslaught of militarization and where is this leverage being used to build alternatives. On my show every week we look not just at whats going wrong, but what is going right. We call it the show, the place where the people who say it cant be done take a backseat to the people who are doing it. I can tell you that we will hear from three people who we have pretty often on the program and i know they are not just perfect when it comes to talking about the onslaught that we are up against, but also when it comes to talking about the opportunity and how and where people are grabbing them. We will get substantive presentation by each of our speakers and then have a little conversation amongst ourselves and then release us all to engage one another in oneonone conversations or clustering groups, if you prefer. Our first ticket today is going to be chris hedges a pulitzer prizewinning journalist most recently on wages of rebellion. He was a National Book critic circle finalists for his book, war is a parsec is as meeting. He has taught it columbia, nyu, princeton Amity University of toronto and teaching courses at Rutgers University to prisoners at a correctional facility in new jersey and he is about to launch a new television show, chris hedges. [applause]. Way, way, i will introduce everyone pick i just wanted them to applaud you. Medea benjamin is the cofounder of the women led peace group and cofounder of the cumin rights group formal exchange, author of eight brooks books including drone warfare and her articles appear regularly in outlets such as huffington post, the other world. Her forthcoming book is on saudi arabia. Medea benjamin. [applause]. Finally, tariq ali, my colleague where he hosts a weekly program. He was born and raised and came of age in london as the opponent of the vietnam war and today he is editorial director of the lender Publishing House london Publishing House. Hes the author of too many books to mention, fiction, nonfiction, essays in the most recent is the extreme center. Lets start with chris hedges. [applause]. Thank you very much. So, when i came in i was handed a broad sheet that pulled it cloak on the half of quote that i made and so since i want to talk about the nature of power during this Electoral Campaign i will finish the quotes. Did indeed say, it is not our job to take power, but it did not end there. Its our job to make the power all frightened of us. That is what movements do. Movements keep power in check. As any good anarchist will tell you, power is always the problem no matter who holds it. This is a realization that karl popper made in the open society and its enemies where he wrote that it is not the job to get good people to rule. That he says is the wrong question, how do we get gold people to rule. Rather, it is to create a system where those in power are frightened of us. Yes, we certainly want to push forward into power those who will listen, but without those movements, without the power of movements to keep the powerful and check, all power becomes despotic and this was an understanding that julia benda had in his great book, the treason of the intellectual, where he set out as care to create a society based on justice, a society that takes care of the vulnerable in the week among us, that expresses compassion argument choice between choosing two sets of ideals. Privilege and power or justice and truth, but as bend that rights, the more we make concessions to those who serve privilege and power, the more we diminish the capacity for justice and truth. We just finished a session on Rosa Luxemburg, who i think of all revolutionary theorist probably understood this best. It is important that we revealed these movements. Now, movements that have been destroyed cautiously in the name of anti communism, especially at this crisis moments within the american political and Economic System where we are teetering on the brink of a very frightening form of proto pashas and. One of the mistakes that Bernie Sanders makes, a mistake but i have called him out on the parking of this campaign was the decision to run within the embrace of the Democratic Party. We are now watching Bernie Sanders supporters and i think arguably sanders himself confront the fact that this has been a rigged system. That when you have a system lets not forget, by the way, that the cost of running the primaries is paid for by the taxpayer and get the primary rules are determined by the Democratic Party. So that they can manipulate a system that they did in nevada, to steal the boat from sanders. They lockout independence. This is why in that last cycle sanders only one rhode island pic that was the only state in which independents or allowed to vote. You have a system of the superdelegates. You have money from super pacs. Its very clear that without all of these mechanisms, sanders would win the nomination. Yet, through this long process we have been given possible evidence that democracy within the United States is a facade and whereabouts to enter an electoral process with two president ial candidates who have the highest negativity rating in american history, donald trump being number one and Hillary Clinton number two. Those of us who care about recovering Agency Within our country, overthrowing the corporate coup detat that has taken place and just for Homeland Security who might be here tonight, let me repeat that work, thats called overthrow. We are going to have to step outside that system and build movements that resist. We are going to have to free ourselves from the insidious mantra of the least worst because it doesnt work every election cycle we are fed the mantra of the least worst and it gets worse. Because our twoparty monopoly, it has a different rhetoric, serves the same centers of power. That is why on all of the major structural issues there has been complete continuity between george w. Bush and barack obama with the caveat that barack obama assault on Civil Liberties has been worse. I speak as a plaintiff in a lawsuit that are brought against the president of her section 1021 of the National Defense authorization act. This is a provision that overturns the 1878 acts that prohibits the military from carrying out domestic policing. Much to the chagrin of the Obama Administration , we won in the Southern District court of new york. Judge kathryn b forrest in a very lucid opinion explaining her ruling, 112 pages, said that what this act does is empower the government to criminalize an entire category of people and detain them without due process and she brought up the plight of the 110,000 japanese americans who work detained in world war ii. Because this section authorizes the us military on the streets of our cities to carry out extraordinary rendition against us citizens, deny them due process and the state deems them to be a terrorist and hold them indefinitely in our black sites including our offshore penal columns. The twoyear Legal Process the Obama Administration immediately appealed, they immediately appealed, the day of the ruling they went in to judge a and they demanded that she left her temporary injunction in the name of National Security and when the federal attorneys came in they now came in with attorneys from the nsa. Judge of forest to her credit refused. That was on a friday afternoon. At 9 00 a. M. In the Second Circuit or Appellate Court of new york demanding the same thing, unfortunately, the Second Circuit agreed. Lawyers bruce efron and carl mayer i wonder why. We knew they would appeal, but why were they so aggressive and the only thing we could surmise is because they are already using the law. They are already dual nationals, pakistani us nationals being held in black sites and if they could get out and if they could get legal representation, the government would be held in contempt of court. What was the response the Second Circuit with appellate judges, they review the case. They wouldnt rule, they wouldnt rule that, they wouldnt rule for months and during that time though boyers went to nancy pelosi and said because this provision is renewed every year at all you have to do is to insert into the provision that us citizens are exempt. Of course, they did not because it was written for us citizens. So, what does the Second Circuit do . It doesnt want to rule on the merits of the case because its on unconstitutional. Is essentially another example of how the courts have become wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state and revoke constitutional rights. What they did was wait for a Supreme Court ruling called clapper versus Amnesty International. I was a plaintiff in that ruling. This was challenging the governments wholesale surveillance before the snowed in revelation. The federal attorneys got up, the government attorneys got up in the Supreme Court and said that i am i any other plaintiffs did not have a right to bring the case because the idea of the government was watching us was speculation and they added if the government was watching us, they would tell us. [laughter] so, the Supreme Court by this argument threw it out and then the Second Circuit said hedges doesnt have standing in clapper versus Amnesty International to do therefore, he doesnt have standing in hedges versus obama. Are set participate the cylinder obama. Obama use the espionage act to destroy was so boyers once sought out independent journalists to expose corruption, malfeasance and crime against government and here we must honor two of our greatest whistleblowers, Chelsea Manning. [applause]. And edward snowden. If you dont have a thirdparty option, then i would encourage you to to just writing Chelsea Manning or edward snowden. Let me talk a little bit about whats coming. I think sanders made a disastrous mistake. I understand his logic. When schama and i asked him or encouraged him to run as an independent he answered i dont want to end up like ralph nader. What he really said is i dont want to take on the Democratic Party establishment and become a political pariah. Because sanders has played, i think, or built a very fast environment with the Democratic Party. He campaign with bill clinton and to. He campaigned in 96 with clinton after the structure of our welfare system and remember under original welfare guidelines 70 of the recipients were children. After the 1994 bill that exploded the system amasa kars ration that i went to address a little bit at the end. Deregulation of the fcc during the airwaves over to roughly one half dozen corporations. In 2004, sanders was calling on nader to suspend his campaign. Sanders has always served as a kind of watchdog for the Democratic Party and in return, they have not mounted a Serious Campaign to unseat him in vermont and he in turn has to never think he can to stymie thirdparty movements in for my. I think sanders honestly believes he had a chance. I think we are watching now illegitimate anger on the part of sanders and those around him as they understand that the game was fixed from the beginning. Yet, i fear that sanders will do what he says hes going to do, which is endorse the democratic nominee. At that moment sanders becomes an impediment to social change. If Bernie Sanders is not want to build a thirdparty movement, then we are going to have to build it without him. We are going to have to free ourselves from this belief that we are going to make serious social change within the confines of a particular elect oral site we are going to have to begin to organize and recognize that what we are building towards maybe 10 years away. When teresa began it was pulling 4 . By the time it took power it had a majority within greece. We have to hold fast to that moral imperative. We have to stand up and be willing to defy the system. We have to step outside of the system. The system will be ruthless in terms of its response. But, we are reaching moment of convergence, of deadly environmental degradation, breakdown, we are already watching it. Many of the refugees and migrants that are streaming into europe, yes, there is more, but theres also tremendous drought in syria. And at this system is incapable of responding in a rational way. To the degradation of the environment caused by the fossil fuel industry and lets me not forget that animal agricultural industry. Wall street has been unleashed once again with money that has been given by the fed at roughly 0 interest and so at some point we are going to see another financial crisis that may be planned with an ecological crisis and at that point in breakdown within a system that is incapable of responding, except to further enrich and empower and Global Corporate elite. You will have large segments of the population, we are also witnessing this, in europe, turning to these total fascist forces embodied in figures like trump. Richard in his book, the last book you wrote warned that the inability of self identified liberal elites to respond to the suffering of the underclass while it continued to speak in the language of diversity and multicultural he was actually empowering the native racist, homophobic forces that are gathering around trump. Because they redefine empowerment. What is feminism become . Not empowering oppressed women the way Andrea Dworkin called us to do, but by having a woman president or a woman ceo. That lie, which was perpetuated by liberal elites because the us hold on people of color has been far more draconian than it has been on the workingclass allows demagogues like trump to selling message to dispossessed whites that they have been disadvantaged or disenfranchised because entitlements have been given to other marginalized groups. And the light of our liberally beat has essentially come back, a kind of blowback against if Hillary Clinton becomes president , a figure, a political figure who embodies everything on h a side of political spectrum we had become too the test. And you may get rid of trump, but you will vomit up someone even more bio. And the only way were going to be able to break the back of this rising part of fascist movement tied to the gun culture and christian rights is to build a viable left that holds fast to the moral imperative of defending the interest of working men and women in this country and as willing to be pushed outside of power for certain period of time, rather than dilute or give up that moral imperative, which is something by the way that Rosa Luxemburg understood. Its we who have to do it. If we dont do it, then we are going to see ourselves sliding to a very frightening form of despotism, one where a state or a system of neoliberalism which has lost all credit ability is forced to maintain my carrying out increasingly more vicious and brutal forms of violence. This is something hannah understood in origins of totalitarianism, when she wrote about the stateless, which is essentially what people of color and marginal communities are, stateless. They have no rights. They have been taken from them. Police service judge, jury and executioner and i teach as you heard in a prison. I just finished teaching sheldon woolens great work politics and vision to my class. 94 of the people in a prison system ever had a trial because the system is designed to deny them a trial. In fact, students i teach you have the longest sentences went to trial and they were punished for it. Because they stack charges against you and then they barter like a poker game, but if you go to court all of those charges are arrayed against you and have to give you a longer sentence because they usually example. They say look, he went to trial or she went to trial and thats the sentence they got, so you better take the sentence we are offering. You can understand the awful dynamics of the corporate state by looking at what it does to the most vulnerable among us and the best place to do that is in a prison or corporations have reached their deadly tentacles down to every facet of prison life. Global telling, which is taking over the phone service and lets remember the phone is the primary way that children remain in contact with their incarcerated parents. Board to met five times higher than what we pay. Commentary has been privatized. Prices have ratcheted up words in new jersey you make 20 a month for 40 hours a week. Its neo silly very alive and well. Prices are now beyond reach. You are no longer given shoes in the state of new jersey. You have to spend 45 or a pair of reeboks. If you send a Money Transfer is privatized so you send 20 and get a pulled up 4. 95 set service be come on and on and on. Fees are now impose on you in prison. For instance, if you have a brief visit to someone who is dying or you visit a member of the immediate family who is dead, 15 minutes you get. You pay for the guards. Overtime is 900. My students are getting out of prison thousands of dollars in debt and when they get out of prison thousands of dollars in debt as ex felons they can get jobs number one because there arent any jobs the number two is they are demonized if they cant maintain those payments, they go right back into prison and thats why that guy who got stopped for a taillight runs and is shot in the back. Some people say the system a massive copper incarceration doesnt work. No, no, they are wrong. It works just the way its designed to work. It works because we have created with the loss of our Manufacturing Base and the assault on our workingclass a group of surplus labor who do not they are brown and black bodies that do not generate an income for corporation until they are locked in cages where they can generate 40 or 50000 a year. The students i teach understand thats reformist are going to become from state legislatures or congress because correction Corporate America have all got their lobbyist their writing legislation. Though on Corrections Corporation of america, the largest forprofit prison complex in the country and on the website it says we are a good investment because there are 67 recidivism rate in the United States, which is why no there are no programs. They understand, as theyve done and i will close with this that the only mechanism left is to carry out nationwide work stoppages within those prisons because the prison can operate unless you have prison labor. That is an example for all of us. They just carried one out in alabama, georgia on the anniversary of attica on september 9, they are organizing a nationwide prison stoppage and as they have said over and over, dont go demonstrate in front of a courthouse. When we carry out that work stoppage, come to the parking lot of the prisons and stand with us and let us all follow their example. Let us understand that if we mobilize and stand up and begin to distrust disrupt the system we can take power back into our own hands and eventually build in the years ahead towards the destruction of the corporate state. Thank you. [applause]. So, i love chris, but i dont know that id agree with you about Bernie Sanders that he shouldve run separate because i think he has done on amazing thing within the Democratic Party, which is get a lot of young people engaged and educate millions and millions of americans about the economic, the tremendous economic disparity in this country, talk about issues of mass incarceration, people havent heard that before, incorporate the issue that black lives matter has brought to him and also show tremendous split in the Democratic Party. If bernie hadnt run, you wouldnt see that there is on one side a Democratic Party thats represented by Hillary Clinton and wall street and the weapons industry and all thats wrong in this country and the other side are people who really want to see the Democratic Party represents their values and those are values that Bernie Sanders is standing for. So, raise your hand if you worked on her voted for bernie. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for Hillary Clinton. Now, you might see thats just a very small sprinkling here. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for bill stein. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for gary johnson, libertarian. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for donald trump. We have one gentleman over there, one over there. So, its fascinating times in this country. Its a fascinating time to be with a group like this and its a fascinating time to think about the opportunities that we have now and that we are going to have next january. First, went to just summarize what has happened to the Peace Movement under obama. Lets remember that obama came to power because he beat Hillary Clinton and he beat till her clinton why . The iraq war. The iraq war, he was perceived as a peace candidate and thats how he became president. Now, lets give him credit for a couple of good things, really good things that have happened in these last seven plus years. One, that iran nuclear deal, incredibly important, done against great odds with the help of a lot of people in this room, im sure, but going up against big lobby groups like aipac, going up against israel, going up against a lot of powers that did not want to see this go through and it won others cuba. Lets recognize that obama did an amazing job opening up to cuba. Theres still a lot to be done. The embargo still exists, but lets recognize these are two diplomatic successes that happened under his administration, but also lets not forget it did not happen while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. They happened after Hillary Clinton left and john kerry came in and acted more like a diplomat. So, those are two positive things that have happened, but there have been so me bad things that have happened on the Foreign Policy front. Lets remember that this peace president as a border flanders said who got the Nobel Peace Prize did not get us out of the wars in iraq or afghanistan, has bombed seven countries at least, iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, libya and syria, has not closed guantanamo as he promised. In fact, instead of closing guantanamo he would have been embarrassed to put more prisoners into guantanamo and his answer was instead to use it drones to just kill people instead of capturing them and imprisoning them and so he became the drone commanderinchief that has spread this friend is technology, not only been used in the United States, but is spreading to many other countries around the world. He didnt close the over a hundred military bases we have overseas. In fact, has been involved in building new bases. In case anyone hasnt noticed, all of this militarism has not led to a decrease in terrorist groups, has only led to a spread in a change of name from things like al qaeda to the islamic state. Trump, the other hand, is saying we need to rebuild the military if i get elected. As if the military needs Something Like more money. 632 billion, the budget this year, obscene amount of money, but that even hides other money not considered with the pentagon budget , but if you put them together like that are in a fair, many from the energy apartment that goes for Nuclear Weapons and you at all that together its not a chilean dollars. Not only is a 54 of all of our discretionary money, but its more money than the rest of the world combined. We have the most grotesque of military in terms of our taxpayer dollars and guess what, they cant win awards a war and thats not because they are underfunded. Its because they are sent to fight an unwinnable wars that we have to get out of here. Lets not just blame it on barack obama. Lets look at congress. I live in washington dc now, and unfortunately i get to see it up close and raw when you go into these congressional hearings and you see these congresspeople from the democrats and republican side falling over each other to give more money to the pentagon then the pentagon even asks for. When the pentagon wants to close a base here and there, Congress Says no, you couldnt close that base it in my district. It will mean jobs. When the pentagon says, we dont need those c17 planes anymore, they are old, they are not useful , the cargo planes , the Congress Says no, we couldnt possibly kill the program. It would mean 35000 jobs and it would be in my district. Of course, the weapons manufacturers know this game all too well. It is their game, after all. They make the parts of their weapons in as many Congressional Districts as possible, take the most expensive weapons in the history of the world, the f35, medium pieces of it in every single Congressional District and of the weapons manufacturers then give money to the congresspeople in those districts, so the Congress People keep pushing those weapons and the congresspeople turnaround and they dont say, of course, we have to keep these weapons going so i can get money for my campaign. Instead, they say jobs, jobs, jobs. Now, what an insane way to have a job program. After all, the military is probably the only Job Creation Program we have in the United States. Millions of people are employed and activeduty and reserve. Millions and millions more for feeding the military machine and it is, you know, i dont think you would call a socialist. Hes a pretty mainstream economist on cnn, writes for the Washington Post and he calls the us military the largest socialist economy in the world. He says its cradle to grave socialism. You get your money. You get your early retirement. You get your pension. You could health care for life and your family you get free housing. You get daycare. You get early retirement. You get good use from movie theaters to golf courses. It is, indeed, a jobs program. The former secretary of state robert gates said, i dont know if he was posting, but he said there are more members in the military marching band than there are in the entire state Department Foreign service. Insane jobs program. Making things that make us unsafe. Nothing we need to live. They dont make food. They dont make things for us to where to house ourselves. Create a lot more jobs than the military would create, and it doesnt keep us safe. There are more than groups that would like to attack us than there were before. Isis is indeed a threat. We just see probably terrorist attack on the plane that came down going from france to egypt. But lets remember what Martin Luther king said at the time of the vietnam war stance to today, the u. S. Is the largest purveyor of violence in the world, and its not only the violence that the u. S. Does directly. Its also the indirect violence because our number one industrial export right now is what . Weapons. And when youre number one export is weapons, your number one Global Marketing strategy is . War. Endless war. So the u. S. Sells weapons, lots and lots of weapons, and the number one purchaser of u. S. Weapons is . No, its not israel. Saudi arainy. Thats right. Think sow on seward this is. Saudi arabia, number one in beheadings in the world, country that treats women as minors their entire lives. The only country in the world where women are not even allowed to drive. A country that exports extremism. Would labie jim, the distorted follower of islam exported around the world, thanks to the petro dollars the saudis have. The saudis, who got involved in the internal affairs of yemen, dropping bombs since march of last year, that have killed thousands of people, thousands of innocent people, that have taken that poor country of yemen to the extreme of the humanitarian crisis. With our weapons, including cluster bombs banned by the international community, that makes us complicit in war crimes. The saudis are number one purchaser of weapons. The number one recipient of u. S. Military money is . Israel. Another major human rights violator, an apartheid state that on a daily basis is oppressing oppressing oppressing the palestinian. That state is the number one recipient of our tax dollars to the tune of billions a year but thats not enough for the israeli government. To give their okay to the iran deal they said you must give us billions more. They wanted 5 billion. Obama said 4 billion. Were at 4 bill, negotiations still going on. They want more. This is where our tax dollars go. This where is our weapons go. Number two recipient, military aid, egypt. An extreme violator of human rights that came to power through a coup, and its not enough to sell those weapons overseas. Those weapons manufacturers, the grady weapons manufacturers that pope francis said have blood on their hands, are also looking for more internal markets. They look at the 18,000 Police Departments in the United States, and they want to sell their weapons and their tanks, their assault rifles, their grenade launchers, their drones. They want to sell them right here in our communities. To put down our own people. Particularly poor people of color, who are the victims of the militarization of our Police Forces. So, here we have a war economy out of control. A weapons a military Industrial Complex out of control. And a Peace Movement that has been incapable of striking fear into those in power and moving them away from this military Industrial Complex. So let recognize that another place we have to put blame for all of is it ourselves. For not being okayable of building capable of building the kind of movement we need, Effective Movement to put pressure in places we need to put it. So now we look at the opportunities that we have. When obama came in our Peace Movement died. We had a strong Peace Movement under bush. Obama came in, people said that peace president is going to take care of it. He obviously didnt. Well, fool me once, what did president bush say . Dont fool me again. I think one positive we can say about a prospect of either a Hillary Clinton or a donald Trump Presidency is, we will be not fooled again. [applause] there are no illusions that either donald trump or Hillary Clinton are going to be the peace president s we need. There is no illusion that they are going to get us out of the endless wars. Its interesting that donald trump has said a couple of interesting things, hasnt he . Like that nato is obsolete. Thats a great thing to say. It certainly is obsolete. Even said he would talk to kim jongun of north korea. Thats a positive thing to say. But lets not be fooled by donald trump, and remember at the heart of his campaign is the obama phobia he has been preaching as the antiimmigrant, hatred he has been preaching. He has even said he would bring back torture do whatever you have to do. So donald trump is certainly not going to be a peace president. But that gives us the opening because people will be ready to protest. In fact, just yesterday, in d. C. We protested at the opening of Hillary Clintons offices, and it was quite awe musing amusing we went as billionaire for hillary. We went as with signs that said, i make weapons, i love hillary. Wall street loves hillary. And we stood outside as the mayor of washington, dc went in, as different officials went in, and they looked at us and kind of horror as we said, we are the one percent. We want hillary for president. And hillary, hillary, shes our gal, take our corporate money now. But the workers who were working for those officials came out and said to us, thank you for being here. We agree with you 100 . There are lots of people that agree with us. And that are happy to see us protesting already from the getgo. About hillary taking money from wall street, about hillary representing the weapons industry, about hillary taking 10 million decide from the saudis as part of the clinton foundation. These are things that have to be exposed. Whether or not Hillary Clinton makes it to the white house, we need these movements to pressure her, and the other thing we need to do is build an alternative to the war economy that does not depend on who is in the white house. And let me just say, on building this alternative economy, its a couple of things and one is happening already on a very wide scale, which is called the localized economy. Im sure that many of you are part of it. Instead of investing in big banks, you invest in credit unions. Instead of buying from factory farms you buy from local farmers and organic farms inend stead of buying from sweat shots shots yy from Thrift Stores and you reuse and recycle. Instead of buying fracked oil you buy your energy from solar and wind. This is the kind of economy we have to build, and from the war economy, we have to convert from the top down. Remember conversion. It was a big thing during the 70s and 80s. Have to take the military bases and the factories and turn them into the wind farms we need. Turn them into the solar farms we need. Instead of agents destroyers in the gulf we should turn them into floethe hospitals that take care of the refugees and the people who are fleeing from the wars we start and the people who are fleeing from the natural disasters from the climate crisis. This is what we need. To turn the war economy into. So i want to end by saying, we have a tremendous opportunity to show that whether its donald trump or Hillary Clinton, they represent an economy that is built on competition. We want one built on cooperation. Instead of one thats built on constant growth that destroy this future, we want one built on sustainability. Instead of one built on us versus them, we went wasnt built on interconnectiveness. Instead of one that judges success like donald trump from casinos to Luxury Hotels to government courses we want one measured eye Healthy Community and healthy echo systems. We want a vision that engages and inspired people and uniteses freeman from the black lives matter movement, the Peace Movement, the environmentat movement, the labor right is, the artists to students to say we will only give peace a chance when we challenge those in power and replace the war economy with a local peace economy. The. [applause] friend, very happy to be here. Some of us have been watching mic is not on . Can you hear me now . Yes. I said its very glad to be here. Especially at this time. Because though were talking about the president ial candidates, senator clinton and donald trump, what is really been exciting watching what is going on from afar in the United States has been these huge mobilizations of young people in favor of a candidate who talks of socialism. We can [applause] and what it i want to tell you is thats this movement of young people, which is brought many more people together than one could have imagined, much larger than any Political Campaign i remember, involving trying to go for it against the mainstream, than at any other time in recent american history. The vietnam antivietnam war movement didnt create a political side to it. Even though Martin Luther king was talking another running as an alternative president , not inside the Democratic Party but together with dr. Spock, challenging the Democratic Party. That didnt happen. One reason it didnt happen is he was killed. What we are witnessing is a very interesting radicalization and a radicalization of young people which is happening in most countries in europe today. Why . Since the 2008 wall street crash many people felt, especially those who had absolutely no idea or no alternative view, that somehow the governments of the world, the rulers of the world, capitalist world, would manage to put something new in place that would give some comfort to the poor and to the young, who suffer even more on many levels, lack of housing, too much to pay for education, and increasingly in some parts of europe, health as well. So we have National Health services there under very heavy fire and attack from American Health corporations who are increasingly being given contracts by stateowned Health Services as part of the near liberal system. So in this situation it was felt that if the elite, who ruled the world, were a bit more rational, they would attempt to put in place something different, something that has been tried before. Didnt happen. And after a short wait, you had the emergence of new Popular Movements from the left and you had the emergence of mass movements from the right. This process began in different ways and different countries, but we can now see a pattern, as we can see in the United States, too. And this pattern is as follows. You have had the only country where you dont have a far right movement is spain, because the left have been very dominant in Spanish Society and spanish political culture, but the conservative party in that country, the socalled popular party, has been moving further and further to the right itself. And all these movements had one thing in common. They development from the grassroots. They developed often in one part of the country, either a region, sicily in the case of the fivestar movement madrid in the case of the occupation of the squares in spain and then spread rapidly from there to the rest of the country. We have been witnessing now, even as i speak, the rise of a new Popular Movement in france, again a movement which pushes all the established Political Parties to one side and says, we dont trust you. All the intellectuals who serve these parties, we dont trust you. Keep away. Move away. We want to unite with trade unions to fight against the new laws that the french socialist government socalled is bringing and putting on to the statute to restrict labor rights in france. This Movement Comes together at night. Some of them work during the day. Others think its a nice time to do it, to occupy the night. The night rising. And they meet and increasingly this movement, which started in paris, is spreading spreading as spread to other parts of france. There have been clashes with the riot police, et cetera, et cetera. In britain, the radicalization took a different form. Much to everyones surprise, something odd happened. And what happened was that in order to reduce the power of the trade unions and the Labor Movement inside the labor party, the labor right was pushing for a virtual primary system but different. That none who was a lay bowr supporter and paid three pounds could join the labour party and participate in election of the leadership of this party. Thats how it happened. They assumed that, like in france, this would benefit the right because people on the right generally assumed that most people are like them. In britain this turned out not be the case. Once this rule came into effect and one of the candidates war jeremy corebin, a longtime campaigner against the wars in the middle east, a longtime defender of palestinian rights s who has said for decades the Trident Nuclear missiles in britain should be got rid of. He said all this in his campaigning for the labour part leadership, and they had to discuss this on television. Unlike here they couldnt pick and choose because if the other candidates were on, he had to be on, and lots of young people who had not heard these things before, never heard of them, and he said that one of the things he would do if elected leader of the labour party would be to renationalize the railway networks, would be to end privatize as of eddo privatization of education and end all fees tour,s have been forced to pay for higher education. [applause] within weeks, 200,000 people have paid their three pounds and joined the labour party. I didnt do it out of principle. Many of my friends did. And they voted to the astonishment of the media, which had been denouncing him as a crazy and a looney, living in a different world, dinosaur. Well, he got elected leader of the labour party and that has now created huge problems within the labour party and between corebin and the establishment. This is in print, the socalled mother land of democracy. That a senior general gave an interview to the sunday times, one of murdochs papers, saying if corbyn was elected. The army would mutiny and refuse to obey orders. Another general appeared on a breakfast time situation show saying the decision not to tisch the trident would weeken Great Britain and corbyn was not so when one was asked, what the hell is going on, cant you control the army . This is unheard of in britain. He said it was technically, you know, of course, the queen is the commander in chief of the army. So i wrote at the time that is fine, then. We all want to live under a banana monarchy because that what they are saying. So the campaign against corbyn has been huge, and so far things have been proceeding, not too badly. Attempts to force him to retreat on trident have failed. And his popularity is slowly growing. And attempts to remove him as leader of the labour party, opinion poll after opinion poll, shows if they did that and he stood again, he would get larger majorities as leader. [applause] now, in spain, a mass Popular Movement, organized itself as a loose party, a party movement, a movement party. Not a traditional party. And came within two Percentage Points of defeating the traditional rightwing socialist party in that country. I say this very carefully and cautiously simply to register there is anger on the streets and in peoples homes, and this is the way they responsibility. This is the way this generation is responding. Corbyn, in britain, sanders here, moms challenging social democracy there, what irthe demands . Effectively. If one is totally frank, what these people are demanding from the rulers and from the bankers who run this world, is a little bit of social democracy. Not too much. Theyre saying we wont ask for too much. But we do want a Health System that is not privatized. He do want free education. We want cheap homes and we want our railways taken back. We dont want all the utilities being privatized in ireland there was a huge struggle against water privatization, so, in these movements, by demanding little there, attracting huge numbers of people, and the question then comes, is the capitalist state in these countries prepared to accept a government elected on the basis of these demands . The indications are not good. Because what we are witnessing effectively is a hollowing out of the democratic process itself, as kris has been talking about. That they dont care anymore. They dont need to prove that theyre democrats to anyone. Gone are the days of the cold war when the idea of giving more space to dissidents in the media was necessary to show the communist world, look, were better than you. Thats all gone. They dont need to prove it and they feel they can do what they want. And when theres resistance, they try their initial reaction is to try and crush it ideologically. Saying you are putins agents or youre working for terrorism or youre doing this or youre under the grip of hasan. By the way the country in europe which is the most islamophobeic, more than the u. S. , is france. Horrific. Islamophobia has infected a large chunk of their intellectuals. When the kids and the values, the suburbs, struggle, very few white organizations of the left come in support of them. You can name three or four intellectuals who defend them. So islamophobia is huge. Ive been twice to france, and whenever i was interviewed, the shock and horror when they said, once at a public event, not unlike this, but five or six people said, and you now have a muslim mayor in london . I said, i know. France is in state of shock. But were in a state of shock because hes a very rightwing mayor. He completely defends corporate interests. He is completely opposed to what Jeremy Corbyn stands for, and he is cozying up to those who attacked him, the conservatives. So, its big for you that we have a muslim mayor, but we judge him not by his skin color or his religion, but by his politics and by what he is going to do. That is our definition. [applause] because this is not a big deal in britain. Lots of members of parliament not lots but a fair amount of muslim, of muslim origin, a conservative member of the government, cabinet, the business secretary, no less, is of muslim origin. The former chair person of the conservative party who resigned at chair person i, is a muslim and they come like the new mayor from humble backgrounds. The fathers were first generation migrants. So its a huge mistake to fall into the trap of thinking automatically identity is the the politics of identity are progressive. Sometimes they are. Obviously in black lives matter, its a Huge Movement and a very Welcome Movement and a movement which is broken with all the opportunityist below politicians who hung on the coattails of democratic politicians. Thats the most important thing about black lives matter. But the case of asian politicians in europe is very different. Very different. So each has to be judged according to their politics. And what they do when they come too far. I just want to speak briefly about which madea has done eloquently, about the state of the middle east. You know, this is a part of the world that was made into what it is after the First World War when the british and french armies went in and created the small states. Prior to this, the middle east was one area, the arab world, and dominated by large cities. Under the rule of the ottomans. A very lose rule so you could go to school in awe man, in jordan. You could go to a better school, secondary school, in jerusalem, and you could get your University Degree in cairo or damascus. Thats how that world used to function. Then came the First World War, and the division of the middle east, the arab east, into little states, and british Civil Servants, imperial Civil Servants used to boast, when asked, howl did you draw the borders of iraq . And gertrude bell, the Civil Servant in question, she said with a stick in the sand. That how we did it. Now we are witnessing a new imperial process, carried out by this empire, whose citizens you all love, of redividing the middle east and in even a more reactionary fashion. The invasion of iraq, what did it effectively do . By destroying the previous state completely, something they didnt do in japan after the second world war, something they didnt do in italy after the second world war, where 60 to 70 of fascist personnel in the armed forces, the police, the judiciary, were retained. They didnt even do fully in germany, in west germany. 20 230 of the previous personnel, including the chiefs of the Intelligence Services of the third reich were retain id by the United States to fight the new cold war, but iraq, completely different. Destroying every single remnant of the old state. Hand over power to shiite clerical parties, and the result has been a disaster. A disaster. Nearly two Million People killed during the occupation of iraq. Five million orphans. Millions of refugees in neighboring countries. And the war in iraq, which we were told was over, now more troops are being sent in to fight isis, which was created by the first war in the first place, have gone on longer than the First World War, longer than the second world war, the wars in afghanistan have gone on longer than the last vietnam war and longer then the first and second world war. And you know when a country is occupied, however it is occupied, it has a deeply damaging effect on the psyche of all its people, regardless of which religious faction they come from. And this is now what is happening. Very few people think that iraq can survive as a state. Northern iraq, the kurdish areas, are already an americanisraeli protectorat and function as such. The iranians control shiite iraq, the saudis, through isis, are trying to control another part of iraq, so the old iraq that remained united for good or for bad, since the First World War, is about to be divided again. Syria, virtually the same thing is going on there. Because it is in the interests of the empire and its close allies in the region, saudi arabia and israel, to divide them into little tiny statelets, which can be controlled from outside. Hence the destruction of the iraqi army was considered vital. It was the last one of the last sovereign states, hence the destruction of syria, regardless of the absurdities or crimes of their rulers. Has to be destroyed to destroy any states which have sovereignty. That is not permitted. In this day and age. Afghanistan is a complete and utter mess. And as some of us argued when the first went in, this war is going to go into pakistan, and it has done, wrecking the social fabric of that country. And the drone attacks dont help. You know, there was a remarkable situation some years ago when the iranian government, which was then considered a top level enemy government, a policeman fighting against demonstrators which was of course wrong accidentally killed a young girl. Everyone admits it sun deliberate. It happens here all the time. It was an accident. Obama emerged front the white house lawn trying to squeeze out a tear. The American Press went absolutely crazy. And that very the headlines and that very same day, in pakistan, a drone attack had killed 56 women and children, when they targeted a school by mistake. Not a mention in most western newspapers. And it is these double standards that drive people mad and crazy, and they want revenge. Its not too difficult to understand why many young muslims are going in this direction, to be frank im surprised there are not more. One should be pleased there are not more. Because given the extent of the provocation, this is what they want to do. Take revenge. Why can they get away with killing us. What shouldnt we do the same . And of course, one argues sometimes against this when im confronted with it, but you must say, you people are, you know you dont know how to fight, et cetera, et cetera. They say that. So, in such a situation, what is what are we going to do . Well in the United States, of course, those who live here know better than me, but again, watching it from afar, i think the model which medea has outlined, local strength, Building Local grassroots, i would add to that, Building Political bases locally and on a statewide level before expending our energies on a national campaign, thats what the left is capable of doing. The seattle example is a very good one. When an Excellent Campaign by a socialist has resulted in her winning election again to the council, despite heavy democratic action against her and the democrats trying to find a candidate of color, et cetera. They won. Its a good model. And one shouldnt sit back [applause] one shouldnt sit back and do nothing and wait, and that is the encouraging thing. I have to be honest with you. When i read some opinion polls which said that 30 of those who have been supporting bernie have said they will not under any circumstances vote for Hillary Clinton. [applause] i think thats positive. We live in a very strange world. A world of transition. In which the system that is in place is not working. Everyone knows its not working. We know its not working, and those who run the system know its not working. Because were it working even a tiny bit, then all these jokers in wall street, the bankers who stole money, half of theme theme half of them would be in prison for what they did. [applause] thats what happen in a tiny little place called iceland. You heard of iceland . They locked up most of the bankers involved in deals like this, and said, you go to prison for stealing from your own people. Thats what happened. But in the countries, the large countries, none of this has taken place. And while on the subject of crime and punishment, who is being punished for the war in iraq . [applause] no one. I mean, at the very least the United States should offer one person to be tried at the criminal court, and that could be dick cheney. He would be a popular choice as war criminal. [applause] so, laws that supposedly apply to others, do not apply to the United States or its allies. And were in a situation where its become virtually impossible for mainstream parties and even left groups and left parties, only the italian parties are saying, withdraw from nato. We dont want to be part of a military alliance. The labour party in print has not called it. Saying we should quit nato so there are lots of problems. So this transitionals offers solutions, and these solutions are in flux at the moment. There are left futures ahead. We see them. You know, in small ways in different parts of the world, though there have been defeats here and there, but i think that we are also on the eve of change in some shape or form because the only other choice that exists is that of the extreme right, which is much, much stronger than us all over western europe and north america, particularly in this country. So we have to do something. We have to organize. We have to fight back and on every possible level. Thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much to our different panelists who spoke. Were going to do a quick q a wait. Were going to talk here and then take three questions but they need to come to the front right here. While people are moving around, quick comments. Had a question for you, chris, bat surveillance and what function you think surveillance the surveillance state is what function its serving. Particularly what function it is serving visavis our social movements. Chen your government watches you 24 hours a day, which our government is doing, you cannot use the word liberty. That is the relationship between a master and slade hold on, if youre leaving, please, you need to respect the conversation is continuing. So, please keep your conversation to outside the hall. People at the back pipe down. The fact i should say im only taking three questions and theyre not from three white men. [applause] so, work it out among yourselves but i dont see him in women here. The problem is that the corporate elites have created a system through militarized police, the evisceration of Civil Liberties, wholesale surveillance, and this is already been completed in marginal communities, where rights have essentially become privileges, and privileges have going back to aaron once rights become privileges in a society then they can be taken away. Theyve created the perfect system of surveillance and oppression within communitieses 0 color, which have been effective demonize it bay Corporate Media and a political class, and the consequence is that when the rest of the system the population becomes as restive, all of the mechanisms are in place at the flip of a switch so we begin to suffer the excesses of power that we are culpable for because we did not stand up for poor people of color when the constitution was being shredded in front of their face. [applause] a question for you medea, a question has been the question of humanities peril. You travel. Now i sounds sappy but i mean it in an inspiring way. Where do you see humanity being claimed in the context of all of this . How do we rebuild our humanity . I see it in the challenges that people on the ground are making to the oppression. If you take the example of israel, the fact that throughout the world there is this very vibrant boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, is very inspiring, and when you hear Hillary Clinton say that bdf is evil and encourages students and their campuses to fight against it, think that just is going to inspire in the fall a tremendous movement on our campuses, and i think our young people are going to show us how they can stand up against Hillary Clintons bullying. Tariq, i have a question about ireland. Had the great pleasure of being back in ireland for the first time for many years on assignment and i was there for the 100th anniversary of the socalled easter rising, 1916. The first armed rebellion against colonial rule of the 20th century, i think. What was so striking to me was it has been 100 years so many anniversaries. In every instance, until this one, the main thrust of the debate in ireland, anyway, was whether the uprising was justified, whether the civilian deaths could be justified, whether this had how long had this tee laid independence for the the irish state had laid it on heavy and the debate had taken place in a very far i would say a very conservative part of the spectrum politically. This time, the complete opposite. Most people claiming the legacy, not just of the rebels but of the left flank of the rebels, particularly the james connelllys, those who talked about socialism, of the antinationallism, fighting empire. You saw a lot of focus on the women rebels who the ones at the same time were nurses and doctors but also snipers, and fighters. My question to you is one of the things i saw happening in ireland was just about every school child had been asked to write their own proclamation for 2016, and been asked to consider what would their republic of the 21st century look like . I wondered to what you see exercises like this happening in the countries that youre talking about. Or if you have any suggestions how we dock about really visualizing the future that we want to make, because presume my we need to start making it now rather than waiting for someone to hand it down to us. Well, the irish situation, the 1916 anniversary took place where ireland is confronting a huge economic crisis and where the European Union has imposed on its set of laws which do not allow the irish to carry out any spend us without permission from brussel, including on culture, and this is felt, of course, all over the country. Secondly, the European Union rules insist on privatization, which is what their economists have been advising the irish. The water privatization, the defeat of it bay mass Popular Movement, brought about the fall of the government, which was huge. Secondly, a number of radical leftwing socialist candidate have been elected for the first time in northern ireland, to the belfast parliament, group called people before profit. Two of their main campaigners were elected to parliament. Likewise, the water campaignerss and other radicals have been elected into the parliament in dublin and are playing a very good role by refusing to take sides in the old wars between the irish Political Parties. Look, ireland has a very special history, as you know, and each country has to rely and depend on itself own history, and the precedence in these countries, and bring them back to life. Here, of course, very few people talk about the slave rebellion. All of the groups of small groups but important groups of whites who helped the rebellions in the past in britain no one ever talks about the examples of the english revolution. After all, he can land was the first country to execute its monarchs. I remember saying this in us a central and i remember australia, and i remember a lot of eye wish people had gone there. I dont think they heard you england was the first country which decided, after a trial, to execute the king. And the french did it later, of course, and then the russians followed. And in the United States, i think that event, the english revolution, played a big part because a lot of the puritans who had come to the states before the english revolution, did have certain radical traditions, many of them forgot those but they existed and that must have played a part in preventing those who wanted the United States to become a monarchy, because there were some, amongst the founding fathers, who were keen on that, and that was reduced. So i think you know to answer your question, each country has elements in its past which are heroic, as the 1916 easter uprising, and they have to develop them. Its a good idea. Lets take some questions from the audience. I said i would take three and not all from men. So, the first three, have to shout. ll restate your question. [inaudible question] i has too have a question mark at the end. Yes. [inaudible question] your question . [inaudible question] all right. So thats a good question. What that the panel think of the slogan, drop food, not bombs in relation to syria. I think its a great slogan. We were just in congress this week with those very signs, and i agree that we have to say to our government it is not doing its part to make sure humanitarian aid gets to the bee sieged communities in syria and is not doing its part to allow Syrian Refugees into the country. We should be taking in over 100,000. The goal of 10,000 is ridiculous and we have only taken in 1,300, which is shameful. [applause] all right. Can you do as well with a question mark at the end . Yes. Yes . [inaudible question] what their parallels between the prison Industrial Complex and the military Industrial Complex. Thank you. Good sharp question. Chris . Go into any Inner City School and you can see that these kids are being conditioned for two routes. Both of which essentially rip from their freedom and that is the prison or the military. Those are the options. Recruiters are all over poor neighborhoods. And when you are in the school to prison pipeline, your surrounded by guards, go going through metal detectors, increasingfully charter schools. You are disciplined as if you were in the military. And of course, discipline inside a prison replicates discipline inside military structures. And so, yes, its a very important question. Because with the loss of manufacturing jobs, the rise of surplus labor, the Staggering Amount of unemployment 50 for black youth, higher if he count underemployment theyre being trained to either by cannon fodder or locked in cages. Anybody else want to comment on that . No. Next question. We dont have one. But come up here. Well help you. Go for it. Whats your question . Ill help. [inaudible question] the constitution set up public banks. All right. So the constitution [inaudible question] all right. Ive got a recommendation for you. [inaudible question] thank you. What do you think about reconstituting the public banks and i would encourage you to take a good look at the insold where we talked about that and democratizing the feds. I agree thats something that is absolutely necessary in building a peace economy and we have actually as codepink a new peace economy program. We have signup sheets. If you have not a had a chance to see it, please come after and sign up so we can Work Together to build public banks to build Public Institutions and the kind of localized economy that will take the power away from the corporations. Tariq, let me get you to come into this exlabor party under corbyn has pledged money to these associations. Worker cooperation in particular. They have done that but between pledging them and winning an election and coming to power, who knows what is going to happen. One has to be realistic because the pledges corbyn has made are very huge. Its going to be a big fight to renationalize the Railway System in the country, which is very popular demand supported by between 60 and 80 of the population and this has been the case for decades and the is he first platal leader who is going to do. The eu has challenged it. The conservative party and have they playwrights in his own party0. Every single thing its going to be a huge struggle, and if its just left to parliament and debates in parliament it wont get through. Anything you have to have big mass movements, popular moms, from below, like the movement that finally elected him, to be kept up, to maintain support, without them, i think, its going to be difficult. All right. I need to take a Group Conscience here weapon said three questions. Shy take three more . Okay, three more, quick. Come on up. [inaudible question] general chimney gives a bailout to greece, is that add to the principal. This is money given tigress so they can pay back what the borrowed before. Very little of that money all actually goes to the greek people who are suffering real starvation at the moment. I knock begin to describe our awful the situation is in greece. When the greek people wanted change, 61 of them voted to breck with all these measures. They strengthened their government. Unfortunately, their government capitulated to the europeans. Quickly, im. No sure anyone in this line wants to ask this question but i want to make we get each of you to respond briefly to the question of what is happening in latin latin americaings dough stabilizeis in argentina, brazil. I dont want to have the evening class without getting there. I think we have two sort of associated phenomenon. One is that the state department, i. E. The United States, has been trying to weaken, destablize the bolivarian government, the progressive governments in south america, ever since they came into office. So that is nothing new. And they werent able to do it. And one reason why they are able to do it, as the decline in the price of basic commodities i. E. Oil in the case of venezuela, has meant a huge economic crisis in that country, which they havent been able to tackle. Its not easy. Though some of the good advice was rejected. Similarly in argentina, so you have now attempts to constitutional attempts to topple madura, a constitutional coup against in brazil and an electoral victory for a total and complete rule in argentina. Argentina is well on the way to becoming the first hedge Fund Republic in south america. Thank you. Quick question from you. Just as capitalism emerged from feudalism, right now there are workers, producers, cooperatives, that are emerging. Question . The problem is the system and the system is capitalism. All the reforms you question . All the movements. My question is, do you see that the approach of workers, producer, selforganized cooperatives, on the model of in the Basque Country that really this is the future because its in front, and it deals with the issue of the system all right. Great question. Which is capitalism. Question mark. So, the worker cooperatives help . So, i think this has a lot to do with the last question about the public banks because you need public banks to be able to gift out loans to worker cooperatives bass the commercial banksnote going to do that kind of thing, and you need worker cooperatives to have decentralized power, and i think when i talked about localized peace economy, thats what were talk about, new ways of organizing. So thank you for bringing that up, and once again, if you want to work with us at codepink, come and talk to us. Jodi evans is in charge off our local peace Economy Campaign and we need more folks to work with us. I would just say exactly these kind of topics of worker democracy, of transformation of the workplace and of relations of production and distribution and consumption are the sorts of thing wes talk about on a weekly basis on our show. The three of you, come on up here. Our friends with the coop models are fascinating initiative. Quick. Im going to held this and youre going to come up with a great question. Oh, well, the first thing i want to say is in this society right now, a white male is not necessarily white and they are not necessarily male, and i dont think the white males that are here are the ones we are against. So in the interests of unity, i want the white males to know that they are equal to what i would have to say. Now, my other question is, 90 of my students are proBernie Sanders. I got the feeling that he was written off, yet ive never seen Hillary Clinton as threatened as he is right now and even just said that she would consider Bernie Sanders as her vice president. So, what im saying is, why is there a feeling, whether youre pro or against Bernie Sanders, that he is to be sort of written off to be in a position of power and control . Even if you dont agree with everything he says. Good question about bernie. Come on, your question, and then well get answers from the panelists. Well get answers. Just curious what we all think about how to get beyond geopolitics of separation and competition into a unified plan tear synergy and what is behind the paradigm of struggle in the world. This is on the subject of surveillance, people talk about using encryption to protect our dat dark but the nsa has methods of surveillance you cant encrypt. They have a grid of space satellites with 3 homes and my friend in the department of defense works for. The. Dr. Robert duncan. Com has info from him. He claims theyre spying on us and they have attacked people with radiation. We want to know what we can do to get this stopped and get people covering this issue, and nsa whistleblower support us and we have videos of them on the site. So three macro questions there. One, about what are we writing off Bernie Sanders, given what sort of threat he seems to be posing for Hillary Clinton. Two, what do we do to get on to a more harm honestly conner gent sphere and plain, and what do we do about the possibility that were being spied on. Let me address the issue of Bernie Sanders, i dont write him off. In fact, will shama, we encouraged bernie to run as an independent and shama has a theres a petition she has up calling on beryl any to run as an independent. So star from write as far as writing sanders off, we we are both concerned from the beginning he would be strangled by the democratic establish; has he has been, and that we have to begin to build, and if we are encouraging sanders to revoke, given the fact the election was stolen from him, revoke his commitment to support clinton, and with his agenda and the money he has raised and the enthusiasm that he is raised. Step outside the system and begin to build a movement. Im not writing sanders off. Following up on that, i think i was reading the Washington Post the other day and it had a screaming headline that said the majority millenials have a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism. That is quite astounding and that is thanks to Bernie Sanders. So Bernie Sanders has done something amazing for the young generation that treat is this old curmudgeon like a rock star and theyre going to use it to build a different system in this country. So nobody, i dont think here, is writing off be any sanders. We say, thank you, beryl any, for opening you have given to a lot of people, especially the young generation, and lets be inspired by that and hopeful that they are going to say, socialism is the way we want to go and were going to build it in a 21st century that fits what we want in United States, and thats very exciting. I think harmony and convergence is left for you, tariq. I want to say a few things about bernie, too. Because the campaign is having a huge impact globally. People cant believe what theyre watching on the web. Not on their Television Screens but certainly on the web, is these huge mobilizations, and it would be a big tragedy for the United States if these mobilizations simply disappeared once hillary gets it. I think she has got it. Theres no point in pretending she hasnt. If she didnt id be delighted, but i think she has. So the big question is, you build a movement and an important movement, democratic movement, a movement which talks about socialism, about dealing with the banks, but we cant, for the future, limit this movement to the electoral cycle of u. S. Politics. Something needs to be done. And it will happen if that is what the the kids want to happen, and i note that the young generation, the todays generation, has no problem with dinosaurs, either here you have bernie, or in britain we have Jeremy Corbyn, both of them are relatively the same age and that not effecting people. What is attracting them is the ideas which theyre putting forward, which many people respond to. The es