[Music]
welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and me gayathri
the transatlantic slave trade was
arguably the greatest crime in human
history in it the rich and powerful
having invaded and occupied the
countries of Africa and carried off
everything they could carry turn their
attention to every one they could carry
check off into the halls of leaking
various vessels increasingly British
ships men women and children stolen from
Africa were sealed across the seas as
slaves anyone who has visited the
slavery Museum in Liverpool will have
come away from it in something like a
state of a shock no reparation for this
crime committed against a continent and
against tens of millions of people has
ever been made in fact it was the slave
owners who were compensated when the
trade was abolished the descendants of
the slaves are now plentiful and among
us in every former slaver country some
of them cry out for justice and
organized to win it one of those is
Esther Stanford cose spokesperson of the
African Emancipation Day and the
reparations march committee estar
welcome back on the sputnik the March is
on Tuesday 9:00 a.m. from windra square
in Brixton I can't be there this year
but of course my heart will be and but
let's start with this depressing fact
every time we raise this on television
or when I raise on my radio show there
is a storm of hatred aggression and
denial actually from white people of
course by in surprisingly large numbers
now if that shocks me it probably
doesn't shock you
no it doesn't and this is part of the
problem there is what we call my anger
my easy to mock denial and manganese II
is a
kiswahili term but we use to describe
the transatlantic trafficking or
enslavement of African people but a
continuum from chattel enslavement
through colonialism to modern-day neo
colonialism so we do not use the term
transatlantic slave trade because that
term implies that this was just a
commercial venture gone wrong and
actually minimizes the massive genocide
that happened to African people and
still continues to happen well come on
to that I don't want to minimize that in
any way and I take your point entirely
but if one did look at the transatlantic
slave trade it is actually a mark of
such shame that you are ought to be that
you would think no one would come out of
the rabbit hole to effectively deny it
or deny any need for reparations for it
that's right and that just shows how we
are still not afforded in the eyes and I
think the hearts and minds of many white
people and other non African peoples are
full humanity there still isn't
recognition that we are human beings who
are entitled to justice who are entitled
to redress who are entitled to
recognition of our cause and that is
what we're really seeking to change with
this reparations movement we are seeking
to counter what we caught the Mangum
easy denial in the same way that
Holocaust Jewish Holocaust denial is a
crime in many countries but yet mangum
easy denial happens every day and it
happens even by some of those who are
deemed to be the most enlightened in
society so this shows the kind of real
insidious nature of the a free phobic
what we call white supremacist racism
that we still continue to face even at
the hands of liberals and so-called
white leftists who should know that
there was the word even more obvious
never one was the word even more
inappropriate but that's another of
other argument what are the demands then
of the committee and the March okay so
the March partners with this stop the
manganese II we charge genocide ecocide
campaign and what this campaign is
seeking to do is to call for the
establishment of the all-party
parliamentary commission of inquiry for
truth and reparatory justice this is a
commission that is connected to an
attempt to bring together many victims
of crimes against humanity at the hands
of European settler colonialism
genocides and various forms of
dispossession into a true alternative a
true court to world court that we call
the people's international tribunal for
global justice so the two go together
and what we are calling for is actually
let us have a dialogue with British
state and civil society as to the
manganese II what it is what it's causes
have been and what its contemporary
consequences are for African heritage
communities not only within the UK but
wherever we actually reside and we live
especially in the continent of Africa in
the Americas Oceania everywhere
basically where African people are so
those are the main demands it is about
recognizing the current day
manifestations of the manganese II and
what we do on the marches we hand in the
stop the manganese II petition to 10
Downing Street and this petition
actually details 12 manifestations of
the manganese II that are displayed on
this bright postcard here and it
includes things like death in police
prison and psychiatric custody the
statement aside in terms of what's
happening to our children racist
immigration patrols and policies the
dismemberment of African communities are
an end to austerity measures that have
been imposed upon our countries I mean
there are so many we're also you know
raising within the context of the
manganese e-every phobic racism there
all these privatization of our resources
land grabs and extractive industries
that are
denying us actually the wealth and
resources of Africa so recent reports
conducted by Mark Curtis of war on once
and also the Jubilee debt campaign and
many other organizations very sat two
reports one talks about Britain's new
colonialism and in terms of Britain's
controlling in fact not Britain but a
hundred and one stock companies
registered on the London Stock Exchange
controlling over 1 trillion dollars
worth of resources in Africa including
in terms of five main resources gold oil
platinum diamonds and and so forth and
then the second report honest accounts
really speaks about the fact that Africa
and African countries are elect creditor
to the rest of the world at the tune of
a minimum these are very conservative
estimates 41 billion dollars a year and
this according to statistics for 2015
for this notion that somehow Africans
have been astounded and oh we're getting
all this Aid is actually a myth and this
is research that has been conducted by
European people researchers scholars who
have detailed how that extraction how
that mangum easy continues to happen and
therefore what we're seeing is an
increase in migration to Europe people
literally dying crossing the
Mediterranean Sea because the conditions
within which they live in their home
countries in their motherland of Africa
it becomes so old governor ball and so
difficult for people to live because
basically all of our resources literally
are being extracted not for the benefit
of African people but for the benefit of
these rich multinational corporations
and let's just be very honest here the
standards of living that many people in
Europe want to protect comes at a price
and this is part of the price but many
African people and other indigenous
people are having to pay now you your
cases that slavery may have stopped but
colonialism then
took its place and then the overtly
colonial period Africa continued to be
looted of its wealth and then when
so-called independence occurred that
colonialism didn't stop and it takes the
form now of of British and other Western
capitalist countries still using the
financial and economic power to extract
wealth from Africa and now we have our
return to actual physical colonialism
with u.s. armed forces forming this
African right undef' actively beginning
a new European yes a new example under
national for Africa but it's not just
the United States government we also
have to look at the complicity of
European governments and in particular
the British state which is why when we
march on the 1st of August we are
charging the British state with acts of
genocide and ecocide against African
people both on the continent of Africa
but also everywhere where African people
live today including in Europe and
specifically the UK I mentioned the
slaving regime in Liverpool you know
when we visit you know release you leave
so you leave the museum speeches maybe
you don't know what to say what to do is
that why do what are you how do you
regard such an effort is that accept
what that recognition it it is an aspect
of educating people about the history of
African people prior to enslavement but
also the resistance that African people
have engaged in to emancipate ourselves
and that's something very key because I
think in the psyche of many white people
we're still seen as these begging
pleading helpless Africans and actually
one of a right the what the reparations
movement is about is seeking to assert
our dignity our self-determination and
to restore our sovereignty because
basically we know what works best for
only we can report ourselves but we need
to have the shackles removed and
literally these shackles are not only
economic their cultural their political
their religious in many ways so
reparations is very holistic and the end
goal is actually about the restoration
of a sovereign palace and nation-state
that can incorporate not only African
people on the continent that Africans
will have been dispersed in the Diaspora
because right now there isn't a
recognition that we have a right to
belong to Africa that we are African
people and therefore we have a right to
also benefit from her resources as much
as we must share in actually helping
Africa to overcome the challenges that
she faces and that is why the repair is
essentially about us regaining our power
regaining our ability to fix ourselves
but also we must have the redistribution
of wealth and resources we must have
everything that we need in order to
restore ourselves and to make ourselves
whole again the essential aspect of
reparatory justice must result in the
transformation of the group that are
seeking to repair themselves and what's
consistently happening is that the
dialogue doesn't even allow us to define
for ourselves in the mass media in
particular what we mean by reparations
so there's always this jump to how much
money do you want we've already paid you
enough we don't start with money because
just throwing us some money in a
neoliberal economic system that
continues to take it out of our hands
it's not what we want we're not so
stupid actually what it's going to
entail is losing with many of the other
global justice movements that are
seeking transformation of the
international economic order and so what
we expect especially for those who see
themselves as allies is to amplify the
voices of the movement of resistance
well we've analyzed your voice today and
a very powerful one is - it's a lot it's
going to be a long march but it starts
with the first step and this year's
first
is 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday in Windrush
square in Brixton esta thanks very much
for joining us on the sport Nick thank
you coming up what on earth is happening
in Venezuela find out next welcome back
to Sputnik Gayatri and I campaigned on
the streets of Caracas in Hugo Chavez is
last and Victoria's presidential
election we will never forget it we
won't indeed since the untimely death of
President Chavez everything seems to
have taken a turn for the worse
last week the head of the CIA admitted
that the u.s. was interfering in the
Venezuelan elections not through
tittle-tattle on the internet but in
deadly terrorist violence on the streets
of Venezuela this year is new and
surprising allies in the liberal media
are equally surprisingly silent but we
will never be silent
joining us now is Teresa Tehran director
of Venezuela Media Watch Teresa welcome
to the show in one way you don't have
much to watch because there isn't much
media coverage of Venezuela in Britain
however on the other hand what there is
is shockingly biased even for people
that are used to media bias tell us how
it looks to you from your vantage point
well exactly that's why there is a
Venezuela Media Watch because we need to
watch was you know was the mainstream
media is doing which is just Lauder
against the Venezuelan nation by
dismissing it in everyone every way they
can they just repeat the script that the
proposition is a playing probably given
by themselves because circular word yeah
a circular circular action is basically
they they are staging the downfall of
Venezuela in the media and portraying it
to the world
while in Venezuela there is a totally
different reality there is people
happily going to vote celebrating we be
a political aware and being very anxious
of putting their there the legacy of
Chavez in practice no no this is being
fed by the mainstream media
it was quite a famous no altercation
that I had at the Oxford Union gotra and
I had just literally touched down from
Venezuela
after Chavez last election and a young
man told the audience from the from the
audience push stood up and told everyone
that in the election the opposition
leader capitalist had been entirely kept
off television when in fact we had never
stopped looking at Capri less on
television until he turned it off
well arrow we had to turn off it was
wall-to-wall Capri lays on the
television nineteen commercial
television stations endlessly churning
out opposition propaganda and in that
exchange with that young man I realized
how almost Orwellian the reversal of
truth can be and there's nowhere better
illustrates that than the coverage of
Venezuela tell us what are the main
issues in the election this weekend the
opposition is threatening ones of and
for all finished the revolutionary
process and they are they've been
calling for an invasion by the US very
openly in you know and everywhere we are
very worried there is going to be
violence more than then we have had now
it's effectively a coup that they are
staging it's a slow-motion riku of the
kind brought down the government of
Salvador Allende in Chile in on 9/11
1973 and the United States having spent
the last six months accusing Russia of
interfering in America's election this
week openly admitted that it is
interfering in Venezuela's elections the
CIA chief said so I saw his lips move
and heard the words come out it's
incredible that they don't seem to
understand or realize the contradiction
in that what form is us interference
taking well they have been actually
funneling a lot of money to the
opposition like from their 2013 to now
is better being around 120 million
dollars given to the opposition to pay
for you know for everything they provide
they take young offender from the
barrios and provide them with everything
that a young person who want and also
with a reputation by making them believe
that they are heroes and giving them
uniform with symbolic symbolic meanings
and
creating a whole mythology to entice the
young people to do things that are
actual element know against themselves
because they are really criminal things
they are doing they are burning people
alive they are throwing Molotov in the
face of a National Guard
they are basically destroying the life
because the opposition needs them to you
know to take over the government because
they don't have a real structure
political structure ideology or anything
in particular they just follow a script
from the US they are there in the
service of the u.s. entity they have
been all alive a parasitical bozo see
that you know this day you get a little
bit of the resources and some some
privileges and then the state so
man they keep the country down so it
doesn't develop so it can be exploited
exploited after us and everybody else
once and they are destroyed destroying
the people Venezuela and young people
and then they blame the government that
it is the government that is destroying
the juice of Venezuela because it is not
giving them any opportunities of job
education and everything when when if
the opposite you know there have been
massive increasing education in
Venezuela in socialism started
they have been the job now unemployment
is down to 5% day if you believe the
Western media almost everyone in
Venezuela is unemployed there is no
trace of reportage of the way in which
poor people have been lifted out of
poverty young people have been sent to
universities then as well yes IIT
Venezuela has the largest student body
practically on the planet and as you say
minorities when we saw the marches the
Chavez supporters indicate were
reasonable black people disabled all the
yes all he people that had been
liberated by by the chavista movement
how is that movement responding to this
challenge
how are the elections going to go we
think that what their violence is that
they are focus of is about like two
percent of the country that the
opposition has in hand are causing all
this violence and there is a majority of
people of Venezuelans and from the
humble background patients housewives
all the old people fishermen everybody
who is up to it
because that's now the revenge date
because for 44 years is the revolution
started the laws were created
but they haven't been put in place
because their position of being always
topping it and now they can they have
been working really hard to get like the
lands producing and the the web being
killed by by landowners and you know the
day they kill them so the opportunity
for them you know to have in their hands
all the power they need for all the
projects I started 18 years ago to you
know you know get your confidence that
they will take take this opportunity
they are taking it they are already
involved there were 50,000 people that
you know the the one to be a part of it
as as leaders and then there is a well
the very best of luck to the people of
Venezuela and keep watching the media
and for bias
thank you very much Teresa Karen and now
it's your turn to tell us what you think
through the portals of social media
what's rattling Gayatri so if we are to
believe the mainstream media Venezuela
is now a country under regional
isolation us song sanctions food
shortages people emigrating physically
country from North Korea yes so Mary
simply says unless Russia moves in
Venezuela is in danger from us regime
change and regarding the reparations as
we discussed with Esther just astounding
it is like a wall of hatred comes in
it's unbelievable how dare you even and
I just want to illustrate it by reading
one of those tweets and this one coming
from crowd this nonsense is socially
destructive and adds to a growing white
hate problem can my family seek
reparations from Germany for World War
one and - well what did you lose in
World War one and - who was responsible
for World War one were your family taken
in Chains in the bottom of a boat across
the seas
to work like a like a beast in the field
owned by another human being were you
because if you are you can sue Germany
for sure but the truth is you are not
this hatred of this subject is
illustrative of how very very far we
still have to go to make people face up
to their own country's history don't get
me started at URI
you've got my blood boiling now me too
and that's the time we've got anyway for
the tweets today which alas means that's
the end of the show but please stay in
touch with us on Facebook spudnick on
Russia Today or Twitter or Instagram
Aarthi underscore Sputnik goodbye from
me Gayathri and from me George Galloway
it's been marvelous