Transcripts For DW DocFilm 20240713

In the late 1970 s. The world was in turmoil never before had so many people taken to the streets millions of demonstrators demanded more democracy grace of freedom higher wages and world peace. Times across the globe women were calling for equal rights. But all these hopes seemed to take a back seat in a world shackled to the ongoing confrontation between the United States and the soviet union. There appeared to be little alternative to the 2 political blocs the cold war had the world firmly in its grip. The west was still feeling the after effects of the oil crisis of the early 1970 s. Economic growth has slowed and unemployment list. Any rise in. The post will do comes when. My my my. Mom. Doesnt show peoples trip to the United States clearly not the beginning of the chinese imbalance with the west the best between the 2 coming is powers of china and the soviet union was now definite. The extensive deployments of something a troops another chinas bullet is would no longer a source of concern for done shopping his focus was now to help his country become the new workshop of the world. To hear. Mr president we all have the same feeling that we are carrying out a Historical Mission he shot sino American Relations are at a new starting point so the state of the world is also experiencing a new turning point. Both china and the United States are great nations the chinese and the americans are great people so we thought it would. Just mean that friendly cooperation between our 2 peoples undoubtedly have a positive and far reaching influence on the development of world events kiki so you would teacher. I visit was very carefully orchestrated from a substantive point of view and thats really what i was involved in writing briefing papers talking points but you know the trip itself. Was mainly symbolic and i talked i think didnt need to go to the white house to discuss with president carter we could have found an. Other way to do that the main emphasis was on the pageantry vice premier done shopping and president carter will sign 2 agreements one on science and technology and one on cultural relations thanks. Done surveying was blunt he was earthy. He spat a lot into the bowl on his side. He smoked. He cursed he had a way of saying very simply what needed to be said in a way that was the struck home he was famous for his saying he didnt care whether a cat was black or white as long as it could catch rats this was his attitude whatever works so he was. A moderniser of johnno. But an eclectic modern odds are he would borrow from anywhere whatever worked was enough for him. But the objective was always to restore chinese wealth power prestige and dignity when he was in washington he was talking about global issues about us china relations about the issues that needed to be smoothed out in order to make normalization happen. As he wandered around the country is he went to and then houston and seattle he was meeting with other kinds of people other categories of people he was talking about trade he was talking about investment so he was pushing those kinds of issues and then when he was with the American People he was trying to convince them that its or make them understand that all communists are not doing that so. I thank you. Thank. You thank you. So our Television Coverage i was delighted to get help we were negotiating with the u. S. Congress. Dont shopping putting on a 10 gallon hat at a rodeo made him seem like an ordinary guy the American Public already had 6 years of at least some knowledge oh yeah the you choose to see on Television Read the newspapers read in Time Magazine and by the way i think done shopping was on the cover of time at least twice which is highly unusual for anyone to be on the cover more than once let alone a communist leader. It wasnt just when he was here that americans were so easily able to say oh yes these are wonderful warm fun people just like us but the Chinese Press was of course controlled by docs are paying and it was extolling the virtues of the normalization arrangement with the us which was not uncontroversial in china made by the communist Party Propaganda had always portrayed the americans as our enemy and now dont shopping had become a friend of the us so they would help. Maybe the personal status both within the party the Chinese People was elevated as a result. Done shopping had made the decision that it was ok to show that america wasnt a very advanced country. So in fact this was a very clever policy by dung and to show the people this is what you can have if we change our ways. First i thought when people started to express themselves that it was good all i needed to do was be a bystander but later on people said they would he dont jumping is called to stop speaking out and that was when i thought maybe this is the time to step up and maybe ill lose my head. No i was working primarily at the beijing zoo but we had to cover a range of parks so we were also in charge of tiananmen square. So i saw the big letter dodgy both posters on the democracy was quite early on british Journalist School not nigel wade of the telegraph rang me up and said roger ive been given a tip that something interesting. To be seen. On a wall in the center of town i dont mean chinese you do will you come with me and i hadnt yet started to make big character posters that i was writing on pages like this smaller in size like a normal magazine size page after i finished writing them i would take them to the democracy wall around the early in the morning of that international and there we found a group of young men and women heavy overcoats crowding around a wall and with posters with big character posters were being put up. You know where they were already around over one or 200 people crowded around trying to read them those at the back were yelling to those at the front to read them out i was very excited when i saw them and happy. So the communist party proposed the 4 modernizations my article was called the 5th modernization democracy and they that if there was no democracy these 4 previous modernizations would not come to fruition and secondly they would do nothing for the people. He put up a post denouncing dunc shopping as a swindle and a fraud nobody has defied a communist leader like that. And cold for a change of political system like that. In the 30 year history of the peoples republic of china the articles i publish change the mood of the democracy while the discussion of democracy and criticism of the party became mainstream issues in the peoples opinions on i became increasingly radicalized. After don had made his visit to the United States and come back here and the the rest of the Party Started to clamp down on the what was then the Democracy Movement number on march 29th wager being arrested. Britain had faced 3 years of austerity dictated by the International Monetary fund how conscious was the countrys conservative policy that their proposals were the 979. 00 Election Campaign promises that would be difficult to fulfill between 174978 the average French Worker saw his wages in terms of what they would buy go up by 60 percent in germany the average worker saw his real wages go up by over 92 percent the average attorney and worker saw his real wages go up by over 47 percent meanwhile in britain the average industrial worker has seen his real wages in terms of what they will buy only go up by 16 per cent so you vote labor because you think the party for the working man well thats just a slogan but the point is that millions of your fellow workers are already voting conservative and thats not disloyalty thats commonsense dont just hope for a better life. Vote for one morrison Charles Archer had an agency or a very Brilliant Agency and they were employed by the conservative party to help with the campaign wherever it was we 1st saw the 2nd shattered labor isnt working slogan we would rather disapprove doing such a thing and he wrote a dirty trick where really workers gentleman english gentleman dont behave in the sort of way weve always had a sense of humor and heaven knows weve needed it lately weve other characteristics to a gift for Invention Initiative and for hard work under labor these talents are going to waste because the government takes too much away in techs how often do you hear people say look how much they have taken from my pay packet so naturally they ask for a bigger pay rises to make up the difference and its not long before that pushes up prices ask any housewife shell tell you particular because she was a grocers daughter. She was very good at talking about all that and she had to sort all 30 about that and she could remember the price of everything and she was very good Photo Opportunities when she was walking down a street with a shopping bag and arguing with people in the market. Where youre shopping you always talk about the price is often about tax and they usually Say Something like you know i think its worth any seeking to attract votes is going to build on a. Strength they have and to be able to show that you are one of us if you come from humble backgrounds have you been able to combine your political life with looking after a family running a. Well i mean you do the caging here i like cooking and i do the shopping and always a big batch of cooking at the weekend and of course on the poly mention assesses which coincide with the School Holidays so i can see quite a good bit of the children and take them out and at half time they come up to the house apartment and have lunch with me and she trade of course to get it lower down the register and carry more and she also changed her teeth and i have style and simplified her clothes and so on let me give you my vision some where the head lies greatness for our country again this i know in my heart look at britain today and you may think that an impossible dream she used for sex very much to do this because she understood that. In a great see it suits the woman stands out but this is the 1st time in our history that a woman cord after thursday they hold in the highest Political Office in our national life. Its never happened before and i know that despite all the changes in our society so theres some who still feel a little bit uncertain about. Lincoln john one during the campaign look has a one on last year or 2 year before him where he would all over for lay but we werent quite sure of it we didnt know it we suspected it and i say i had very hoped we might put it round but in fact we lost the general election of 97 i in 7778. I must say only the day that we absolve parliament. But 6 of those day video surely will me all the early fortys met together and said it doesnt matter we will be back in 4 years time this woman mr thatcher composite at last should be out in 4 years well see when our mid fortys we was no 50 in your cabinet so its spreading out in front of us i but i think i would foolishly optimistic i dont hear any very regular people with the same respect. Meanwhile in iran Ayatollah Khamenei uses the islamic clergy and their network of mosques to consolidate his grip on the country. The referendum on the establishment of the Islamic Republic was essentially a plebiscite and it was no secret ballots anyone voting against would immediately be labelled as an enemy of the revolution. Lot of people voted because they stamped your Identity Card and they would they were worried about the fact that if they didnt vote they would lose their jobs so 98 percent of the population involved. People different dont islami the public yes or not they dont really like telling us that what is the republican. Woman khamenei was a very skilled strategist on to let that when he came to power he talked about the muslim people. So in his speeches the concept of the people evolved into an idea of simply them on the muslim people that turner placed the people the fashions that scheme was initiated and that was a little by little the majority little by little they accepted the poller all the law as the individual they didnt believe on him they were court people off the party of god his for law at the beginning people who have packed their women they were on nobodys payroll and they would not. Have known 10 on they were paid and some of them were or so are. To look at they said of committees and all neighborhoods committees of revolutionaries for Islamic Revolution islamist committees and schools and high schools not only universities factories workplaces there was a lot of resistance. And that insistence was pro single women stood up to them there is no question up there woman who went out we doubted they under street the woman who wore a piece of lipstick the woman who put her she was fighting single handed. I had no problem before with my grandmothers veil. But it was getting so oppressive that i thought to myself i have to resist. And since i am rebellious by nature i didnt wear it the report that it happened that a woman was showing it because her hair they would pull the scarf down with a safety pin here put it on her for it for her to learn to observe for very proper. Rule then one day a young man stops me on the street with a kalashnikov so the 3rd he was maybe 16 a 16 year old boy and he looked at me with such hatred. He said wheres your veil i told him that it was none of his business laughed and he said oh yes it is and he pointed his gun at me and i thought what the hell is going on here and it was the hatred not the weapon that really struck me that we were still in a time where guns were common place because of the ongoing revolution but the hatred in his eyes thats what did it and i said we are screwed in this country. And if were to them so be the executions are started 1st or most immediately off that they came to power with executing the shahs generators and his supporters and all of that and they were a narrative to its shape did not protest. Until it came to terms of each and every. Opposition person. Khomeini put everybody that has already a small critic on him and his politics they put all of them down. Indeed who believed there were days when they killed a 100 people or 200 we were in hiding and in the evening we would read the names and try to find out who we knew or maybe they were people who did not give their names and who were anonymous and were killed for one simple comment came with the truth. I personally felt that Something Like a stinking wet black blanket like a cloud is spreading over my head all along night. Through prayer all over their membership cards though or night because yet they feel after. The time that they decided to close the organization they had created that are going on a train to my place which they did later on and they were going on get access to the information of the members like walk to the opposition groups had to make fake documents we changed our identities mon i fled from city to city from one neighborhood to the next we were living in the underground level because you see when i came back. To my apartment it was something around noon and all of the sudden i heard someone knock my door and it was one of my beloved neighbor and she told me to come out come out they were here and just now with a lift here you should you should leave you should leave and in one minute actually came out and only id remember on the thing i did choose my shoes. And then i try to put another cloth and. Another dress and i went out and i never been back to do my apartment i went to. Dressed as a kurdish woman because they knew that was the only time i walked away i had to cross the border illegally i mean mitt the people that this its was actually unexpected some of them Unbelievable Health food and some of them they did everything to save us although they were the drug dealer i was given and weapon and everybody had to be over it was a small machine gun its called the u. C. From then on believed intense i was there for one year and 10 months. Began to realize that the plans made at the conference at the beginning of the year when not having the desired effect the elderly cleric there allowed to take the place of the shah had neither really stabilized iran nor preserved western interests. Ayatollah khomeini became the wests bogeyman and a fear of islamic fundamentalism would soon begin to spread its message and what many would see as a clash of civilizations and then a fear of islam itself which became the new evil. d following the 1st oil crisis and 1973. Emerged as an invaluable and inexhaustible alternative to counter fluctuating prices on the global oil market. French television at the time broadcast promotional films featuring a background of once music. Nuclear energy was acclaimed the product of human effort and intelligence and the perfect chimes of mankind. It was a dream that would become a nightmare on march 28th 1979. The partial meltdown of the 3 mile island reactor led to what is still the most Serious Nuclear accident in american history. Fearing the release of radioactive gases the authorities evacuated pregnant women and children within a radius of 8 kilometers around the plant 200000 people fled the region. Ultimately the reactance 3rd layer of protection held firm and the meltdown was contained although president carter did not want to abandon the Nuclear Program the near disaster did much to erode american faith in atomic energy. In west germany the accident brought together a mixture of antinuclear activists pacifists feminists as well as protestant and catholic members of the Peace Movement the united their hopes and utopian ideas in a political pro and violent movement. When we became aware of the accident in harrisburg pennsylvania it was just 2 weeks after the German Green Party had been founded so what happened during the European Parliament Election Campaign you could say that the partys campaign was a political response to the events in harrisburg finance book. It was 2 women who took on the task of creating the new green party in the background theologian a focus stop in the spotlight kelly a political scientist and activist with international experience. She had me stack she encouraged me and said if you have to found the green party with me i dont want to do it on my own women cant go it alone we have to learn to work in a team ill be the top Party Candidate you will be next in line to the next as i once was into i guess we functioned in tandem we were 2 very different people i was much more rooted in the west german and he nuclear left and feminist movements and pater had a lot of perspective from the us. Through her i became better acquainted with the civil rights and womens movements in the us doesnt women taking part in the Election Campaigns was something she had experience with but it was new for me. The European Parliament elections of 2979. 00 would be the 1st opportunity for the young party to become actively involved in Democratic Institutions they entered the battle with limited resources. That Election Campaign with the early green party was an incredible time we had no press team we didnt have the internet or cell phones no computers not even electric typewriters and within 3 months we went from 0 to 3. 7 percent without any money for advertising without a single newspaper article entitled to. Their graphic but then a difficult time began thats when the 1st struggles emerged between the radical left the traditional left and the green Party Conflicts that continue to this day and many Party Systems just finished an important day for me was december 12th 1979 the nato double tracked decisions which was important not just. For the to germanys by the green party demanded the withdrawal of all Nuclear Weapons while a large part of the unions and the left only demanded the removal of american Nuclear Weapons i cannot find a time. After achieving their 1st electoral success the greens promoted their political project as an alternative to the old bipolar world of the cold war. As fate would have it they struck a chord with the president of the worlds leading nuclear power. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to american democracy the threat is nearly. Invisible in ordinary ways it is a crisis of confidence for the 1st time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years this is not a message of happiness or reassurance but it is the truth and it is a warning. Shortly after jimmy carter would face humiliation by the takeover of the us embassy in tehran marking the final blow to his presidency but in his address to the nation he began to use words that have since become an established post of political vocabulary he reassured americans by calling upon past greatness traditional valleys and of course gods help. We are at a turning point in our history all the traditions of our past all the lessons of our heritage all the promises of our future point to another path the path of common purpose and the rest all right of American Values that path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the 1st steps down that path to develop americas own alternative sources of fuel from coal from oil shale from plant products for gas a home from unconventional gas from the sun but we can succeed only if we tap our greatest Resources Americas people americas values and americas confidence with gods help. And for the nation. Of jordan here. In america. Saddam hussein had taken over the reigns of iraq on july 16th 979 he saw himself as the secular leader of a country that was also the most important western ally in the middle east alongside saudi arabia. He likewise called upon god as he challenge khamenei in neighboring iran. Saddam called for a war against what he saw as the expansionism of the iranian revolution aiming to dominate the region himself he exploited the ancient sectarian antagonism between iranian shiites and iraqi sunnis. Months until may 22nd 980 the iraqi army entered iran where Ayatollah Khomeini was still struggling to establish his authority for him the iraqi aggression offered the chance to finally and permanently consolidate his legitimacy. Forcing all the radiance to unite behind a nationalist call for a holy war against iraq khamenei ultimately stabilized his Islamic Revolution. Iranian propaganda even used women clad in black veils as the new heroines of a nation where everyone had to be prepared for armed combat and ready for the ultimate sacrifice against a mortal enemy. The war that saddam and his Saudi Arabian allies had hoped to end within a few days would last for 18 years and cost more than a 1000000. 00 lives. And it established Ayatollah Khamenei as the ruler of iran and the Supreme Leader of shia islam. Its now almost a year since the conservative party was returned to power and i became Prime Minister the times time i think if you only need to ask ourselves one of 2 important questions we didnt promise you instant sunshine. We pointed out over and over again that a nation cant accelerate down little for years and then jam the brakes on im afraid some things will get worse before they get better one year after her election such as radical reforms were not yet producing the expected results her political future has seemed uncertain. By the end of 981 she faced a fresh challenge from the new leader of the argentinian military regime diverting is peoples attention from the countrys economic hardships in april 982. Reclaimed the Falkland Islands by fools as part of argentinas national territory. But the nationalistic enterprise in turn off a touch of the perfect opportunity to galvanize her people and is a person he just and patriotic fight. It mattered little that only a few months area the government had passed a law effectively demoting felten this and the residents of other colonies to 2nd class british citizens now the falklands which remained british through and through. This village of the size of lansing was just said it was rich not have the best. At least sometimes the wealth. Of vendors pageant system was rediscovered in those green day. Thank. You must be done. If you want to tell the truth. And people will be on jobs. The union jack flying again of the Government House and put stanley was on the front page of the british and world media and it ensured the reelection of the i and lady. Finally margaret touch it could impart on heretical program of economic and social reforms. Christmas 970 don was a surprise certainly to president carter. Because it ministration the fee afghanistan by the Service Union led to a meeting on the morning of christmas day. The the office of secretary of state thats i was present to discuss what should be done to punish the soviet union and there were a great number of ideas put out some of which i thought were very bad one of them was an olympic boycott one other one was that we wrap up the relationship with china. So on january 5th 1980 in other words about 12 days later secretary of defense harold brown went to beijing and he agreed with the chinese on several points one was that we would work in parallel to oust the soviets from afghanistan this led to the purchase of weapons from the chinese for the majority in which peaked in 197630000000. 00 of weaponry a year also. As the 980. 00 s. Went on we began to buy weapons from the chinese to train our own forces against soviet equipment so that made 20 ones made in china to be picked up at the military airport in beijing in giant american planes and flown to nevada where american pilots trained others on his to fly soviet style exercise against american pilots and american aircraft. Also in january 980 after this meeting in beijing i dont understand how this did not get noticed how brown went to st john in the far west of china and toured an unknown unidentified p. L. A Peoples Liberation army unit and then he went to the owning and toured another army unit there what was the significance of this well the singe on his next to the main soviet test ranges for missiles plasma weapons space weaponry the owning watches over a lot of all thought which is the big ones the main soviet fleet for the pacific. This began a process of establishing joint intelligence listening post. By the end of this program there were 32 such stations in china. This is exactly why president reagan when he came into office i mean pledged to undo normalization instantly reversed himself he had not known nobody knew about the extent of the cooperation that we had to embark upon with the chinese and its also the reason why george bush in 1989 after the 10 on mine incident was so reluctant. To break off relations with and cooperation with china. Search china was an active participant in the eightys with the United States in the effort to contain soviet expansion and counter it where it occurred and this cooperation which the soviets are well aware of. Had a good deal to do with why their system finally last. 40 years after the conference that hosted the full news of the main western how its been quite a loop in january 979 the tinderbox volcano still hasnt turned out to unsettle effects the world seems to have cooled and calms down. But some of the protect innocent 979. 00 have been looking critically at the events they were involved in in an attempt to understand todays. Trying to today is the most 1st were going to live totalitarians soffit will the world example see. If youll jump to the rules others will make a Google Doodle because youre spoken for. The entire framework of leaving the political left and it became quite hard to focus that was the purpose of the show to show more concern with the quality of the benefit because youre going to. Be well able to get more the associates the society is to expected that we didnt do it because we always had just come to say if you did we could destroy our way to the. World published just from one end of the book and show me throughout history more coherent more easily identifiable by the father and the immigrant the bureaucrats roughly. When youre trying to capitalists dont have democratic ideals such as freedom chinese politicians dont have communist ideals either its a money that unites these 2 parties and to me. Just 10 percent of the worlds population owns more wealth than the other 90 percent this is the. Well to capitalism. That correction in iran has never been as total as it is today poverty has never been so rampant the differences in social class were not as obvious as today and state oppression is at a peak thats your moral order for your home that well and all the what. Any part of my soul split it could cause is overshadowed by what has been done to the planet. Almost no one remembers that in july 9791 of the earliest records on Global Warming was presented to president jimmy carter a group of 44 international saw him to school cost that c o 2 emissions with double by 2030 and that the earths surface temperature would increase by 3 degrees. And the social Economic Impact they added could be significant despite countless other records published since then their projections have remained unchanged since 979. 00. Takeover target. In. The rain forests in ivory coast are threatened by illegal logging to make room for lucrative cocoa plantations in the in the. Room but a new man has the potential to resolve the conflict its a mobile set up of conservation areas and distributing food. To find. Eco africa in the 30 minutes on t. W. Most girls who could have. Come show that of us are we are. In support of. Saving was able. To deliver. How can a countrys economy grow harmony its people. When there are do gooders look at the bigger picture. India a country that faces many challenges and people are striving to create a sustainable future. Clever projects from europe and the. Eco india on g. W. This is g. W. News live from but the Iraqi Parliament approves a resolution calling for and all the u. S. Military presence in the country to voters in reaction to a u. S. Drone attack that killed a top iranian general and in iraq you mission need to know which has accused the us so violating to the countrys sovereignty by carrying out the germ strike on its soil. In iran tens of thousands more me death of cancer