All the way in the back. Okay, all right. Be seated. We have a few stragglers coming in. That is all right. I am icao, my job is to welcome you to left for him 2016. Thank you all for coming. I am sure this will be a wonderful for him. I attended my first forum in 2010. I saw doctor cornell west go below the podium when he was so animated. I knew it was something i wanted to be part of in that moment. When i started my doctorate i joined up with the forum. We were talking about occupy wall street, in 2016, talking about a democratic socialist gaining millions of votes throughout the country. Times are definitely changing. One thing that has definitely changed, not for the better, the prices in new york city ravage the working and middle classes and the left for him as well. When i was an intern we were upset when people asked what my compensation was, i said an infinite supply of pretzels, was letters, that unfortunately is still the condition we are in today so all of you are getting different envelopes. That is us asking you to open your hearts and minds to contribute to the forum. Fundraising is difficult. You need to be innovative. I am going to rip off a Successful Grassroots Campaign that goes like this. The left for him does not accept contributions from millionaires and billionaires. We have no super pac, we are relying upon millions, when i say millions i mean dozens, of Campaign Contributions just like you. Those contributions go to wonderful things. I am a good source for left forum gossip because it is a growing influence of the forum. We have been approached by leaders across the nation asking if they can have forums in their cities, we are talking about extending the left forum outside just new york to the conference in other east coast cities. There is even the conversation of bringing left forum all the way to californias golden zone. We consider these great successes that we can only do the pendant on the contribution of all those folks. I want to kick this off with a little fun, that will start with a revolutionary poet from los angeles, california with a speech from the New York Times and k p f r retail. Rebellion, revolution. Dirty harry, john wayne, blackface, moynahan, gone with the wind, breaking bad, washington redskins, confederate flag, the canon, the scholar, the ivy league history, a burning village. Victors keep their victims on the state of virginia attraction and expansion and winning the west. And slaves sweat, and failures, migrations for mexico, to davey crockett, the industrial complex, the war on drugs and the war on bloodied christmas, madness, east oakland, west baltimore, plymouth rock, jamestown, rio grande. Here is the nation. Police, escort, skinhead. Public streets. The very same police told us to meet cannon fire on black boys in hoodies and mexican machine guns. Half the nation in homeland defense. They think, they think a white womans purse has more value than a black boys life. Here is a nation, one person, genocide, pipeline, underfunded schools, nothing but a system stripped of innocence, guilt by birth certificate students, children, suspect before students. Here is the nation, not a democracy. This is an open air prison. Anything and everything, a mathematical assessment, calculated way to keep your hands moving, mind functioning, genocide built on slavery, the constitution, jefferson davis, mission accomplished, manifest destiny, institution like immigration, bicentennial, living in the Popular Center and coyote trails, brick by brick, inch by inch, in the nation, a chain to keep you in place, power over fear, National Defense, against it, who says that, who did that, he is the very squad, and turner, with the rosenbergs, hampton, killed in much the same fashion here with the bloodsoaked fields in the night of eddie lopez, and mike brown or trayvon martin, the nation is not a democracy, not a republic. This is the state of the union killing our children, war. [applause] that is the deal, everyone. Matt sedillo. [applause] thank you, matt. The left forum would not be able to be here today if not for these folks at john jay. If youre going to bring up gerald markowitz, distinguished professor of history at criminal justice, you would see this doctrine in the university of wisconsin, since 1970. He has written extensively about how corporations have undermined the environment and the health of workers in their communities. [applause] great pleasure for me on behalf of students, faculty, and John Jay College of criminal justice, and of course you know we are part of the great City University of new york. And who is here from the City University, alumni, students, faculty, way to go. And all of you know, we are on the midst of a war against higher education. This is a war we are engaged in, we are fighting back again, we are winning some of the battles but the war goes on. We have to the size that when the state does not fund higher education, it is not an economic decision, it is a political decision reflecting on our things. Students are predominantly people of color. Children of immigrants, and we are in the midst of the tremendous fight against that. Part of that fight back had been successful. And congress, the union was successful in using tuition increase, a great victory. The faculty in staff have been working without a contract. Working without a raise for 6 years. The union had a vote of its membership. Whether we should authorize a strike to be called by the union leadership. Those who voted voted for strike authorization. [applause] we need your help, we need your solidarity, we need you to join us in this defense of higher education. Thank you very much. She was the founder of flanders, books include blue grit, through democrats take back politics from the politicians. Of a warm welcome to Laura Flanders. Thank you. Lets hear it for all the organizers and participants of left forum 2016. That is you. [applause] we are here to take on one particular part of the conversation at left forum, capitalism and militarism at humanitys parol. 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 at parol. There is other news to discuss as well. We have the first muslim mayor elected in london. We have 2. 4 Million People contributing to the Bernie Sanders campaign. A man who has not warned the use of drones. We have donald trump proving in case anyone wanted White Supremacy, white male patriarchal supremacy is alive and well and deadly and we have an election on our hands as we try to build a movement that will move beyond this electoral more asked. I dont need to tell you capitalism is characterized by massive and increasing any quality. Inequality. 62 people on the same wealth as half of the world, 3. 6 billion people and only tween 9 of them are women. Wealth and power accumulates at one pole while misery and degradation, bluster and explode at the other. We exploited native lands and enslaved people. Now it seems to be more an empire than keeping capitalism on life support. We see it in the us in the rise of racism and fear the way local Police Forces are armed with surplus military weapons, using public funds to secure mercenaries corporate Security Forces and enlist workingclass people to fight each other. Voted on here and internationally by divide and conquer surveillance techniques and inflammatory rhetoric with White Supremacy area. On my show, the Laura Flanders show which you can see on podcasts at Laura Flanders. Com people reflect where we have come to. Most recently considering the legacy of peace activists who recalled our movements have become increasingly separated. Racial justice or economic justice, war and peace from wages and migration. From the times when black power activist Sophie Carmichael called bill garrett in the most dangerous white man alive. We have come a long way. How are we to understand the connection, that is the challenge of this evening is to understand the connection between extreme policeing and mass incarceration and extreme pilfering and profiteering and resource extraction. We will talk about where the threats are in this system, what Peace Movement or Justice Movements are developing and tackling empires, what leverage in and beyond the militaryindustrial complex have to disrupt the onslaught of militarization and where is this leverage being used . On my show every week we look not just at what is going wrong but what is going right. We call it a place where people who say it cant be done and go back to the people who are doing it. We will hear from three people, i know they are not perfect when it comes to talking about what we are up against but also when it comes to the opportunity and how and where people are grabbing them. We will get substantive, meaty presentations from our speakers and have conversation among ourselves. And engage in one on one conversation. Our first speaker is going to be chris hedges, journalist and author most recently of wages of rebellion, the moral imperative of revolt. War is a force, in columbia, the university of toronto through Rutgers University at a correctional facility in new jersey and about to launch a new Television Show on russia today, chris hedges. I will introduce everybody. I just wanted them to applaud. Medea benjamin is cofounder of women led patriots and the Human Rights Organization global exchange, author of eight books including drone warfare, killing by Remote Control and her articles appearing regular outlets like the Washington Post, her forthcoming book on saudi arabia, Medea Benjamin. [applause] finally, my colleague who hosts a weekly program, tariq ali was born and raised in london as an opponent of the vietnam war. He is director of Publishing House and the new left review where he is and editor, author of too many books to mention, fiction, nonfiction, essays, the most recent, extreme center of warning. Lets start with chris. [applause] thank you. I was handed a broad sheet that pulled a quote, half of a quote. Since i want to talk about the nature of power, a left oral campaign, i will finish the quote. I did indeed say it was my job to take power but it didnt end there. It is our job to make the powerful frightened the trust but that is what movements do. They keep our in check and as any good and i just will tell you, power is always a problem no matter who holds it. This is a realization carl hopper made where he wrote that it is not the job to get good people to rule, that is the wrong question, how do we get those in power are frightened of us. And pushed forward into power those who will listen, the power of movements to keep the powerful in check, all power becomes despotic and julia in the treason of the intellectual where all of us who create a society based on justice, a society that takes care of the vulnerable and weak among us given a choice between choosing between two sets of ideals, privilege and power or justice and truth. The more we make concessions to those who serve privilege and power the more we diminish the capacity for justice and truth. We finished a session on rosa luxembourg who of all revolutionary theorists probably understood this the best. It is important that we rebuild these movements that have been destroyed consciously in the name of anticommunism especially at this crisis moment when in the american political and Economic System we are teetering on the brink of a frightening form of protofascism. One of the mistakes Bernie Sanders made, the we called him out on before he announced his campaign was the decision to run within the embrace of the Democratic Party. We are now watching Bernie Sanders supporters, arguably sanders himself, confront the fact that this has been a rigged system. When you have a system lets not forget the cost of running the primaries is paid for by the taxpayer and yet the primary rules are determined by the Democratic Party so that they can manipulate a system to steal the vote from sanders, lockout independents. That is why in the last cycle sanders only won rhode island. That was the only state in which independents were allowed to vote. You have a system of superdelegates, money from super pacs. It is very clear without all these mechanisms sanders would win the nomination and yet through this long process we have been given palpable evidence that democracy within the United States is a facade and we are about to enter in a left oral process with two president ial candidates who have the highest negativity rating for the United States, donald trump being one and Hillary Clinton being the other. Those of us who care about recovering Agency Within our country, overthrowing the corporate coup detat that has taken place and for Homeland Security who might be here tonight let me repeat that, 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, the mantra of the least worst and it gets worse and our two party it has a different rhetoric, centers of power. The major structural issues that are complete continuity between george w. Bush and barack obama with the caveat that Barack Obamas assault on Civil Liberties has been worse and i speak as a plaintiff in a lawsuit i brought against the president over section 1021 of the National Defense authorization act. This is a provision that overturns the 1878 act that prohibits the military from carrying out domestic much to the chagrin of the Obama Administration, we won in the Southern District court of new york and judge catherine before us, 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 brought up the plight of the 110,000 japaneseamericans 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 when the state deems them a terrorist and hold them indefinitely in black sites including our offshore penal colonies. The two year Legal Process the Obama Administration immediately appealed, not immediately appealed, the day of the rules, they went into the judges chambers and demand that she lift her temporary injunction in the name of National Security and when federal attorneys came in they came with attorneys from the nsa. She refused on friday afternoon. At 9 00 a. M. In the Second Circuit or the Appellate Court of new york demanding the same thing, the Second Circuit agreed. We wondered why. Why were they so aggressive . The only thing we could surmise was because they were already using the law. There were already dual National Pakistani us nationals being held in these sites and if they could get out and get this legal manifestation the government would be held in contempt of court. What was the response of the Second Circuit of this panel of judges that reviewed the case . They wouldnt rule for months. During that time lawyers went to nancy pelosi and said because this provision is renewed every year all you have to do is insert into the provision that us citizens are exempt. Of course they did not because it was written for us citizens. What does the Second Circuit do . It doesnt rule on the merits of the case because it is unconstitutional the way evisceration of privacy is unconstitutional and another example of how the court became wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state revoked Constitutional Rights by judicial review. What they did was wait for Supreme Court ruling on clapper versus amnesty international. I was a plaintiff in that ruling. Challenging governments wholesale surveillance for the revelations. Federal attorneys got up in the Supreme Court and said we did not have a right to bring the plaintiff that is the case. The idea the government was watching us with speculation and they added if the government was watching us they would tell us. The Supreme Court threw it out. The Second Circuit said chris hedges dont have standing, therefore doesnt have standing in chris hedges versus obama. The petition was turned down. This was all under obama. Obamas espionage act destroyed whistleblowers who once sought out independent journalists to expose corruption, malfeasance and crime against government and we must honor two of our greatest whistleblowers, Chelsea Manning and julian assange. [applause] and edward snowden. [applause] if you dont have a thirdparty option then i would encourage you to write in Chelsea Manning or edward snowden. Let me talk about what is coming. I think sanders made a disastrous mistake. I understand his logic. We encouraged him to run as an independent, he said i dont want to end a break ralph nader. What he said was i dont want to take on the Democratic Party movement and become a political pariah because sanders has played built a Faustian Bargain with the Democratic Party. He campaign for bill clinton in 96 after nafta, after the destruction of the welfare system. Under original welfare guidelines, 17 of recipients, children, after the 1994 omnibus that exploded the system of mass incarceration. Deregulation of the fcc turned the airwaves over to half a dozen corporations. Office. In 2004 sanders called on nader to suspend his campaign. Sanders has always served as a 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 done everything to stymie thirdParty Movements. I think sanders honestly believes he had a chance. We are watching legitimate anger on the part of sanders and those around him who understand the game was fixed from the beginning and yet i fear sanders will do what he says he is going to do which is endorse the democratic nominee. At that moment sanders becomes an impediment to change. If Bernie Sanders does not want to build a third Party Movement then we are going to have to build it without him and 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 electoral cycle. We are going to have to begin to organize and recognize that what we are building towards may twee 10 years away. When cerezo began it was pulling 4 . By the time there was a majority we have to hold back for that moral imperative. We have to stand up and be willing to deify the system. We have to step outside of the system. The system will be ruthless in terms of its response. We are reaching a moment of convergence. Of deadly environmental degradation, breakdown, we are already watching it. Many of the refugees and migrants streaming into europe, there are more but also a tremendous drop in syria. This system is incapable of responding in a rational way to the degradation of the environment caused by the fossil fuel industry and the Animal Agriculture industry. [applause] wall street has been unleashed once again. The money given by the fed at 0 interest, at some point we are going to see another financial crisis that may be twins with an ecological crisis. At that point, a breakdown within a system that is incapable of responding except to further enrich and empower Global Corporate elite, you will have large segments of the population, we are witnessing in europe turning to these protofascist forces embodied in figures like trump. In achieving our country, warned the inability of self identified liberal elites to respond to the suffering of the underclass while continuing to speak in the language of diversity and multiculturalism was empowering the racist, homophobic forces that are gathering around trump because they redefine empowerment. What determinism become . Not just empowering it oppressed women the way Andrea Dworkin called us to do but by having a woman president or woman ceo. And that lie perpetuated by liberal elites because the assault on people of color has been more draconian than on the White Working Class allows demagogues like trump to sell a message that dispossessed whites have been disadvantaged or disenfranchised because entitlements have been given to other marginalized groups. The lie of the liberal elites has essentially come back, a blowback against them. If Hillary Clinton becomes president , a figure, political figure who embodies everything on each side of the political spectrum, then you may get rid of trump but you will vomit up somebody even more vile. The only way we are going to break the back of this rising protofascist movement tied to the gun culture in the christian right is to build a viable left that hold back the moral imperative of defending the interests of working men and women in this country and is willing to be pushed outside of power for a certain period of time rather than dilute or give up that moral imperative which is something rosa luxembourg understood. We will have to do it. If we dont do it and we will see ourselves slide into a frightening form of despotism where a state or system of neoliberalism which lost all credibility is forced to maintain power by carrying out increasingly more vicious and brutal forms of violence. This is something hannah aaron understood, totalitarianism, the statement is essentially what people of color in marginal computers are, statements, they have no rights, they have been taken, police serve as judge, jury and executioner. I finished teaching politics and vision, 94 of people in the prison system never had a trial. The system is denied to a trial. Those who it to have the longest sentences went to trial and were punished for it. They stacked charges against you and then they barter like a poker game but if you go to court all of those you have to give you a longer sentence because they use you as an example. He went to trial or she went to trial and that is the sentence we are offering. You can understand the awful dynamics of the corporate state by looking at what it does the most vulnerable among us and the best place to do that is in a prison where corporations have reached their deadly tentacles down to every facet of prison life. Global telling which is taken over the phone service, the phone is the primary way children remain in contact. Four to five times higher. The area that has been privatized, prices have ratcheted up words, new jersey you make 28 a month. For 40 hours a week, neoslavery is alive and well. Prices are beyond reach would you are no longer given shoes in the state of new jersey, you have to spend 45 for a pair of reeboks. If you send the Money Transfer it is privatized, you send 20, you get 4. 95 service fee. On and on and on. Fees are imposed if you have a bereavement visit to someone who is dying or visit a member of the immediate family who is dead. In 15 minutes you pay for the overtime, 900. My students are getting out of prison, thousands of dollars in debt, when they get out of prison thousands of dollars in debt as exfelons they cant get jobs because there arent any jobs and they are demonized. If they cant maintain those payments they go right back into prison. That is why the guy who got stopped for a taillight run and is shot in the back. Some people say the system of mass incarceration as it works, they are wrong. It works the way it is designed to work. It works because we created with the loss of our Manufacturing Base and the assault on our working class a group of surplus labor. Brown and black bodies do not generate an income for corporations until they are locked in cages where they can generate 40 or 50. And students i teach understand that reform is not going to come from state legislature or congress because corrections and global they have all got their lobbyists, go on corrections, the largest forprofit prison complex in the country and on the website it says we are a good investment because there is 67 recidivism rate in the United States. This is why there are no programs. They understand as they have done and i close with this, the only mechanism left is to carry out nationwide work stoppages, no prison can operate and unless we have prison labor. That is an example for all of us. They just carried one out in alabama on the anniversary of september 9th, organizing nationwide prison stoppage and they said dont go demonstrate in front of the courthouse. When we carry out the work stoppage come to the parking lot stand with us is that us follow their example and understand we mobilize and stand up and disrupt the system, we can take power back in our own hands and eventually build in the years ahead towards the destruction of the corporate state, thank you. [applause] i love chris but dont agree about Bernie Sanders that he should have run separate because i think he has done an amazing thing within the Democratic Party which is get a lot of young people engaged and educate millions of americans about the tremendous economic disparity in this country of talk about issues of mass incarceration, people havent heard that before, issues black lives matter has brought to him and also shoulder a tremendous lift in the Democratic Party and if bernie hadnt run, wouldnt see that there is on one side Democratic Party represented by Hillary Clinton, wall street and the weapons industry and all that is wrong in this country and the other side, people really want to see the Democratic Party represent their values, values that Bernie Sanders is standing for. Raise your hand if you have worked on or voted for bernie. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for Hillary Clinton. You might see a small sprinkling here. Raise your hand if you plan to vote for jill 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. Fascinating times in this country, fascinating time to be with a group like this and a fascinating time to think of the opportunities we have now and are going to have next january. I want to summarize what has happened to people under obama. Obama came to power because he beat Hillary Clinton. He beat Hillary Clinton why . The iraq war. The iraq war. He was perceived as a peace candidate. That is how he became president. Lets give him credit for a couple really good things that have happened in the last seven years. One is the iran nuclear deal. Incredibly important, done against great odds with the help of a lot of people, going up against big lobby groups, going up against israel, going up against a lot of powers and it won. The other is cuba lose lets recognize obama did an amazing job opening up to cuba. There is still a lot to the d done, the embargo still exists. These are two diplomatic successes that happened under his administration but also lets not forget did not happen while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. It happened after Hillary Clinton left and john kerry came in and acted like a diplomat. Those are two positive things but so many bad things happened on foreignpolicy, lets remember the piece president as Laura Flanders said got the Nobel Peace Prize did not get us out of iraq or afghanistan, has bombed 7 countries at least, iraq a stand iraq, pakistan, libya, syria, has not closed wonton amo as he promised. Instead of closing guantanamo he would have been embarrassed to put more prisoners into guantanamo and his answer was instead to use drones to just kill people instead of capturing them and imprisoning them so he became the drone commanderinchief that has spread this horrendous technology not only being used in the United States but spreading to many countries around the world. He didnt close 800 military bases we have overseas and has been involved in building new bases. In case anyone hasnt noticed. All this militarism has not led to a decrease in terrorist groups, has only led to a spread and a change in names from things like al qaeda to the islamic state. Trump is saying we got to rebuild the military if i get elected. As if the military needs Something Like more money. 632 billion budget this year, obscene amount of money. That hides other moneys not considered by the pentagon budget that if you put them together like veterans affairs, money from the Energy Department the ghost in nuclear weapons, together it is about 1 trillion. Not only is it 54 of our discretionary money but more money than the rest of the world combined. We have the most grotesque military in terms of taxpayer dollars and guess what . They cant win a war. That is not because they are underfunded but they are sent to fight in unwinnable wars we have to get out of. [applause] lets not just blame it on barack obama. Lets look at congress. I live in washington dc now. I get to see it up close when you go into these congressional hearings and you see congresspeople from democrat and republican side falling over each other to give more money to the pentagon than the pentagon even asked for. When the pentagon wants to close a base here and there congresses you couldnt close that base, it is in my district. It will mean jobs. When the pentagon says we dont need those planes anymore, they are old, not useful, cargo planes, Congress Says we couldnt possibly kill that program. It would mean 35,000 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 and they make it part of their weapons in as many congressional districts as possible, take the most expensive weapons in the history of the world, the f 35, pieces of it in every single congressional district. The weapons manufacturer then gives money to congresspeople in those districts so Congress Keeps pushing those weapons and congresspeople turn around and they dont say we have to keep these weapons going so i can get money for my campaign. Instead they say jobs, jobs, jobs. What an insane way to have a jobs program. The military is probably the only Job Creation Program we have in the United States. Millions of people are employed in active duty and reserves, millions more feeding the military machine and it is i dont think a socialist, pretty mainstream economists on cnn who writes for the Washington Post, calls the us military the largest socialist economy in the world. He says it is cradletograve socialism. You get your money, early retirement, pension, health care for your entire life and your family, free housing, day care, early retirement, goodies from movie theaters to golf courses. It is indeed a jobs program. Robert gates says, dont know if he was boasting, he said there are more members in the military marching band than there are in the state department for inservice. An insane jobs program. Making things that make us unsafe, nothing we need to live. They dont make food, dont make things for us to where, to house ourselves, dont provide infrastructure, nothing we as consumers need to. It is not a god Job Creation Program. If you look at studies that are done that show when you put 1 billion in 2 providing jobs in the military you get 11,000 jobs and put it into education, you get 29,000 jobs, put into anything else you would get more jobs. I dont think they counted this but pretty sure if you took all that money and dropped it from airplanes onto people they would create a lot more jobs than the military would create. [applause] it doesnt keep us safe. As i mentioned, there are more groups that would like to attack us than there were before. Isis is indeed a threat. A terrorist attack on the plane that came down from france to egypt, but lets remember what Martin Luther king said at the time of the vietnam war, the us is the largest purveyor of violence in the world and it is not only the violence the us does directly. It is also the indirect violence because our number one industrial export right now is what . Weapons. When your number one export is weapons your number one Global Marketing strategy is endless war. Though the us sells weapons, lots and lots of weapons. The number one purchaser of us weapons is not is real. Saudi arabia. Think of how absurd and obscene this is. Saudi arabia. A country that is number one in beheadings in the world. A country that treats women as minors their entire lives, the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. A country that exports extremism, distorted form of islam that is exported around the world thanks to petrodollars. And internal affairs of yemen. Dropping bombs since march of last year for thousands of people, thousands of innocent people that take the country of yemen to the extreme and humanitarian crisis with weapons including cluster bombs banned by the International Community that makes us complicit in war crimes. The saudis are number one purchasers of weapons, the number one recipient of us military money, is is real. A major human rights violator, on a daily basis will oppress the palestinian people, that state is the number one recipient of tax dollars to the tune of 3 billion a year but that is not enough for the israeli government. To give their okay to the nuclear deal, billions more to us. 5 billion, lets go for 4 billion, negotiation still going on if not more. This is where tax dollars go, this is where weapons go. Recipient in military aid, egypt and extreme violator of human rights changed power through a coup. It is not enough for those weapons overseas, those weapons manufacturers, those greedy weapons manufacturers that pope francis said have blood on their hands are looking for more internal markets, 18,000 police departments, weapons and tanks, assault rifles, grenade launchers, drones, in the communities, to our own people particularly those who are the victims of the militarization of Police Forces. So here we have a war economy out of control, a weapons, militaryindustrial complex out of control, a Peace Movement that has been incapable of striking fear into those in power and moving them away from this militaryindustrial complex. Lets recognize that another place we have to put blame for all of this is ourselves for not being capable of building the kind of movement that we need. The Effective Movement to put pressure in the place where we need to put it. So now we look at the opportunities we have. When obama came in our Peace Movement died. We had a strong Peace Movement under bush. Obama came in, said the president will take care of it. He obviously didnt. Fool me once, what did george bush say . Dont fool me again. When it is one positive thing we can say about a prospect of Hillary Clinton or donald Trump Presidency is we will be not again. [applause] there are no illusions that donald trump or Hillary Clinton will be the peace president s we need. There is no illusion that they are going to get us out of the endless wars. It is interesting that donald trump has said a couple interesting things, hasnt he . Like nato is obsolete, great thing to say. It certainly is obsolete. Even said he would talk to kim jongil and of north korea, positive thing to say but lets not be fooled by donald trump. At the heart of his campaign is the islam a phobia he has been preaching, antiimmigrant hatred he has been preaching, he even said he would bring back torture, do whatever he has to do. Donald trump is not going to be a peace president. That gives us the opening because people will be ready to protest. In fact, just yesterday in dc we processed at the opening of Hillary Clintons offices. It was quite amusing because we went as billionaires for hillary. We went with signs that said i make weapons, i love hillary. Wall street loves hillary. We stood outside, as the mayor of washington dc went in, officials went in and looked at us in horror as we said we are the 1 , we want hillary for president. Hillary, she is our gal, take our corporate money now. 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 that are happy to see us protesting already from the getgo about hillary taking money from wall street, representing the weapons industry, taking 10 million from the saudis as part of her 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. 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. Let me just say, on building this alternative economy, it is a couple things, one is happening on a wide scale which is also localized economy, i am sure many of you are part of it. Instead of investing in the big banks you invest in credit unions. Instead of buying from factory farms you buy from local farmers in organic farms. Instead of buying from sweatshops you buy from strip stores. Instead of mass consumption you reuse and recycle. Instead of buying cracked oil you by 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 was a big thing in a 70s and 80s . We have to bring back economic conversion where we take these military bases and factories and turn them into the wind farms we need, the solar farms we need. Instead of destroyers floating in the gulf we should turn them into floating hospitals that will take care of the refugees and the people fleeing from the wars we start and people fleeing from natural disasters from the climate crisis. This is what we need to turn the war economy into. I want to end by saying we have a tremendous opportunity to show whether it is donald trump or Hillary Clinton, they represent an economy built on competition. We want one built on cooperation. Instead of built on constant growth that destroys the future we want one built on sustainability. Instead of one built on us versus them we want one built on interconnectedness. Instead of one that judges success by wealth like donald trump with casinos to Luxury Hotels and how many golf courses he has built, we want one measured by Healthy Communities and healthy ecosystems. We want a vision that engages and inspires and unites people from the black lives matter movement, the immigrant rights movement, the Peace Movement, the environmental movement, labor rights, we will only give peace a chance when we challenge those in power and replace the war economy with a local pc economy. Thank you. [applause] very happy to be here. Some of us have been watching. The mic is not on. Can you hear me now . Very glad to be here especially at this time. We are talking about the president ial candidates, senator clinton and donald trump, what has really been exciting, watching what is going on from afar in the United States has been huge mobilizations of young people in favor of a candidate who talks of socialism. What i want to tell you is this movement of young people, which has brought many more people together than one could have imagined much larger than any Political Campaign i remember involving trying to go forward against the mainstream, than at any other time in recent american history, vietnam didnt create a political side even though Martin Luther king was talking of running. As an alternative president not inside the Democratic Party but challenging the Democratic Party, that didnt happen, one reason was he was killed. What we are witnessing is an interesting radicalization. It is radicalization of young people which is happening in most countries in europe. Since the wall street crash many people, especially those who have no idea or no alternative view that somehow the governments of the world, the rulers of this world would manage to put something new in place that would give comfort to the poor and the young who suffer on many levels, too much to pay for education and increasingly in parts of europe, and National Health services and attack from american, increasingly given contracts by state owned Health Services as part of the neoliberal system, it was felt if the elites who ruled the world were more irrational they would attempt to put in place something different, after a short wait you have emergence of new Popular Movements from the left and the emergence of mass movements from the right. This process again in different ways in Different Countries but we can see in the United States too. It is as follows, we have had the only country where you dont have a far right movement is spain because the left have been dominant in Spanish Society and political culture but the conservative party, the socalled Popular Party has been moving further and further to the right. All these movements have one thing in common, developed from the grassroots, developed in one part of the country, either a region, sicily in the case of the 5star movement, madrid in the occupation of squares in spain and spread rapidly from their to the rest of the country. We have been witnessing even as i speak the rise of a new Popular Movement in france, a movement that pushes the established Political Parties to one side and says we dont trust, or the intellectuals who serve these parties, we dont trust you. Keep away, move away, we want to create unions to fight against new laws the french socialist government is bringing is putting onto the statute to restrict labor rights in france and this Movement Comes together at night. Some of them work during the day. Others take their time to do it, to occupy the night. The night rising, they meet and increasingly this movement which started in paris has spread to other parts of france, clashing with the riot police etc. Etc. In britain the radicalization took a different form. Much to everyones surprise something odd happened. What happened was in order to reduce the power of the trade unions and the Labor Movement inside the labour party, the labor right was pushing for a virtual primary system but different than anyone who was a labor supporter could join the labour party and participate in the election for the leadership of this party. That is how it happened. They assumed that like in france this would benefit the right because people on the right generally assume most people are like them. In britain this turned out not to be the case. Once this rule came into effect, and one of the candidates was Jeremy Corbin, a longtime socialist, longtime supporter of the campaign for nuclear disarmament, longtime campaigner against the walls in the middle east, longtime defender of palestinian rights who said for decades the Nuclear Missiles in britain should be gotten rid of, he said all this while campaigning for the labour party leadership. They had to broadcast this on television. Unlike here, they couldnt of the other candidates were on he had to be on and lots of young people who hadnt heard these things before never heard of them. He said one of the things he would do if elected leader of the labour party would be to renationalize the railway networks, end privatization of education and end all fees students were forced to pay for higher education. [applause] or smack within weeks, 200,000 people had joined the labour party. I didnt do it out of the pool but many of my friends did and they voted, to the astonishment of the media which had been denouncing him as a crazy living in a different world, he got elected leader of the labour party. That has now created huge problems within the labour party and between corbin and the establishment. This is in britain, the socalled motherland of democracy. A senior military serving general gave an interview to the sunday times, one of Rupert Murdochs papers saying if corbin was elected Prime Minister of england there would be mutinies in the army and they would refuse to obey orders. That happened. Another general appeared on a breakfast on Television Show saying the decision not to do this was unacceptable, would weaken britains defense and corbin was not suitable as a Prime Minister. So when a conservative was asked what the hell is going on, cant you control the army, this is unheard of in britain, he said the queen is the commanderinchief of the army so i wrote that is fine. We all want to live under a monarchy. That is what they are saying. The campaign against corbin has been huge, so far things have been proceeding not too badly. Attempt to force him to retreat have failed. Attempt to force him to retreat on other things have failed and his popularity is slowly growing and attempt 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. [applause] in spain a mass Popular Movement organized a loose party, a Movement Party and traditional party, came with an two presented points of defeating 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 respond, the way the generation is responding. Corbin in britain, sanders here, movements challenging social democracy there. What are their demands . Is totally frank, what these people are demanding from the rulers and the bankers who run this world is a little bit of social democracy. Not too much, we wont ask for too much, but we do want a Health System that is not privatized, we want free education, cheap homes and our railways taken back, we dont want the utilities being privatized. There was a huge struggle against water privatizing. So in these movements, by demanding little they are attracting huge numbers of people, the question then comes, is the capitalist state in these countries prepared to accept the 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 chris has been talking about. They dont care anymore, they dont need to prove they are democrats anymore. 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 communists we are better than you. That is all gone. They dont need to prove it and they feel they can do what they want and whether there is resistance, their initial reaction is to try to crush it ideologically saying you are Vladimir Putins agents, and much more than the us is france. Horrific, absolutely horrific. Has infected a large account of intellectuals. The suburbs struggle, very few white organizations come in support, you can name three or four intellectuals who defend them. Islam a phobia is huge. When i was interviewed the shock and horror when they said at a public event, not unlike this, five or six people said you now have a muslim mayor in london . I said i know, france is in a state of shock. We are in a state of shock because you have a very right wing mayor. He completely defense corporate interests, completely opposed Jeremy Corbin stands for and he is cozying up to those who attacked him. It is big for you that we have a muslim mayor but we judge him not by his skin color or his religion but his politics and what he is going to do. That is our definition. [applause] this is not a big deal in britain. Lots of members of parliament are muslims. A conservative member of the government, cabinet, business secretary is a muslim origin, former chairperson of the conservative party who resigned is a muslim and like the new mayor they come from humble backgrounds. Their fathers were firstgeneration migrants so it is a huge mistake to fall into the trap of thinking automatically identity, the politics of identity are progressive. Sometimes they are. In black lives matter it is a Huge Movement and very Welcome Movement and a movement broken with all the politicians who hung on the coattails of democrat politicians, that is the most important thing about black lives matter. The case of asian politicians in europe is basic, very different so each has to be judged according to their politics and what they do when they come to power. I want to speak briefly which Medea Benjamin has done eloquently as the state of the middle east. This is a part of the world that was made into what it was after the First World War when the british and french armies went in and created these small states. Prior to this the middle east was one area, the arab world, dominated by large cities under the rule of the ottomans, a very loose form of rule by the way. So that you could go to school in jordan, you could go to a secondary school in jerusalem and get your University Degree in cairo or damascus. That is how it used to function. Then came the First World War and the division of the middle east into little states. Imperial Civil Servants, how did you draw the borders of iraq . The Civil Servant in question said with a stick in the sand. That is how we did it. Now we are witnessing a new imperial process carried out by this empire. Of redividing the middle east and 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 when 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 to 30 including the chiefs of the Intelligence Services of the third reich were retained by the United States to fight the new global war, but iraq, completely different, destroyed every single remnant of the old states, hand over power to shiite Clerical Party and the result has been a disaster. A disaster. Nearly 2 Million People killed during the occupation of iraq. 5 million orphans. Millions of refugees in neighboring countries. And the war in iraq which we were told was over, 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 wars and longer than the first or Second World War. 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. This is what is happening. People think iraq can survive as a state. Northern iraq and kurdish areas are a direct threat and function is such, irradiance control shiite iraq through isis, the old iraq that remains united for good or bad the First World War is about to be divided again. Syria, virtually the same thing. It is in the interests of the empire and its close allies in the region to divide them into little tiny states controlled from outside, hence the destruction of the iraqi army, one of the last in the area hence the destruction of syria regardless of the absurdity of their rulers. Has to destroy any states with sovereignty, that is not permitted. Afghanistan is a complete and utter mess going into pakistan and it has wrecked the social fabric of that country and the drone attacks dont help. There was a remarkable suggestion from years ago when the iranian government which was considered a top level enemy government, a policeman fighting against demonstrators accidentally killed a young girl. It was an accident. Obama emerged on the white house lawn trying to and the headlines, that very same day in pakistan, the drone attack killed 56 women and children targeted a school by mistake, not a mention in most western newspapers and double standards drive people mad and crazy and wont prevent, not difficult to understand why many young womens muslims are moving in this direction. Im surprised there are not more. Given the extent of the provocation this is what they want to do. Why can they get away with killing us, why we shouldnt do the same . One argues about this when i am, you dont know how to fight etc. Etc. They say that. In such a situation what are we going to do . You know better than me. Watching from afar, the model which medea outlines, local strength, Building Local grassroots, on a statewide level before expending energies on a National Campaign which is capable of doing and is a very good one. An excellent campaign, has resulted in her winning as elections again, despite every democratic action against her and democrats trying to find a candidate of color, it is a good model and one shouldnt sit back, one shouldnt [applause] one shouldnt sit back and do nothing and wait and that is the encouraging thing, when i heard some opinion polls which said 30 of those supporting bernie said they would not under any circumstances vote for Hillary Clinton. [applause] i think that is 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 it is not working. We know it is not working and those who run the system know it is not working. Were it working a tiny bit, then all these jokers in wall street, the bankers who stole money, half of them would be in prison for what they did. [applause] that is what happened in a tiny little place called iceland. You have 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. That is what happened. In large countries, none of this would have taken place. While on the subject of crime and punishment, who has been punished for the war in iraq . [applause] no one. At the very least, the United States should offer one person to be tried could be dick cheney. He would be a popular choice as a war criminal. So laws that supposedly apply to others do not apply to the United States or its allies. We are in a situation where it has become impossible for mainstream parties and even some left groups and left parties, only the Italian Party saying it would withdraw from nato, dont want to be part of the military alliance. Not saying we should quit nato. There are lots of problems but this transition offers a solution and these solutions are in flux at the moment. Small ways in different parts of the world though there have been defeats here and there but we are on the eve of change in some shape or form. The only other choice that exists is that of the extreme right which is 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 on every possible level, thank you. [applause] thanks to our different panelists, we will do a quick q and a, a few questions. Three questions to the front right here. People are moving around, some quick comments. A question about surveillance and what function the surveillance states, what function it is serving particularly what function it is serving on social movements . When 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 a slave. You need to respect the conversation is continuing, please keep your conversations outside the hold, people at the back, pipe down. I am only taking three questions and they wont be from three white men. Work it out among yourselves but i dont see any women here. The problem is the corporate elites have created a system through militarized police, evisceration of Civil Liberties, wholesale surveillance and this has been completed in marginal communities where rights have essentially become privileges and privileges, going back to aaron, once rights become privileges in a society they can be taken away. They have created the perfect system of wholesale surveillance and oppression within communities of color which have been effectively demonized by a Corporate Media and Political Class and the consequence is when the rest of the population becomes has been arrested it takes place at the flick of a switch that we begin to suffer. The excesses of power we are culpable for because we did not stand up people of color when constitution was being shredded in front of their face. Question for Medea Benjamin, the question of humanitys peril, militarism and capitalism, putting humanity at peril, you travel, it sounds happy but i dont mean it. I mean it in a useful way. Where do you see humanity being reclaimed in the context of all of this . How do we rebuild our humanity . I see it in the challenges people on the ground are making to the oppression. If you take the example of his real, the fact that throughout the world there is this vibrant investment in sanctions movement is very inspiring, Hillary Clinton saying bdf is evil and encourages students on campuses to fight against it, that is inspiring in the fall a tremendous movement on campuses and our young people are going to show us how they can stand up against Hillary Clintons bullying. A media question and a question about ireland. I had the pleasure of being an island for the first time in many years and i was there for the 100th anniversary of the socalled easter riot in 1916. The first against colonial rule of the 20th century. What was striking to me is 100 years, many anniversaries. In every instance until this one the main thrust of the debate was whether the uprising was justified or civilian deaths could be justified. Whether it was delayed, they laid it on very heavy and the debate had taken place in a conservative part of the spectrum. This time the complete opposite. Most people claiming the legacy not just of the rebel but the less the James Connollys who talked about socialism, antinationalism, you saw a lot of focus on the women rebels who were nurses and doctors but also snipers and fighters. This is what i find happening in ireland. Just about every school child has been asked to write their own proclamation for 2016 and been asked to consider what would the republic of the 21st century look like . I wonder to what extent you see exercises like this happening in countries you are talking about or if you have any suggestions about individualizing the future we want to make because we have to start making it now rather than waiting for someone to hand it down to us. The irish situation, 1916 anniversary, when ireland is confronting something, the European Union has imposed on it a set of laws that do not allow the irish to carry out any spending from brussels, this is felt all over the country, the European Union insists on privatization which is what economies have been advising the irish. The privatization, the defeat of it by a mass Popular Movement brought about the fall of the government which was huge. Secondly, a number of radical leftwing socialist candidates have been elected for the first time in northern ireland, a group called people before profits, campaigners were elected to parliament. The other radicals have been elected in dublin and are playing a good row by refusing to take part in the old wars between irish Political Parties. Ireland has a special history. Each country has to rely and depend on its own history and the precedent in these countries and bring them back to life. We know very few people who talk about the slave rebellions. All of the groups, small groups but important groups of whites who helped these families in the past. In britain no one ever talks about the examples, in the first country to execute i remember seeing this in australia, the whole audience started applauding and i remembered i dont think they heard what you said. England was the first country england was the first country which decided after a trial to execute the king. The french did it later in the russians followed and in the United States the english revolution made a big part because a lot of puritans who came to the states before the revolution had certain radical traditions. That mustve played a part in preventing those who wanted the United States to become a monarchy there were some among the Founding Fathers were keen on that to answer your question, each country has elements in its past which are heroic, the 1916 easter uprising and they developed it. Lets take questions from the audience. I said i would take three, not all from men. Lets do one, two, three, just going to have to shout, i will restate your question. It has to have a question mark at the end. [inaudible question] your question . [inaudible question] that is a good question. What does the panel think of drop food, not bombs, airlifted people under siege . It is a great slogan. We were just in congress with those very signs and i agree we have to say to our government it is not doing its part to make sure humanitarian aid gets to the communities in syria and is not doing its part for Syrian Refugees into this country. We should be taking in 100,000 was the goal of 10,000 is ridiculous and we have only taken in 1300. It is shameful. [applause] you as well with a question mark at the end. [inaudible question] what are the parallels between the Prison Industrial Complex and the militaryindustrial complex . Good question. Go into any Innercity School and see that these kids are being conditioned for two roots, 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 you are surrounded by guards, going through metal detectors increasingly in charter schools, you are disciplined as if you were in the military and discipline inside a prison replicates discipline inside military structures. It is 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 you count underemployment, they are being trained to either be cannon fodder or locked in cages. Anybody else want to comment on that . Next question. We dont have one but come up here, we will help you. What is your question . [inaudible question] the constitution set up public banks. [inaudible question] the constitution. [inaudible question] i got a recommendation for you. [inaudible question] what do you think about reconstituting public banks . I encourage you to look at a good episode of the Laura Flanders show where we talk about that and democratizing the fed. I agree that that is absolutely necessary, building a piece economy and we have actually a new piece economy program, sign up sheets have been going around if you havent had a chance to see it please come up 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 power from the corporations. The labour party under corbin has pledged public money to these kinds of initiatives. Cooperatives in particular. They have done that. Between pledging them and winning an election and coming to power, who knows what is going to happen . One has to be realistic. The pledges corbin has made, some are very huge, there will be a big fight to nationalize the Railway System in the country which is a popular demand supported by between 60 to 80 of the population and this has been the case for many decades and he is the First Political leader who said we will do it. The eu says it will challenge the competition rules in the eu, the conservative party and half the playwrights in his own party on every single thing that is going to be a huge struggle, if it is just left to parliament and debates you have to have mass movements, Popular Movements from below like the movement that elected him to be kept up to maintain support, without them will be difficult. I need to take a group conscience. I took three questions, shall i take more . Come on up. [inaudible question] when germany gives the bailout to greece is that added to the principal . It is. Most of these bailouts given to greece are not bailouts. Money given to greece so they can pay back the interest on what they borrowed before. Very little of that money actually goes to the greek people who are suffering real private asian at the moment. I cannot begin to describe how awful the situation increase is. When the greek people wanted change 61 of them voted to break with these measures, strengthen their government. Their government capitulated to the European Union. If anyone wants to ask this question i want to make sure we get each of you to respond to the question of what is happening in latin america right now. Destabilization in argentina, venezuela, brazil, we havent mentioned this so far but dont want to have the evening closed without getting there. We have two associated phenomena. One is the state department, the United States, has been trying to weaken the progressive governments in south america ever since they came into office so that is nothing new and they werent able to do it. One reason why they are able to do it, the decline in the commodities, oil in venezuela, meant a huge economic crisis in that country which they have not been able to tackle. It is not easy though some of the good advice was projected. Similarly in argentina so you have attempts, constitutional attempts before it is over. Constitutional coup against delmar roosa in brazil and a total and complete row in argentina which is on its way to becoming the first exrepublic in south america. Quick question from you. Just as capitalism emerged from feudalism, right now there are worker producer cooperatives that are emerging. The problem is the system and the system is capitalism. All the reforms. Your question . All the movements. My question is do you see that the approach of workers, producer, self organized cooperatives this is the future in front. It deals with the issue of capitalism. Question mark. This has to do with the question of public banks because you need public banks to give out loans to the Worker Cooperative because commercial banks are not going to do that kind of thing and you need Worker Cooperatives to have decentralized power. When i talked about localized economy, new ways of organizing. Thank you for bringing that up. If you want to work with us come and talk to us. Jodie evans is in charge of the local piece Economy Campaign and we need more folks to work with us. These topics of worker democracy, transformation of the workplace and relations of production and distribution and in consumption are what we talk about on a weekly basis. The three of you come on up here. The models are fascinating. A great question. In this society right now, a white male is not necessarily white and not necessarily mail and i dont inc. White males that are here are again. I want white males to know they are equal to what we have to say. 90 of my students are proBernie Sanders, i get the feeling he was written off and yet i have never seen Hillary Clinton as threatened as she is right now and even just said she would consider Bernie Sanders as her vice president. What i am saying is, why is there a feeling whether you are proor 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 . We will get answers from our panelists. We will get answers. How do we get beyond the geopolitics of separation and competition into unified planetary synergy . The paradigm of political struggle . And the last one. This is on the subject of surveillance. People talk about using preencryption to protect our data but the surveillance, they have satellites with interferometry, to scan our homes. My friend in the department of defense works for them, doctor Robert Duncan claims they are spying on us. Have attack people with radiation. We want to know what to do to get this stopped. Nsa whistleblowers support us and we have videos on the site. Three macro questions there. One, are we writing off Bernie Sanders given the threat he seems to be posing to Hillary Clinton, what do we do to get to a more harmonically convergent sphere and plane and 3, what do we do about the possibility we are being spied on . Let me address Bernie Sanders. I dont write Bernie Sanders off. We encouraged bernie to run as an independent and there is a petition with, what is it called . There is a petition she has up calling on bernie to run as an independent was far from writing sanders off, i think we were both concerned from the beginning that he would be strangled by the democratic establishment as he has been and we have to begin to build. We are encouraging sanders given the election was stolen from him, revoke his support of clinton and live his agenda and the money he raised and enthusiasm he has raised, step outside the system and begin to build a movement. I am not writing sanders off. I was reading the Washington Post and there was a screaming headline that says the majority of millennials have a more favorable view of socialism and then capitalism. No i wont say a few things. The campaign is having a huge impact globally. They cannot believe what they are watching on the web not on the Television Screens but certainly on the web is the huge mobilizations it would be a big tragedy for the needed states if United States if these mobilizations simply disappeared once hillary gets it. If she didnt i would be delighted i think she has. So the big question is you build a movement and import movement a Democratic Movement one that talks about socialism and dealing with the banks but we cant for the future limit this movement to the electric cycle. Something needs to be done. It will happen i note the young generation has no problem with dinosaurs either here. Both of them are virtually the same age and thats not what is affecting people. The ideas which they are putting forward which many people respond to. As for the synergy look they tried very hard and while he was alive succeeded to a certain extent. He thanked in the government and south america which wants to build a Health Service which was to create doctors. There is a blank check. Here you are going to it. And if they were moving in a direction with various bodies and economic bodies been informed that is now in the state of collapse tragically. But the ideas are still there. And people well not forget them. That is the important thing to remember. A lot of people remember the good things that happened in the good things that were done they will come back to them in one of these was to try to unite the south American Continent both against the big brother in the north and for the interests of the people in the south he said its like plowing the sea but chavez got a few steps beyond that and actually begin to do it. One cannot give up simply because they go from the bad timeframe. One of their thing that Bernie Sanders has done. Before him it was impossible for any leading candidate to talk about palestine in a way that is in anyway sympathetic. Any way sympathetic. And the fact that Bernie Sanders has brought that up and says lets get a be a fight in the democratic platform he is back in the say what lot of us would like to say hes gonna say we want an evenhanded approach. That is miles ahead of what we had head. I think the power of standards he gave or verbalized the reality around us in a way that other politicians including barack obama had not done. Economic inequality. That is a fact. Most american can see every day on the other hand i think sanders and has a voting record backs this up it doesnt understand that you cannot be a socialist unless you are an anti imperialist. It is the mechanism that creates centralized control that serves and dictates the empires at the expense of the citizen tree. And it is not just military is a that is financially disemboweling the country but it is also in both parties are guilty of this one where we deify the military we deify systems of internal security and the consequence of that is the kind of fashion that we are seeing now in trumpet rallies. And im looking for a candidate and of course its political suicide as they found out or as Henry Wallace found out. The first step on the road to socialism is the destruction of american imperialism. Thank you all three. Have a great forum everybody see you tomorrow bright and early. Heres a look at some upcoming book fairs and festivals happening in september. Downtown brooklyn new york. Taking place in the citys inter harbor. As well as the others. And for more information about the book fairs and festivals they will be covering and watching previous festival coverage. Had book tv. Org. I think the trend has been clearly in the wrong direction on both sides the congress has not been assuming its responsibilities which has forced at least this president to do more things by executive order. There is no question that they should have come together and pass Immigration Reform legislation. And they werent that far apart. It would not sit down and talk it through. So in the book i emphasize it doesnt take but one thing one person that is willing to be a leader and step up whether it is congressman or senator paul ryan has the potential to do that kind of thing as a speaker. I have a lot of faith in him or a president i worked all the time with bill clinton. And we didnt agree philosophically he was a character but we talked and handed over to me. I handed the phone back. Something about central america. We talked all the time. We worked through all kinds of things. Safe drinking water. You name it. Did we agree no. And a lot of times we press each other to the point where we got mad. That was true with reagan. We met with president reagan just about every Tuesday Morning that congress was in session. At 9 00 sometimes it was just republicans. So the trend of not communicating is a recent phenomenon. They developed with george w even though he tried very hard to get Immigration Reform. And i say to mississippians a lot of it indication immigration is one of the big things in this. If we would have done in 2007 we would not be here now. It is not just about Illegal Immigrants has about Illegal Immigrants. We got people to want to come into america that had something there and cant get here. Hi to dr. From canada that wanted to come to mississippi and underserved medical area highly qualified. You wouldve thought i was trying to sneak in who not the same. It started with bush. And now this president and this congress they just dont talk and thats why they have the deficit that worries me more than ever. Its not about me anymore its about the next generation. And congress in the president are not dealing with it. So the next president all hillary would have just deal if she was president was to follow the role to a degree to president bill clinton. Or if its trump somebody mister president you say youre going to change washington the first thing you need to do to change it is to begin to communicate. Theres four things you need to make washington work. If you dont talk and i can get anything done. You have to develop a chemistry. Clinton made me nervous but we have a relationship. It was a chemistry that made it possible for us to turn them into action. That into action. The other things we have lost is inhibition. What are we for anymore. Do we know what either side would actually do. And last but not least ive seen leadership. One man or one woman that will we will develop an industry policy in america. We will have all of the above. To do it. It could change stuart on a dime but its gonna take a good to take a person of strength because ive seen it washington is a tough place i rode the high road and i got the advantage in the valley. The best thing about being in the valley you get up just how you can do things better. It can change i dont see it right now i dont see with mitch mcconnell, i dont see it with nancy pelosi i do see hope in paul ryan i dont know what to expect Chuck Schumer who well probably be the democratic leader he is smarter than a read and he is everybody every bit as partisan as harry reid. You can do business. They dont say that way in new york city but they understand it. There is some hope out there. But it all begins in the white house. Leadership begins in the white house. We have to get a different tempo coming out of that place. You can watch this and other programs online at book tv. Org. Here is a look at what is on prime time tonight. We kick off the evening with the facebook and product manager antonio martinez. And then at eight it is a history of the political and social popular with claire bingham. At 915 they report on the maryland homicide squad. Georgetown University Law professor sits down for the afterwards program at 10 00 p. M. Eastern to discuss her book how everything became more in the military became everything. And we wrap up book tv in prime time at 11 00 with Kate Anderson browers with the american first lady since 1950. And it all happens tonight on cspan to book tv. Anderson for hours with the american first lady since 1950. And it all happens tonight on cspan to book tv. Tom cole, when he put books and recommendations for books on your website. Books have always been a big part of my life i was actually a pretty Smart Communications director idea we get these questions all the time what do you read what are you doing i use books when i make it a point. We decided we would just turn it into a regular feature and has been a it is surprising how much attention it gets. We change it every month or so. Sometimes it will be a series