Transcripts For RT Going Underground 20171220 : vimarsana.co

From florida before the year is up and well no doubt be tweeting coming over the show what happened to the Rohingya Crisis and why is it disappeared from the headlines we are the Un High Commission for refugees whether those desperately dying or seeking help i merely pawns in the u. K. Backed geopolitical nato power game and two years since the last deep coal mine in britain shut down we speak to someone who has fought for the miners the worlds working classes all his life former u. K. Labor m. P. And the host of. George galloway about his new audiobook street fighting a memoir of the nineteen seventies lost from this weeks news of flip flop on gay rights in the philippines and lifting the lid on the White Helmets in syria all this more coming up in todays going underground but first im joined by Matthew Saltmarsh of the Un Refugee Agency u. N. H. C. R. In what has been another devastating year for tens of millions displaced by poverty and war matthew thanks for going on what evidence did you give parliament in the past few days about your visit to myanmar well we spoke to paul about the situation the humanitarian situation in bangladesh at the moment where of course the rangar refugees have fled over half a million of them six hundred fifty if you couldnt get in to me and presumably well we. We have stuff in myanmar but there are neighborhoods who actually go out and do humanitarian work at the moment so theyre confined to their offices and homes at the moment but also the military government correct but of course the humanitarian effort is very much focused on the coxs bazar region of bangladesh and its there that ourselves and other u. N. Agencies are really coming together and trying to help these this huge number of refugees who have been driven over the border by persecution and what scale are we talking early with a little bit well the total number we believe is six hundred fifty thousand but thats in addition to several hundred thousand who were already there and displaced so in total about a million ringgit refugees are on that side the bangladeshi side of the border and theres one camp in particular which i visited recently called kuta prolong which now houses half a million refugees almost which is the same size as manchester if you want to comparison but in terms of the size of the camp its about one percent the geographic size of Greater Manchester so you can imagine all of these hundreds of thousands of people crammed into a very very small area and the potential that you have for disease for social issues is a really really logistically challenging operation and unlike other refugee crises around the world uglier blee. British politicians very interested to hear what you are saying. What you do act the British Government is very mobilized on this issue britain is the largest donor to wards the operation and of course as a humanitarian agency were extremely thankful for britain because without that aid more the refugees would have died surprise that theres been such a. Interest in the plight of these refugees not entirely surprised i mean given the historical links between britain and that region i think and of course there has been interest in this country in the progress of sushi as the leader of myanmar and of course britain has been a significant donor with its zero point seven percent of g. D. P. Dedicated towards overseas aid it has been a significant contributor to other humanitarian situations for example syria for example in iraq and in africa as well so its not entirely surprising you see ive enjoyed you know the critics often talk about that they being used politically you most of the me and more are injured people. According to some used as a poor big geopolitical game with china there are vast oil reserves in wrecking state and we dont hear much about the mean more military when. She was first appointed she was seen as a big savior when she was in beijing thats where the news media here went when big old me and more of the plight of all these refugees well think is true that the ranger themselves have been victims of circumstance if you like of politics of geopolitics over the years this is not the first time that the population has been displaced there have been previous waves of displacement and the problems run very deep partly the population their state not citizens of myanmar so they dont have any sense of belonging they dont have any papers and theyve been very easy to drive out of the country they become poems in the situation in the region situation and born of pipeline fossil fuel Development Wind the people you spoke to in the camps they aware that there is a bigger game here or they just say there is the evil military and they are committing their interest crimes against their people the people are incredibly dignified its very surprising given what the people have been through and i met many families when i was there in the camps and nearly all of those families had at least one member who had been killed or raped or affected by what had happened at the end of the sum and yet they retain an incredible amount of dignity and in some cases optimism and hope what is it like in europe that you and your you see Different Countries responding to your pleas for more or doing a pledge is dependent on politics i mean i know you really in the past twenty four hours is talking about helping tens of thousands of people in Eastern Ukraine you need sure alleging shelling by the british. But obviously theres a hole in the British Parliament that presumably is that interested in the blood of people in Eastern Ukraine well funding is very much dependent on governments and how they view certain situations and Different Countries in europe and in the middle east respond to different situations based on their own budgets and their own needs in terms of Foreign Policy and so on but thats a separate issue in terms of the funding we put out appeals for the situations as we see them and many of them across the world are underfunded i was just looking recently at our funding in iraq i mean thats well below fifty percent for this year our appeal for Central African republic was at nine percent to twenty seventeen and in the case of bangladesh in the ring the current appeal was relatively well funded but that only goes through to february so were going to have to start the whole appeals process again fairly soon in the new year to try and get some clarity on funding from february through the rest of the year this political context arguably raises its head would say libya. Trousers of people have drowned in the mediterranean this year off the coast of libya arguably destroyed by the british britains conservative government labor m. P. s. Is that still an ongoing situation in libya are we hearing about that although we will hear about mir i think the reason perhaps youre not hearing quite so much about libya right now is because the numbers have slowed down the numbers trying to cross in the numbers who have died or a missing as a result of trying to cross but having said that the situation there is extremely acute in our view its what we call a mixed migration flows so there are refugees but there are also migrants who are trying to go across from various african countries subsaharan african in many cases and theyre following the routes through africa many are ending up in libya and theyre stuck there and many are in appalling conditions in Detention Centers for which there is very patchy access ourselves and partners have access to some of those detained but not systematically because different parts of the country are controlled by Different Actors and then of course the europeans have their interest in engaging with the libyans to try and resolve what for them is also an enormous issue because a country like italy has two hundred thousand people who are currently in in Transit Centers in italy alone and so you know that its an incredibly complex situation with a multitude multitude of factors involved is the difficulty that i would all troll daughter of course wanted no refugees to be able to go to the usa the context has been difficult this year for refugees generally globally i think in two thousand and fourteen fifteen and maybe into sixteen there was a big outpouring of public support across the world i would say certainly across the western world in support of refugees because of the syria situation and particularly if you remember the little three year old syrian boy i learned curdie who washed up on a beach in turkey and that gave a huge impetus to fund raising but also. Resettlement and general support for refugees in the west of course were now a little way down the line since then. The syria situation although theres still a war has has changed somewhat we wont get credit donald trump would stop the funding for Islamist Groups britain was funding them as well to overthrow the government of us can trump take some of the credit in terms of the causes of the refugee situation in syria well theres still over five million refugees in neighboring countries syria so theres still an enormous refugee problem those refugees who are in turkey and lebanon on in jordan egypt a couple of other countries are in an incredibly vulnerable situation the majority of them want to go home but the conditions are not right for them to go at the moment until there is really sustained peace in syria there is refugee it wont be safe for those refugees to go home and just vitally i know that its a separate agency and row over the palestinians in terms of news and your. Get this news out of what you experience on the ground. Thousands of refugees hundreds of thousands of refugees ironic that i mean we heard about atrocity the murder of a british diplomat in beirut but we didnt hear that there are a refugee camps in beirut say no i mean its been going on for years and years can do in a country just tell you look at. Going to go on forever thats right i mean the Palestinian Refugee situation has being as you said ongoing for decades and decades now under our mandate we have Something Like twenty two and a half million refugees. But there are also five million refugees approximately a palestinian so then whos to say that the situation isnt going to end up like that in bangladesh in those camps well at the moment the two countries involved bangladesh in myanmar. Trying to negotiate some kind of arrangement or agreement for the repatriation were saying that that has to involve ourselves units and has to meet certain criteria certainly certainly in terms of being fallen tree and that its done in dignity and in security and that there is something tangible and solid for the people to go back to and were not near that situation yet the people have very recently been displaced and most of them who i met anyway recently said that they would not be going back until there was some kind of guarantee of security and stability and that this wont happen again theres a fear on the faces of the people in that i think shock on the one side we just hear about a deal which i think should all country and trauma. Were the main situation as this is only really several months since since this is happened that is all the thank you thank you after the break whats the difference between the seventys and the twenty ten when it comes to revolutionary socialism not much if you listen to street fighting a memoir of the one nine hundred seventy s. By socialist firebrand former u. K. Labor m. P. George galloway im from the headlines legations of dog carts are the White Helmets in syria and suggestions of actions by the brits in iraq. How does it feel to be a share of the greatest job in. Well its as close to being a king as any job there is a Good Business model helps to run a prison now we just do it on like a video visitation i dont know one comes in we dont have to search them anymore its Cost Effective thats what they want to do that long they dont give a damn if you do the chores or not theyre actually paying us to put them back into. The louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the usa breach what she is behind such success. Welcome back to years ago this week britains last deep coal mine was shut down a legacy of margaret thatchers war with the British Trade Union Movement as she replaced u. K. Saw standard with imports of fossil fuels from minors many of them children of u. S. Backed developing countries like colombia the anniversary comes as the entire near liberal framework built by successive tory and socalled labor governments faces its greatest threat yet they have Jeremy Corbyn and the Largest Labor movement in western europe one long time comrade of corbins is the former labor m. P. And leader of the respect Party George Galloway his entire life has been dedicated to the rights of the dispossessed all around the world and george who hosts. The world has just released a new warning a memoir of the one nine hundred seventy soon to be available by our order will dot com he joins me now george welcome back to going underground is a pleasure the near liberals the blairites in corbins party the Mainstream Media they all say the seventys is something we used a club Jeremy Corbyn odds on favorite to be the next Prime Minister over the head with why in your latest work are you reviving the idea of this terrible period well actually its the tories that have taken us back to the one nine hundred seventy s. A Hung Parliament minority government dependent on of star loyalists the trooper a shot at the European Union a mad man in the white house. I could go on trust me the echoes of the seventys iraq surely not in germany corbins policies labor fought and won two general elections in one thousand nine hundred ninety four on a manifesto way to the left of germany corbins bank nationalizing the pharmaceutical industry and so on of course there were military dictatorships at the in the seventys spain comes up again and again in this work as an inspiration to you in terms of its struggle and in terms of your fight yes muslims might again you see spend for younger viewers is somewhere nice that you go on holiday but in my work out of the referendum yes but in my lifetime it was a brutal fascist dictatorship as was portugal next door as was greece ruled by a joint of cardinals this is all in the one nine hundred seventy s. And all of that was overthrown by Popular Resistance and mobilisation the seventys was an enormously optimistic period because it seemed like the world was changing in our favor in the favor of people like me on may the first one thousand nine hundred eighty five a tank broke through the gates of the American Embassy in saigon as it was called the vietnamese fighters were running up the stairs of the u. S. Embassy trying to catch the bottom of the u. S. Ambassadors helicopter as he clattered away to safety his paper showering everyone it was truly remarkable the vietnamese people had for not just french imperialism for decades but then american imperialism and defeated them both but again the parallels between now and that period spain of course as catalonia in that situation not a day goes by here in britain that we dont hear about dublin now controlling the future of britain because of rex in negotiations again and again in this memoir island personally its impact on your life and what the british. From the very youngest years that i can remember my ears and my head and my heart were filled with the stories of british iniquity in. And the one nine hundred seventy s. Was the most dreadful decade in just one year almost five hundred people lay dead on the streets of six counties in the north east of if you grow up as a death toll to say the British Population now youd be talking many many thousands of dead People Killed by part of military activity killed by the state famously bloody sunday in famously with the british part of your regiment shot dead thirteen unarmed demonstrators the bali marf a massacre where a priest weaver hunker chief was shot dead by the very same british publisher regiment it was hell on earth in the one nine hundred seventy s. And people like me who sympathized with the irish republican cause. Being. It could have because you talk about misinformation you mention of course that while the press here were telling us that there must be no negotiations there were secret negotiations again not far from here again the walk so again misinformation seem throughout its decision formation really its deliberate decision for me at the very time that those of us calling for a political process in the north of on and were being tarred and feathered traitors in cheney walk in chelsea a minute or two walk from here. And ted heats government because she was a minister and his government were actually meeting the leaders of the ira Martin Mcguinness was a very young man he was not long out of his teens he was plucked out of prison the prison camp the long cache internment camp and brought here to chelsea imagine the Culture Shock for him there he was sitting in. While this really made b. B. C. Is telling banning everything they were banner it wasnt just that they were attacking us they were leaning on broadcasters not to broadcast programmes that they made and forbidding some of them from doing so leaning on newspaper proprietors not to report facts about torture and so on that that were seeping into the public realm it was a time when it was a time of conflict as is obvious from what im saying no conflict between classes in western countries conflict between western countries and poor eastern and southern countries trying to make their own way in the world and we were winning i suppose thats the point im trying to make in this book tries to make so again and again parallels to right now as as the media says Jeremy Corbyn is flogging old ideologies that are out of place now well theyre all the ologies the ideology that everyone deserves a roof over their head and secure job and protection at work that the Health Service should be properly funded are all people should not shiver through the winter our children not go to schools hungry in the morning these are old ideas thats true but theyre gold ideas and they are ideas that once made britain something and someplace to be and i reckon that the last election showed theres still a political market for that and if we ignore the sellouts and there are so many in this book of people like tony blair and who knows who else you mentioned something i mean you this is a deeply personal book i have to say and it is very much about your upbringing your. As youre becoming more more politically active you have no time for something cool trotskyites which is being used quite a lot of Mainstream Media and he doesnt relate to leon trotsky at all since they were you mean and what people there was a strain in working class politics left wing politics in britain especially in the seventys. Its who i want really much to do with trotsky who was a very important figure in the Russian Revolution and a great military leader and i have no nothing but respect for him as an individual but his acolytes would always be the impossible lists so if you were on strike for an extra four bob theyd be demanding it should be ten bob and the people fighting for for bob were sellouts and reformists and class traitors or if you were going to have a picket they demand it be a demonstration if it was a demonstration they demand it storm the American Embassy or storm the police are always more extreme more impossibly list than the mainstream im just going to finish though with i mean big topics that are throughout this book and they both have an inverse of us reach this year the importance of palestine for you because its Balfour Declaration here and the soviet revolution because for all its flaws you again and again have to continuously mitigate against this when you talk about its influence the revolution of one hundred seventeen was so important it turns the world ten days that shook the world as john reid the american journalist wrote in the epic book the time those ten days of the bolshevik revolution exactly one hundred years ago almost to the week. Utterly changed the course of the Twentieth Century and i believe still shapes the twenty First Century because for the first time for all its flaws mistakes crimes it sure another way it was possible that you could run a society and an economy on entirely different lines from which we had been told here in the west was unchangeable and was bill into the bricks of our lives and could never be altered and at the very least that revolution achieved social democracy in the west there would never have been a Health Service there would never have been Social Security and protection and so on laws passed if it were not for the fear of the soviet union so lets give them some support for liberation movements like palestine its support for liberty. Movements was for me the most important thing vietnam would never have succeeded but for the soviet union cuba would have been overrun in the first weeks of the cuban revolution if not for the existence of the soul but you know as for palestine its never gone out the news i became involved in one nine hundred seventy five im still involved as we enter two thousand the dating the palestinians are not much farther forward but they have many tens hundreds of millions of more supporters than they did when i started the campaign in one nine hundred seventy five at that time you could have fitted all the supporters of the p. L. O. In the studio no Trafalgar Square wouldnt hold them all of london wouldnt hold them everybody with any sense knows that the injustice suffered by the Palestinian People is central to the crisis in the middle east george gallery thank you pleasure. Well now would be to go through on the weeks papers isnt it oh big broadcaster a former liberal democratic member of Parliament House of lords today discussing syria not jerusalem lots of violence there was this one the guardian lots of stories coming out of syria as well often the guardian reports how syrias white elements became victims of an online Propaganda Machine theyre blaming you theyre not blaming just me well not just you but your but but actually. And others because theyre saying that the White Helmets have been maligned as being in some way north arius way involved in some skullduggery the guardian has uncovered and im quoting now how this counternarrative is propagated online by a network of anti imperialist activists Conspiracy Theory to say the worst what we want of more imperialists is most more cold cold with the support of the russian government that could be you obviously the guardian snopes channel four news similar stories a journalist and as a b. Lee who we interviewed on this program who made serious allegations about connections between up. By the link groups and the white helmet is quoted in here and i understand she is going to seek some sort of a reply i should just tell you though that we already saw one of the brilliant producers here on going underground talk to a white helmet and what they want to learn two of them are t. Should not be reporting this unfounded Conspiracy Theory as fact with it but its a problem is a problem there is clearly a conflicting story about the White Helmets now i and other geisha is there linked to alqaeda linked groups yeah thats right now i havent got a political agenda to say this in fact it just causes me trouble to just dont report on it when its all ok lets get our whole thing say that you know when there you go because its all positive right artie is a conspiracy thats a conspiracy its all a conspiracy actually because it doesnt fit the narrative alarming story when the canary which obviously doesnt seem to be a conspiracy because it involves judicial elements in the sultry this is in some ways even more sinister the canary reports High Court Rules british troops are guilty of true despite alleged government attempts a cover up simple version here that the british army were responsible for Human Rights Violations in iraq this is bubbled up a number of times theres been some evidence for this before but the real problem here is you go to war on freedom and human rights and then you violate in the cells thats at the heart of this story action this is the International Criminal court investigating british troops abusing unlawfully killing and thats the point these people dont mess around with conjecture they talk about fact and they identify these facts arguable as well they have to say oh youre against everyone today i think its the prisoners do you see one of the things that is in arguable is president and him changing the politics geopolitics of the philippines and the and the South China Sea and usually all we hear about is hes a terrible because hes reputed to join or away from the u. S. But whats this are yes the hero president the headline from c. N. N. Philippines president to tap. Says hell protect. The community and thats been Gay Community are going to be protected by him her a for those who support that but hold on a minute to say who originally said he was against those rights and hes right saying criticize any changes were going to whatever the case is identity politics driven Companies Like c. N. N. Are going to find it very difficult to report on this turnaround so what i want to say about here is despite the misery of trying to change his mind hes changed mine and thats to be celebrated its an amazing talent around that sold im saying could also be to do with politics ok going on with a little trump actually. Stands on this either pretty sure how he stands on. People serving in the holiday in the philippines members or pick thank you very much. For the show were back for Season Finale on saturday the eve of Christmas Eve when hopefully israeli army gas may have cleared from jesus but place but until then he would not try social media well if you are the eighty one he has to the day since honest i go on the gold with arrived in london represented by the republicans as the british back general franco attack on. The single most important social equalizer of our time the internet is under grave threat the decision by the federal Communications Commission essentially gives Internet Service providers the keys to the internet without Net Neutrality will be Economic Opportunity only widening for all. Well thats the twenty ninth if you want to learn. President on trump threatens to cut aid to un members who voted against americas decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. To these ideas is it dangerous to stay here ok thinking within. Our correspondents caught up in the latest protests in ramallah as palestinians declare another day of rage against Donald Trumps jerusalem move. Social media giant facebook is accused of abusing its monopoly in germany and of inappropriate collection of users data. Putin says the Foreign Intelligence Service is a ramping up their activities in russia trying to interfere in the countrys internal affairs