1 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: I love how often the Holocaust has been trending over 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,480 Speaker 1: the last year. Um, that's good. That's the thing you 3 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: want to see trending in. Um, it's it could happen here, 4 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:23,280 Speaker 1: all right, Chris, continue with your bread riots. Yeah, we're back. 5 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: There's more riots. Uh. Now, last episode we talked about 6 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: historians declaring the end of the bread death of the 7 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:31,440 Speaker 1: bread riot, and like in the sixties and early seventies, Like, 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: I think that this is this is one of the 9 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: ways you can tell that period people genuinely thought the 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 1: bull was going to get better. It was that like 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:41,519 Speaker 1: they genuinely believed that like the centralized state and like 12 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: capitalism can always provide foods you want up bread riots anymore? 13 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:48,240 Speaker 1: You get mark. You if you were born in that period, 14 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: you like grew up and people were fleeing from dynonic 15 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: ass in the street and like getting getting eaten by 16 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: woolly mammoth's and then by the time you're forty, you've 17 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,319 Speaker 1: got the telegraph. So I get it, right. I get 18 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: why people think that that progress was really back in 19 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,119 Speaker 1: those because they got they wiped out the dynamic as 20 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: this is. Yeah, you have seen Howard Taff building the 21 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: pyramids exactly exactly exactly you have you have you have 22 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:17,400 Speaker 1: seen the future rise up literally in front of you, 23 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,679 Speaker 1: and he went from eating mud to Hershey's chocolate. It's 24 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: it's an incredibly impressive sort of period of modern historical evolution. 25 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: And you know, and one of the things you see, 26 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: like like you'll see like Marxists calling bread rice primitive 27 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: rebels doing like populist mob politics that's been like displaced 28 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: by proper Marxist class politics. And then like every single 29 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:41,559 Speaker 1: one of these people was like the most wrong anyone, 30 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:47,039 Speaker 1: like basically from that period until until the moment the 31 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: end of history. Guy starts writing, they are the most 32 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: wrong people like on the planet. Well, it's also funny 33 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: to hear that idea that like there was something primitive 34 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: about these people's class analysis, because like the Brothers Racky 35 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: and Ancient Republican Rome, a lot of this ship they're saying, 36 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: it is not at all primitive class analysis like this, 37 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: it's it's pretty developed. Yeah, And I mean, like the 38 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: Marxist will do some long argument about how like oh 39 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: they have they have false consciousness, they're not trying to 40 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: abolish the class system or whatever, and it's like, well, 41 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: I mean like I look at the Martin, the Marxist 42 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: in the demolish the classystem either so like yeah, like yeah, 43 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: like that these are these are very Andre's something we're 44 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: gonna be coming back to a lot this episode is 45 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 1: that the people doing this are incredibly sophisticated political actors. 46 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: And one of the sort of modern version of this 47 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: is in the nineteen seventies, not only did bread riots 48 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: not and there's a new kind of bread riot and 49 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: these riots are collectively known as the I M. F. 50 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: Riots um. From from from January nine, seventy six to 51 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: October nineteen nine two, there are riots in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Jamaica, 52 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: like Beeria, the Philippines, a year, Turkey, Morocco, Sierra Leon, Sudan, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama, Tunisia, 53 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:06,400 Speaker 1: the Dominican Republic, Haiti, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guadibala in Mexico, Yugoslavia, Zambia, Poland, Algeria, Romania, Nigeria, Hungary, Venezuela, 54 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,360 Speaker 1: La Jordan, the every Coast, Nigeria, ron Albania, India, and Nepal. 55 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: Were you just do like the whackou the Whackow Warner's song. 56 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: It's that's literally all the play I found the chart 57 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: that has all of them. Is like, there's just so many. 58 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: They just keep happening. And again that's only like they 59 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,839 Speaker 1: they're they're still happening. And the everything I should mention 60 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: is those are just the ones that are called the 61 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: I m F riots. There's a bunch of other riots, 62 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: some of which are bred riots, that aren't called the 63 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: I m F riots because they're not really sort of 64 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: like directly involved with the I m F. And and 65 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: that that this raises the question of what the fund 66 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: is an IMF riot? Uh, And the answer is that, unfortunately, 67 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: to to understand why people are throwing ball offous through 68 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: bank windows, we have to talk about banking a little bit. Um. 69 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 1: I I have talked, I guess at length. Yeah, I 70 00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: I apologize, but we will we will get back to 71 00:03:57,480 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: the riots, damn, But I promise we just have do 72 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: a little bit of bank a king. So yeah, I've 73 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: talked extensively on the show about the crisis of the seventies, 74 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: and you know, the short version is that in a 75 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: thing that is completely unrecognizable today, the global economy collapses, 76 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: inflation skyrockets. Countries across the global South start taking out 77 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 1: these suggestable rate that they've been taking out, these suggestable 78 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: rate loans, and then suddenly the interest rate spike and 79 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: they start defaulting on these loans. Here's our free markets 80 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: and food riots talking about it. Although the causes of 81 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: the crisis run deeper, by the nineteen seventies, many smaller 82 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,159 Speaker 1: nations began to feel the strains of insolvency as a 83 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: result of a world wide recession, successive oil price shocks, 84 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: declining world commodity prices, and accelerating debt service obligations. So basically, 85 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: like if you're a small country, right, the price of 86 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: everything you need to buy, like oil, is going up, 87 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: and the price of what you can sell, which is 88 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: like commodities like copper tin, is collapsing. And these lead 89 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,240 Speaker 1: to what are like these massive what are called balance 90 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: of payments crises, And so we should we talk about 91 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: what about what a balance of payments crisis is? And 92 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: this one was up being really important. Here there's the 93 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: story about che Guevara, like right after like literally right 94 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: after the Cuban Revolution, is he so he goes to 95 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: the US and he's in the he sits. He's in 96 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,200 Speaker 1: this meeting with a bunch of bankers and he's trying 97 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: basically to get Cuba's gold reserves and cup us sort 98 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: of like foreign exchange reserves out of the US. The 99 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: US doesn't steal it. And it was funny about it 100 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: is all the bankers who are talking to him, like 101 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: all of them report afterwards like, woll wow, this guy 102 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: talks like a banker, not a communist. And the specifically 103 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:29,560 Speaker 1: the reason they were like, oh hey, this guy talks 104 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: like a banker is that he knew what balance of 105 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: payments was. Um. The short answer is at a balance 106 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: of payments crisis is when there's more money flowing out 107 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: of the country than there is coming into it. And 108 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: the result of this is that you run out of money, 109 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: and particularly the thing you run out of his American dollars, 110 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: which is the thing that you need to like buy oil. 111 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:49,840 Speaker 1: So you get these countries that are massively in debt 112 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: and they run out of money, and the only thing 113 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: they could do is turn to like turn to the 114 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: International Monetary Fund and the i m F, who like 115 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 1: the only description of the i m F that I 116 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: have is that like they're they're they're basically, you like 117 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,599 Speaker 1: if the cartoon Bank of Evil from Despicable Me like 118 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: ran the entire world economy. I they you know, so 119 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,479 Speaker 1: the I m F shows up to these countries and 120 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: is like loll lmao eat ship, and they force these 121 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: countries to implement, like in order to get loans, They 122 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,559 Speaker 1: force them to implet what are called stabilization programs because 123 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:20,840 Speaker 1: of the quote conditionality of the loans. They have all 124 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: these like this really technical, boring like neoliberal like legal 125 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: language for it, the like the this is this is 126 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: all sort of banker speak for if you want another 127 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: loans you can buy food, You're gonna have to rob 128 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:35,880 Speaker 1: every single person you know and hand them and hand 129 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: us all your money. Uh. This eventually becomes now to 130 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,960 Speaker 1: structural adjustment programs. There's all of this sort of technical 131 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,040 Speaker 1: language disguise what's going on. But what's actually going on 132 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,159 Speaker 1: is that in order to pay off, in order to 133 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,280 Speaker 1: pay the bankers for these loans, they are taking food 134 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: from the moles of children. Um. Yeah, here's a more technical, 135 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: I guess explanation of what's happening here. Austerity programs include 136 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: stern measures or shock treatments that trigger market mechanisms to 137 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: stimulate export production and increased government for exchange reserves. So, 138 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: according to the theory, currency devaluation makes three world exports 139 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: more competitive in the international market. Reduced public spending curbs 140 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: inflation and saves money for debt repayments. Privatization of state 141 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:22,200 Speaker 1: owned corporations generated more productive investment and reduce public payrolls. 142 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: Elimination of protectionism and other restraints on foreign investment larns 143 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:30,560 Speaker 1: more more efficient export firms. Cuts in public subsidies for 144 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: food and basic necessities helped to get prices right, benefiting 145 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: domestic producers. Wage restraints and higher interest rates reduce inflation 146 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: and enhanced competitiveness, and import restrictions can serve forum exchange 147 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: for debt servicing. So this has winners and losers, and 148 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: the losers are like everyone in the country that is 149 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:54,200 Speaker 1: happening to and this is and this is pretty cost 150 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: cross class. Like these policies they hit workers, they hit peasants, 151 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: that hir small shopkeepers, the middle classes annihilated odd just 152 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: like people who are consumers you buy goods, and even 153 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: the sort of like the local capitalists just get screwed 154 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: by this. Because what the I m F is doing 155 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: is forcing every wonder have lower wages, taking massive benefit cuts, 156 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: and massively spiking the price of food. And you know, 157 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: I I want to get remind everyone that this this 158 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: is explicitly what the Federal Reserve is trying to do 159 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: to us right now, Like this is this is the 160 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 1: kind of stuff that they're talking about in order to 161 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: curb inflation, is to just make the pay everyone less, 162 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: make everyone take benefits cuts, and then increase the price 163 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:36,719 Speaker 1: of ship. So the winners of this are like six bureaucrats, 164 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:41,319 Speaker 1: international investors, and like a class of like absolutely horrific 165 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 1: large agricultural landowners. And this this has about the effect 166 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: that you would expect it to. Um. Between nineteen seventy 167 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: six and late Nino, some a hundred and forty six 168 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: incidents of protests occurred, reaching a peak from nineteen eight 169 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: three to nine five, continuing to the present without attenney suation. Now, 170 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: the authors who are writing this right, they're writing this 171 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: in nine So when they say they continue to the 172 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: present without tentiation, they before the thing is the last 173 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:17,040 Speaker 1: one of those riots ended like a week ago. Oh yeah, yeah, 174 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:22,440 Speaker 1: they're still they're still going um so and you know, 175 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,719 Speaker 1: and these these riots are slightly different than the sort 176 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:28,280 Speaker 1: of like classical bread riots, right, because they are about 177 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: the increasing price of food. It's also about the increasing 178 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,319 Speaker 1: price of fuel or sort of broader austerity measures or 179 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 1: cuts to services and stuff like that. Um here, here's 180 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: here's a quote about like what these things actually look like. Um. 181 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: Demonstrations and riots typically target specific institutions perceived as responsible 182 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: for the depredations. Marches and protesting crowds converge on major 183 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: thoroughfares and government buildings, such as the treasury or the 184 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: national bank or the legislature, the presidential palace. Looters attack 185 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:59,200 Speaker 1: supermarkets and clothing stores where fuel and transportation subsidies are 186 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: part of the austerity package. Busses and gasoline stations are burned. 187 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: The international dimension of austerity are recognized symbolically in attacks 188 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,280 Speaker 1: on travel agencies for an automobile's luxury hotels and international 189 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,760 Speaker 1: travel agencies or all that too, but also international agency offices. 190 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 1: And you know this is going to sound familiar from 191 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: last episode. It turns out that just like the eight 192 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: such people, that the attacks of these things are are 193 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: very targeted. The sort of like forms of resistance have 194 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: changed over time, because you know, this is now. We 195 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,480 Speaker 1: we do have modern political organizations, right, Like we get 196 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:45,320 Speaker 1: general strikes, you get sometimes you get just noble bread riots. 197 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:48,600 Speaker 1: Sometimes you get these just things that are like large 198 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: protests and then they turn into riots. And what's interesting 199 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: about them is that these are very sort of these 200 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,800 Speaker 1: are very sort of cross class movements. Right. You have 201 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: your sort of classical sectors that are poor. You have 202 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,440 Speaker 1: like particularly in the global South, you can you have 203 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: your shanty dwellers, you have unemployed youth, you have small 204 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: street vendors or like a crucial sort of element of 205 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:12,200 Speaker 1: these things you have like just your guy selling cigarettes 206 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: on the street. Um, you get you also get like 207 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: parts of the industrial working class. You get sometimes you 208 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: get unions. A lot of times you get students, you 209 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,040 Speaker 1: get public employee sometimes you get professional groups. One of 210 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:25,760 Speaker 1: one of the interesting things that's reading about this, I've 211 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,840 Speaker 1: read like a few books in this Eric who were 212 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:30,520 Speaker 1: talking specifically and this this isn't like the nineties, right, 213 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: We're specifically talking about professional groups since Sudan. And it's 214 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 1: like it's like, okay, it's it's nine. People are talking too. 215 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,199 Speaker 1: Professional groups and Sudan backing rioters against the government. It's 216 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,079 Speaker 1: two thousand and nineteen. People are talking about professional groups 217 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,560 Speaker 1: backing protests against the government. It's like, it's I don't know, 218 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: Like there's this extent to which all of these things, 219 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,439 Speaker 1: like that the I m F riots have just been 220 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: happening over and over and over again for about fifty years, 221 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,959 Speaker 1: and a lot, a lot of the elements are incredibly similar. 222 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: One of the other things that's going on here is 223 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 1: that these protests are driven are driven by mass organization. Typically, 224 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: austerity protests were precipitated by dramatic overnight price heights resulting 225 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: from the termination of public subsidies on basic goods and services, 226 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:18,720 Speaker 1: proclaimed by the government as a regrettably necessary reform, urged 227 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:21,720 Speaker 1: by the I m F and international lenders as conditions 228 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:25,120 Speaker 1: for new and renegotiated loans. Five deaths in the first 229 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: Peruvian protests to get a pattern of violence. Peru remained 230 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:31,640 Speaker 1: a hotbed of austerity protests, with students and workers demonstrating 231 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:36,319 Speaker 1: against increased food prices in followed by followed in eight 232 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,080 Speaker 1: by a march of public employees over state layoffs. This protest, 233 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: so cheered by other public workers watching from surrounding the 234 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: office buildings, was dispersed by police tear gas. So like that, 235 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 1: that's that's a very sort of yeah, yeah, like we did. 236 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:53,200 Speaker 1: I mean, this is this was happening. This is happening 237 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 1: in Peru like last year, right, actually it was it 238 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: last year was earlier this year, I don't know. Time 239 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 1: is fake. And that's actually like the other thing that 240 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:05,720 Speaker 1: sort of startling about this is like the places that 241 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: riot are still the places that are rioting in like 242 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:10,800 Speaker 1: an enormous number of cases. It's it's the same places 243 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: sometimes it's the same people. Um. I think probably the 244 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: most famous protests of the sort of era is it's 245 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: called the Caracazo I'm pronounced nice really badly by my 246 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 1: apologies in Venezuela, which is a reaction to nine increase 247 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,679 Speaker 1: in training and bus fairs. And there are these are 248 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: like these are massive riots. Um at least a hundred 249 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:39,920 Speaker 1: and probably like a couple of thousand people are like 250 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:43,360 Speaker 1: gunned down by the army. And three years later, a 251 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 1: relatively unknown colonel named Hugo Chavez tried to overthrow the 252 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:52,199 Speaker 1: government that had carried out the price increases. Travis, you know, 253 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:57,200 Speaker 1: Travis is better known for his other works, but he's 254 00:13:57,240 --> 00:13:59,560 Speaker 1: the sort of tie between the I m F riots 255 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 1: and the sort of next phase of political resistance to 256 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: this stuff, which is called the antique, which is like 257 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,199 Speaker 1: known as the anti globalization movements in sort of the 258 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: nineties and nearly two thousands. And the thing that's interesting 259 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: about these things is that I don't know, the I 260 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:17,600 Speaker 1: m F rights don't go very well, like either they 261 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:20,400 Speaker 1: lose or at best, what they were able to get 262 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: was like temporarily stall some of these reforms, and I 263 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: say like reforms quote unquote like the serve of near 264 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 1: level like slashing benefits, so they were able to pause 265 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: them a bit and then they would sort of get 266 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: restarted after people left the street. But in the late 267 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: nineties and the two thousands people start winning um Argentina 268 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:39,600 Speaker 1: is sort of famously forced to like tell the I 269 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 1: m F to funk off, and they default on their loans. 270 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 1: After this like enormous autonomous uprising two thousand one that 271 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 1: like very nearly overthrows the government and forces that like 272 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: five heads of state. There's the whole sort of pink 273 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:52,400 Speaker 1: tide in Latin America. The I m F gets like 274 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:54,040 Speaker 1: driven out of a bunch of countries in East Asia, 275 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: and then she doesn't eight, the entire world economy collapses, 276 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:03,800 Speaker 1: which it turns out is bad for everyone. And this 277 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,800 Speaker 1: does This does two things for our story. The first 278 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,240 Speaker 1: is that like countries are suddenly going broke again, and 279 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: because they're like just completely broke, the I m F 280 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: is just back and is able to sort of enforce 281 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: programs on places like Greecent Spain. And the second thing 282 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: it did was set off an enormous wave of bread 283 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 1: riots and uprisings. And I think, like most people, if 284 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,560 Speaker 1: you tell them that two eight set off like an 285 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: enormous wave of like protests, they're They're immediately going to go, oh, 286 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: you mean the Arab spring And I am talking about that, 287 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,240 Speaker 1: But that's actually not specifically what I'm talking about here. 288 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 1: There there's there were like immediately in two thousan Central 289 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,360 Speaker 1: and immediately after there was another massive wave of bread 290 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 1: riots that every like just everyone is completely forgotten unless 291 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 1: the thing that you do specifically is study bread riots. 292 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: Um here here's from Here's from the piece called a 293 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,760 Speaker 1: Political Economy of the Food Riot. In two thousand and 294 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,240 Speaker 1: seven and two, the world witnessed a return of one 295 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: of the oldest forms of collective action, food riot countries 296 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:05,080 Speaker 1: were protests occurred range from Italy, where pasta protests in 297 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:08,120 Speaker 1: September seven were directed at a failure at the failure 298 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,360 Speaker 1: of the Prodi government to prevent a thirty percent rise 299 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: in the price of pasta, to Haiti, where protesters railed 300 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,960 Speaker 1: against presidents provolves impassive response to the doubling of the 301 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,880 Speaker 1: price of rice over the course of a single week. 302 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: Other countries in which riots were reported including the Uzbekistan, Morocco, Guiana, Mauritania, Senegal, India, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Burkina, Fosso, 303 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: camera uined Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Mexico, and Argentina, 304 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: and some commentators have estimated that thirty countries experienced some 305 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: somewhere foods some sort of food protests over the period. 306 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 1: Now we've been talking a lot about like food consumers 307 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,440 Speaker 1: in this because that's mostly the people who are involved 308 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:53,040 Speaker 1: in bread riots. But you know, as was happening in 309 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: seventeen huntres with the sort of original stuff like this 310 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: whole time this is going on, there's there's a sort 311 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,400 Speaker 1: of massive shift in the global food economy happening where 312 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: and this has been happening for a long time now, 313 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: but it's it's sort of it's been accelerating the last 314 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: about half a century, which is that the number of 315 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:09,240 Speaker 1: people who are like peasants and who produced free for 316 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,680 Speaker 1: themselves has been massively declining, and people are getting forced 317 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:18,640 Speaker 1: into cities. And this means that there's you know, there's 318 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: there's been a number of other things that have gone 319 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:23,000 Speaker 1: along with this. Uh, there's been this massive increase in 320 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 1: like cattle production, for example, you get all these monocultures 321 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: um And another thing I think I've mentioned before is 322 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: the World Trade organizations like Agreement on Agriculture like outlaws 323 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:36,879 Speaker 1: agricultural subsidies for the global South, but you know, the 324 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 1: US is still allowed to have like farm subsidies, which 325 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:41,479 Speaker 1: means that you know, if when you're when you enter 326 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 1: these free trade agreements, you get all of this like 327 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: enormously cheap food from the U s has dumped into 328 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: all these other countries, and you know, if you're a 329 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: Mexican farmer, suddenly you can't compete with all of this 330 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 1: food from the US because the food from the US 331 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 1: is cheap because the American government subsidizing it, but the 332 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 1: Mexican government can and this just like absolutely and die 333 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,440 Speaker 1: lates any attempt by a country to maintain food security 334 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:05,720 Speaker 1: by like producing food for themselves. And this this sort 335 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,119 Speaker 1: of class of like self sufficient peasant farmers who had 336 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 1: been you know, they support themselves by producing their own 337 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:12,919 Speaker 1: food and selling of the market. These people just can 338 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,080 Speaker 1: annihilated and they get forced into what's called sort of 339 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:19,880 Speaker 1: casualized labor that they you know that they the later 340 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:21,960 Speaker 1: versions is like uber, right, but that they're forcing the 341 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:24,920 Speaker 1: gig work. They're kicked out of sort of the normal economy. 342 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: And you know, but because they don't have sort of 343 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 1: fixed contracts or you know, it's a lot of people 344 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,320 Speaker 1: are working with for no contract, with no contracts at all, 345 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,240 Speaker 1: they're enormously insecure. And once the people are forced into 346 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,760 Speaker 1: the labor market, like changes in the global economy can 347 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: make them like almost immediately unable to afford food because 348 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,680 Speaker 1: you know, like if the less sort of economic and 349 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 1: security you are, the more the more you're affected by 350 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:53,720 Speaker 1: price increases. Which is obvious, but it's worth saying because 351 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 1: it dictates a lot of like who does bread riots 352 00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 1: and yes, and so governments are not entirely like blind 353 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: to this, and they're concerns that they're gonna get overthrown. 354 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,119 Speaker 1: And so you see a bunch of governments trying to 355 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: respond with sort of price stabilization stuff. I think the 356 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,200 Speaker 1: most famous example of this is that like the Egyptian 357 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,159 Speaker 1: army like literally controls like an enormous number of eagips 358 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,960 Speaker 1: bakeries and they like directly run them, and they directly 359 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 1: run them so that he control the price of brand 360 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,480 Speaker 1: to try to like stop revolutions from happening. But in 361 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:28,879 Speaker 1: two thousand eight they just kind of stopped working. Um, 362 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,640 Speaker 1: here's the political economy of the food riot. Again. Over 363 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:33,919 Speaker 1: the year between two thousand and seven and two thousand eight, 364 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:36,920 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty percent increase in the global price of 365 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: maize and the seventy percent increase in the price of rice, 366 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 1: with similar price increases and soybeans and other major food commodities. Um, yes, 367 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,280 Speaker 1: there they are these massive food price increases, and this, 368 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:50,480 Speaker 1: you know, this does the thing that massive food price 369 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 1: increases does. Right, there's there's and there's immediately enormous riots, 370 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,639 Speaker 1: and there's the cycle that happens where the protesters, you know, 371 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,200 Speaker 1: the purchesses, immediately blamed the government for the crisis, and 372 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,719 Speaker 1: then the government is like, well, it's actually not our 373 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,400 Speaker 1: fault because you know that it's happening because the things 374 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: outside of our control. And the protesters are like, oh, 375 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: it doesn't matter who we elect, they do the same things, 376 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 1: and like they're both kind of rights. Like the government 377 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,120 Speaker 1: is just like sucking these people. But it's also true 378 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:19,920 Speaker 1: that the sort of like the whole food system is 379 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:23,200 Speaker 1: designed to take like the means of food production out 380 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,399 Speaker 1: of the hands of like the workers who need the 381 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: food and putting them in the hands of like, you know, 382 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: enormous corporations and as people in places like Sri Lanka, 383 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: which you're gonna talk more about later, continually emphasized like this, 384 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: this food sovereignty issue is as much as a political issue, 385 00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 1: Like it's an incredibly political issue, and it's it's it's 386 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,280 Speaker 1: as much like what's at stake in these bread riots 387 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,200 Speaker 1: as the sort of m finosterity stuff. Okay, this is 388 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:47,680 Speaker 1: probably good place for an ad break, but I can't 389 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:54,120 Speaker 1: think of a transition. Uh yeah, you know who isn't 390 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:57,560 Speaker 1: allowed to eat is the products and services that support 391 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:01,520 Speaker 1: this podcast, all actively star ring to death. So get 392 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: these deals now while you still can, and we're back. 393 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 1: So all right now, we're gonna talk a little bit 394 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 1: about the Arabs Spring. We're not gonna talk an enormous 395 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: amount about it, because that's the whole thing. Um. But 396 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: if if, if you've been following like the stuff people 397 00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,720 Speaker 1: have written about the Arabs spring, there's an enormous number 398 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,560 Speaker 1: of people who spend like a lot of their time 399 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,679 Speaker 1: arguing about whether or not it was actually sparked by 400 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: food prices. And you know, you'll get a lot of 401 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 1: analysts to argue that like food prices in Tunisia where 402 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,520 Speaker 1: the air spring starts, like, weren't really higher than normal, 403 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: And what you're seeing instead is like, well, it's not 404 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: actually food prices. It's just that there's a generation of 405 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: people who've been farmers but like can't support themselves anymore, 406 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: who've been forced into like finding non existent wage labor 407 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: in cities and like that that is part of what's happening. 408 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,160 Speaker 1: But I think there's there's a sort of like fundamental 409 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: misunderstanding of what causes a bread riot, right, Like you know, 410 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,479 Speaker 1: as you talked about like in the first episode, one 411 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: of the things that causes bread riots is it's not 412 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,359 Speaker 1: actually necessarily the magnitude of the price increase that causes them. Right, 413 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: what sets what sets off bread riots is people is 414 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,399 Speaker 1: people feeling like they're not getting what they deserve. Now. Obviously, 415 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: like if the price of bread increases, you're going to 416 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: get a lot of people going like, funk this, I 417 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: work my ass off and now I can't feed my family. 418 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 1: We deserve better, and this is time to riot. But 419 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: sometimes even if red prices are stable, you can you 420 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: can get it. You can get a thing where everyone like, 421 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: you know, the amount of bread is bad. Everything is expensive, 422 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,200 Speaker 1: and one day someone wakes up and just goes, funck this, 423 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,639 Speaker 1: I deserve better, and they do a bread riot and 424 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,680 Speaker 1: and this is the case. And you know, and when 425 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:48,959 Speaker 1: when that kind of thing is happening, right, When when 426 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,240 Speaker 1: when you're dealing with you know what like moral economy stuff, 427 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: when you're dealing with with this gap between like what 428 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,560 Speaker 1: people think, like like what people think their life should 429 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:00,800 Speaker 1: be versus the fact that their lives which is absolutely terrible. 430 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:03,560 Speaker 1: Even if you like decrease the price of bread, that's 431 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,200 Speaker 1: not actually necessarily going to like stop people from rioting. 432 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,920 Speaker 1: And if you look at like occupy for example, to 433 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,480 Speaker 1: like you know, that's also happening in this period, Like 434 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,640 Speaker 1: what brings people there isn't necessarily strictly the price of food. 435 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: It's the sense that like, yeah, I've been screwed by 436 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: and I've been screwed by the ruling class, and I 437 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: deserve better than this and and this is this is 438 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:24,920 Speaker 1: what you see Indonesia. And one of the things what 439 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,920 Speaker 1: do you see in sort of Phoenicians Syria is that 440 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,399 Speaker 1: like a lot of the uprisings, like they have this 441 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:32,920 Speaker 1: huge sort of rural core with with this population of 442 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,000 Speaker 1: the population to people who've been kicked out of agricultural 443 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,399 Speaker 1: sector and you know, and like that that is a 444 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,639 Speaker 1: bread riot, right, And it's a bread right in the 445 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: sort of double sense of like it's the people who 446 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: are involved who used to be involved in in grain 447 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,760 Speaker 1: production and now can't be. And then also that like 448 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,800 Speaker 1: you know, people, people have hit the sort of expectation 449 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: gap thing. And what I think is sort of interesting 450 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: about this is that these bread riots, these rural bread riots, 451 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,159 Speaker 1: are like their so the closest thing we have to 452 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 1: sort of the classical twenty century revolution, right, like that 453 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: that's one of that's the thing that causes like the 454 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,119 Speaker 1: twenty century revolutions are the first generation of people who 455 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: are like but maybe in the first like two or 456 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,480 Speaker 1: three generations people who come from the countryside into the 457 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,680 Speaker 1: factories of the people who do revolutions um. And but 458 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: the thing is this is this is this is the century, 459 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,680 Speaker 1: not the twentieth century. Like if you get kicked out 460 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,479 Speaker 1: of your farm, there's there's no job in a factory, 461 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 1: like you're just unemployed, and you know, and this changes 462 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,120 Speaker 1: the dynamics of of sort of everything. And I think, okay, 463 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,560 Speaker 1: like people like broadly know the course of like the 464 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 1: air of spring and the way of uprisings they happen, 465 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: they get crushed largely. But there was another wave of 466 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: these sort of riots, protests and uprisings that started in 467 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,400 Speaker 1: Haiti and like in eighteen over this massive field price hike. 468 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:51,119 Speaker 1: And here is a partial list of places that like 469 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:55,520 Speaker 1: people have like rioted in in large numbers since he 470 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: dozen in eighteen had sue Dan, Algeria, Hunduras, Chile, and 471 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: rock Ha Kong Iran like four times, Lebanon, like three times, Columbia, 472 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,920 Speaker 1: like three times. A couple of things happen in France. 473 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: There was Puerto Rico, there was popular There's there was 474 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,119 Speaker 1: Indonesia where in our second Ecuador one. Now there's Catalonia, 475 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,200 Speaker 1: like people righted. In the US there there were massive 476 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,960 Speaker 1: indigenous roadblocks like in Canada, ukimedia Kampa went up, or 477 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: there was stuff. It's a culture. Like there were two 478 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,920 Speaker 1: different ways of protests. In India, there was like Belarus, 479 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: there's Kazahstan, there's Kyrka Stan, there's just Beekistan. There's Molly. 480 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,600 Speaker 1: There's stuff in Nigeria or stuff in Libya, like there's 481 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: stuff in Sri Lanka. We're about to get to this. 482 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,240 Speaker 1: This whole thing has has been happening like everywhere, and 483 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,399 Speaker 1: it's been intensifying the last in the last year of 484 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,320 Speaker 1: like three or four years. Um, we're not basically in 485 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,120 Speaker 1: like year four of this cycle. And and you know, obviously, 486 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: like every single one of these protests has their own 487 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,359 Speaker 1: like local political conditions, and like a lot of these 488 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,120 Speaker 1: aren't even sort of loosely about the price of bread. 489 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: They're just about sort of other stuff that's happening. But 490 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:54,680 Speaker 1: like like of the opperasons that I mentioned, like something 491 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,240 Speaker 1: like fifteen of them are directly about the price of 492 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: food or the price of like translated fuel. And we're 493 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,359 Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about sort of two of 494 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: the most recent like protest waves. We're gonna talk about 495 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:09,200 Speaker 1: equat word, We're gonna talk about Sri Lanka because they're 496 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,119 Speaker 1: there are two very different kinds of protests, even though 497 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,439 Speaker 1: they're both kind of bread riots or at least I mean, 498 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: they're both very much the modern equivalence of it. Um 499 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,320 Speaker 1: but they look very different. And there there's just I think, 500 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:27,399 Speaker 1: and I don't know, I think it's like indestring reasons why. Um. Yeah. So, 501 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: so we're gonna start with, like with Sri Lanka. Um on. 502 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: On a very basic level, Sri Lanka, it has a 503 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,720 Speaker 1: giant balance of payments crisis. Uh, this is you know, 504 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:37,159 Speaker 1: it's just like that. This is the sort of like 505 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: large scale political version of famines. Right, Like, there's plenty 506 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:42,840 Speaker 1: of food and fuel in the world, but the government 507 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,679 Speaker 1: Srlanka does not have dollars to buy it with. Now, 508 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,720 Speaker 1: the reason the government doesn't have dollars to buy fuel 509 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 1: with is because the government is basically like an incredibly 510 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: corrupt dictatorship that keeps like imputting luxury goods it didn't need. 511 00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:56,960 Speaker 1: And they did a bunch of like tax breaks at 512 00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: rich people, and suddenly the government was broken. Everyone was like, wow, 513 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,159 Speaker 1: how did that happened? It must have just been the 514 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:05,840 Speaker 1: pandemic and it was like no, you like you gave 515 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,320 Speaker 1: all the money to rich people. And then as the 516 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:16,560 Speaker 1: crisis sort of went on, um, they the government decided 517 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: to ban fertilizer imports, and so this just meant that 518 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 1: people couldn't get fertilizer. So it's like farmers just didn't 519 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:28,600 Speaker 1: plant food because curious decision. Yeah, it's like it's it's 520 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,000 Speaker 1: one of those things you look at it. It's just 521 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 1: like like, like who thought this was a good idea? Yeah? 522 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:35,640 Speaker 1: What was the positive end of that game plan here? 523 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,600 Speaker 1: I mean, like the only like okay, So, like I 524 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,359 Speaker 1: think what they were thinking is that, like, fertilizer costs dollars, right, 525 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: we're running out of dollars, so we're gonna stop people 526 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,720 Speaker 1: from spending their dollars like on buying this stuff so 527 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:49,440 Speaker 1: we can keep more dollars in the economy. But like, 528 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:52,600 Speaker 1: what what are you what is your long term plan 529 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,199 Speaker 1: here if you don't have like anything to get dollars 530 00:27:56,280 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 1: with or and you also don't have food. So this, 531 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,200 Speaker 1: to the surprise of exactly zero people except I guess 532 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:09,199 Speaker 1: the government of Sri Lanka causes a food crisis, food shortage. Um. 533 00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,280 Speaker 1: And this is a kind of classic like this is 534 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,520 Speaker 1: the kind of classic like situation in which the I, 535 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:16,440 Speaker 1: m F we intervene in the seventies and they're tving 536 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:18,639 Speaker 1: now and you know this, this is a classic like 537 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,240 Speaker 1: struggle against this starting right, you have the ruling class 538 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,760 Speaker 1: blowing up the entire economy by like fueling debt money 539 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: into pointland's infrastructure projects. And now they're doing these like 540 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,560 Speaker 1: massive austerity measures, are trying to get loans to MF. 541 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:31,920 Speaker 1: This is you know, this is this is this is this, 542 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:33,720 Speaker 1: this is this is this is stuff we understand that 543 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: we've seen before. Um. But this is also this is 544 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,719 Speaker 1: also a food softigy problem, right. The Sri Lankan government 545 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: has just completely screwed their farmers, which means you have 546 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,320 Speaker 1: to import even more food and and you know the 547 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: result of this is months and months and months a 548 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,480 Speaker 1: very impressive sort of clock cross class protests with like 549 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: basically every social sector in the streets. And that's both 550 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,479 Speaker 1: a good thing and also a thing that is kind 551 00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:01,120 Speaker 1: of a mess because you know, like there's civil war. 552 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,720 Speaker 1: The civil war ended like less than a decade and 553 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,000 Speaker 1: a half ago. Right, so you have people in the 554 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,239 Speaker 1: streets from sectors who like do not like each other 555 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: at all, and I don't know, and you know, you 556 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,040 Speaker 1: get the thing that happens here, right, You get these 557 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: moments of like incredible solidarity and then moments of incredible 558 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,640 Speaker 1: like what the funk are you guys doing? And you know, 559 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:22,240 Speaker 1: like one of the things that happens a lot in 560 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,720 Speaker 1: these protests, like in all all protests, like this is 561 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,800 Speaker 1: like okay, the protests are like pre tame for literally months, right, 562 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: Like it's just people doing protesting, and then I cops 563 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,160 Speaker 1: and and people like allied with the government start attacking 564 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: their protesters, at which point people like burned down the 565 00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: house of the ruling family. They start throwing people. I 566 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: think people probably saw the videos people like throwing cars 567 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: of like government ministers and the rivers, which was a 568 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,240 Speaker 1: good time, and like yeah, like that that stuff was 569 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 1: you know, a direct reaction to sort of like the 570 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: government's violence. Right. Um, you know, okay, I can't give 571 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,320 Speaker 1: like a full, like detailed political history here because, like 572 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: dear Odd, it is incredibly complicated and I don't understand 573 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: it very well because you know, I don't study Sri Lanka. Um, 574 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,560 Speaker 1: if you want to go to account of this. Brohini 575 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,880 Speaker 1: Hensman's political dimensions of the crisis in Sri Lanka is 576 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: a really good sort of like short like look at 577 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,600 Speaker 1: what's going on here, um, And and this is the 578 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:19,680 Speaker 1: sort of like this is you know, this is a 579 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,560 Speaker 1: broader trend and like all these protests right like like 580 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,240 Speaker 1: every single bread right takes place in its own unique context, 581 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 1: Like Sri Lanka, for example, Like Sri Lanka used to 582 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,000 Speaker 1: have the world's best and largest like mass Trotskyite party, 583 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,440 Speaker 1: like they were the Trotskyites is like the only place 584 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:36,240 Speaker 1: on earth the trot Skates had like a real like 585 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:37,960 Speaker 1: mass political party and they were like a part of 586 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:40,880 Speaker 1: the real political process. And then they like sold out 587 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: the working class and entered a bunch of governments that 588 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: like did terrible stuff. And you know, okay that that 589 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,880 Speaker 1: that's like a local context, doesn't happen anywhere else. But 590 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,840 Speaker 1: you know, every single one of these states, right is, 591 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:53,880 Speaker 1: is embedded in global capitalism. And that means that every 592 00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,200 Speaker 1: state is affected by the sort of like broader economic 593 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 1: trends and sort of beerocratic structures to hold everything together. 594 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: Their affect by the I m F, the World Trade Organization, 595 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: the World Bank. And the thing that this means is 596 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,680 Speaker 1: that the timings of uprisings and riots tend to synchronize 597 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:09,200 Speaker 1: with each other, and we actually just sort of brought 598 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: her up like economic forces. And the product of this 599 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,200 Speaker 1: is way is these sort of like periodic ways of uprisings. 600 00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: And so the closest out we're gonna talk about the 601 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: most recent of these, well, it might actually not be 602 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 1: the most recently these by time this goes up, but yeah, yeah, 603 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 1: we're we're gonna talk about Ecuador. Um, the situation Ecuador 604 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,920 Speaker 1: is very different from what's happening is to Laka. The 605 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,760 Speaker 1: biggest difference, I guess is that instead of sort of 606 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: like waiting for conditions to get bad enough that like 607 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:43,000 Speaker 1: an uprising happens like more or less spontaneously, which is 608 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:44,880 Speaker 1: kind of what happened he doesn't nineteen and Ecuador there 609 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: there's there's there are huge protests there, um, but they 610 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,520 Speaker 1: were largely spontaneous, but instead of like waiting for people 611 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: were just like what if we just called one of 612 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:58,640 Speaker 1: these And by by people here, I specifically mean the 613 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:04,960 Speaker 1: Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or ka and you know, okay, okay. 614 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:06,960 Speaker 1: As we've seen through this whole sort of thing, right 615 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,720 Speaker 1: like bread riots like adapt to the political organizations around them. 616 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 1: And in Ecuador we're dealing with a quick essentially modern 617 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: form political organization, which is the Indigenous Confederation. And I 618 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,000 Speaker 1: guess I should sort of like preface this a bit 619 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:25,200 Speaker 1: with like the specific form of indigenous confederation in in 620 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: Latin America that emerges in this period is like a 621 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: different thing than older ones because there have been indigenous 622 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:33,320 Speaker 1: confederation for a long time. This is like a this 623 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,280 Speaker 1: is this is a very specific like political thing that 624 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,760 Speaker 1: emerged across Latin America in in sort of the seventies, 625 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: and the really really started struting up in the eighties 626 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: as results of like a lot of things, one of 627 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 1: which was like how shitty the old like Marxans Lendon's 628 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,360 Speaker 1: vanger groups, like we're on indigenous issues. And one of 629 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:52,920 Speaker 1: the one of the groups that forms in this period 630 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,400 Speaker 1: is kana and Kanae is one of the world's most 631 00:32:55,440 --> 00:33:00,160 Speaker 1: bilitant like indigenous federations. And since they're founding in Night 632 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,240 Speaker 1: in six, they've called half a dozen uprisings against neoliberal governments. 633 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: And I think I think they knocked off like three presidents, 634 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 1: which is a pretty impressive track record. And on July two, 635 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,240 Speaker 1: faced with skyrocketing inflation on like basic consumer goods and 636 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,280 Speaker 1: a like really shitty like far right government, they stage 637 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: another one um and this is another sort of I 638 00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,880 Speaker 1: don't know. The thing is interesting about this is that 639 00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:33,600 Speaker 1: it's it's part general strike, like part street protests, part riot, 640 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:35,880 Speaker 1: and part just like mass march for the from the 641 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,200 Speaker 1: sort of periphery of Ecuador to the core. And by 642 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,320 Speaker 1: periphery and cora, I mean in this sort of metaphorical sense, 643 00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 1: like it's a bunch. It's a bunch of indigenous peasant 644 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 1: groups from all over the country, just like marching on 645 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:48,240 Speaker 1: descending on the capital Keto. And this is a this 646 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,520 Speaker 1: is a complicated process like that, you know. Okay, like 647 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:55,080 Speaker 1: the left everywhere has like political divides and mostly they're 648 00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,240 Speaker 1: kind of nonsense in a lot of way, like okay, 649 00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: like that there's ideological divides and those personal divides and whatever. 650 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: But like Ecuador's left has has real political divides, and 651 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: these aren't these aren't like sort of petty ideological like 652 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,320 Speaker 1: personal stuff, like they're like they were caught under the 653 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,440 Speaker 1: sort of previous like old like leftist, pink tight governments 654 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 1: of Raphael Carrera. Like there are like soldiers and cops 655 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,239 Speaker 1: who are beating the ship out of indigenous like a 656 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,480 Speaker 1: logical protesters. And you know this means that like yeah, 657 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: you know, okay, So so Carrera is like parties running 658 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,279 Speaker 1: for president again. Careers are running, but careers parties like 659 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,080 Speaker 1: running in an election, right, And you know this means it' 660 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: like yeah, okay, like maybe you're both leftist, right, but 661 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:36,560 Speaker 1: you know there's a lot of people who are like, oh, 662 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,440 Speaker 1: funck no, like I'm not voting for these guys. These 663 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:40,319 Speaker 1: are the guys who like sent the army against their 664 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:44,920 Speaker 1: anti mining protests. And so you know, the thing the 665 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,520 Speaker 1: thing that is interesting here is like like these protests 666 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:52,560 Speaker 1: don't even pull together the entire recordorian left. Um, there's 667 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,239 Speaker 1: like other stuff going on here too, like that. There 668 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,160 Speaker 1: there's some of the unions that went on strike in 669 00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, like don't go on strike this time because 670 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: of some political stuff that's happening. But the thing, the 671 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: thing about KNA that's really impressive is that they're still 672 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: organized enough and they still like they're organized enough that 673 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 1: they're able to just take control of parts of cities. 674 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: And they have a lot of allies supporters amongst other 675 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:14,400 Speaker 1: students and workers and keto. And this means that when 676 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: the government makes this enormous mistake and arrests karas like 677 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:24,320 Speaker 1: kind of Newish leader. Ah, okay, this guy's name. This 678 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,360 Speaker 1: guy's name, I guess in Spanish, it's like Leonidas. Is 679 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:32,960 Speaker 1: that this guy's name is Leonitis. He's the head um, 680 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:39,040 Speaker 1: he's the head of Kaisans Federation Um. And he sees 681 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:42,360 Speaker 1: a protest leader. He was a protested leader in twenty nineteen. 682 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,880 Speaker 1: That's how we got elected to like head this organization. 683 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 1: And they arrest him on day two of the protests. 684 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:50,279 Speaker 1: And this is a catastrophic mistake. The protest just like 685 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: explode and you know, bye bye bye by like a 686 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,400 Speaker 1: week in. I think that the government's claiming they were 687 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,480 Speaker 1: doing fifty million dollars a damage a day, which I'm 688 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:03,280 Speaker 1: not actually sure I believe that because governments and corporations 689 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 1: do this too, and they're talking about like losses from 690 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,920 Speaker 1: like strikes, and they tend to over emphasize how much 691 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,359 Speaker 1: damage is done because it makes them like look better 692 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: in the press and makes the protesters look worse, but 693 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: they they they they're able to damage like significant parts 694 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:20,880 Speaker 1: of the economy, and by June, like they kind of win. Basically, 695 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,319 Speaker 1: the government's forced to negotiate with them, and they don't 696 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:26,719 Speaker 1: get all of their demands, but they get price decreases 697 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: for like fuel and gasoline, which is like a huge 698 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: part of why these just happened in the first place. 699 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,759 Speaker 1: They get bands on mining and drilling and indigenous and 700 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,279 Speaker 1: protected areas. They get like strength and price controls. They 701 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,600 Speaker 1: get like local rural loan forgiveness, like interest rate decreases. 702 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: They get sub disdas for farmers to get subsidies for families, 703 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,839 Speaker 1: they get they manage to get the government to declare 704 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,600 Speaker 1: a state of health emergency over COVID. It's like, this 705 00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,680 Speaker 1: is this is impressive stuff, and you know, and the 706 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:51,840 Speaker 1: other part of this is that they're like, Okay, the 707 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:53,840 Speaker 1: agreement is that we will stop protesting if you do this, 708 00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: and if you don't do this, we're gonna do this again. 709 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: So yeah, I guess I guess might sort of wrap 710 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,239 Speaker 1: this up. There's there there's an American proverb that is 711 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: really common amongst sort of like American China watchers, which 712 00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: is that I so supposedly the Chinese word for crisis 713 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,319 Speaker 1: is composed of two characters, danger and opportunity. And it's 714 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: like not true, as likelistic and at the polological analysis 715 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:23,719 Speaker 1: of China that that's not what that's not what the 716 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,080 Speaker 1: characters made. But everyone, like everyone in the US, like 717 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: political stamoshere like believes this right, And you know, but 718 00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:34,920 Speaker 1: like as as an analysis of China, it is completely useless. 719 00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:37,800 Speaker 1: As an analysis of the US, of the American psyche, 720 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,759 Speaker 1: it's incredibly valuable, right because this this, this is the 721 00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,600 Speaker 1: way the American ruling class thinks. It's it's every single 722 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:47,480 Speaker 1: crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. And that's 723 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:49,880 Speaker 1: something that we in some sense also have to do 724 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,080 Speaker 1: because that's you know, these are the sort of situations 725 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 1: that we're in, right bread riots are a thing that 726 00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: just they happen, right, they will continue to happen. They 727 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: have been happening for that cousens of years, like presumably 728 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,880 Speaker 1: they will happen for thousands of more years. And there's 729 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:08,759 Speaker 1: no use sort of like either pretending that they don't 730 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,360 Speaker 1: happen or making these sort of moral or tactical arguments 731 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:15,279 Speaker 1: like for against them, because they just happen. And the 732 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,239 Speaker 1: question that we're that we're faced with is what are 733 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:19,719 Speaker 1: we actually going to do about it? Right? Are we 734 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:21,200 Speaker 1: going to set them out? Are we gonna side with 735 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:22,960 Speaker 1: the state and repressing them in the name of sort 736 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,279 Speaker 1: of like stamping out color revolutions, are like providing order 737 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,520 Speaker 1: a stability, or like protecting small businesses, or are we 738 00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:31,719 Speaker 1: going to you know, take to the streets and fight 739 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,080 Speaker 1: alongside them to sort of break the system that creates them. 740 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,279 Speaker 1: And this is the second question from here is if 741 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 1: we're going to do this how and what? What what 742 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:43,640 Speaker 1: we've seen from Ecuador in the past month or so 743 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 1: is that if you take the fight to them and 744 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: you're sufficiently organized, you can win. And that means the 745 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: question now, as our food prices continue to increase, as 746 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 1: food prices are only going to continue to increase, what 747 00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:04,359 Speaker 1: are we going to do? And Yeah, that that's all 748 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: I got I have. I have a single question, yep, 749 00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:18,359 Speaker 1: what are we going to do? Well? I'm I'm kind 750 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,479 Speaker 1: of bummed we never brought up are good friend Pete 751 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:25,640 Speaker 1: Buddha j Edge in his uh bread his bread press 752 00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,200 Speaker 1: fixing ordeals? Yeah, I mean that that that that's kind 753 00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:29,960 Speaker 1: of a sign of just like how kind of like 754 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,920 Speaker 1: I guess you could say masculalized, Like our culture has 755 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,600 Speaker 1: been that, Like people didn't riot over that because like 756 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,399 Speaker 1: that is a thing like if if if if if 757 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:44,560 Speaker 1: you said, Pete budda edge back to like a late 758 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,239 Speaker 1: Frets village and she tries to do this thing like 759 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: he he does the systematic like bride bread price fixing, right, 760 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:54,319 Speaker 1: like all of these people would have been getting hit 761 00:39:54,400 --> 00:40:02,520 Speaker 1: by rocks. So yeah, I do that again. Yeah, do 762 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:08,520 Speaker 1: that again? Wow, barons just brasen incitement. Yeah, yeah, it's great. 763 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,840 Speaker 1: Well that is it for us today. We love to incite. 764 00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:20,919 Speaker 1: Thanks folks. Until next time, go incite yourselves. It could 765 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,279 Speaker 1: Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For 766 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool 767 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,120 Speaker 1: zone media dot com, or check us out on the 768 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:30,879 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 769 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,840 Speaker 1: to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen here, 770 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,360 Speaker 1: updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. 771 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:38,400 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.