WEBVTT - The World is Burning: Your Guide to the Current Uprisings 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.039 Albert Einstein, famed smart Guy and inspiration for Bernie Sanders's 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:09.920 hair do, once famously stated, I know not with what 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.600 weapons world War three will be fought, but World War 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.480 four will be fought with sticks and stones. The implication 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.360 of his words is quite obvious. By the Cold War era, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.280 the weapons available to nation states had grown so powerful 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.400 that if they went to war with one another again 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.680 on a mass scale, civilization as we know it would 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.800 be annihilated. But what if Albert was wrong? Brilliant as 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.479 he was, mister Einstein was trapped as we all are 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.559 in the time he lived. The towering armed giants of 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:39.800 his era where the United States and the U. S 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.000 s are, and it was only rational to fear them 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.680 unleashing hell upon each other and the world. But we 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:50.400 live in different times now. Today Russia and the United 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.880 States still pack potent nuclear arsenals. But the great global 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.240 conflict that increasingly sweeps our world is not a battle 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.480 between nations. It is a clash between people who want 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.720 to be free and the authoritarians who want to squeeze 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.880 them dry. You've seen some of this in the news. 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.080 In the last few weeks. More than a million people 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.720 have taken to the streets of Lebanon demanding the resignation 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.800 of their government. Protesters in Hong Kong have continued their 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.959 months long battle against the state. Catalonians have taken to 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.560 the street and their fight for independence from Spain. Revolutionaries 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.440 in Rajapa fight with machine guns and wire guided missiles 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.800 against the overwhelming firepower of Turkey and NATO nation. Right now, 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.560 as I type this, uprisings have lit up the skies 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.440 and capital cities around the world from east to west. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.399 Each of these movements has its own reason for taking 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.600 to the street, but I think most of these activists 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.959 would agree with the sentiment I saw expressed on a 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.319 poster board in Santiago, Chile. We're not from the left, 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:49.840 and we're not from the right. We're from the bottom 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.440 and we are coming for those on top. This will 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.880 be a different episode of Behind the Bastards than you 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.120 normally get. This is traditionally a show that tell you 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.520 everything you don't know about the very worst people in 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.760 all of history. Uh And most days I weave a 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.680 tale of entertaining bastardry to a comedian guest whose rideshotgun. Today, 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.760 my only guests are activists and journalists from around the 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:19.120 world Chile, Lebanon, Rojava. I decided this rather unorthodox episode 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.359 was necessary because I truly believe that the future freedom 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.800 of everyone listening to this depends on what we all 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.320 do over the next year and change. The current uprisings 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.959 around the globe are but a prelude. There will be more. 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.959 The world is burning and it will not stop anytime soon. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.679 So let's begin. We can probably trace this current set 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.040 of revolts to the protests in Hong Kong, which started 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.320 on March thirty one, two thousand nineteen. Now, the spark 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.399 that started those protests was a proposed new bill which 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.480 would have allowed individuals to be extradited to China for 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.000 a variety of crimes. Since Great Britain gave the island 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.200 back to China in nine Hong Kong has been governed 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:02.600 by an agreement generally summarized stas one country, two systems. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.000 People in Hong Kong enjoy more personal freedoms than the 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.359 citizens of mainland China. They are in effect a semi 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.520 autonomous zone, not completely unlike the Curtish cities of Northern Iraq, 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.160 but pro China. Elements within the government of Hong Kong 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.520 sought greater integration with China, which meant throwing many of 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.360 the more subversive elements of their society under the bus. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.399 The people of Hong Kong did not want to see 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.800 their friends and relatives sent off to mainland China to 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.639 be beaten and tortured for their political beliefs, so they 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.240 took to the streets. When the protests started seven months ago, 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.960 most observers doubted that they would last more than a 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.840 few weeks. But the people of Hong Kong shocked and 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.600 continue to shock the world with an array of innovative 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.120 tactics for battling state power. They placed traffic cones over 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.720 tear gas grenades and pour in water to disarm them. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.160 They deploy phayleanxes of protesters armed with umbrellas to counter 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.400 police projectiles. And they organized demonstrations that flow like water 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.320 around the forces of the state and against all odds. 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.480 These tack picks have worked. The activists of Hong Kong 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.280 are still holding out. In fact, their movement has evolved 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:08.640 from just a protest against a single law to a 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.880 series of five demands from the government. They want the 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.000 state to officially retract the description of their protests as 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.200 a riot. They want their jailed fellow activists freed and 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.320 the charges against them dropped. They want an investigation into 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.000 police brutality, and they want universal suffrage, a chance to 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.719 vote for their leaders without the involvement of the government 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.719 in Beijing. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lamb, 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.720 has ceded to only a few of the protesters demands, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.880 retracting the extradition law, but holding fast against the others. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.320 The Chinese government has moved twelve thousand troops onto the island, 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.280 and thousands more await in the wings. Week after week, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.800 the clashes have continued. In the last month or so, 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.239 a sixth demand has developed amongst the activists, the police force, 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:56.240 they say, must now be entirely disbanded. On September thirty, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.800 Carry Lamb took to the last bastion of all would 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.640 be tyrants, ACE book Live. She did a carefully curated 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.640 Q and A session where she defended the police of 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.560 Hong Kong, who have been videotaped firing concussion rounds at 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.520 journalists and shooting activists. She called the demand for the 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.680 police to be disbanded puzzling. Quote, I'm puzzled when I 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.280 hear this, because when there are public order and safety 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.520 issues such as theft or unfortunate attacks, people say they 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.600 must ask police to follow up seriously. So police are 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.240 playing a very important role and we must support them 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.240 in law enforcement. And yet the people of Hong Kong 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.240 continue to turn out in their millions, and now that 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.599 they have seen the police as an instrument of violent 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.039 repression on a mass scale, they are unlikely to go 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.880 back to the way things were not without being forced 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.159 to do so by even greater violence. And so the 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.440 protests continue. The whole situation hanging upon the edge of 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.560 a razor blade. It is impossible to know how things 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.640 will end, but the powerful images coming out of Hong 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.599 Kong have inspired other acts of resistance around the world. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.360 It would be too much to call the protests on 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.480 that island the spark that set our current fires of revolution, 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.919 but they certainly provided fuel, just as the people of Catalonia. Now, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.040 Catalonia is one of the wealthiest and most productive regions 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.599 of Spain. The Catalonian people have their own language and 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.279 identity that goes back hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.239 Barcelona is generally seen as the political and cultural capital 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.440 of that region. Starting in the early nineteen hundreds, Catalonia 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.600 became the center of socialist and anarchist politics in Spain. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.120 In the late nineteen twenties, an alliance of affinity groups, 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.640 which are collections of individuals with shared interests, coalesced into 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.159 a resistance against the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.279 A number of different uprisings followed for the next decade, 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.440 several of which were brutally suppressed by Fascist general Francisco Franco. 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.239 This all culminated in the Spanish Coup of nineteen thirty six, 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.560 which was pulled off by an alliance of anarchists and socialists. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.799 For a while, these leftists held off the advancing forces 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:59.040 of Spanish fascism, but Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy backed 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.479 Francisco frank Those regime and the so called democracies of 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.440 the world let the resistance in Spain die. Catalonia was 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:11.440 crushed under the fascist boot heel. In time, Spanish fascism 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.520 died a natural death, and the nation today functions about 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.000 as well as any other liberal democracy, which is to 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.240 say that roughly half of the people there hate their 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.720 government at any given time. Since nineteen seventy eight, the region, 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.080 like Hong Kong, has had limited autonomy from the central government. 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.320 In two thousand and six, Catalonia one even greater independence 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.200 and was described as a nation in a new statute. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.120 But then came the two thousand eight financial crash and 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.880 bitter austerity measures introduced by the government to cut public spending. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.400 Catalonia represents sixteen percent of Spain's population but contributes about 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.600 nineteen percent of its tax revenue. Many within the region 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.640 resent paying so much into a government that continually cuts 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.400 their benefits. That resentment was further stoked in two thousand ten, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.200 when Spain's Constitutional Court reversed the statute that gave Catalonia 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.440 greater autonomy. Set artists held a symbolic referendum on November 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.840 two thousand fourteen, which was outlawed by Spain. The vote 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.920 showed substantial support for independence, and in the two thousand 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.920 fifteen regional election, separatists one big. This led rather inevitably 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.240 to a full referendum on independence on October first, two 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:21.840 thousand seventeen. The Spanish Constitutional Court declared this illegal, but 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.320 the referendum went forward and ninety of voters supported independence. Now, 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.440 only forty three percent of the region actually voted, due 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.040 in large part to a trade union boycott, and other 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.720 polls show that the Catalonian people are fairly deeply divided 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.160 about independence, But the Spanish government came in and cracked 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.800 down on the separatists brutally. Madrid dissolved the elected Parliament 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.000 of Catalonia and arrested nine of the most prominent secessionists 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.120 and brought them to trial on Monday, October fourteenth, two 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.360 thousand nineteen. All nine were convicted and sentenced two years 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.319 in jail. This sparked a new and much more extensive 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.200 series of protests against the government, as even people who'd 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:00.480 been on the fence about secession we acted to the 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.599 violence of the state. The latest series of Catalonian uprisings 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.400 have been deeply inspired by the protests in Hong Kong. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.640 The primary organizing principle of the Hong Kong protesters, b water, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:16.240 seems to be particularly impactful on Catalonians. The basic idea 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:21.200 of this b water principle is that protests should be formless, shapeless, leaderless, 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.960 and nimble in order to counter the clinched fist of 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.480 state power. Catalonians took this idea and ran with it, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:32.280 modifying it into their own revolutionary axiom, be a tsunami. 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:36.240 They formed a group called Tsunami Democratic in September, which 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.640 suggested mass civil disobedience in order to defend the autonomy 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.240 of Catalonia. Once their leaders were sentenced, protests broke out 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.880 across the region, blocking traffic and assembling in multiple public 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.680 spaces to march on Barcelona's airport. As they marched, many 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.439 of these activists chanted, we are going to do a 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.839 Hong Kong. I'm going to quote now from an article 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.079 in Courts by Mary Hui, who has extensively covered the 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.160 uprising in Hong Kong and is covering the uprisings in Catalonia. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.559 Quote at Barcelona Airport on Monday, Striking the similar scenes 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.280 played out as thousands occupied both the terminal and the 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.360 roads outside the building, eventually forcing the cancelation of at 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.360 least one hundred flights. Tsunami Democratic even distributed some one 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.040 hundred thirty boarding passes via the messaging app Telegram so 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.720 that protesters could enter the airport, and a move reminiscent 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.440 of some Hong Kong protesters who purchased cheap flights in 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.800 order to enter the airport in circumvent a court ban 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.599 on demonstrations in the building. In late September, the Grassroots 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.600 Group Assembly in Nasional, Catalania even held a public forum 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.319 titled Experiences of the use of New Technologies and the 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.400 non violent Struggle the Case of Hong Kong. Quote quote 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.240 with un a quote. I should say we've been inspired 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:47.280 a lot by the Hong Kong protests, although we are 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.640 aware of the differences between both societies. A representative of 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:55.000 picnic x republica digital platform designed to mobilize Catalans for 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.360 political action, told courts the Hong Kong people have done 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.640 a very good job in letting every buddy else know 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.200 about their fight through social networks. These are the first 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.199 lessons we have learned from them, the use of these 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.320 tools to mobilize the people and keep them informed. The 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.959 protesters in Barcelona did not just content themselves with chanting. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.120 They lit garbage cans on fire. They damage street signs 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.280 and traffic lights, and did an estimate at one point 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.480 seven billion dollars in damage to the city. This sort 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.000 of activism, the kind that ends with broken windows and 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.600 serious financial damage to the state is deeply frowned upon 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.319 by many Americans, even by many American liberals. A lot 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.920 of you probably feel uncomfortable with the idea, even if 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.240 you generally support protests. I'd ask you to think about 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.959 why that is, and to ask yourself if the state 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.800 truly understands any language but the language of damage done 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.480 to its bottom line. The protests in Hong Kong have 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.280 done even more financial damage. The stock market alone is 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.720 down five hundred billion dollars since the beginning of the 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.880 protests in March, and that doesn't include the financial cost 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.120 incurred by a blockaded airport, by roads and streets cut 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.840 off to traffic. A protest that doesn't cost the government 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.040 anything more than the manpower of its police is not 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.199 much of a protest at all. Jordy Barbata, a journalist 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.240 and political writer in Barcelona, said that the protesters in 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.400 Hong Kong have provided a global dimension to a local 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.880 conflict by attracting mass international sympathy. This sympathy might be 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.520 the only thing holding the Chinese military back from more 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.520 aggressive intervention. Jordy recognized that now and in the future, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.160 activists around the world could only hope to succeed in 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.720 their struggles against oppressive states by generating mass awareness and 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:37.400 international solidarity. To that end, protesters in Barcelona massed in 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.079 front of the Chinese consulate and a show of solidarity 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.800 with Hong Kong. Prominent Hong Kong protester Joshua Wong told 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.319 Catalan News that he was worried about the excessive use 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.920 of force by Spanish police. He stated, people in Hong 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.679 Kong and Catalonia both deserve their right to determine their 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.839 own destiny. Simultaneous rallies were held in Catalonia and Hong Kong, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.080 but as these activists express solidarity with one another, the 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.360 government's oppressing them did the same thing. The twelfth of 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.480 October brought this headline from the South China Morning Post, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.760 China offers support to Spanish government amid Catalonia crisis. China's 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.720 Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said quote, the Government of the People's 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.120 Republic understands that supports the Spanish government's efforts to protect 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:24.000 national unity and its territorial integrity. Being result of the 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.199 struggle for Catalonian independence, like the protests in Hong Kong, 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.360 is still very much up in the air, but both 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.400 struggles offer important truths for the rest of us, including 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.319 my fellow Americans. Dictators and authoritarian powers around the world. 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.800 Whatever ideology they claim to hold, dear will always stand 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.679 together because the people on top always have more in 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.440 common with each other than they do with you. This 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.000 is why Turkish dictator taip Air Dooan and President Donald 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.280 Trump were able to come to such a chummy arrangement 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.200 about the future of the autonomous region of Northeast Syria 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:59.240 known as Rojava. The Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, an 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.040 alliance of a issues who protected the leftist revolution in 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.480 that area, fought alongside US forces for years. More than 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.200 eleven thousand of them died in the battle against Isis. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.200 But when push came to shove, the American President felt 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.640 more affinity for his fellow autocrat than he did for 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.680 the revolutionaries of Rojava, so he abandoned them. I've talked 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.440 about this issue at length on my podcast Worst Year Ever, 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.400 and a number of other places. For our purposes today, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.200 I'm going to let the words of a much better 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.320 journalist than me tell the story. Kabat a Boss is 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.880 a reporter, a documentarian, and a fixer living in Northeast Syria. 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.400 She's one of the most remarkable people I've ever met. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.880 In mid October two thousand nineteen, she wrote an article 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.920 for The New York Review of Books. This is Ethnic Cleansing, 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.640 a dispatch from Northern Syria. I very much recommend reading 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.960 the entire article, which will be linked on our website 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.640 behind the Bastards dot com. I'd like to quote from 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.680 the beginning of the piece. Now, this is Khabbat. When 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:55.480 my mom called to ask me where I was, I 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.960 lied to her. Sometimes I do not want to worry her, 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.280 as I'm often reporting on stories from play says that 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.080 aren't safe. When she said get ready to remove, I 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.920 realized something was wrong. Komischli was under attack. Can't you 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.760 hear the shelling? She screamed. She lives in Rimmelan, a 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.000 city an hour away, but she was here to visit 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.000 my brother. The Turks were targeting my neighborhood, she said. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.600 That was Wednesday afternoon, October nine, the first day of 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.040 Turkey's attack on Rojava Western Kurdistan, as we call it 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.000 in Kurdish. Commischli, my city, was one of the few 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.040 places in Northeast Syria that had enjoyed relative peace despite 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:32.160 Syria's eight year civil war. In past years, Turkish president 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.480 Receipt Type Erdowin made constant threats against us, but I 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.480 never really expected him to make a move. The Americans 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.920 were here and they promised they would protect us, so 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.040 Edwin's bluster seemed meaningless. I was wrong. First we experienced 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.120 clashes with the regime forces of Bishar al Assad. Then 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.280 it was our turn to face down the fighters of ISIS, 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.960 the so called Islamic State. After the group rose in 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.160 two thousand and fourteen, ISIS detonated bombs and planted suicide 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.400 attacks in Kamischli and the towns of northeast Syria. For 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.600 all that, we never had artillery showing before, so when 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.600 my mother called, I was scared. Everyone was. That day, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.600 October nine, I was driving back from Sarah Khanyi, about 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.480 fifty miles from Commichali, when an air strike targeted a 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.680 military base a few hundred yards from the scene of 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:17.440 a protest that I had been due to report on 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.360 about a half hour later. In the aftermath of the bombing, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.280 we feared we were going to be hit by another 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.160 wave of Turkish planes. Everyone fled the scene. My colleague Alan, 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:28.840 who was an exceptionally good driver got us out of 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:34.240 there in seconds. This is Robert again, and just a 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.200 few months before, Kabat wrote that. In August of two 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.200 thousand nineteen, journalist j Canrahan and I spent more than 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.680 a week in Alan's car with Kabat. At that time, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.920 Rojava was at peace. We felt safe virtually everywhere. For days. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.760 We visited all women farming collectives, local communes, representatives of 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.840 a justice system that was experimenting with art therapy as 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.320 a treatment for captured ISIS fighters. The sheer amount of 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.520 optimism we felt in the air was staggering. It almost 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.160 tasted Neither Jake nor I wanted to return to Iraq 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.399 when our visit ended. Today, however, Rojaba is in chaos. 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.520 Hundreds are dead and an unknown number of ISIS prisoners 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.880 have gotten free. In the confusion. Two hundred thousand civilians 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.359 have been made refugees. I asked about how the autonomous 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.800 Region has handled the flow of so many refugees in 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.959 the wake of the fighting. Here's how she responded, I 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.360 went to in the past days to these shelters, and 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:32.080 there is uh every time, new numbers increasing very fast, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.560 and the humanitian situation get worse and the response is 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.160 so slow comporting to their needs. In addition, it's it's 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.919 wars as a results of the Turkish attack on the 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:46.480 virtual centers. As the Turkish air strike they hit they 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.320 unlogged them in Surigny, which is feeding the WATA to 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.760 a city of Serikani and Hasseta ntil Timer and that 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.200 result a cut of WATA three days from those cities. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.080 And this situation of the population and the IDPs, it's 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.160 gate wars as a result of that. Also, I met 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.760 many families and most of them basically from Trilabias Regani 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.680 and even some of them have been many times displacement 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.560 as they were from Afrin. I think if the international 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:22.720 response is limited, that will gonna lead to a humanitarian crisis. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.800 Even I met the head of the West Municipality of 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.400 the Hassaka, Mohammed Shammy, and he was explaining to us 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.320 how it's there is a pressure on the city and 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.320 there is no support. For example, he gave an example 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.560 about the needs of the bread. He said, we use 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.440 it to back thirty five tones of the floor daily 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.800 for Hassaka. Only last days we are baking fifty tons 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.000 and we cannot cover the needs of the population. So 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.320 the situation every day, every hour, gate wars and wars, 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.919 and there is a gap and and all the organizations 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.280 have to respond to these needs. In the face of 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.240 ethnic clins in out of sheer desperation, Rojava invited in 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.720 the Assad regime and the Russian Army. This was not 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.880 a decision anyone wanted to make. Many people in Rajava 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.960 had risen up against Assad in the early days of 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.639 the Syrian Civil War. I asked her about how she 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.960 felt that this development would affect the women's revolution in Rojava. 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:20.240 Regime is representing the patriarchy system. On the contrary, Rojava 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.960 is representing the woman revolution. Women of Rojaba built last 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.840 eight year specific system for the woman in all levels military, 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.560 economically and politically, and they made impact in the education 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.879 via teaching digitology, which is a woman's sense on the 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.159 mentality of the new generations. In addition, the implementation of 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.520 the co presidency system and all the institutions starting from 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:46.199 coming to the highest official ranks allowed very effective participation 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.960 of a woman to lead this region beside them and 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.280 interview with the bidality co presidency of a society. Protection 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.680 forces in Al Jazeera kanton about this subject, and she said, 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.360 we know how to protect ourselves now a there are 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.000 years of experience and we are not afraid of a 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.240 region coming back. It's obvious that the woman of Rojaba 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.679 will not lead their gainst easily, but there is a 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.800 great risk on the woman evolution in case the regime 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.560 take over Rojava. I do believe that the region will 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.520 first start get the woman specifically, because this is what 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.360 makes Rojava unique on a global level. The very last 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.400 thing I asked her was what if anything people outside 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.560 Syria could do to support Rojava in its struggle. Here 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.240 was her answer. I think the people of the outside 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:36.159 can help Rojaba, and specifically, all the feminist movements have 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.920 to rise up for otherwise we as a woman all 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.440 over the world might face the risk to lose the 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:48.959 woman revolution. Any activity to support Rojaba like demonstrations, donation 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.280 by Code Turkish goods and rise the awareness of the 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:58.360 Western community about what is Rojava facing currently. It's a genocide, 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:03.080 it's an ethnic glancing, and it's a demograh demographic changing 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.520 and everyone have to take the responsibilities in order to 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.600 make some steps and that's what'll going to help Rojaba. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.720 For sure. She's calling for solidarity, the same sort of 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.160 solidarity the protesters in Hong Kong and Catalonia have expressed 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.160 for one another. Whenever I write or talk about Rojaba, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.840 people always ask me where can I send money to help? 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.040 And you might do some good by donating to the 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.400 Kurdish Red Crescent. But at the end of the day, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:29.960 the people of Rojava, like the protesters in Hong Kong, 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.439 won't be helped by any money you could send. What 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.600 might help them is your solidarity, your willingness to harangue 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.600 your elected leaders on their behalf, or to get into 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.080 the streets and protest at the Turkish embassy or the 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.080 Chinese consulate, or wherever it might get attention. There are 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.480 protesters in Germany right now who have protested in front 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.600 of buildings of companies that supply arms to the Turkish nation. 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.600 The United States supplies plenty of weapons to Turkey. There 0:21:52.600 --> 0:22:01.479 are places you could gather. Another group of humans who 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:03.920 could really use your solidarity. Right now are the people 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.040 of Santiago, Chile. As I write this, the city has 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.000 been convulsed by marches and brutal clashes between police and 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.640