Video Infoblog: Europeans Have No Right to Tell Palestinians How to Escape Their Prison ...
Europeans Have No Right to Tell Palestinians How to Escape Their Prison w/ Yanis Varoufakis - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XhunR2o_mz0Transcript
0:00
why do you refuse to condemn Hamas when in fact you know it's actually so easy to do that and there are there are
0:06
repercussions for not playing that game I'm not passing judgment on Hamas because
0:12
Hamas For Better or For Worse ended up being the only resistance
0:18
organization that expressed this Duty not right but duty of the people of Gaza
0:25
of the people of Palestine generally to bring down the wall I want ask you about
0:31
um the European left intelligencia give me Donald Trump anytime give me a
0:37
fascist seriously you know I want to see the enemy uh to look who stares at me
0:43
and says you know you shouldn't have the right to exist I'm going to wipe you
0:48
out that that that you know I can handle that I cannot handle comrades who are um
0:56
out of spinelessness they they crave the appreciation of the people who are
1:02
complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and that is worse for me is
1:08
a worse failure moral failure than being his
1:13
Hest hello everyone I'm ran cic and this is dispatches as the genocide in Gaza
1:19
accelerates it's clear that the depths of Israeli and US depravity know no
1:24
bounds no matter what Israel does whether intentionally killing Aid workers or summarily executing doctors
1:31
at hospitals in Gaza the media covers it up with pared claims about a Hamas
1:36
presence while us spokespeople harp on the tired talking point about the need
1:41
to protect Israel's security Above All Else and the Europeans either applaud
1:47
their us Masters or shrug as if totally powerless to stop their settler vassel
1:53
State joining me to discuss this and more is jannis veracis Economist
1:58
political leader for for Greek Finance Minister and the author of many books including his latest techn feudalism
2:05
what killed capitalism he's also co-founder of the international Grassroots movement
2:11
dm25 and a professor of Economics at the University of Athens but before we jump
2:16
into it this is just part of this episode the full interview is available to breakthrough news members only you
2:23
can become a member at patreon.com breakthrough news and as always be sure to hit the subscribe
2:30
button and the Bell so you get a notification whenever we post new content and if you appreciate this show
2:36
you can also donate Below on YouTube Giannis barakus welcome to the
2:41
show well thank you very much for having me well it's such a pleasure to have you on I really appreciate you making the
2:48
time and I you know I think I just want to jump right into uh uh what I think is a good place to start and that is what
2:55
recently took place um with the destruction of shiffa Hospital Hospital in Gaza and the killing of those seven
3:03
Aid workers with the world Central Kitchen in Gaza by the Israelis we're going to talk about some other
3:08
tangentially related things but just you know very briefly what are your thoughts on these latest atrocities because it
3:14
does feel like every day you think it can't get worse and Israel does
3:19
something worse indeed uh the the greatest worry I
3:25
have with every such atrocity beyond the fact that I can't sleep at night the thought that all these crimes against
3:32
humanity are being perpetrated in my name uh in the name of um citizens of
3:38
Europe in the name of the West to which for better of awar I supposedly belong
3:46
uh my greatest worry is the process of desensitizing public
3:51
opinion uh because with the escalation of the death doll of the kill rate by
3:59
the F uh it's really very hard to keep up the pace of one's
4:06
outrage uh in conjunction prata with the
4:11
actual outrage and so it's so very easy for people say oh well so how many people were killed today in in what
4:18
hospital only 50 oh okay well yesterday 60 were killed so this process of
4:24
desensitizing public opinion uh I have no doubt that it's um it's an
4:30
intricate part of the strategy of um the Israeli warmongers of the ones who are
4:36
actually planning those atrocities these atrocities are not accidents they are not the result of some Rogue Israeli
4:44
kernel um making decisions on the ground this is a strategy and uh in conjunction
4:51
with the toxic hypocrisy coming from Washington from Berlin from London from
4:58
Athens uh it I I I suffocate I I personally
5:04
feel I'm suffocating I that's a really good way to put it and I like the idea the word
5:09
toxic hypocrisy um it really is just completely stunning and you know Yannis one thing that I want to to ask you
5:16
about specifically is you know after just a few days I think after October 7th you did something I really
5:21
appreciated and that is in an interview you refus to play the game of condemning
5:27
Hamas and you have continued to refuse to play play that game um you even said and I'm quoting you the criminals here
5:33
are not Hamas the criminals are Europeans and the reason that I appreciated this uh so much is because
5:40
across the political Spectrum in the global North right after October 7th uh everybody was full of condemnation for
5:47
Hamas condemnation for oober S you know even in some cases if they have expressed sympathy for uh with
5:54
Palestinians so I'm curious you know nearly six months into this why do you
6:00
refuse to condemn Hamas when in fact you know it's actually so easy to do that and there are there are repercussions
6:06
for not playing that game because I've been to Gaza I've been
6:13
to rala I have seen the infrastructure of aparte I've seen the long cues of
6:20
Palestinians being ritually humiliated I have seen the uh the open
6:27
prison camp concentration camp that is Gaza and therefore I know in my bones
6:35
that any people who have been placed under such conditions for such a very
6:41
long time have a duty to themselves to bring down the wall to quote Roger
6:49
Waters and Pink Floyd you know to bring down the bloody wall uh in
6:57
war as part of the Geneva conven ion it's a recogn recognized duty of
7:02
prisoners of War to escape what about 2 million people who have been
7:08
encased behind bed wire whose children were malnourished before the 7th of
7:14
October 60% of kids according to the United Nations were malnourished before the the 7th of October who have no right
7:21
to travel who have no right to dream they their airport was tore up by the
7:26
Israeli Army there is no Port uh it Netanyahu himself himself made a point
7:34
that we will keep them hungry but not to the level of famine he was saying that for years before the 7th of October
7:43
uh the people who find themselves in that situation would not be human if they didn't try to bring down that wall
7:51
now I'm not passing judgment on Hamas because Hamas For Better or For Worse ended up
7:59
being the only resistance organization that expressed this Duty
8:04
not right but duty of the people of Gaza of the people of Palestine generally to
8:11
bring down the wall do I agree with Hamas it doesn't matter it is irrelevant
8:18
because you see the there is this truth reversal here uh allow me to share with
8:23
you a shocking conversation I had last Thursday with a German uh quite
8:29
wellknown politician I'm not at Liberty to to mention his name because there was private conversation but he's somebody
8:36
high up in the esad The Social Democratic party in the German government uh who had the
8:42
audacity uh he went beyond accusing me of being a Hamas sympathizer he he he
8:48
effectively um referred to me as somebody who was
8:53
sympathizing with the Nazis that's a that's a Social Democrat in the German government and his argument was this he
9:00
said look he said I'm German now why are you as a Greek kicking and screaming
9:05
about tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed and at that point
9:11
my boil my blood started boiling and he said I'm German I condone the fact that
9:18
hundreds of thousands of children in Germany were killed by the Allies in the
9:23
context of defeating Hitler so you see what happens here here's a German condoning The Killing tens of hundreds
9:30
of thousands of German children and by that justifying the tens of thousands of
9:37
Palestinian children who are being killed by making the association Nazis
9:44
Gaza which is the most monstrous truth reversal in the history of the last 300
9:51
years because essentially the victims who are the
9:56
Palestinians of ethnic cleansing of um a racial
10:03
racialized Teran nullius project of treating them as nonhuman before they
10:10
were ethnically cleansed beginning with a NABA in 1948 the victims are being
10:15
presented as the Nazis so the condemnation of Hamas is
10:21
part of this truth reversal because when I said to him you know I was trying to keep my cool right and I said to him at
10:28
some point you you're part of a government that believes in the two-state solution yes yes well you are
10:36
aiding and abetting the Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu and the whole cabal everybody who is in that government and
10:41
every and you know many guns who will replace him if somebody replaces him uh
10:47
who do not believe in the two-state solution who reson the whole point of
10:52
their existence they came to this world to kill the two- State Solution that's what they did after the Palestinians
10:59
mistakenly as it turns out went through the oso Accords and you know the Palestinian Authority and the
11:06
PLO recognized Israel Israel never recognized pal Palestine they recognized
11:13
the pillow uh what did Ariel shiron and then
11:19
bamin Netanyahu set out to do to kill off any chances of a two-state solution
11:25
and you supporting H and why why is Hamas a topic of discussion because Netanyahu
11:32
succeeded in killing off the two-state solution yeah in 1992 Hamas was
11:38
irrelevant so the direction of causality the the relation between cause and effect is Netanyahu and his cabal killed
11:46
off the two- State solution and that gave rise to Hamas and here is the German government
11:52
saying that because there is Hamas there can be no two-state solution you see you have truth reversal after truth truth
11:59
rever reveral and who was the the author
12:04
the guru of Truth reversal Joseph gibles he very proud of
12:12
them yes and his uh I guess his uh the people who are like him today are like
12:18
Matt Miller and these spokes people at the state department watching them drives me crazy but you know I think
12:24
this goes into another point that I've often seen you make Giannis which is uh it's about the timeline this truth
12:31
reversal you're talking about it's also when began like what began when right um
12:36
it's not just that it didn't start on October 7th but Israel's supporters are excellent at starting the timeline
12:43
whenever it's most convenient to their narrative and it's something the US does very well too they have to you know they
12:49
have to take land for their security to prevent another October 7th from happening but they'll just pretend it wasn't you know all a result of the fact
12:57
that they've been stealing This Land since even before 1948 and then you know they do the same thing with Lebanon as
13:02
well they'll say oh like his B is in Lebanon so the fact that it exists is why they have to bomb Lebanon but they
13:09
bombed Lebanon before hisb existed and that's actually why hisb exists umed
13:16
it's such a convenient narrative and I I I'm I guess I'm just adding to what you're saying but I like the idea of
13:22
calling it truth reversal another thing I'm curious if I can get your your comment on here is it's always portrayed
13:28
in this this um and this like discussion about Israel security right Israel
13:34
security and American and Western interests we're you know what I'm beginning to not beginning to understand
13:39
what I've always understood is that the Middle East is not safe it's not secure
13:45
with the existence of a settler Colony here like that's the problem and it just
13:50
comes to the idea of like how come the security of Palestinians and the people in this region don't matter it's always
13:57
about Israel's security well that's the the result of the manner
14:05
in which Israel was put together uh and you know speaking of
14:11
when did the whole thing begin well it began with anti-Semitism in Europe uh we
14:17
Europeans carried out pogram after pogam against the Jews it wasn't in Israel or
14:24
Palestine it wasn't just in Jerusalem um the Jews living Jerusalem next to
14:30
Palestinians lived in Perfect Harmony compared to the life of Jews in Odessa
14:37
in uh uh Berlin in in Spain from where the Catholics um chucked them out and
14:44
they ended up where where did they have besides Jerusalem where did the Jews
14:50
find some Sanctuary it was in Thessaloniki gree's Second City and in
14:56
Constantinople in Istanbul hello hello hello in the otoman Empire that's where the Jews had uh you know the the
15:03
greatest amount of security it was in Eastern Europe in Britain in Central Europe in southern Europe in my country
15:11
I at some point my grandmother when I was you know 10 11 12 she was telling me
15:16
the stories about how in her Village they would burn the Jew not an effuge of the Jew but anti-Semitism was rampant
15:23
throughout Europe so that's where it began uh and you know we went from pogram to pog them to the Holocaust that
15:30
had nothing to do with the Palestinians with the Lebanese with the Arabs absolutely zero to do with that H and
15:37
then what started as the white supremacist ideology of the British
15:45
Empire because remember and I was in Australia two or three weeks ago and uh
15:50
I had the opportunity of addressing the national press club with all the press in cber in the capital of the uh the
15:57
federal capital of of Australia I said to them folks remember how it all started here in Australia when Captain
16:03
Cook representing the British Empire came to botony Bay and proclaimed Australia to be tanus an an empty land
16:12
essentially he looked at all the abor and he said these are not humans it's an
16:17
empty land uh what how did Zionism set foot in uh in in Palestine under the
16:26
slogan the vile slogan land without a people for a people without the land now
16:32
where did they where did they get this from they didn't conjure it up from thin air it's the British Empire Teran logic
16:38
which they they practice in Kenya they practiced in South Africa okay the
16:43
natives are not humans therefore we can shoot them okay remember in Australia um the
16:49
natives acquired uh um Civic rights in
16:54
1967 1967 so there's a long tradition of white settler suprem supremacism and
17:02
Zionism simply copied that and with the help of the British the balur
17:07
Declaration initially and then of course the United States they created a state
17:13
which is the equivalent of white supremacism and it's saying it's a land without the people and we will take your
17:20
land nakba so the moment you say that these are other people that's the beginning of genocide Teran nus is the
17:26
commencement of genocide and people who actually um commit genocide know that
17:33
they're doing it it's not an accident like the bombs that killed the humanitarian
17:39
workers now in Gaza they were intentional and anybody who kills people
17:44
and throws them of their land feels insecure because immediately he thinks
17:50
and usually he if I have done this to them their descendants will want to do
17:56
it to me so when they talk about Israeli security they talking about their
18:02
insecurity from the fact that they understand that they have committed war crimes and they've committed ethnic
18:08
cleansing so it is impossible to have in Israeli State security Israel as a
18:15
Jewish state for it to be secure without completing the genocide of the
18:20
Palestinians so anybody who talks about the need to preserve the Israeli security talks about completing the
18:27
genocide of Palestinians let's be clear about that and I wish they were clear about that because you know I recognize
18:33
a villain who is honest yeah you got to at least
18:38
appreciate the honesty to some degree I want to ask you about um the European
18:43
left intelligencia um has has the European left intelligencia taken a good position
18:51
a bad position I mean we I know that with Russia NATO Ukraine uh it hasn't
18:56
been the greatest um has that been the same with Gaza and I'm sure it's you know different across
19:03
country so I don't want to you know put make a blanket statement about the entire European left but what has been
19:08
your perception of the position people have been taking on Gaza as an indication of my view on this
19:16
let me tell you that uh in in a few weeks short weeks in at the beginning of
19:22
June we have the European Parliament election and I will be a candidate amongst other members of my movement
19:28
across Europe uh I'm telling you now that if I get elected I will refuse to belong to the
19:35
European left grouping in Brussels they have disgraced
19:40
themselves uh my CS former CS in Berlin
19:46
delink the local left party uh they have a long tradition and I'm I've been
19:51
friends with them and comrades for as long as I remember um there is the Rosa Luxembourg
19:58
Center in uh the center of former East Berlin which is a great Foundation
20:03
they've done remarkable work over the decades uh immediately after the 7th of October they bound the Palestinian
20:09
author from um uh addressing an audience on the basis that she's Palestinian and
20:15
that and this is not a good time to have a Palestinian in the Rosa I mean poor Rosa Luxemburg she must be spinning at
20:22
5,000 revs in her grave that they should be doing this uh and generally you know
20:29
you mentioned that before first they condemn Hamas then they talk about the right the importance of providing
20:36
Israeli security then they say but at the same time Palestinians matter as well uh which is um you know give me
20:43
Donald Trump anytime give me a fascist seriously you know I want to see
20:49
the enemy uh to look who stares at me and says you know you shouldn't have the
20:55
right to exist I'm going to wipe you out that that that you know I can handle
21:00
that I cannot handle comrades who are um out of spinelessness because they're not
21:07
bad people they're just they're just too scared that you know de spigel or Lemont
21:14
or um you know Z taon is going to write about them what they write about me that
21:21
I a Jew hating crazy who's destroyed Grace and whatever you know they they
21:27
crave the appreciation of the people who are complicit in the genocide of
21:32
Palestinians and that is worse for me is a worse failure moral failure than being
21:39
a Zionist you know if you want to be a Zionist being Zionist let's then we can have an interesting conversation and a
21:44
clash but don't pretend to be on the side of the good and be a humanist Lefty when you're doing that and but then you
21:51
know allow me to express my very great disappointment over my own kind the left
21:58
uh because there is the other side as well there are leftists who tragically
22:03
Veer towards anti-Semitism to say oh what do you expect from the Jews the moment I hear that you know my hair
22:11
stands on end because that is racist that's anti-semite that's Nazi there's no such thing as the Jews any sentence
22:18
beginning the Jews are like that is fascist uh it's you know it's like saying the Palestinians are there's so
22:25
much difference of opinion among Palestinians you can say the Palestinians are being uh victims of genocide but you can't say that the the
22:31
Palestinians think this way because I you know I I have five Palestinian friends they have 20 different opinions
22:37
amongst themselves uh so and also on the on on the front of Ukraine because I
22:44
personally think that that Vladimir Putin is a very vile character I mean I was with Jeremy Corbin my comrade in
22:51
England we demonstrated in 2001 2001 When Vladimir Putin was the the the
22:58
favorite son of the West in Moscow Moscow and they supported him to the hilt uh we was demonstrating over the
23:05
murder of 250,000 chin in gry right
23:10
so no love lost for Vladimir Putin my I have friends who are in prison in Russia
23:17
for not for resisting Putin so Putin is a is is a criminal I have no doubt about
23:24
that but at the same time NATO have created him he's a creation of the
23:29
United States of America they crushed the Russian people after 1991 they
23:34
reduced life expectancy amongst men from 78 to 54 years of age there's never been
23:41
such a reduction in life expectancy in any country even at War and that was a policy of the United States uh to
23:48
completely squeeze destroy financially the the people of Russia and and then to
23:54
squeeze to keep breaking their promises to to go to Y and so on keep pushing
24:00
NATO towards Moscow until that the combination of the humiliation of the Russian people and the milit the NATO
24:08
expansion created Putin this is how if you humiliate the people and and you squeeze them and
24:16
that's how Hitler was born it was a result of the humiliation of the German people by the Allies after the first world war and they're squeezing so this
24:24
is what they've done so I would have liked the left to say neither Puttin or NATO to say we want peace and they this
24:32
war in Ukraine will have no winners except you know hundreds of thousands of
24:38
dead people and lots of starving people in Africa and Asia because of the effect the indirect effect of this war on
24:45
fertilizer prices on wheat prices on corn prices and all that and the left
24:50
what what they do the left has in Europe been divided 90% of it is NATO is a
24:59
a Liberation movement which is absurd and the other 10% are prop Putin and
25:05
some of us are say who are saying neither neither why do I have to take sides between two criminal organizations
25:13
yeah we are we've been squeezed a tiny tiny minority of
25:19
leftists yeah I know it's really it's really unfortunate that that's the uh parameters of the of the debate I guess
25:27
I would put it um um I wanted to ask you in particular there's not even a debate
25:32
oh no not even a debate not even a debate that's just the parameters of what exists um it sounds actually uh
25:39
worse than the US in the US I think there's um a bit more maybe not in the mainstream media but in general speaking
25:46
on the left there's much more Nuance around the issue of NATO but I I think we're also separated from all of that by
25:52
geography so Russia can't be uh portrayed as the same kind of you know
25:58
monstrous threat the way it is uh in the European context um but I wanted to ask
26:05
you specifically about Germany uh because Germany seems like its own its
26:11
own monster um I first I want to I want to show a clip that I'm sure you've seen But just to remind you and the audience
26:19
I'm sure you saw this yanis this is a German journalist asking a question to Franchesca albanes the uh un special
26:26
repor on the occupied Palestinian territories who recently wrote a report
26:32
uh laying out the case uh uh that Israel is in fact carrying out a genocide in Gaza and I I want to show his question
26:40
and you're quoting U the president of Israel the Prime Minister the defense
26:46
minister and uh some uh top militaries um but these are only quotes
26:53
uh given in speeches or in other circumstances I would like i' like to
26:58
ask you do you have a written document by the government which with a clear
27:04
intent to commit
27:11
genocide do you think that in Rwanda and in Bosnia heroina any government
27:18
officials wrote wrote a document saying I want to commit
27:24
genocide have you seen anything like that Al I'll answer this for you no it
27:30
doesn't work like that there is those okay so I'm going to stop it there but I
27:36
do encourage people to go see the rest of that video but I thought that was important to play just to kind of segue
27:41
into Germany because what's wrong with that guy why are just why are Germans like this what's going on in Germany um
27:49
you know I don't think even Hitler you can correct me if I'm wrong I don't even think Hitler ever you know like maybe he
27:55
did did he write down in a document I am committing genoci side against the Jews and then all of these other groups um so
28:02
yeah can you please lay out for our audience from your understanding what is wrong with Germany why are they like
28:09
this when it comes to Israel well I think
28:15
that at least 1,000 phds in Psychology
28:20
are going to be written about this in the next 100 years uh you know the
28:26
academic uh departments in universi specializing psychology are going to have their work cut out for
28:32
them so allow me my own non psychologist psychological theory um what happened in
28:40
Germany is that there's been a combination
28:47
of a justifiable Collective guilt over the the Holocaust if I were ger I mean I
28:52
feel that guilt as a Greek because it's it's wrong to put it all on the Germans
28:58
M because let's not forget that we we had Greek Nazis we had cro Nazis we had sub Nazis sometimes you know the the
29:06
Greek and the croat Nazis were nastier to the Jews than the German Nazis were their reports of German Nazis uh pulling
29:13
their hair out at the cruelty towards Jews by the cro Nazis so it's not just Germans right but the Germans
29:19
understandably and justifiably have a deep-seated uh sense of guilt over the
29:26
Holocaust at the same time I don't believe that Germany ever properly
29:32
densified they claim they have densified they have banned Nazi symbols they have
29:37
banned any party that I mean all the other day the football national team
29:44
banned the number 44 on the back of the vests because the the fours look like
29:50
very much like s's you know so 44 looks like SS so they they've done all that
29:56
but they never had a proper convers ation about you know how was it that
30:01
such a civilized cultured well educated population managed to you know be
30:08
trapped in Nazism and to commit those uh uh monstrous crimes in the 1940s before
30:15
that 1930s and 40s and they never had this conversation properly the result of
30:22
the collective guilt the formal disavowal of everything that they had
30:28
done in the 1930s and and and and 40s with the fact that they never had a proper conversation about what led to
30:34
Nazism and what was naism really it wasn't just some cult that took off and
30:40
you it wasn't some weed that they smoked and then they all went crazy for 10 years and then they recovered there was
30:45
there were other things happening for a very long time there uh so this
30:51
combination the incomplete dentification with the incomplete discussion and the
30:57
collective guilt has led the vast majority of Germans to uh swap their racist
31:07
nationalism for Ultra Ultra Zionism so the Germans today are uh they
31:15
are anti-nationalist they are more pro-european than the French than the Italians because they want to lose
31:21
themselves in Europe they want to forget that they're German and lose themselves in Europe because they want to go away from this nationalism but something has
31:28
to take over and replace as a bond between them the nationalism that they are giving away and that's Zionism so
31:37
ALR Zionism as well so when Angela Mel got up and said the
31:43
reson the rationale of Germany is the support and the security of the state of
31:49
Israel I think that's what she was doing she say that well we cannot talk about German nationalism not even patriotism
31:56
you know progressives in German don't want to talk about patriotism because that reminds him of Hitler uh but it's
32:02
easy to replace one nationalism for another so in the same way very stupid but I think quite comical allegory when
32:11
Thatcher privatized British electricity you know she sold it to a
32:17
French nationalized company so the their own Nation um privatized British
32:24
electricity similarly in the case of Germany they are taking somebody else's
32:30
white supremacist ideology Zionism and they replace it for their own at least
32:36
that's that's my theory by the way that's a good one let me your your your um kindness to plug
32:43
for meta 25 meta 25 is a political party here in Greece but it is also a political party in Germany we are the
32:50
only party that has a Greek party and a German party and an Italian party and
32:55
we're going to run in the election in June under Mera 25 on a platform of
33:02
turning around the German poity from Zionism towards supporting
33:10
Palestinian rights and towards supporting a disentanglement of Germany from
33:16
NATO wow I actually think there there's a huge base that would really really
33:21
support that uh across Europe they just don't have any representation anywhere
33:27
so I really look forward to seeing that I was going to ask you since you brought it up um that's a huge platform I mean
33:32
that's like a huge part of the party's platform but what else does it stand for oh um firstly we we we we we do believe
33:41
that uh re-energizing the anti-war movement is essential not just against War but also against the militarization
33:48
of our economies very recently the president of the European Union Council suggested that Europe must try to
33:54
reindustrialize through developing its own milit Industrial complex which is just remarkable uh just remarkable the
34:01
second thing is uh uh for the purposes of spreading dignity across Europe uh we
34:06
believe that the European Central Bank should fund a basic income for all Europeans uh not through taxation but
34:13
directly through the European Central Bank this sounds a bit like a technical issue but let me put it this way um in
34:19
the last um 8 years the European Central Bank has printed 11 trillion EUR on
34:24
behalf of the financiers what we're saying is that it should print five trillion EUR um in order to support the
34:31
people who deserve uh to live in some dignity in the richest continent in the
34:36
world and the third that the the costs of the EUR of the of the climate crisis
34:43
of the climate emergency of the climate catastrophe must not be borne by the poor these are the three planks with
34:49
which we're running across Europe well that sounds wonderful and I look forward to seeing the results of
34:55
that and then since we're on the topic of your political party um what do you think I mean is are those are those
35:03
points lacking in your in the former party you were involved in in Greece uh CA which I believe now has you can
35:10
correct me if I'm wrong the leader of this party is a is a banker connected to the US is that correct can
35:18
I enhance your uh apoplexy by that not
35:24
only she I mean I don't mind people being connected to the US I could be n chumsky right I mean n chsky Wasing
35:31
happy now the problem is that this particular gentleman and his CV has two words that should make well I don't have
35:38
any he to stand on end but you do Goldman
35:44
Sach he he an alumnus of Goldman
35:49
Sachs need I add more no I mean a hot bed of leftist of
35:56
leftist radicalization but you see what this shows is this the the party that I joined in 2015 with
36:04
which I ran was elected Member of Parliament then I became Finance Minister of that first government for
36:09
six months or so uh that party was a wonderful party I mean our if you look
36:14
at the platform everything I said to you before was part of that platform and more it connected to the movements it
36:20
was a party that grew up from the Grassroots initially we were at 4% and
36:25
we were shot up to 40% as a result of the innan handling of the terrible Greek
36:31
and European financial crisis by the financiers and by the oligarchs uh and
36:37
we succeeded it was one of those few very rare occasions when a Grassroots party uh gets elected and gets elected
36:46
with against the grain of the interest of the oligarchs of the bankers of the of NATO off off off we even had the
36:53
platform for getting out of NATO right so if you did the text and they were
36:59
they were they were part and parcel of the DNA of the people who supported us the people who supported us were brilliant and prop Palestinian and so on
37:06
and so forth and but that is a very good case study in how the rot starts from
37:13
the head and goes towards the bottom to the tail because once the Prime Minister
37:21
my dear friend and comrade at the time uh essentially surrendered during that
37:28
Clash we had with uh the representatives the troa as we call them the representatives of of the worst of the
37:34
finances around the world and you know the Berlin government and so on he
37:39
surrendered and he surrendered right at the moment when remember it was a party
37:45
that started 4% we had gone up to 36 40% and then six months later during this clash with the tra uh we had a
37:53
referendum and we we won 62% so the people of Greece went came you know sort
37:59
of came to the party they they they they embraced us they supported us heroically
38:05
even though you know think about it they had shut down their at ATMs our ATMs had
38:10
been shut down by the bars that be in Frankfurt in order to uh blackmail the Greek people not support us and they
38:16
support us with 62% on that night of the referendum it was 5th of July 2015 I
38:21
would never I would go to my grave with that uh date etched in my heart
38:28
um he surrendered and I he I spent three hours in his office after midnight
38:34
trying to convince him to disuade him I failed then I resigned and then what
38:40
happens is this just this is a great lesson for me the moment you surrender on the big things then you surrender on
38:46
the small things or the smaller things very soon after that you know the
38:52
electricity system grid was split up and given away to oligarchs
38:58
within six months he was hugging Netanyahu and signing deals for oil Dr
39:06
Drilling and gas drilling and pipelines connecting Israel to Cyprus to Greece
39:12
thankfully none of that happened but the the deal was there and now Greece is a great supporter of the apide State uh
39:22
which you can't blame it on the current government which is a very rightwing government but it was our government the one that I just resigned from that
39:29
initiated it and then from that moment onward everything everything breaks down and you know as I said the rot sets in
39:36
and that's why some of us had to create another party yeah it's a horrible cycle that just continues and that I want to
39:42
bring into it um some ideas from your from your latest book on techn feudalism
39:47
the end of capitalism um and that title you know it kind of gives the impression at least to socialists like me that yay
39:54
it's the end of capitalism um but don't get excited guys because actually what
40:00
you're arguing is that it's morphed into something even worse where we're all in service to these you know feudal Tech
40:06
Lords um so can you explain to to our audience what you mean by techn feudalism and then and it's not because
40:14
I want to make everything about Gaza it's just I think that this actually plays into it a bit um I'm just curious
40:20
if after explaining the idea behind techn feudalism um if you could bring it
40:25
back to Gaza in the sense that that you know these Tech overlords are in fact in charge of the social media mechanisms
40:33
that we all are getting our information from right now and we were watching a live stream genocide happen on their platforms where they have the capability
40:40
of really cating and even censoring uh content on Israel's behalf yes well to
40:48
begin with I I'll I'll take as my Q what you said that techn feudalism is not
40:54
something to celebrate it's something worse than capitalis much worse than capital that's that that's not entirely my idea
41:00
um I mentioned Rosa Luxenberg before but I will do it again was it not Rosa who
41:06
said from her cell from her prison cell that the world is facing a dilemma
41:12
Socialism or barbarism not capitalism if we don't succeed in creating socialism
41:19
out of capitalism we are going to end up with barbarism well that's where we are if you enjoyed this episode and want to
41:24
hear the rest you can access it by becoming a breakthrough news member at patreon.com breakthrough
41:34
news