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_mz0

Transcript

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

 

Popular posts from this blog

Video: A legal masterpiece from Ralph Wilde on behalf of the Arab League - with Transcript

Israel, Gaza and the Anatomy of Genocide