forced the sandbags, but we still don't have confidence. so we prefer to leave to stay with relatives who live in a solid house on what. now the crew of a so called super trawlers being accused of dumping $100000.00 dead fish into the atlantic ocean. the french maritime minister says images of the blue whiting carpeting the c. a shocking wants to know who's responsible representatives of the mago as, as the world's 2nd largest fishing vessel. blame a broken net for the spill. ah, i'm elizabeth bronman, doha with the top stories on al jazeera rescue workers in morocco, so they're close to reaching a 5 year old boy fell down a well. they're digging out part of the hillside and a delicate operation to reach the child has been trapped to the bottom of the 30 to meet a well for 5 days. an ambulance carrying 5 year old ray ann's parents has reached

the site. thousands of ukrainians have held a solidarity march the northeastern city of cod give the calling for an end to the stand off of moscow, which has more than a 100000 troops a mast on the border. child stratford has more from cargo. it's usually significant and people are coming out here and protesting and a show of unity against what they describing as rush and aggression. we saw various different members of political parties and actually groups here, patricia writing in the riley and the voices. i say one very much of unity in the face of yes, what they say is as bullying from vladimir booted the african union as meeting for a 2 day summit. the $55.00 member block is under pressure to come up with a coordinated response to a spate of military coups conflict. and the ongoing corona vas pandemic, ethiopia prime minister medusa,

his opening remarks to address the conflict in the to grime region. with st. lusting and global peace in our country shall remain. steadfast, excellence is ladies and gentlemen. the greatest listen that if your behalf lynn or the pos to you, is that with the thought that if you are african brothers and sisters, our existence of the nation would have been at great risk. iran says it has the legal right to continue nuclear research, which can't be restricted by any agreement. that's in response to the u. s. waiving some sanctions on yvonne's civilian nuclear program as talks to revive the 2015 agreement reach a critical stage. donald trump ended the wave a 2 years ago when he was president. those are the headlines on al jazeera up front is coming up next. as pensions intensify along the russian frame, border u. s. presidential bypass,

threaten president with severe economic sanctions saying if conflict occurs, it could be the largest invasion for 2 kinds of pneumatic talks. a few possibilities, what we like to bring the latest development on al jazeera. hello everyone, and thank you for joining us for a new season of upfront us democracy is in crisis and at the risk of failing. that's what a majority of americans believe. according to a recent tips, those n p r poll from the january 5th insurrection at the capitol for the dismantling of voting rights and deep economic inequality exacerbated by the corporate. 19 pandemic, democracy imperiled in the united states. and if so, what can be done to save it? will after world renowned author, dollar and political activists, the professor chomsky thank you so much for joining us on upfront. pleased to be with you here in the united states professor,

you have talked about how 90 percent of the population is basically not represented by political leaders due to concentrated wealth and private power determining the outcomes of elections. 34 laws, restricting access to voting, were passed in 2021 alone. do we have a real democracy here in the united states? we have a mixed form of democracy. in some respects the united states is quite advanced. i don't think there's any country that to protect freedom of speech, to the extent that the united states, those if you're moderately privileged, you're secure, say, from state authority and so on. on the other hand, the political system does not represent the population there or extensive studies in academic, political science,

mainstream witcher ask a very simple question of what the relation between people's attitudes and opinions and the vote of their own representatives. straight forward turns out the for a large majority of the population, but some studies up to 90 percent of there's essentially no correlation. their representatives are listening to different voices and that's understandable. you're elected to the house of representatives. the 1st thing you have to do is get on the telephone and make sure that the donors will be read ready to finance your next selection. other, other studies have shown the theme you can predict election electability

was very hello precision. a simply we're looking at things like concentrated strategic campaign funding the well, the legislators calling the donors lou legislators office is being floated with lobbyists, corporate lawyers, representatives of interest and firms. overwhelmingly. steph huge amounts or the materials and ends up with them. pretty much earned writings ear legislation, which the legislator then saw and there's a bit of a caricature but not too much. something look good is essentially the way

much of the system operates. so it's it's a democracy in many respects this lot of freedom. but the representative system is constrained, constrained. another thing that comes up in addition to the kind of constraints are on the electrical system influence power money. all the things that you're speaking about is the actual preservation of voting rights. there been efforts to pass some reforms of voting rights lately in the united states. most recently the freedom to both act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act. these would have restored vital voter protections, and they were prevented dist districts from changing voting laws in a way that systematically disenfranchised as minority populations. both bills killed in the senate. can you explain how voters suppression disenfranchisement are predominantly impacting minorities in the united states? and why voting rights which are a pillar of democracy, could be under attack in its 21st century?

well, 1st of all, the united states used to have 2 political parties, democrats and republicans. from another point of view. they were 2 factions of the same party. the business party, the business, but the business world is overwhelmingly dominant and both of them. nevertheless, they were, they have been somewhat different with some overlap. in the last 3040 years, one of the is the republican party has simply drifted off the spectrum. it's not a political party in the traditional sense about 10 years ago to leading political analysts for the conservative american enterprise institute to thomas man. norman ornstein wrote an article in which they

describe the republican party of 10 years ago. as in their words, a radical insurgency that has abandoned any interest in participation in harlem entry politics. what do you think causes this radical departure from the values and the position that the republican party was in even 10 years ago? much less 30 or 40? there's always been an ideological difference in divergence. but as you said, they seem to fall off the map almost by over the last 10 years. why? it was birth to richard nixon actually 50 years ago. the nixon who was told and statesmen understood that the republicans who are more oriented than the democrats towards court through our private wills,

cannot win elections on their own programs. you can approach the electorate and saying, i want to stab you in the back. enrich the rich, an empower, the corporate sector, doesn't work. so they had to turn to other issues. what are called cultural issues . nixon begun it with what was called the southern strategy. democrats had been supporting johnson's civil rights that caused great resentment among the deeply racist. so the democrats nixon recognized the ending yet enough to say it in words and doing that the republicans would become the weights of premises party. he can win over the democrats. there was a soothing strategy, were pretty will then they moved to other issues by the midden is

republican strategists recognized that if they pretended stress pretended to be opposed to abortion, or they could win. the huge is angelica over 25 percent of the population, northern catholics. so they all switched on a dime, reagan, george h. w. bush should always been what we call pro choice, but all of a sudden they began passionately anti abortion. next to guns and next other things, trump was extremely current. this is after the comment, or is it mentioned on the road at gal insurgency. but trump could brilliantly was able to tap the poisons that were on right below the surface in american society, their migration, the professor to think of this idea of an insurrection and trump. i mean,

we had an actual attack on the capital in january 6 of 2021, which you describe as an attempted coup. some have said the united states is still witnessing a slow motion insurrection by republicans, and that they're using a election after their lead the plotting election. according to the states united democracy center last year, at least $262.00 bills were introduced in $41.00 states that interfere with elections. is our democracy being subverted through the electoral process? and what relationship does it have to to trump and this right wing insurgency that you're talking about? well, trumpet, managed to mobilize a popular cult. oh, the worshipful followers, anything he does, they support those basically taken over the republican party or what used to be the republican party, republican leaders or grovelling notice,

feet afraid to offend him in any way that trump has made it very clear more clear in the last few days that he does not believe that the united states should have a functioning democracy is said explicitly that the vice president, mike pence could have overturned the election and failed to do it. it was, pence is failure. his fault that the election was not overturned. and handed over to trump, he said it quite explicitly over in congress to the constitution happens to be rather vague that this nobody in the last 250 years, really thought about the possibility that one of the, the political party could arise which wants to overthrow the democratic system,

so the laws are a little bit obscure. and there is, there are debates going on right now in congress. as to whether to sharpen the rules, to make it clearer, the voters should be in charge, not elect, not officials who want to overturn the vote trumps against it. and it's not clear how the republican party will done this, but you're correct for hundreds of bills in state legislatures, republican ones working on various ways to ensure that they can become a permanent dominant minority party by excluding the road. so the wrong kind of people present sounds got comparing the word party. i hear republican i hear democrat a lot and i have to ask you, i mean, is it too much focused on parties too much focus on party affiliation and

partisanship? it seems that people might be caught up in this idea of winning at any cost rather than creating functional democracy, functional government, and safeguarding and protection that we're supposed to have in our society. is that an accurate assessment? well, if you go back to the days before the republican party drifted off the spectrum, there was cooperation between the parties and i voted for republicans moderate republicans. but by no, that's just inconceivable. republicans have just become a denial list party. i see this procedure, trump, when prison obama was elected. and mitch mcconnell, senate leader for the republicans, and may be the most influential person in the party. when obama was elected mcconnell said street that i, that the republicans have one goal,

make sure that he cannot achieve anything, make sure that the country is ungovernable. and then the blame can be put on the, on the democrat to have enough power. and republicans can come back into office doing exactly the same thing. know when joe button was elected and mcconnell, senate minority leader said very explicitly, our goal is to ensure that he can achieve nothing will harm the country as much as possible. and we will then blame it on the democrats, and we'll come back to power. that's not a political corte, that's a radical insurgency, no interest and see, but is there any room for critique of the democratic party as well? i mean, the rise of the right in this way, in some ways has to do some would argue with the democratic parties,

failure to address the needs of working people in that capitalism itself is part of the problem. and because democrats are fully on board with the system, that they are as complicit in culpable in our failure to have a ineffective functional democracies. anybody else which says could hear it. and this goes back 44 years president quarter by the time the late 19 seventy's, the democrats, they were not going to be supportive, were people anymore. that were going to become a party for affluent professionals. and wall street, the kind of people internally who showed up that obama is extra thing and parties. truck schumer, this is now the senate majority leader said street out the weekend. maybe we'll lose a working class in western pennsylvania,

but will pick up to fluent suburban votes. so that's what we'll do. the last effort of the report of the democrats to serve were getting people was in 1978 the home free, and hawkins full employment that did pass. congress, president quarter didn't the, to it, but a water is down so that it had almost no boy. when the democrats basically handed the working clothes over to their class enemy, the republicans are the bitter enemy of the working class. or democrats handed it over to them. reagan came along, his 1st act was to smash labor unions opening the door to the

corporate sector to do the same initiated programs, which has severely harmed the working class in the middle class. we actually have measures of this. the rand corporation super respectable, recently did a study on how much wolf had been transferred from the lower 90 percent of the population. were in class middle, close the poor. how much will had been transferred to the super rich during the last 40 years, and reagan, their estimate is about $50000000.00. wow, that's a, that's a, that is a staggering. now that is a staggering number because even on the issue that you're raising, where there is a considerable shift in a direction that might be in some estimation, anti democratic. there's still a lot of americans who are lined up in support of policies that often may be,

undermine their own best interest. you wrote a seminal book, manufacturing consent. you talk about how leaders sometimes can't necessarily control people by force, like in a dictatorship, but be control people thinking they control how they act. and this often results in people operating against their own interest. talk to me a little bit about the media. what role does the media play in manufacturing consent? what role does the media play in undermining democracy in the united states? well, for example, one thing they do is not discuss what you and i have just been discussing. they act as if there are 2 political parties, both dedicated to the benefit of the population, what you and i have just been discussing. and you can find a hence of it here and there. but the public doesn't see it. and in fact, this,

the effects are very striking to take congress right now. one of the main legislative programs that button put forth as a build back better program, the to program, which would greatly benefit working people, poor parents, children very beneficial to the population. republicans, of course, are 100 percent opposed to a few democrats are opposed to right winged carrots. and since congress is split, can't get through. take a look at public opinion. very striking. when you, when the public is asked about the individual provisions of this program that are medical care, child credits and so on there in favor of it. when they arrest what they think

about the program, they're opposed to it. when you ask, do you know what's in the program? no, they don't. it's an interesting collection. they are in favor of the individual measures . they do not know that those are in the program. they're opposed to the program because it's been presented on fox news other right wing media as a government attack on you, which is just gonna raise the deficit and it won't be able to pay for it. and it's just going to the undeserving poor, there's an undertone there that says, well, there are these people who don't want to work. the ones who reagan calls the the will for cheats. black mothers going and limousines to the social security office to rob europe will fear. that's the undertone. and

somehow those people who are, who are worthless and a worker taking it all away from us. it's an old technique to try to divert the attention of people away from their true oppressors, to people who are even more disadvantage than they are. that's one of the ways in which the white working class was kept down for a century and much of the country get them to hate black people who are even worse off than they are. he can make them think will i'm better than those guys. then you can exploit them and repress them spin of familiar to kinetic, of crushing or close organization. we're going people move this incidentally, you take a look at a great labor movement of the 19th century, night of labor. norma's labor movement bitterly opposed to industrial

capitalism. their 1st organizing effort, 1st one was in louisiana. black workers were in the cotton fields. they've been driven back to something that are truly like slavery. so the knights of labor began to organize among them was very successful. black and white organizing together. local officials, local people. in this town, in louisiana table to louisiana, they heard about it. the organized, organized militias called in the state. oh, state troopers carried out a huge massacre. we don't even know how many people were killed because nobody, even the chick thing was devastated to try to block this blackwood, organizing effort, brutal, vicious massacre. well,

there was the 1st went on and many others goes on. many other ways. i go back to my childhood, the early 19 thirty's, the labor movement was revising. celia was organizing those through workers. black and white workers were working together. when they were joined in the labor action, they asked grace conflict dissolved just as in the early efforts of the mayor of labor. the employer wants to stop. always. professor, i have just a few minutes left and i have to ask you, you've been writing about capitalism, power and democracy for decades, given where we are right now. the state of our democracy. do you see a way forward? are you still hopeful?

there's always a reason to be hopeful, we have a political the just mention briefly impact of 40 years of new liberal attacks on the population. it's caused extreme social breakdown and disorder fertile terrain for a demagogue like trauma or de santis of florida or tucker carlson, myrtle live or come next. but there is a revival of san decent, honest commitment to a better world. you saw it pretty dramatically as for the george floyd murder, huge uprising, black and white. biggest in american history, coin for an n, 2 violent repression against americans. norma, support. well, came under attack, beaten back,

still there are other young people organized active working very hard to overcome the most serious crisis that humans are ever faced in their history destruction of the environment. there are other groups working for racial justice for recognition of human rights. they're all over very who they're not. they don't have wilf concentrated power. media support, but they're there and they can become the weight of the future. so to us to support them, participate with them. kathy, thank you so much for joining us on up right now. all right, that's our show up front. we'll be back with

frank assessments for china as well. bannister from the 0. call it strategy. if the rest, the world cannot get informed opinions at all costs focused on needs. i'm not protest from that statement. critical debate wide rip would claims that native constitutes an interest and she'll thread to russia, but it's precisely his actions that's created this insecurity in the region. in depth analysis of the days global headlines inside story on al jazeera, what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they're going through here. it al jazeera. we believe everyone has a story. we're hearing the gun a resume conservation paul officer with bringing nature and people together to well with what life is my pleasure. my talk is going to be due to clock on that one

. unity in overton managed to find love or do we go to the to it as to teach the community that living with the one live? it's excellent. elliot slim bumpo riding with las, my zimbabwe on al jazeera freefall precision. these athletes are experts in the art of jumping out of planes. more than 40 military parachuting teams have descended here to the desert of guitar to compete for the world championship title. the competitors are all active military members and have been training for years to get here. most have tens of thousands of jumps to their names. each country will compete in 3 disciplines. freefall, skydive, accuracy, landing, and 4 way formation. men and women compete separately. but under the same flag, you know, i can't do a story about parachuting and not jump out of a plane as we climb up the teams mentally prepare for their job. i try to do the

same then minutes later once the earth is just a blurb, it's time to free fall. ah ah, this is al jazeera ah. had i won money in sight? this is the news i live from day hall, coming up in the next 60 minutes. thousands of ukrainians. riley in the largest city near a board, a web, russian forces, all amassing. caves, conflicts in a slow coven vaccine roll out. leaders from the african union meet to come up with a coordinated response rescue workers in morocco inch closer.