12/07/18 12/07/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> it is not just renewable energy, it is efficiency, and then it is also local foods and the next economy. i did not really like this economy too much. be next economy has to something thateaffirms our relationship to the earth and gives us a shot. amy: as u.n. climate talks in katowice, poland, move into their second week and the u.n. secretary general warns that climate change is a matter of

life and death, we speak with native american climate activist winona laduke about an indigenous green new deal. then to the rise of the right in eurorope as the vox party makes gains in spain. we speak with economist and former greek finance minister yanis varoufakis. >> it does not have a far right neofascist movement like italy and france and germany. , the now, ouout of the blue stronghold of a socialist party suddenly vox, a rather nasty piece of work that emerged in 2014, suddenly came from nowre to repeat the triumphs of the fascist in italy, austria, germany, and so on and so forth. amy: yanis varoufakis is teaming up with senator bernie sanders and others to fight right-wing forces around the globe. all that and morore, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war anand peace report. i'm amy goodman. the world food programme says parts of y yemen have entered io famine, with 73,000 yemeni civilians facing the's starvation as the u.s.-backed, saudi-led coalition hahas cut supppply lines and decimat yemen's medicacal and sanitation infrastructure. the famine declaration comes as half of yemen's 28 million peoplele remain on the brink o f starvatition. this is david beasley, direcectr of t the world food programme. >> this report t is devastatati. it realizezes our worst fears tt peoplele are starving to death n yemen. they need our help. we are on the ground doing everything we can. amy: the stark warning came as representatives of the houthi rebel movement met in sweden for -brokered talks with members of

yemen's saudi-backed government. it's just the second time s sine the conflict began in 2015 that warring parties have met to discuss a political solution to the crisis in yemen. in north carolina, democratic candidate dan mccready has withdrawn his concession in a north carolina congressional race where evidence is mounting that republicans stole the election by tampering with absentee ballots. over the last week, we of seen the criminal activity come to light and we have seen that my opponent mark harris has been .rilled this criminal activity as of today, i'm withdrawing my concession to mark harris. furthermore, i call on mark harris to tell the american people exactly what he knew and when he knew it. amy: a criminal investigation has already been launched and calls s are growing for a new ve to take place.e. the investigation centers on the actions of republican operative leslie mccrae dowless who ran an operation to illegally collect absentee ballots.

democrats fear dowless collected democratic ballots and then threw them away or filled out in completed ballots to vote for the republican candidate, mark harris. on thursday, harris filed campaign finance documents showing he spent more than $34,000 for something called "reimbursement payment for bladen absentee, early voting poll workers -- reimbursement door-to-door." bladen county is where the absentee ballot effort took place. scandal iss like the spreading to a second county in north carolina.. the united states and canada are continuing to refuse to say why a top chinese executive was arrested over the weekend during a stopover in vancouver. meng wanzhou is the chief financial officer of the telecommunications giant huawei and the daughter of the company's founder. huawei recently surpassed apple as the world's second-largest smartphone maker. she has been held in canada since saturday waiting for extradition to the united

states. china condemned washington for its "hooliganism" and "despicable rogue's approach." meng's detentntion ca o on the sameme day president trump metet with chihinese president xi jinping in a argentina to discus the growowing u.s.-china t trade war. awei has been accused ofof violating u.s. sanctnsns against iran and north korea but it is unclear if that is why meng is being held. she will appear in a vancouver courtroom today for a bail hearing. new report finds greenland's ice sheet is melting at the fastest rate in centuries as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from human activity continue to increase to historic highs. writing in the journal nature, a team of international researchers warns that not only is greenland's melt beginning to add to global sea level rise, but the rate of the melt is accelerating. this comes as the trump administration moved to roll back an obobama-era conservation plan to o protect a bird known s the sage grouse, which is close to endangered status. the rollback could open some 9 million acres of land in wesestn states to new oil and gas drilling.

in immigration news, buzzfeed news reports that an unknown impostor stole the online identity of a prominent honduran activist in order to organize the migrant caravan that became a central issue for president trump and republicans in the u.s. midterm elections. the activist, bartolo fuentes, says he hasn't gotten any answers from facebook about who stole his identity or how many messages were sent by the impostor account. but fuentes' identity was apparently central to a sophisticated campaign that organized the largest migrant caravan in history, with some 7000 central americans participating at its peak. president trump blasted the caravan as a horde of invaders and used the issue as a wedge to drum up support for republican candidates. and vice president mike pence used the caravan to lash out at venezuela and leftist groups. >> with the president of honduras told me is the caravan was organized byby leftist organizations, political activists within honduras, and he said it was being funded by

outside groups and even from venezuela. think american people i think see through this. they understanand this is not a spontaneous caravavan of vuvulnerable people. amy: the news comes as facebook is under fire for failing to prprevent russia and other foren governments from operating phony accounts to sway the u.s. electorate. today is expected to be a big day in special counsel robert mueller's russia probe as he faces two key deadlines. mueller is expected to file paperwork detailing how trump's former campaign manager paul manafort violated his plea agreement after he pleaded guilty to several federal charges and agreed to cooperate with investigators. in addition, mueller is expected to submit a sentencing memo for former trump attorney michael cohen. last week cohen pleaded guilty , to lying to congress about trump's efforts to build a skyscraper in moscow while running for president. in august, cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank

fraud, and campaign finance violations. meanwhile former fbi director , james comey is expected to tetestify today behind closed doors s before the house jududiy committee. president trump will nominate heather nauert as united states ambassador to the united natatis to replace outgoing ambassador nikki haley. if confirmed by the senate, nauert will becomeme one of the least expeperienced u.s. ambassadors to the u.n. in history. before she joined the trump administration a as statee depapartment spokesperson, nauet worked as a news presenter on "fox & friends." president trump reportedly is considering william barr as his leading candidate for u.s. attorney general. barr previously served as attorney general under president george h.w. bush in the early 1990's. barr has expressed sympathy for president trump's demand that hillary clinton be prosecuted over her use of a private email server. an investigation by mother jones and the trace reveals the trump campaign and the national rifle association appear to have coordinated tv ads during the

2016 presisidential race in violation of federal campaign finanance law. documents show the nra and trump both used the conservative pr firm national media research, planning and placement to place the ads and that same executive at the company authorized all of the ads. former federal election commissioner ann ravel said -- "i don't think i've ever seen a situation where illegal coordination seems more obvious." france is gearing up for more mass protests this weekend, as a political movement known as the yellow vests continues to gain popularity. the protests began as a revolt against president emmanuel macron's tax hikes on fossil fuels. macron has since delayed the fuel tax, but protesters are now pressing more than 40 other demands, including a minimum pension, a reduction in the retirement age, and tax reforms. during yellow vest protests last weekend, 400 people were arrested and 26060 we injured as hundrereds of thousands took to the streets. french officials said they might deploy armored vehicles in paris for the first time in 50 years if protesters follow through on

plans to erect barricades this weekend. actor and comedian kevin hart has stepped down from m plans to host the upcomoming academy awas ceremony following public outcry over his p past homophobic twees and comemedy routines. the academy named hart host of the oscars on wednesday. lessss than 24 hours later, haht was discovered to be rapidly deleting his past anti-gay social media posts amid a growing uproar, initially refusing to apologize over his comments before offering an his -- offering his resignation from the oscars ceremony with an apology. in chicago, over 500 teachers at the acero charter school network have gone on strike, calling for smaller class sizes, more special-ed staff, pay equity with chicago public schools, and protections for undocumented students. it is believed to be the first strike at a u.s. charter school. and today is the 90th birthday of world-renowned linguist and political dissident noam chomsky, born in philadelphia on

december 7, 1928. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the u.n. climate conference is underway in katowice, poland, with leaders calling for swift global action. u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres said climate change is a matter of life and death for many nations and that the worst polluters are not doing enough to meet the goals of the 2015 paris climate agreement. this came just one day after president trump stood as the sole leader at the g20 summit who did not sign on to a -- is pulling out of the climate accord. while world leaders converge in poland, the indigenous-led fight against destructive oil pipelines continues across north america. in louisiana, activists suffered a blow thursday when a judge ruled that the company building the 163-mile bayou bridge pipeline had the right to seize private land for construction under eminent domain, despite

the fact the judge ruled that pipeline owner energy transfer partners had trespassed on during construction and order the company to pay three land owners $150 each. the bayou bridge pipeline will carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across louisiana's wetlands. meanwhile, incoming commerce member alexander cortez and others are calling for green new deal to revolutionize for climate change. earlier this week, i spoke with climate activist winona laduke, native american activist with the ojibwe nation and executive director of the group honor the earth. she lives and works on the white earth reservation in northern minnesota. i began by asking g her what an indigenous green new deal would look like. >> welcome indigenous people have a lot of experience with sustainability. if you look across the country company turns out the windiest places the country are indian reservations. dakotaervation in north

has 17,000 times more wind than they could ever use. you start looking those tribes of to the grid, which already crosses our land with some , look at thets transition to new solar, for instance, a solar project company have kind of a cornerstone. we did call it energy justice or just call it the and lined economy. -- enlightened economy. they look at agriculture. i come from the white earth reservation. we have a plan. my plan, first of all, i'm looking down the barrel of a very big pipeline, $7 billion boondoggle a stranded assets. i'm looking down the pipeline at the barrel of this pipeline and thinking, what could $7 million due in minnesota? what could it do for a new green deal? in my territory come on the iron range, there's a new solar plant accounts.make solar

on my reservation, we're just beginning, in february we should be operational, a solar thermal panel manufacturing facility to make panels that you can put on the south side of your house and reduce your heating bill by about 20%. we have solar going in at 20 kilowatts and 200 kilowatt projects. then we have this larger vision, which it is not just renewable energy. it is efficiency. then it is also local foods and the next economy. our interest in the economy -- to be honest, i did not really like this economy too much. it did not work out too well for my people. the next economy has to be something that reaffirirms our relationship to the earth and gives us a shot. to me that looks like a lot of local food, organic food. if you went organic in most of your agriculture, i just read an article, if you ate beans, if we just upped the beans and diminish the cattle, you would in up with sequestering the

carbon in the soil. you don't need some guys to put something in the sky. you need organic agriculture. that is what we are doing. i'm also working on hemp. for three years i have been growing industrial hemp. i'm interested in the next textile company. it was1980's, 1990's, wi outsourced to asiaia. i am a hemp grower. it is stronger than cotton. it does not use all of the water or chemicals. fromord "canvas" comes cannabis. i want to rebuild the hemp industry. i want is at the table and not on the menu. i want us to be the leadership because we have a lot of territory a con which you can -- upon which you can grow hemp. amy: and yet you have president trump who says, change is a hoax

. when it is cold in knowing what he says,s, see, you're talking about global warming? >> i'm not going to spend a lot of time rebutting president trump. i would spend all day with that. he is kindnd of like the newew incarnation of andrew jackson. bad president for any of people, bad president for everybody. to be super honest, we don't have a lot of experience with great presidents. what we have experiencnce with s we're going to fight this and make the next economy, make our future. that is was self-determination is about. amy: talk about pipeline politics. for those were not familiar with the pipeline you're fighting, give us a map of it. interestingly, i was just interviewing congressman or elective holland of new mexico. she is one of two of made of -- she is one's of two native american women who will be in congress, ever. to standingwent rock. it was a school for so many, even those who are weighing

going into electoral politics. >> standing rock was an example of regulatory capture, wonderful system is controlled by corporations. in a state would call the deep north. you experienced the deep north. we got a pretty good lesson at standing rock. since that time, high fines have not gone so well for any of these corporations. about a year and a half ago, there were five tar sands type lines proposed out of canada. think about canada with pretty guy trudeau. they might as well just name it after him he just bought. he talks about signing up with harris, but canada is a huge polluter of the -- and if the tar sands come online, it is pretty much game over. amy: just to be clear, when you said that trudeau bought. >> just to givive it the conont, about a year and a half ago, there were e five high fines proposeded out of the tar sands. tatasands is a landlocked mass sand that has some oil in it.

super expensive stuff, really bad for the environment. one pipeline was called energy east. that was to go from alberta to new brunswick. the second pipeline was called a northern gateway. that was to go from alberta to the pacific coast. the third pipeline was called transmountain. can her morgan's transmountain. the fourth keystone in the fifth pipeline is called enbridge line three. five big hype lives to try to get oil out that is landlocked. if you look at what is happening, about a year and half ago, the energy east pipeline did not get approved by the national energy board. nobody turns out one at a pipeline crossing canada. surprise, surprise. second thegem of the canadian projects, was not approved by the national energy board. that leaves three pipelines. one pipeline known as the can or morgan, facing massive opposition, not only from first

nations but the good citizens of british columbia and the premier british columbia, opposed them ended up in court because they did not consult with first natitions. the federal court in canada, the appeals court, revoked all of the permits will nullify all of the permits on kininder morgan's pipelinene known as the transval pipeline. the same day that happened, premier trudeau purchase that like $4.9oping -- for billion. i think the price tag is now something like $15 billion. so canada would have its own personal pipeline to cross the territory. i think it is a dodgy investment, myself am a judging by the courts and the fact that the court stopped pipelines. keystone pipeline, as you know, trump moved ahead, sprinkled his fairy dust. that pipeline was stopped in a federal court in montana. that should be a year, two years, who knows how long if there ever ablble to meet the conditions? stopped because it turns out trunk could not reverse an obama

decision without a reason. you can't just go do it because you want to. amy: obama finally stopped it after years of mass protest. >> social movements and lawyers are who stop pipelines. social movements and lawyers. this leaves one hype line still considered somewhat viable. linepipeline is enbridge 3. 915,000 barrel a day tar sands pipeline going from alberta to superior. and what is significant about that pipeline aside from the fact it is the equivalent of 50 new coal-fired generatororcoming onliline, exactly what you do nt need in the face of the u.n. report in the presidenent's own reports out of the administration, but that feeds into every other pipeline that goes through, for instance, the streets of naca. it is a feeder for most of the infrastructure of the northern great lakes territory. that pipeline is what we are fighting. unfortunate for all of us, the

public utilities commission in minnesota issued a robe decision in favor of the pipeline. to tell you what i mean by a robe decision, i have been here a few times talking about this pipeline. we have three years of hearings on this pipeline. 72,0,000 people came out and testified, of which 69,000 people testified against the pipeline. equal amount of evidence. the department of commerce did not recommend issuing a certificate of need for that pipeline. and in addition to that, the administrative law judge, which reviewed the pipeline for three years, recommended against issuing a permit for the route. in june of this year, the public utilities commission of minnesota disregarded all evidence, disregarded all recommendations by every agency that issued a permit. just a couple of days after thanksgiving, they reaffirmed that permit. amy: winona laduke, native american activist with the ojibwe and executive director of honor the earth. back with her in a moment.

♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our discussion with activist with the ojibwe nation and executive director of the group honor the earth. she lives and works on the white

earth reservation in northern minnesota. i sat down with her earlier this week. describe your area for us. describe it for us and where this pipeline is. >> i think about my territory as where the wild things are. rules, -- lynx, bearswolves. i live in a place where there is still life. so that places northern minnesota covered by treaty 1855, 54, 47, 42, full of wild rice, full of lakes, lakes you can still drink from. that is where i live. and that is what this battle is abouout. it is about can n we protectct ? amy: winter they say the pipeline will be built? >> they have been trying to

build it for three years. they say they will begin construction this year. as i said, we're entering the appeals process. we're hoping ththe state of minnesesota joins us in appealig the decision by the -- it was unsupppportable according to the department of commerce. the state approved a $1.4 billion insurance agreement with the enbridge corporation. that was based on the kalamazoo spill, which was a much smaller spill that was not really catastrophic. plus, does not include the 70,000 miles of pipeline that enbridge has. what thehis is part of new deal is really got to be about. a deepa country that has infrastructure. bridges crumble. we are probably losing 30% of our gas in aging infrastructure in this country. what we need is a new deal that

builds infrastructure for people , not for oil companies. as i said, $7 billion that is for an oil company pipeline? that could be spent much better. amy: i'm looking at this invoice you brought in regarding climate damages. explain. >> we have issued an invoice to the enbridge corporation because in all of their hearings, they talk about their power plants are going -- they're pumping stations will be powered with solar. lipstick on a pig. they talk about the climate impact of this pipeline is not significant. we have a team at honor the earth. we figured out the carbon equivalent of what they're carrying, if you had to take that out of the environment -- which is what we basically have to do -- the turning rate is $1000 a metric ton. the amount of carbon that enbridge is caring an, just the carbon itself is worth $170 billion in expenses annually. if total do, kind of

you're doing math, the combined impact of such a badly planned project $266 billion annually. we have issued an invoice from the creator, honor the earth acting on behalf of the creator, to the enbridge corporation saying they should pay this amount. we would prefer to have an early on because according to moody's, they were downgraded to just above junk bond status in december. with the experience that americans and native people have of multinational corporations en likeron going bankrupt, we ththk would be live -- wise to collect the money in advance. amy: you have line three carbon metric ton, the boreal forest. >> there's a price to destroying boreal forest. amy: explain what that is. >> the tar sands is a boreal forest. you turned something that is the oxygen of the north -- the boreal forest of northern canada is the equivalent of the lungs.

it is the amazon of the north. it is the amazon of the north. that is what is being destroyed by the tar sands. wetland. this is just going to our wetlands. i amalue of a wetland -- an economist by training, but how do you value a wetland for what it does for mother earth and the planet and your water and for insects and for where the wild things are? there are some numbers that have been associated with it. we did some math. we multiplied those numbers out. math skills were not ours. we issued this invoice. amamy: and finally, social cost. >> i'm not sure how to quantify that with a perfect example is even without a spill, the threat of a spill in a community who relies on wild rice is very traumatic. having a megaproject shoved down your throat causes suicide in native communities. we are ready have diabetes and

every other epidemic that you do not want to have, and nothing in ththis pipeline contributes to r well-being. so who is paying for that? the state of minnesota made the decision to shut the pipeline down our throats, so we will fight them. amy: what does the state in the federal government gained by these pipeline? >> i -- immigrant unless it is trudeau buying kinder morgan because kinder morgan says they cannot afford it anymore. >> to be honest with you, i feel the state of minnesota another state of michigan, which is kind of a proroven deal to put a tunl around the pipeline under the streets of mackinac, around the pipeline. that enbridge will pay for. and to keep the oil going. i feel the state suffers from the stockholm syndrome. have been -- they told that in which the pipelines are going to leak. if the pipes are going to leak coming need to replace him. my position to the state of minnesota were the state of michigan would be, remove the gun. the public utilities commission

said they felt like they had a gun to their head. i said, remove the gun. you are a regulatory agency. you need to get out of the stockholm syndrome. there's a representation there are jobs that will occur, but everybody knows the 1200 jobs that will occur over the course of t the month o of building --t they will have a lot more jobs in is the militarization of the north will stop in this pipeline 's case, the state of minnesota public utilities commission, when they approved the pipeline, looks to the enbridge corporation, canadian multinational corporation, and said, will you pay the police? will you pay for the police that will take to install the pipeline? in bridget said yes. to me that is a pretty significant crisis in democracy. we know standing rock on north dakota $38 million and they're still trying to recuperate that.

since you have 300 miles up type that no one wants in minnesota, try to protect those costs, minnesota. amy: what about the insurance? >> first of all, how do you ensure for a bit pipeline and they said 1.4 billion dollars to clean up the spill. amy: would was that? >> 2010. it cost 1.4 billion dollars, not mrs. silly fully cleaned up, but besides that, that was about 300,000 barrels per day. this pipeline is not 915,000 -- is at 915,000 barrels per day. that and the $1.4 billion for the cleanup of the kalamazoo spill that went for 17 hours in a not remote location, was not considered catastrophic by the enbridge corporation. so what is the catastrophic spill? if that pipeline breached in minnesota, the low estimates are $2.4 billion for catastrophic spill. a spill of the enbridge corporation's 50-year-old

pipeline in the streets of mackinac, well over $6 billion. to me, one of the questions that i have is if you are a regulatory agency, why wouldld u approve an insurance guarantee for lower than the price of any potential spill? in fact, it is in enbridge's accounts. we would not make the assumption that there would not be more than one spell on an enbridge line. there is a spill almost every day it seems. so that insurance policy -- enbridge's total insurance policy there holding right now and their general insurance is $940 million. and they have 17,000 miles of pipeline. no prudent regulatory agency would have approved insurance settlement or agreement like that. amy: we are broadcasting from poland all week for the u.n. climate summit. these major reports have come out of both the united nations and president trump's own

administration. 13 federal agencies. hundreds of scientists, which he's does notause believe in, change. reports that say we're in the endgame now, i mean, we just came from califofornia, the firs they are, that devastated communities. >> this is the time of, you know, catastrophes of biblical proportion. if we're going to call it that. to the southth, yet ththe great floooods. the entire west coast is on fire. to the north, the ice is melting and pull her bears are eating each other. into the east, you have a crazy man with orange hair who sing songs, talking heads, burning down the house. no idea. that is catastrophe in itself. i look out there and as an indigenous person, are prophecies talk about this time. i could say "we told you so."

for the past 100 years we have "in the time of the seventh fire, you're going to have to make a choice between two paths will stop one well-worn and scorched and the other not." that is this moment. in my analogy, one titime i was sitting in alaska -- did you ever get a chance to go there? beautiful. i was in alaska and i was watching the eagles were capturing the salmon that had come in. there were eagles diving down into the ocean. the salmon and there were bears. i looked out and i saw this crew ship coming in to the left of my vision. he came in and i was like, i don't like that. the crew ship came in and i 180hed that ship turned a ago exactly back out. that is basically what we have to do. we have to make the next

economy, and that is going to be green. that next economy is going to have people like me making decisions. i would like to be an architect for the next economy. i did not like the last one. amy: you ran for vice president with ralph nader. apply for an appointed position on the minnesota public utilities commission. the chair has left and i have announced -- i have submitted my application to be on the minnesota public utilities commission. amy: who decides? >> in my experience -- i've a lot of interest in infrastructure and public policy. i spent a whole life working on it. i think we should have infrastructure for people and it should be equitable. that is my next position. we will see how it goes. amy: who is the governor that will decide? >> waltz will probably decide. in minnesota, what i have to say is we also worked to get out the vote. minnesota had the highest record of voter turnout in a midterm

election of any state. in my resignation -- in my reservation, we took a bus and ran what we called res uber. we drove people to town to ride the bus, drove people to town to folk. we firstly got a lot of people out to vote whoho never would he voted in the selection. amy: i want toto go to a differt asked act of the building of these pipelines. according to a recent study, police in many u.s. cities failed to attract murdered mimissing indigenous women. can you talk about who they are? when we cover a protest, you will always see a group of women or indigenous people and their ryingdigenous allies car missing into this women and girls signs. inalmost all of the women our family have those. it is an even a ptsd,

ongoing stress in the community. you see what happens. one circumstance them a lot of our people have been made refugees by megaprojects. you look at winnipeg. you people living in hotel rooms for five years. displaced from their northern communities. across the north, you have that story of displacement by poverty, but also by megaprojects. , like, and on the edges of cities. you have cities like fargo, north dakota, like to lose, minnesota, where homeless native people represent a significant portion of the population -- of our population. we are not doing well in the cities. from those circumstances and from the circumstances of mining camps and man camps, you see a spike in the number of indigenous women that are kidnapped and murdered. it is something that is

prevalent. amy: something like 10 times the rate of other women. what are man camps? a there when they do megaproject, they bring in a bunch of guys. they stay sometimes in trailers, although enbridge's trend up with him just in the cities now, in the towns. and with them there is a whole bunch of drugs. usually. there's a whole bunch of bad stuff. there are e these large camps of men. in dakota, the e violence rate d murder rate spikes significantly. amy: what can you do about this? >> you can fight i it. there's s no way to puput lipstk on a p pig. you cannot make a pretty man can. amy: when i spoke to at standing rock sioux e said you are not going to spend your life fighting one pipeline after another. what do think about that now as we wrap up? >> i've spent five years fighting enbridge. i spent five years fighting average but to me the answer is really, what is the infrastructure future of this company? do we want kites for people?

flint, michigan, does not have pipes. i have heights sitting in piles in northern minnesota that we do not want. i say, send them to flint. we need a new green deal. that green day will have infrastrucucture for people in . amy: winona laduke, native american activist with the ojibwe nation and executive director of the group honor thte earth. when w we come back,k, yanis varoufakis. ♪ [music break]

amy: p shelly passed away this week. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show with the rise of the right in europe. in spain, the far-right vox party won multiple seats in a regional parliamentary election in andalusia sunday, the first successful election for the far right in spain since the country returned to democracy in the 1970's after the death of the fascist military dictator francisco franco. former trump adviser steve bannon threw his support behind vox earlier this year and has apparently been advising the far-right party. for more on the rise in the right in europe, we turn to the economist and former greek finance minister yanis varoufakis, who just lunched with with senator bernie sanders and others to fight right-wing forces around the globe. yanis joined us in our new york studio on tuesday. it is lllled pgresessi ininrnational. >> in promising prosperi, , it ithe financial crisianand endldleswar ininead. all the while, our clima moves closer tdestruction.

out t ofhis crcris, globob authoritarianism irirising -- leaders promised to attacking minotities, ee ess, and democracy itsel in t end, the only served themlvlves. chilling echoes of the930' amy:uan gonzaleand i spe toanis varfakis, thformer

greek fince minister on tuesday. i begaby askinhim abouthe gnifican of the anish election >> piece of the jigsaw puzzle. postmodernether this 1930's picture. 2000 eight was our generation's 1929. and just like 1929, a system the hapless -- establishment, both here in the tried toin europe, shift most of the pain onto the shoulders of the weakest citizens. discontent folollowed. and given ththe left's incapaciy to organize political monsters were had. this is what is happening in europe. the reason why s spain is asnifificant is because we progressives were saying the last decade was a prolonged

early 1930's, prolonged by quantitative easing, but central banks sort of stabilizing financnce without doing anything to change the conditions that were lifting norms on the middle-class and working-class. the argument -- look at spain. spain does not have a far right you fascist movement unlike italy and france and germany. blue, and out of the a lussier, of all places, -- andalusia of all places, suddenly vox, a rather nasty the piece of work that emerged in 2014, suddenly came from nowhere to repeat the triumph of the fascist in italy and austria and germany and so on and so forth, therefore completing that awful jigsaw puzzle. what are we doing at go opposing simultaneously the two faces of

author tearing is him. one of the two faces is the hapless establishment that is trying to pretend the so-called liberal establishment, which is either numeral -- liberal or establisent anymore. like the 1920's. the access of of authoritarianism, the fascist and xenophobes. seems whether in the u.s. or else her, the rise of these new neofascists is the racial i is nation of immigratin as the new threat from the outside to our country, our nation, and in termsms of how a progressive movement deals with how immigration from africa, the middle east, and latin america is being used to divide working people and to foam and support

for fascism. >> let's be clear on something. yes, they make a lot of noise about immigration, but immigrgration was never the iss. let me give you an example. theloudest noises against migrant, the foreigner, the refugee, come from places that don't have any -- like hungary. they have not seseen a refugee. they do not know what a refugee looks like. yet, that is were refugees are demonized more than in sicily or less posts, islands in the mediterranean, that are forming with refugees. with got nothing to do flows. what it has to do with this the fact to flechette or a forces unleashed by a vicious capitalist crisis, whether the 1930's or today, especially when they start touching t the pensin funds, the nest eggs of the middle class, they gave rise to wonderful opportunities for

investment for demagogues, for those who stand on a soapbox and say, "i will make you proud again." it is jew, the syrian, the left-handed persoson, the different. if we get him, our nation will be proud again. let's be clear, this is a symptom, not a cause. the cause is a capitalist crisis that was always going to hit us so-called growth model of globalization, financial globalization before 2008 and the incredible cynicism with which that crisis was dealt with -- or r not dealt with -- by ths abstract. amy: your background. you were the greek finance minister. people in greece had enormous hope for the city -- syriza party to change the situation. people were camping out in the streets will stop massive protest. to are the main negotiator

bail greece out. angela merkel has just announced she is not going to be running again. you were dealing with her. talk about that experience and ultimately, what led you to resign and what you came to understand. i mean, you were at the height of greek power. >> not power. maybe i was in the center of the frame, but i was the finance minister for bankrupt country. that does that make you particularly powerful, amy. it makes you a target. especially a target of the establishment. you mentioned angela merkel being on the way out. i remember one of the first things i said was, i recognize and a appreciate you don't like seeing me in the position of the ministerer of finance because 'm a radical left-winger and you would much rather have yet another pushover, conservative greek finance minister. i understand that. i appreciate it. you have my sympathy for this. but if you squash husband if you

do a coup d'etat, use the tanks as in 1967 or eight use the banks, what you are doing -- what you're going to deal with once you destroy a democratically elected european progressive left-wing government, you're going to have to deal with the right-wing fascists. merk isnd behold, mrs. being booted out effectively because of theel rise -- because the awful xenophobia fascist party has stolen around 15% of her democratic base and her own christian party is not when it try to appease the fascis by getttting rid of merkel. the first part of the answer. the second part will be much shorter. in this country, you remember how the election of barack obama created waves of optimism and hope amongst progressives in

this country. and what does he do? he capitulates on day one of his presidency by effectively surrendering -- to put it bluntly. this same thing happen with our government. of course, our government was that enormous pressure obama claims he was, but he wasn't really. no comparison with what we were going through. the prime minister surrendered. yet a period were he was saying himself there was a coup d'etat against him. after that come he forgot about it. now he is competing with other members of the establishment for the prize of being the best servant of the establishment. this is what happens when the its -- rays juan: what are your hopes in terms of this progressive international -- how it might be able to beat back not only the

tide of the rising fascism, but also the increasing insistence on international capital that the only way to move for is through greater austerity, from all countries, from all working-class populations? >> our number one prioiority iso come up with a new deal for the world, which is inclusive and which is green, unlike the original. the original idea of the new cash h andrgize idle you put it toto good use for public purpose, that must be the main priority of the progressive international. we live in a world which i is awawash with cash. we have this amazing per. that is capitalism. we have the highest level of debt, but also the highest level of savings. the problem is, the savings are not being invested in what humanity needs.

that is what we need to do at the global level. is to answer this some basic questions. what kind of system do we want? the one we have is broke. what kind of financial system do we want? how do we fund into poverty drives across the world and in our country's year the world, but also a transfer of wealth from the global north to the global south? progressives have not answerere. know what theys want. they want to shift all of the paint onto the shoulders of the weakest citizens around the world. we know what the fascists one. because itmpossible is happened before. if you think of what happened at the conference -- it was not very progressive, but nonetheless, they gathered. to all of thetry

bankers. no banker was allowed into the conference. amy: this was in new hampshire after world war ii. >> during world war ii. preparing for the postwar era for the 20 years of the golden era of capitalism. they put the financial genie in the bottle. bankers hated that period because they could not do crazy things with your money. revive the ambition of 1944 and come up with a new deal. amy: steve bannon has popped up in europe in different places, inn with the vox party wins spain. he got involved with them as an early supporter and has established something called the movement, which aims to expand the far right throughout europe. can you talk about whether this is significant or not? and also what your group, dm20 25 is.

stands for movement. we were there first. steve bennett's movement has a purpose of reaping harvest of anger, using that anger in order to weaponize a far right hatred-based agenda in order to maximize the power of strongmen like the vox people you mentioned, and just like mussolini to turn it against the peaceful whose anger they have harvest. we are one of u unity, onone of solidarity between different people post of sosolidarity witith the migrant, wiwith the refugees. to answer an earlier question that i did not answer fully, reaction to the argument that we are being swarmed by foreigners and so on is, let them in. borders are a scar on the

surface of the planet, on the face of the earth. they m me no sense. the lifting they do is increase the profits of the traffickers. -- the only thing they do is increase the profits of the traffickers. we fail to acknowledge your is aging. you can not compete with the -- like hillary suggested thedly, way to defeat populism in europe is to erect borders around europe and to stop migrants from coming in. hillary clinton said that them are proving she was unfit to be president of the united states yet again. you cannot compete with them with their game. you can only compete by rationality and using migrants as a football in the end, backfires. we're going to fight them on the

"them" i mean say fascists, those steve bannon is organizing. they're going to face up to the fact that we're going to be there and we're going to be undermining their movement with arguments that appeal to rationale and humanity. juan: on the issue of trade, obviously, the brexit issue is a big issue in europe. states, trumpited keeps railing against all of the unfair trade deals that china is unfairly exploiting trade for its benefit with the uniteted states. how would the progressive international deal with this whole continuing conflict over trade policies in the advanced industrial countries? >> we oppose globalism and nationalism. what does that mean? slogan aspect of it?

it means the idea you simply eradicate borders for goods and capital, but not for human beings. and ever thing is going to go well. it has not worked. it has transported part of the parts of the third world into the west with whole communities that have been devastated in europe as well as in the united states. at the same time, it has created exploitation in the developing countries, except china, which is using a particular industrial model t tt trump does not like. the solution is not that -- it is not to stop trarade. minimum living wages and the countries that want to trade with you. amy: we are headed to poland over the u.n. climate summit, the third time: will have -- will host this, which is very interesting, consisidering it really is coal land. .e will be going

can you talk about the government of poland, the president, recently met with trump, and were poland is going right now? >> poland is a much like hungary. it is a place that has experienced humiliationon and devastation in the 1990's during the transition from communism to capitalism. decades underof soviet regime makes it easier for a new regime to come that is as a authoritarian as s the pres regime. you will be visiting now or is really the country that you're going to be visiting in the next few weeks or days, it is a very interesting regime because on the one hand, they have done something that has not happened in the west of europe.

they have shunned austerity in the sense of increasing pensions and increasing minimum benefits for the poor. xenophobiasame time, kwai, which is not new at all. if you think about mussolini in the 1920's and 1930's come here to reduce the first publilic pension fund system in the world , universal. he did look after the working class on the basis of the social construct. we will increase your living standards, we will protect you, but you will have to forfeit all of your democratic rights, all of your trades union rights, you will belong to me and you will belong to your employer -- who is my main funder. that was the deal. if you look at the attitudes of

this polish government, it is patriarchal, assad janessa, xena phobobic, looks afafter workersd families by lifting minimum wawages and minimum penenons. at the same time, demands complete allegiance and d loss f democratic rights for the population. we do have a post warner -- p pt modern 1930's. amy: economist yanis varoufakis speaking this week after attending the sanders institute gathering in burlington, vermont, where he, senator sanders, and others launched the progressive international. podcast, youo can go to democracynow.org. we will be in poland on the next week. tune in. democracy now! has an immediate job opening for a full-time social media manager here in new york city.

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brandon: my e experience is so difffferent than a mainlanand chinese, it wouldn't be authentic for me to try to cook food for mainland china because that's not me, and that's not my audience. my audience is san francisco,o, and these cross-cultural exexchanges a are the basis for how food evolves. i feel like whatat we'rere seeig in this next wave of this generation of american cooks is this newfound confidence in valuing our traditions and its impact t on the food d culture in america..