05/03/21 05/03/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> our family is devastated. we are heartbroken into 1000 pieces. my family, we thought we are going to get more clarity after watching the video but it has brought nothing but mark stans. amy: more than 100 people marched alongside anthony alvarez's family in chicago on may day, demanding justice.

we will speak to former illinois congressmember luis gutiérrez about the recent chicago police killings of alvarez and 13-year-old adam toledo. then we look back to the historic 1971 may day protests against the vietnam war when over 12,000 anti-war protesters were detained in washington in the largest mass arrest in u.s. history. we will speak with pentagon papers whistleblower dan ellsberg about risking arrest with noam chomsky, howard zinn, and others in his small affinity group. >> howard zinn, chomsky, marilyn young, mitchell goodman, a couple of others, sitting in the middle of 14th street. amy: then we will ok at how big pharma has dispatched over 100 lobbyists to block generic

covid-19 vaccines and to preserve their intellectual property rights at the world trade organization despite surging covid deaths in india and south america. -- latin america. >>ight now one out of every 100 vaccinesroduced are going to a developing world. meanwhile, the lobbying groups that rresent the pharmaceutical industry are doing everything they can fight this request. they he hireover 100 lobbyists to pressurat the biden administration, pressure congress to not support this proposal. amy: we will speak to the intercept's lee fang. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the covid-19 crisis continues to ravage india, the world's second most populous nation, which now accounts for one in every three new cases reported.

on saturday, india reported over 400 thousand daily infections for first time while a record 3700 deaths were reported sund alone. on saturday, a fire at a covid-19 hospital ward in western india killed 18 patients. health workers are rushing to ramp up inoculation's. so far, fewer than 2% of the population of india's 1.4 billion people have been fully vaccinated. this is a new delhi resident speaking after receiving his first vaccine. >> the situation is extremely grim. the system is at the brink of collapse. that is the reason while we are trying to get vaccinated as early as possible. for whoever i can reach, i want to urge get your vaccination as soon as possible. amy: the head of the seven

institute in india, the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer, warns vaccine shortages will persist for months because the government of narendra modi's government failed to prepare for the country's massive second wave. as india faces acute vaccine shortage, "the los angeles times goes reporting u.s. government and big drug companies last year rejected the world health organization and initiative to scale of global vaccine manufacturing. the ogram wod have trained manufacturers in latin america, asia, africa to produce the shots once they were approved for market. prime minister modi and his right wing party lost key state elections in west bengal sunday. health officials fear voting a campaign rallies will lead to a new spiken new infectio. here in the u.s., the white house said it will start barring entry for travelers who have been in india within the previous 14 days. the order, which goes into

effect tuesday, does not apply to u.s. citizens or legal residents. i warning to contain descriptions and footage of police violence. in columbus, ohio, mourners gathered friday at the funeral of ma'khia bryant, the 16-year-old black girl who was killed last month by police officers outside her foster home. this is don bryant, ma'khia's cousin, who spoke on behalf of her family. >> i look at each and every person in this room today i met his church and say like did not have to die, that she should still be here. but in closing, say her name as reminder of the loving, kind person that she was. say her name as reminder that change doesn't just happen by offering words are talking about it. change happens through action and through doing. amy: meanwhile, the body of

andrew brown, junior, is being laid to rest today. meanwhile, the body of andrew brown, jr. brown was a 42-year-old black father who was shot five times by police officers, including in the back of the head. his family continues to demand the release of body-camera footage showing his killing. reverend al sharpton will deliver the eulogy at brown's funeral. three colorado police officers have resigned after video surfaced of their arrest last june of a 73-year-old white woman who was slammed to the ground and handcuffed. karen garner, who suffers from dementia, ended up with a dislocated shoulder, a fractured arm, and sprained wrist. another widely-circulated video shows officers laughing while watching footage of garn's violent arrest. garner has filed a federal lawsuit, citing violations of the americans with disabilities act. the biden administration has revealed portions of president trump's 2017 secret order

rolling back limits onrone strikes and commando raids outsidof the designated combat zones. the rtially-redacted document reveals trump rolled back a requirement that u.s. attacks would have a "near certainty" of avoiding civilian deaths and injuries to a lower standard of "reasonable certainty." in a statement, the aclu responded -- "secretive and unaccountable use of lethal force is unacceptable in a rights-respecting democracy, and this program is a cornerstone of the 'forever wars' president biden has pledged to end. he needs to do so." the department of homeland security announced four migrant families ripped apart at the u.s.-mexico border under the trump administration will be reunited this week. the families, which came from honduras and mexico, are the first to be reunited through a new task force under the biden administration. some have not seen each other since 2017. the aclu's lee gelernt said --

"we are certainly not prepared to celebrate just yet given the thousands who still need to be reunified and the more than 5500 children who were traumatized and need help. we are pressing for permanent legal status, compensation and social services. it is the least these families deserve given that our government deliberately abused them." in other immigration news, the biden administration says it's canceling construction of former president trump's u.s.-mexico border wall and returning billions of dollars that were diverted from the pentagon to pay for it. the administration also said it would repair damage created by the wall's construction -- filling holes in the rio grande valley levee system and fixing soil erosion near san diego. in southern california, a boat that was believed to be carrying migrants overturned off th coast of san diego sunday, killing at least four of the 29 people on board.

over 20 people have been hospitalized. the boat's captain, who is suspected of human smuggling, has been taken into custody. north korea warned the u.s. of a "very grave situation" after president biden last week called -- stance on his nuclear weapons program. north korea also fired back after the state department condemn its human rights record. north koreans ministry of foreign affairs wrote -- "the u.s., where innocent people lose their lives to social inequality and racism every day, where 580,000 people died of novel coronavirus, is itself a human rights wasteland." the white house signaled friday it is open to diplomatic relations with north korea. in burma, security forces killed at least eight people sunday after they opened fire on anti-coup protesters in some of

the largest demonstrations in days. organizers had called for "the global myanmar spring revolution." at least 765 people, including children, have been killed during the crackdown on protests following the february 1 military coup. in afghanistan, a suicide attacker detonated a truck bomb in the eastern province of logar on friday, killing at least 21 people and injuring scores of others. the attack targeted a government-run guest house for students. there was no claim of responsibility, but afghanistan's interior ministry blamed the taliban. the u.n. said at least 11 refugees drowned after a rubber dinghy capsized off the coast of libya sunday. the u.n. is calling for urgent action to stop the mounting deaths in the central mediterranean, which has been called the most dangerous migration route in the world. meanwhile, over 800 refugees, including over 100 unaccompanied children, were brought to italy over the weekend after being rescued at sea.

in colombia, president iván duque withdrew planned tax reforms after days of mass demonstrations protesting the move. rights groups say as many as 20 people were killed during the protests. duque's plan would have increased taxes on many citizens and business owners, and imposed taxes on utilities and some foods. back in the u.s., republican senator mitt romney was booed and called a traitor and a communist as he gave a speech saturday at the utah republican convention. >> you know me as a person who says what he thinks and i don't hide the fact i was not a fan of our last president's character issues. [boos] amy: a motion to censure romney at the utah convention narrowly failed. he is the only republican to have twice voted to impeach former president trump.

meanwhile, speculation is growing the republican party will seek to oust wyoming congressmember liz cheney of her leadership role. cheney is the third-ranking house republican and one of 10 republican congressmembers who voted to impeach trump earlier this year. she recently was forced to defend herself after fist-bumping president biden at his address to congress last week. oregon republican state representative mike nearman -- who opened the doors of the state capitol to far-right protesters in december -- is facing criminal charges. thfar-righmob, whoere calling r an endo public healthestrictis aimed sling thspreadf covid, attaed secury office with chemical sprays and assaulted a number of journalists. the far-right canadian proud boys have dissolved their group. in february, canada designated them a terrorist entity and officials say they played a pivotal role in the deadly

january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. the new york police department is discontinuing its use of the digidog -- a dog-like high-tech surveillance robot -- after public condemnation. the nypd says it canceled its $94,000 contract in returned the four my good robot -- it's for the good robot to its creator boston dynamics. federal appeals court has ordered the environmental protection agency to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos unless it can prove the toxic chemical can be used safely. the obama administration said it would ban the use of chlorpyrifos in 2015, citing epa research showing it can cause brain damage in children. but the rule never took effect and was suspended by the trump administration in 2017. the pesticide is still widely used by u.s. farmers on more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal and vegetable crops. new york's city council has voted unanimously to ban the use

of most toxic pesticides by city agencies, replacing their use with nature-based techniques like organic gardening. the ban comes after years of activism led by students -- some of them as young as five years old. and thousands of workers took to the streets of cities around the world in rallies marking may 1, saturday international workers day. in turkey, police fired tear gas and arrested over 200 protesters in istanbul after declaring may day protests had violated a coronavirus-related curfew. in cuba, officials largely canceled annual may day celebrations for a second year in a row due to the pandemic. more than a million workers usually gather each year in havana's revolution square to mark the holiday. >> it is a happy day because it is may day but also sad because many workers are no longer with us. amy: cuba has had one of the lowest death rates per capita in the world from coronavirus, with fewer than 700 deaths.

here in the u.s., may day protesters called on the senate to pass the pro act, a bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions. this is prison abolitionist, author, and activist angela davis speaking at a may day rally in san francisco. >> we have to protect the right to organize. amy: in washington, d.c., thousands of immigrants and their supporters marched through downtown and to the national mall, demanding president biden and congress act in support of 11 million undocumented immigrants in the u.s. this is jein ryu of the national korean american service & education consortium. >> president biden, it has been decades since congress has passed any meaningful legislation to legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the united states. you ran your campaign on the promise of immigration reform

and a promise of protection for immigrant families. nothing has changed. you have failed to put immigration reform and protect immigrants from deportation. deyou have to do better. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. people around the world marked may day saturday with celebrations, marches, and protests calling for better working conditions, immigrant rights, and police accountability. in chicago, more than 100 people marched alongside the family of anthony alvarez, calling for the police officer who shot and killed him to be charged. alvarez himself worked as a machine operator at a meat processing facility. last week, newly released video showed police killed 22-year-old alvarez while he was running away during a foot chase. police have not said why they initially confronted and then

chased him. at one point in the video, alvarez is heard saying, "why you shooting me?" the officer said, "you had a gun!" alvarez was killed on march 31, just two days after chicago shot -- chicago police shot dead another latino male, 13-year-old adam toledo, also after a foot chase. the time of his death, the seventh grader had his empty hands up in the air. at saturday's protest, anthony alvarez's two-year-old daughter carried a sign that read, "i miss my daddy" as she was pushed in a stroller pushed by her mother. this is alvarez's cousin, roxana figueroa, speaking last week after chicago's civilian office of police accountability released body camera video of the fatal shooting. >> our family is devastated. we are heartbroken into a thousand pieces. my family, we thought we were going to get more clarity on the

case after watching the video but it has brought nothing but more questions. amy: last week, several illinois lawmakers took to the floor of the state house to condemn the police shooting of anthony alvarez. this is state representative will guzzardi. >> rush to look at his record to see if he had any outstanding warrants, was he a model citizen? was he hanging with a bad crowd? i would urge you to please check that impulse, friends, ask yourselves where it comes from. i don't know anthony's story. no one in this room does. but we don't believe in capital punishment here in illinois. not after a trial by jury and not certainly after a trial by any officer in the street. there's nothing you can do, no record on your background, no affiliations, no history, nothing you can do to deserve being shot in the back while you run. amy: the police killings of anthony alvarez and adam toledo

-- 22-year-old and 13 years old -- within 48 hours of each other come just four years after the department of justice found foot pursuits by chicago police were leading to too many deaths. the doj's investigation was triggered by the chicago police killing of black teenager laquan mcdonald in 2014. chicago mayor lori lightfoot and police superintendent david brown both say a new police foot pursuit policy is now underway. for more, we go to chicago to speak with luis gutiérrez, former longtime democratic congress member from illinois. he is calling for the resignation of the head of chicago's fraternal order of police, president john catanzara, who called the police killing of anthony alvarez "a 100% good shooting." welcome back to democracy now! i guess welcome back to chicago.

you have been in puerto rico for 2.5 years? >> yes, so i returned to chicago. i am going to be a grandfather, god willing, next sunday, my youngest daughter jessica. my wife and i are eagerly awaiting. we want to be here to help raise him. we want to nurture and love him and be part of his life. we are going to spend time and continue our commitment obviously to puerto rico, but we're going to do a lot of it from here in chicagos we help raise my grandson. amy: as you come back to celebrate life, you come back to a city that is dealing with one police killing after another. you have adam toledo, a seventh grader gun down on march 29 and within 48 hours, a young man not twice his age, 22-year-old

anthony operator, was gunned down. both of them in a police foot chase. can you talk about what you're calling for and what your understanding is? the anthony alvarez ok's has gotten less attention -- sorry, anthony alvarez case. >> first, i rife in chicago on april 1 and how sad and devastating it was to open up a newspaper of find know a 13-year-old child was gunned down by the chicago police department. as you have reported so ably, he had his hands in the air with nothing in them. i said to myself, well, for two weeks, the states attorneys office and the officials of chicago said to me and all chicagoans, it was unarmed confrontation -- an armed confrontation between a 13-year-old boy and chicago police. that silenced me.

i'm not proud, but it did. and it did to so many in the city of chicago. then we saw the video. then we saw the line. there was no armed confrontation. there was a 13-year-old boy shot in the chest opening the direction of chicago police officer. i went to make clear we have a serious problem with gains in our neighborhood. it is not new. i confronted them as a youth and they continue to be a scourge on our community. at that 21-year-old gang member put the gun in the 13-year-olds hand. why? that is why gang members do. they exploit youth in our community. it should not be a death sentence. so we had that on the one hand. i look forward to meeting this week was states attorney -- with the states attorney. and then alvarez shot in the back? we don't know what precipitated

his chase. the mayor says it was a traffic violation. how does a traffic violation lead to someone's death? he was shot in the back. and for the fop chief of chicago to say with 100%, good shooting? which means it is a good killing, good murder? wow. that is the city we live in when we have the chicago police department, where the vast majority of white police officers live in segregated -- it may be 2020 1 -- in segregated neighborhoods of this a give chicago and then come to our neighborhood to continue to cause violence. look, we need to reimagine. we need to restructure. we need to do a complete overhaul of our chicago police department. i am happy, amy, that you alluded to earlier the justice

department after the murder -- not my description, that is a juries description -- of the death of laquan mcdonald, a murder that was covered up by the mayor's office, the states attorneys office, the police department -- if it was not for an able and diligent journalist such as yourself who went to court to demand the release of that video, we still would not know what really happened to laquan mcdonald. but after laquan mcdonald, a 17-year-old black youth was gunned down by a chicago police officer, 16 shots from a young man who could not have weight 100 pounds if he was wet, pose no threat to the chicago police officers. there is this real sense that brown and black lives don't have the value they should we chicago police officers confront our youth. today, this afternoon, there will be several chicago city

council members, state legislators who are going to get together with community activists and have a conversation. we will have a conversation. i think it is time we as latinos and our leadership begin to address this not one by one, i on monday and sub deals on the next day, but as a unified force we can bring real change. amy: the cook county states attorney kim foxx is actually there because -- partly because of the luan mcdonald case and the kind of cover-up and she ran and won for her job. what are you calling on for kim foxx's office? >> here is what i want to do. i'm calling for conversation, for a dialogue. she is going to grant that conversation and dialogue so i'm going in there because as a state when anita alvarez, who was the cook county states attorney, finally indicted the

police officer, it was only because her cover-up of the videotape showing the murder of upon mcdonald was forced into the public -- laquan mcdonald was forced into the public. i wrote a letter, had a press conference and said, i resigned from the anita alvarez campaign. i was part of the campaign for her reelection. i resigned. i said, this is unacceptable, and you know, and i resigned from her campaign. and i stood with kim foxx. so would my states attorney kim foxx says she did not take time to watch the video of the killing of adam, i was so taken aback because on the one hand, we had the states attorney who hid the murder of laquan mcdonald and on the other we had a states attorney who did not take time. that allowed her top lieutenant, i believe, to continue to demonize a 13-year-old boy.

remember, they told us for weeks there was an armed confrontation. there was no armed confrontation. it is time whole police accountable. amy: you tweeted that kim foxx has zero latinos in her top leadership team. if she wants to accurately bring justice for our community go she needs to surrender some of those individus who know our latino communities. >> we looked and examined after she said she did not see the video. we said, what kind of staff does not bring this to the attention of their boss? then we looked at it and here's what we found, the top of her office, no latinos, the eight top, seven top supervisory capacity, not one latino. so we're going to talk about that. we are going to discuss that. hopefully, here is what is going to happen. we're going to find latinos are going be put in the kind of positions -- the city of chicago

, i know this might surprise people come is one third latino. cook, is 25% latino. it is a growing community and a community that is being so hurt because of the failures of our criminal justice system and the actions of the chicago police department and other law enforcement. amy: how is it possible that not explained why they were even pursuing anthony alvarez? >> well, they haven't. the mayor showed the video and now saying she's is going to take up the recommendations that were made by the justice department after laquan mcdonald. but what a tragedy in the city of chicago? these are recommendatio -- the murder of laquan mcdonald rips the city apart, right? and yet we did not take the very simple actions that the justice

department recommended, one of the recommendations. we need to change this. i want to go out there. i want to go to high schools and say to young girls and young boys, look, why don't we engage you and dialogue so you become the next peace officers in our community? peace officers in our community. why don't we change the chicago police department so that we see more brown and black faces in the chicago police department at all levels? there's no reason why the city of chicago, one third of the population is white, over half the chicago police officers are white. there disproportionately represented. it is the jobs they, continue to exist and this code of silence which was also demonstrated in the laquan mcdonald order, what we say --

other police officers were indicted for issuing false reports about the murder of laquan mcdonald. amy: the video was held until after rahm emanuel, the former chief of staff president obama and the mayor of chicago, democratic mayor, was reelected. during his speech to congress last week of the joint session of congress, president biden called on lawmakers to pass the george floyd justice in policing act, which would ban please chokeholds and eliminate qualified immunity for officers. it also seeks to ban racial and religious profiling, certain no knock raids, and would set up a national database to track police misconduct. what has happened of the officers who killed the seventh adam toledo? what happened to police officers who killed anthony alvarez, who was 22 years old? >> simply nothing. nothing. we understand the officer that

shot alvarez in the back has been relieved of his police duty. that means he continues to collect salaries and benefits from the taxpayers of the city of chicago and nothing has happened. 100% could shooting. that means 100% good killing. how could you say something and put salt in the wound of our community that is already devastated because of the shooting of two young men? what a 13 euro boy, the other had 22-year-old young man. i'm so happy you put that video of john catanzara when he was speaking. all we know about alvarez is he was a dad and went to work every day and had no criminal background whatsoever. so this false narrative there out there going against criminal elements that are hurting our

community is just blatantly false. and as the mayor of the city of chicago said, how is it that a traffic violation leads to someone's death? you know where? in our community because we have police officers out of control, that cover-up their own actions, that do not care about people. and one of the reasons they don't care about our community, they don't live in our community. they live in segregated white sectors, sections of the city of chicago. yes, it is 2021, but in some cases, jim crow still alive. amy: are you planning to run for higher office? >> no. i into to help raise my grandson and be involved in mentor this process. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, former democratic congress member for illinois, luis gutiérrez.

at next, we look back at the historic 1971 made a protest against the vietnam war went over 12,000 antiwar protesters were detained in washington and the largest mass arrest and u.s. history. we will hear from dan ellsberg. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. sign up for our daily news digest email by texting democracynow -- one word, no space -- to 66866 today. on may day, 50 years ago, the largest mass arrest of

protesters in u.s. history to lace stop the 1971 may day actions against the vietnam war in washington, d.c. during three days of civil disobedience more than 12,600 protesters were arrested -- many held at rfk stadium. 7000 people were arrested on may 3 alone as the nixon administration placed 20,000 troops and officers in the capital. key protest organizers included rennie davis and david dellinger of the people's coalition for peace and justice and jerry coffin of the war resisters league. the historian la kaufmann later wrote that the protest "influenced grassroots activism for decades to come, laying the groundwork for a new kind of radicalism -- decentralized, ideologically diverse, and propelled by direct action." protesters were urged to form affinity groups to engage in civil disobedience. one affinity group at the mayday

protests included noam chomsky, howard zinn, marilyn young, and daniel ellsberg. this was just shortly before he would become the nation's most famous whistleblower after the publication of the pentagon papers. on saturday, may day, i interviewed ellsberg, who just -- ellsberg and edward snowden as part of a virtual conference at the university of massachusetts amherst titled "truth, dissent & the legacy of daniel ellsberg." today we turn to daniel ellsberg who turned 90 on april 7, reflecting on those 1971 protest half a century ago. he began by talking about another major protest, 1969 moratorium to end the war in vietnam. >> the antiwar movement, the

fall of 1969, chose to call a morarium wch was a weekday stoppage of events in order to have speeches against the war withdrawn from work and school. and if you could not withdraw your black armband to school. vice president agnew's daughter wore a black, and was confined to her house the next two months. to lead people -- 2 million people on a weekday, not a weend, took off from work and school andarched in what they did not know at that time was nixon -october , 1969 - nixon d made trips onuclear weapons ich wereot serio,

is goingo enac on vemb 3 when anoth strike by the way, cled it matorium because ey deced the general strike, which is what it was, was too provocative, tw leftist so they called in a moratorium. that kept nixon from using nuclear weapons and escalating in 1969. it was the most effective -- i was telling greta thunberg, our hero, i think for both of us, my hero for sure, and i was speaking with her the strikes sure leading network weekday strikes, on friday against climate, i told her the history moratorium and said, think about what they plan to do, which was one day the first of the month, today's the second month, three days the third month -- in other words, not just one day at a time, but escalating kind of

thing. which she has not yet done with the pandemic. but i'm going to go back to her with this notion. anyway, the idea of a strike was -- it was the most effective action. the pentagon papers themselves had -- i did not expect much because they ended in 1968 and did not tell us what nixon was doing. i major message was contrary to what people believed after nixon's election in 1968, this war is not ending. it is going to go on and it is going to get larger. that is what i had in mind. i did not have the documents because the people who did have them, and nixon knew they had the and were friends of mine, do not put them out. as one of them, roger moore when

he left cambodia, without documents and without a press conference he said to me later, we should have thrown open the safe. he is talking about the threats of nuclear weapon which were prevented not by him -- he was against them -- but he had seen the nuclear targets scheduled for the fall of 1969. the people in the streets did not even know about, did not know they were preventing that. he said, we should have thrown open the safes and screamed bloody murder because that exact exactly what it was. amy: you mentioned the day of the mass moratoriu. today is the 50th anniversary of the may 1, 1971 massive rally in washington, d.c., and you're part of an affinity group. you lead the affinity group with howard zinn and noam chomsky. they chose you as the commander

of their affinity group because they said you've been in vietnam, you were a marine. >> that is an exaggeration. they said afterwards they perceived me as taking over -- let's say, mainly, -- i will tell you what i think they were referring to was sitting in the middle of 14th street and the theory of rennie davis had said if they won't stop the war, we will stop the government. 1971, the vets had been throwing their medals over the fence during a crucial time of the peace movement, a very powerful image and moment. medals of honor and other things. we were there. i had with me about that was

very influential to me, barbara deming, revolution and equilibrium, a book that kind of perverted me on nonviolence. i thought, welcome if they let me have a book in jill -- which they never do, it turns out cash i will have this with me to read in jail. we go out at 4:00 in the morning, taxi drivers volunteered take class on, mostly black come actually. we went out to 14th street and first person i see is ben spock, the baby doctor, and barbara deming. i had my book and i had her sign it. ok, later, howard zinn, chomsky, marilyn young, mitchell goodman,

couple of otherare sitting in the middle of 14th street. i think what they're referring to as my non-com leadership, as to the police came tortoise about 9:00 in the morning, one with his helmet down as i recall , the other with the helmet of and a big club and mace. they came at us at right angles. i thought, it is too early. i said, let's go. i said, let's move. so we all got up and moved away. one police, this sounds like a movie actually did shoot the

other police in the face with mace. his helmet was rolling on the ground and the club fell on the ground. they were so determined to come down on as at one time that they came down on each other. then we went out to the rest of the day. they ended up arresting 13,000 people that afternoon after the action had basically been broken. they put them at rfk stadium, ironically, and much later because they do not have records on any of them, they had just cleaned through georgetown picking up every young person, many of whom were children of congress persons -- which was to their favor in the end. they got a little compensated later.

and i went along. we had lunch with i.f. stone. i went to new york, no more into a coffee shop. howard got arrested later that afternoon for asking a policeman, "what are you doing?" i would to hear the george washington -- lie about the war. he gave a series of lectures. i had already given the pentagon papers -- saying you should not be saying this, the truth about what you're saying is going to be coming out. he was saying congress had not been lied to and there is no intention most of that was the

mood. it was a time when a month later when we were putting out the pentagon papers, all the people working with us had to do to get people to find us places to stay while the fbi was hunting for us and we were still putting out editions of the pentagon papers. you to do to find a place to stay was to ask. somebody would volunteer. and say, we're doing something that may help in the war, small chance, and maybe quite dangerous, you willing to help? and everybody said, yes, right away. there was a movement then. it was a movement of young people that felt what was

happening in the world -- it started with the civil liberties movement -- was wrong. they were ready to risk their careers and their lives to try to change it. we need that right now. amy: that is daniel ellsberg speaking on saturday, may day come at a virtual conference at the university of massachusetts amherst titled " "truth, dissent & the legacy of daniel ellsberg." i moderated the event with him and is a whistleblower edward snowden. we will be playing extended excerpts of the conversation soon. special thanks to the university amherst special collections and university archives, w.e.b. bois library.

preserving intellectual property rights the wto despite the surging covid deaths in india and latin america. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. you can watch, listen, and read transcripts using our ios and android apps. download them for free from the apple app store or google play store today. with india reporting more than 10,000 deaths and a million new coronavirus cases over the past three days, the u.s. is facing increasing criticism for its refusal to back the lifting of patent rights uncovere vaccines. the wto is holding key talks on the, fit. for months, india and south africa led an effort for temporary waiver of debbie teal patent protections to allow private and public facilities around the world to mass-produce vaccines and related patent protected items like syringes and personal protective equipment.

but the united states under president trump and biden, along with a handful of wealthy countries, have been blocking what is known as the trips waiver, standing for trade related aspects of intellectual property rights. as in, binds chief of staff appeared on "face the nation" asked about ind prime minister modi's call to lift the patent rights. >> the prime minister asks the president to lift it, yes or no, will he? >> are u.s. trade representative is going to the wto next week to start talks on how you can get this vaccine or widely distributed, more widely shared. we will have more to say in the days to come. amy: protesters staged a die-in outside the home of senator chris coonsroposing the patent waiver. >> people will die if they do

not get access to the vaccine. we have the knowledge. we should be giving it to them. amy: there were protest at the gates foundation in seattle at the shareholders meeting. we are joined now by lee fang, reporter at the intercept. thank you so much for joining us. why don't you talk about the extent of their problem and why the u.s. is so central to getting vaccines out to the world and why it is so -- it is being so fiercely criticized in the developing world for standing in the way of africa, asia, latin america getting vaccines? >> thank you so much for having me. the trump administration your operation warp speed provided $18 billion worth of research and development of these vaccines, the largest vaccine makers relying on patents and

other inventions own and created by the u.s. government. nonetheless, they controlled monopoly rights to intellectual property of these vaccines and they set the price. they control the capacity and production and whom they sell these vaccines. of course, they prioritize the wealthy nations of the world -- the u.s., canada, parts of europe, japan. they have gobbled up the available supply. something like 1% of the vaccines being produced are going to the global south, the developing world. there's a glut of vaccines going to these wealthier nations. meanwhile, we are seeing an increasing pandemics spikes of the virus throughout latin america, india, and other parts of the world. we simply have a capacity issue. you're not getting vaccines out fast enough to poor nations, low income countries.

to give you a picture of the disparity here, the state of florida has received more vaccine than the entire continent of africa through covax, which is the bill gates u.s. government who initiative to supply the developing world. these initiatives that are based on voluntary agreements with the pharmaceutical companies have not worked. meanwhile, wealthy nations, the pharmaceutical industry, have blocked efforts to allow these waivers that would expedite the production of generic vaccines so more factories could be retrofitted, can be more competition to scale up supply of the vaccine for the developing world. amy: i want to turn to billionaire microsoft founder and ceo bill gates, who's devoted much of his philanthropic work to global health issues. during an interview with sky news earlier this year, he was asked directly whether it would be helpful to share vaccine

chnology. he said no. >> ty're only so many ccine factories ithe worl and people are serious about the safety of vaccines. so moving something that had nevereen donemoving vaccine fm, say, j&j facry into a factory in india, that is novel. it is only because of eric greitens and expertise that can happen at all. it is onlyecause of r grains and eertise that can happen at all. there's no subtitle vaccine wh regulatory approval toagically make vcines. you have to do these tals and evy manufacturing process has to be looked at in a very careful way. amy: can y respond? >> bill gates is simply wrong. there are vital factories around the world. we have reported on some of them and talk to factory owners in canada post reportedly, there are other owners in india and

across the world that stand ready to make vaccines. bill gates is at the forefront to supply the developing world. the u.s. government provides $4 billion to this initiative, covax, founded by a group -- funded by bill gates penn associated with his foundation. bill gates has any ideological commitment to how he built his fortune at microsoft. at the big question here is, how do we scale up generic production? on one hand, and folks like bill gates and a form suitable industry fighting this waiver, fighting the effort to suspend enforcement of ip rights saying they won't allow it but on the other in a mistake even if it is lied, nothg will happen. you can't have it both way what needs to be done and what many actors are calling for is not only lifting ip enforcement, allowing this trips waiver, but

pushing the pharmaceutical industry, pushing the experts involved to go out and teach the methods to make sure we do have safe methods for producing these vaccines, to retrofit these factories. because time is of the evidence -- time is of the essence. this could've been done lester. amy: can you talk about the binds ties to the vaccine makers? yep white house adviser anita dunn, cofounder of the consult and for sk dk, which works closely with susan rice, up to $5 million of johnson & johnson. there is the albright group that many in binds inner circle come from and who she and the group represent? >> that's right. the pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest offenders --

you name several, the fact the numb three, four under secretaries of the state department where the consulting firm representing pfizer and anita dunn -- she is not mentioned a lot in the media recently but one of the closest advisors to the bite new administration, the defect of campaign manager for his presidential campaign. her consulting firm represents pfizer and engages in a lot of the pr and advertising for that firm. these are serious conflict of interest. they deserve some scrutiny given the fact pfizer is looking at this product, this vaccine as a massive moneymaker. one estimate shows pfizer's coronavirus vaccine under even the kind of negotiated prices that are deeply discounted this year for u.s. consumers, that will bring in something like $15 billion a year, making it one of

the highest grossing pharmaceutical products of all time. they're already talking about raising prices. pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson have so much money at stake. they are leaning on lobbyists and former democratic aides and potentially some of these folks who they have ties with in the white house to push back on any effort to allow generic -- delight amy: even mention hollywood is joining in against waivers rachel mitchell property. >> that's right. one of the aspects of the trips waiver that has been requested by india and south africa is a temporary suspension of copyrights related to the pandemic. that comes down to allowing a lot of countries that have very stringent copyright enforcement -- many countries you can't use ai to research copyrighted material.

hollywood has always taken a maximalist position on copyright enforcement, so they have joined the pharmaceutical industr inviting this waiver. amy: we will continue to investigate this. lee fang is an investigative journalist at the intercept and we will link to your articles on this subject. democracy now! is looking for

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