06/04/21 06/04/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are sharing with a wide range of countries within latin america and caribbean, asia, across africa and a coronation with the african union. this includes prioritizing our neighbors here in our hemisphere, including countries like guatemala, columbia, peru, and ecuador and many others. amy: the biden administration has unveiled plans to send 25

million covid vaccines abroad, but some health expertsays far more to be done as the pandemic continues to devastate africa, latin america, and asia. we will speak to south african public health activist fatima hassan and economist jeffrey sachs. then to "disaster patriarchy: how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women." >> all or the world, patriarchy h taken advantage of the virus to reclaim power, as glenn danger and violence to women and stepping it as their supposed controller and protector. amy: we will talk to v, the playwright and activist formerly known as eve ensler. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the biden administration has announced plans to send 25

million covid vaccine doses to dozens of countries in latin america, africa, and asia -- where new infections continue to surge. the majority of the doses will be distributed through covax, a program backed by the world health organization. national security advisor jake sullivan said thursday the initial shipments are part of a broader plan to send a total of 80 million doses abroad by the end of june. >> prioritizing south and southeast asia including countries like india, nepal, the philippines, and others that are undergoing surges right now. in -- it recognizes canada and mexico, which received our first shared vaccines. and praise like the republic of korea where our military shears command. amy: public health experts say the u.s. and paul's are short of what is needed to address the global crisis. the people's vaccine alliance

estimates it could take 57 years to fully vaccinate everyone in low-income nations. the world health organization is warning of a sudden, sharp increase in the spread of covid-19 in many parts of africa that could lead to a continent-wide wave of new infections. cases are rising in at least 14 african nations and are up by 30% in many areas over just the last two weeks. hospitals in uganda report they're becoming overwhelmed with covid patients, while south africa is showing early signs of a third wave of infections. the who warns the surge is coming as shipments of vaccines to african nations have come to a near halt. africa has administered vaccine doses to just 31 million people out of a population of 1.3 billion, with only 7 million people in africa fully vaccinated. we will go to south africa to speak with public health expert fatima hassan after headlines. in hong kong, police arrested an

organizer of the annual candlelight vigil commemorating the june 4, 1989, massacre at tiananmen square, which has been banned this year. 32 years ago, the chinese military attacked a student-led pro-democracy protest in beijing, killing hundreds if not thousands of people. authorities say the annual vigil was banned due to the pandemic, but activists say it's just another move by chinese authorities to crack down on dissent and freedom of speech in hong kong. at the university of hong kong, students observed a moment of silence and laid flowers in front of a sculpture honoring the victims of the massacre. this is student union president charles kwok. >> we hope to commemorate the people for freedom and democracy and we hope to defend -- amy: in peru, voters are getting getting ready to head to the

polls sunday in the runoff presidential election between leftist candidate pedro castillo, a former teachers' union leader, and rightwing keiko fujimori, the daughter of former president alberto fujimori. this is pedro castillo at a recent debate with fujimori. >> we are going to recover our well. renegotiating our contras with large companies. [indiscernible] to recover oil. how is this possible that in such a rich country, there is much inequality? only the biggest, richest profit? amy: midterm elections a taking place in mexico this weekend, with the ruling party of mexican president andres manuel lopez obrador and his allies favored to retain their majority. at least 89 politicians have been killed in the run-up to the election. 35 of them, candidates running

for sunday's vote. around 21,000 local and national seats are up for grabs. mexican electoral law requires half of a party's candidates to be women. in addition, around 2% of surveyed candidates in this election identify as members of the lgbtq community. the lawyers for a saudi man imprisoned at guantánamo bay are asking a court to reverse a decision by a military judge to permit information obtained through torture by cia interrogators. lawyers for abd al-rahim al-nashiri say he was tortured for four years at multiple black sites around the world. nashiri is accused of plotting the attack on the uss cole off the coast of yemen in 2000, which killed 17 sailors. he is facing the death penalty. nashi's fense says that, if permitted, it would be the first time evidence obined through torture would be used in such case. human rights groups are accusing the biden administration of vastly under-reporting the number of civilians killed by the u.s. military in 2020. a pentagon report made public on

wednesday finds u.s. forces killed 23 civilians last year during military strikes in afghanistan, iraq, somalia, syria, and yemen. the british watchdog group airwars says that even by a conservative estimate, the true toll is nearly five times higher, at 102 civilian deaths. airwars says the official pentagon count ignores the killing of 69 civilians in afghanistan flagged by u.n. monitors, among other shortcomings. airwars also says the pentagon failed to pay out any compensation to civilians affected by u.s. attacks in 2020, even though congress made millions of dollars available for such payments. the worlhealth orgization warns the gaza strip faces staggering health needs with as many as 200,000 palestinians requiring aid following israel's 11-day bombardment of the besieged territory last month. israel's assauldamad about 30 health facilities, destroyed 1800 residential units, and damaged more than 14,000 other

homes. the who is calling for unhindered humanitarian access to gaza and for israel to allow palestinians to seek treatment outside gaza whenever needed. on thursday, top biden administration officials welcomed israeli defense minister benny gantz to washington, d.c., promising ironclad u.s. support for israel despite growing international outrage over the widespread killing of civilians, including at least 66 children, during israel's assault on gaza. gantz met with secretary of state antony blinken and was welcomed to the pentagon by secretary of defense lloyd austin. >> i wanted to reiterate that the administration's commitment to israel's security is our plan. we are committed to maintaining israel's qualitative military edge and ensuring israel can defend itself against regional threats such as those posed by iran, its proxies, and terrorist

groups. amy: actions are planned across the united states, including seattle, oakland, los angeles, and new york, under the banner "block the boat" to prevent israeli-operated cargo ships from unloading on u.s. soil as part of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions -- or bds -- movement. zim transports israeli weapons, as well as consumer goods. in related news, the united educators of san francisco last month become the first american k-12 public school union to endorse the bds movement amid the deadly israeli assault on gaza. facebook is expected to announce it will no longer allow politicians to break the social media company's rules on hate speech. it is based on recommendations from facebook's oversight board. it comes as aocial media giant is weighing whether to permanently ban former president trump from its platform over his racist comments and incitement to violence ahead of the january 6 capitol insurrection. mike pence is defending his

record while under pres. trump: even while offering limited criticism of the former president. speaking at a dinner hosted by a -- dinner pence called january 6 thursday, a "dark day in the history of the united states catol." >> we have spoken many times stuff i don't know if we will ever cii on that day. but i will always be proud of what we accomplished for the american people over the last four years. amy: the new york times reports trump has been signed he expects to be reinstated as president by august. the fbi is investigating whether the postmaster-general louis dejoy violated federal campaign finance laws during his tenure as the top executive at new breed logistics. that's according to "the washington post," which previously reported dejoy pressured former employees at the company into donating to republican candidates before paying them back through with

-- hang them back with large bonuses. dejoy is a republican megadonor with no prior postal service experience. in 2020, he imposed sweeping operational changes at the u.s. postal service that dramatically slowed down mail delivery ahd of the presidential election when a record number of voters were relying on mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. and minneapolis officials have begun clearing the intersection where george floyd was murdered by officer derek chauvin. early thursday, authorities removed concrete barriers and took away flowers, artwork, and other tributes to victims of police violence. the site has become a center of protests in support of black -- protests and informally known as george floyd square. jaylani hussein, director of minnesota chapter of the council on american-islamic relations, point protesters who said they will continue to occupy the space. >> it is not the traffic they are trying to bring through this road. it is the fact they want to nor the legacy that created this

country from the genocide of native americans to today the mass incarceration of black people all over this country and the continuous brutalization of like people just as the killing of george floyd and the many instances that have been happening. they're not trying to drive cars through here, they are trying to delete history. we will not let them. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the biden administration has announced plans to send 25 million covid vaccine doses to dozens of countries in latin america, africa, and asia where covid cases continue to surge. the majority of the vaccines will be distributed throh covax, a program backed by the world heal organizatn. national security advisor jake sullivan said the administration plans to send a total of 80 million doses by the end of the month. >> we are sharing them in a wide range of countries within latin

america and the caribbean, south and southeast asia, and across africa in coordination with the african union. this includes prioritizing our neighbors here in our hemisphere, including countries like guatemala and columbian, peru and wood door, and many others. amy: the biden administration's announcement comes just days before the president heads to britain to take part in a g7 summit. many public health experts say the u.s. plan falls far short of what is needed to address the global crisis which has killed at least 3.7 million people. according to the people's vaccine alliance, more than a million covid deaths have occued in the past four mohs since leaders of the g7 failed to collectively back a waiver of intellectual property rules for covid vaccines. the united states now backs the waiver, but other g7 nations and the pharmaceutical industries continue to oppose the waiver.

based on current vaccine rates, the people's vaccine alliance estimates it could take 57 years to fully vaccinate everyone in low income nations. "the new york times" reports 85% of the doses have gone to people in high and middle-income countries. on thursday, the world health organization warned -- "the threat of a third wave in africa is real and rising." cases are rising in at lst 14 african nations the past two weeks. in momen we willo to cap cod to spe with tima hassan, south african human rights lawyer and hiv/aids and social justice activist. founder and director of health justice initiative. first we begin with economist jeffrey sachs, the director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. president of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network. jeffrey sachs is also the author of several books, including most recently "the ages of globalization." he led the who's commission on macroeconomics and health from 2000 to 2001.

jeffrey sachs, welcome to democracy now! start off by responding to biden 's lie to medially send out 25 million doses, then hit 80 million by the end of the month. >> we need a comprehensive strategy. the united states is reaching the target levels of immunization within our own country, but the amount of production is massive. so there is a vaccine available for mass distribution around the world stop the same is happening in europe, and at the u.k., in china. we need a global plan. we can estimate there are hundreds of millions of doses being produced each month now, but there is no plan for getting them to the people in need. you quoted a study that cited could take 57 years.

-- that's that you could take 57 years. we can get comprehensive immunization around the world certainly within the next 12 months. certainly. let me underscore that. it could be even faster given the scale of production, but we do not have an allocation plan. we don't even have transparency right now. we have the companies that have been approved. how much are the producing per month? what contracts do they have? where are these doses going right now? mohow should they be allocated across the world for prioritization? this is basic stuff, but the u.s. is not sitting down with china, with russia, with european union, with the united kingdom, with the who as the overall orchestrator to make sure there is a just, inclusive, rapid, comprehensive coverage. it is unbelievable, actually, that we don't have this sorted

out. it is a matter of a spreadsheet and a matter of disclosure and transparency by companies. and it is a matter of the u.s. talking with china, not just yelling at china. this is what is missing right now to this moment. amy: what would actually require? >> it would not require much. it would require some zoom meetings of senior officials in china, the united states, the european union, the united kingdom, the united states together with who, together with representatives of the producing companies -- moderna, iser, biontech, sinopharm. how many doses are you producing per month right now? what are your contractual relations which may have to be overridden because t public sector has paid for all of this. we don't have that clarity.

when i make rough calculations with my colleagues on this, we have enough production globally to get comprehensive immunization within the next 12 months, but then when i ask who or u.s. officials, they say, well, we don't really know exactly where pfizer is selling. are you kidding? we are in a global emergency among receipted dimension. how can you not know precisely what is happening and why is there no plan to this date? that is the amazing situation. amy: canucks by with the most efficient way to do this, not necessarily to send doses from the u.s., but to make a deal like bite made with merck and johnson & johnson? merck also helps to reproduce that vaccine, to manufacture that vaccine.

the idea there many pharmaceutical companies in the world that did not develop vaccines but if there given the recipe and the means of it is also a lot of harare, they can help to manufacturer these millions and millions of doses that are needed. that is correct. that is why the waiver is in a way a no-brainer right now, period, but i would say even in addition to that, there is a producon flow that is underway that isufficient to immunize the adult population worldwide comprehensively. the mistake, amy, is to think this is about markets, that this is about the secret deals that pfizer, biontech made with the high-paying customers, that there can be no transparency because that is trade cret. this is mind-boggling. governments have paid for all of

this. we need a global distribution system for worldwide safety, not only given the fact that people are dying in surge countries, but variants are developing in surge countries and spreading worldwide. this requires a systematic political mobilization. but in the middle of this, we have a crazy kind of cold war that we are not speaking with china about, a coordinated strategy. we don't have the main players at the table. and these days you don't even need a table, you need zoom. that is all that is needed, actually, to get this done. financing can also be arranged. these companies also should abide by normal pricing. it is not that this should be -- the word is free-market. it is insane. this is not even a market. it is like auctioning seats on a

lifeboat the way they are doing it right now. in other words, the most basic standards of management logic are not being applied right now, even though this is the greatest global emergency in modern history. why is jake sullivan announcing just whathe unit stateis gog to do withou transparenc for ju, augu, for september? and why he sayi itot in theontextf a globly agree pl, but the united states announcing some number? it beats me because when i look at this and i am involved in it day-to-day, what is needed is a strategy over six months. countries need to know when doses are going to arrive. they need to have supply chains locally ready. they need to train. they need to have the capacity to get the vaccines into operation. so this is an operational challenge. it is not some market mania,

which is the way it has been treated until now, as if companies have the right in the prerogative to do what they want, sign what secret contracts they want without any disclosure. that is the situation we are in right now. amy: the people's vaccine alliance reports profits from covid vaccines helped at least nine people become billionaires during the pandemic with a combined wealth of over $19 billion, more than enough to cover the cost of fully vaccinating all people in low income countries. i want to bring in fatima hassan , speaking to us from cape town. we just had in the headlines the world health organization warning of a sharp increase in covid-19 in many parts of africa, cases rising at least 14 countries. talk about what this means, the fact it is so difficult to get

vaccines to the developing world, that it would take something like -- what was the estimate? 57 years? >> thanks. the previous speaker is right, we could be addressing those in the next few months of their was the political will to ensure many of these vexing companies would share the knowledge and share the vaccine know how most my ow country, we are still waiting for supplies from johnson & johnson because of an issue that is in the u.s. and waiting for the fda to clear it. that has halted half of our vaccination programs because we are totally reliant on supplies from two pharmaceutical companies refused to issue multiple voluntary licenses, refuse to allow others to vaccinate -- share the knowledge and allow others to be able to be part of the supply chain syem. so the situation we have around e number that it will take,

the number of years it will take to vaccinate everybody in the global south is one of official scarcity, there is not enough supplies because there is hoarding, and where there are supplies it is not coming fast enough. in our country, we've only vaccinator just over one million people. half of whom were part of inkt study trial. that tells you there's somhing fundamentally wrong with the supply chain system, which is very tenuous in the world at the moment. despite the who saying in the first half of 2021, let's at least use available supplies for all health care workers around the world or all people over 18, that is not happen. i agree there is not a prioritization. there is a scarcity of supplies. but that can be addressed. amy: explain how it could work in south africa. what would it require of the wealthiest countries like the united states?

i mean, of the g7 meeting today, the group of 7 -- canada, france, germany, italy, japan, the united kingdom, and the united states. what do you want to see come out of that meeting? what are your demands? >> so all of those countries except the u.s. are blocking what we call the trips waiver. the u.s. has indicated partial support for the waiver only in relation to vaccine, not in relation to diagnostic technologies or therapeutics or other interventions that could help. for over eight months, the g7 have been sitting on proposal for the trips waiver that would alloother mafacturers around world to be able to make veions of these vaccines so we can get millions of doses into ma different parts othe world. so they are blocking that while their own populations are quite advanced in terms of vaccation levels. in some parts of the g7 member

states, they are vaccinating younger, healthy people. in my own country, people or 80 are still waiting for an appointment. it tells you that g7 could do a lot more. many of them have co-invested in some of these vaccines, on the technology, but they are fearful. there deferential to interests. even with the current state that we are in with a number of countries facing -- so maybe facing a wave 4. the figures piercing, particularly in africa, even now, countries are still sitting around the table and talking and having long conversations instead of furing out an urgent way to wrap up a new faction, scale of production, it is many doses to as many people as possible all over the world. amy: i want to share some figures that are pretty astounding the people's vaccine alliance made new calculations

with the health justice initiative oxfam and unh. they found last month people living in g7 countries were 77 times more likely to the offered a vaccine than those living in the world's poorest countries. between them, g7 nations were vaccinated at a rate of 4.6 million people a day in may. if this rate continues compared to living in g7 nations will be fully vaccinated by january i the current rate, 63,000 people a day, it would take low-income countries 57 years. how many millions of people had to die, jeffrey sachs, have to die to make these pharmaceutical drug companies billionaires? . >> let me put it in a somewhat different perspective, if i might. the united states has now vaccinated more than half of the population.

sadly, we have vexing resistance which is another tragedy -- vaccine resistance, which is another tragedy. i will put that aside for the moment. the u.s. has been producing hundreds of liens of doses per month. that is now availab for the rest of the world. and that is why this announcement has been made. but there is no plan of allocation. a similar situation applies in europe, though europe is six weeks to eight weeks lagging the united states. a similar situation applies to the u.k., which is also a producing country. china is producing a lot of vaccine out and getting a lot of coverage within china. what it means is we are producing globally at a rate may be of immunizing half a billion people a month. that is the rate if you at across the companies, roughly. that is plenty of production, but there is no plan for alcating these vaccines right

now. that is unbelievable. so i think the production levels are actually high. they have gone overwhelmingly to the rich countries in the early months, but the rich countries are saturated, essentially, or the coming saturated with coverage because they have reached or close to reaching targets. and that means this production is available for the world, which needs it urgently. where people are dying without it. but countries don't even know a target date right now. they have no idea. they completely in the dark. should they wait for covax? should they try to sign an reement with pfizer at some incredibly marked up price? should they makes ideals? nobody knows because there is no system. i think that is largely the

fault of the united states and its failure to cooperate transparently and publicly with china, with russia, with the european producers, with india, and with the united kingdom. in other words, there is massive supply but there is no plan for allocation. amy: final comment, fatima hassan, on the issue of vaccines and what is happening in south africa, uganda, and different african countries, what people need to know on the continent and outside? >> i would say two things. i slightly disagree, we don't think the production levels are sufficient which is why we are having a supply crisis in almost all of africa, which also explains why less than 3% of people in africa have recved replies -- supplies and bid vaccinated. covax is not the solution. covax has indicated by thend

of 2021, it is only likely to cover about 27% to 30% of vulnerable populations in low income countries. covax i think is a tremendous failure. supplies are not sufficient. we don't think the reduction levels are enough and we need to ramp up many fracturing with the sharing and urgent sharing -- ramp up manufacturing with the sharing and urgent sharing with member states to compel pharmaceutical companies to share the technology and transfer the technology as well. amy: is there concerning the u.s. would be sending, for example, astrazeneca when it has not even approved itself in united states? also, the fact moderna and pfizer scenes only have emergency use authorization. they have not been fully approved. do you understand the reason for that? >> are you asking me? amy: let's go to faitma and then

i will lead with jeffrey sachs. >> bajarin has not even -- moderna is not even submitted the dossier. taken the decision not to use astrazeneca. at the moment, like i said in the beginning, we are reliant on pfizer and johnson & johnson. the vaccine selection in afra is as equally important. jeffrey is right, with russia and china, we now know some dossiers sinopharm and sinovac have been submitted, but there seems to be in some parts of the world, reluctance to u those vaccines and rely primarily on vaccines that come from pfizer and johnson & johnson. i think that is going to be r undoing because recently don't have enough supply to go around the world expeditiously. amy: your response, jeffrey? >> just to be clear, i agree on

the neefor ramping up what i'm saying is the reason that africa has gotten so little in part is the rich countries used all the production in the beginning. and that phase is that an end. it was not an appropriate way to do things. it is the way it was done. now there is a massive supply that could be brought to bear and that is the point i wanted to make. so it is not a disagreement on what to do, it is a point that we have a massive supply coming available but without a plan to bring it about. on the question should astrazeneca, should moderna and others be used, i would say yes, from everything we know about the clinical evidence and the prtical efficacy, we need to get comprehensive coverage as rapidly as possible. we are in an unprecedented crisis but also an unprecedented situation where vaccines have come online for a new disease in

a record time. is there some uncertainty? yes. does that mere delay? in my view, absolutely not. amy: i want to thank fatima hassan. i would ask jeffrey sachs to stay with us. i would ask about your criticism of president biden for backing off of his massive infrastructure plan, what is been compromised. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: a devotional song of inside at funerals, about finding solace and connection and a dark and desperate times. amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. president biden has proposed scrapping his plan to raise the corporate tax rate if republican lawmakers agree to support at least $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending. biden had previously called for rolling back trump's corporate tax cuts by increasing the rate

from 21% to 28%. but biden is now offering to keep trump's tax cut and shrink the size of his infrastructure proposal in exchange for a minimum 15% tax te for all companies. this all comes as president biden is heading to the g7 meeting in britain where he is expected to push for a global minimum tax rate to make it harder for companies to stash their earnings in tax havens. still with us is jeffrey sachs, the director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. your comments on what is happening in the united states and also the corporate overall tax rate? you are very critical of biden for not his original infrastructure plan, but what he isoing now with the republicans. >> well, i was shocked and dismayed and hoped he doesn't go anywhere. the corporations have had an unbelievable run of unjust and unaffordable tax cuts.

that is true for decades. the corporate taxes right now collect a little bit more than 1% of gdp in a booming period of corporate profits. in other words, we have given away the store. the republicans, especially, gave away the store in 2017. president biden said, ok, we will restore half of what was given away. it is to leaving the companies effectively with a tax cut from 35% to 28% under biden's plan. yesterda apparently he said to the republicans, well, maybe we will leave it at 21%. god, i hope this does not happen. it would be the biggest single defeat for basic social justice and affordability of what we need to do through government that i can imagine. because everybody that looks at this understands that what was

given away to the corporations was both unjust and unaffordable. so biden's plan, while only partial, at least pointed in the right direction. why did he put that on the table? what kind of negotiating is that? this is because we are a plutocracy, we are a corporate-driven society. our infrastructure is crumbling. and the companies's i, yeah, build the infrastructure, i don't charge us for any of it. in the meantime, the ceos are laughing at us because the compensation is now more than 300 times average workers. please, president biden, we put you in office to help fix this country not to continue with the trump plan. for god sake. it is simple. it is not even complicated. what is this negotiation about to preserve the trump tax cut?

that is why we had the 2020 election. amy: what do you think it would take? >> you know, part of the problem is we have two democrats who are seemingly more republican than republican in this in senators cinema and mansion. joe manchin constituents me this program perhaps more than y other state in the whole country m. andanchin is holding up sign, i don't to vote for anythinthe republicans don't agree to and in the meantime, mitch mcconnell says 100% effort is to destroy this administration and to preserve the trumpisms of the last four years. what is manchin doing? is he laughing? is the appropriate shell? i don't get a. this is what we are facing.

this is a big issue because if we can't pay for the basic things we need come if we can't -- need, if we can't pay for save waterper transport system that can work for t 21st century, and if the corporation say, count is out, we just love our bilons and we don't want to put in anything, well, what are we going to have as a country? and president biden is there to turn this around. he made a perfectly fine proposal and he should take it to the american people at make the case. because right now all of the opinion polls show overwhelming american support for taxing the corporations. overwhelming american support for taxing the rich. it is probably the biggest consensus in this country.

it is just on the consensus of the plutocrats in congress, the republican party in the hands of billionaires. it is pretty simple stuff and biden should not be backing down. amy: president biden calls out senators kyrsten sinema and joe manchin. on thursday, he caves to the republicans and manchin and sinema continuing to say they will not back off supporting the filibuster. let me take the corporate tax global. your comment? your comment on the g7 finance ministers to support a global minimum corporation tax rate, what would that mean global? >> this is an important step. let's make sure it is also not filled with the loopholes. united states, u.k., switzerland, netherlands, and a very few other countries created a tax abuse system which we call

tax havens. it is a system for cheating. so they need to close it up. they made it and they can stop it. and putting in a minimum tax for corporations so they cannot abuse all of us is a first step. i am hoping this is real and it is going to go through. it is important positive step. amy: jeffrey sachs, thank you for being with us, director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. president of the u.n. suainable velopment solutions network. coming up, "disaster patriarchy: how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women." we will speak to v. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "existencia" by chu-mil-ka. this is democracy now,

democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. "disaster patriarchy: how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women." that is the headline of a new essay by v, the playwright and activist who was formerly known as eve ensler. she details how the pandemic has led to a surge in violence against women as well as an economic and educational crisis with tens of nuns of women out of work or school. unesco estimates 11 million girl may not return to school once the pandemic is over. other estimates put the total as high as 20 million girls. in her essay, v writes -- "covid has revealed the fact that we live with two incompatible ideas when it comes to women. the first is that women are essential to every aspect of life and our survival as a species. the second is that women can easily be violated, sacrificed and erased." v joins us now from kingston, new york. founder of v-day and one billion

rising. this year marks the 25th anniversary of her play "the vagina monologues." her new piece on disaster patriarchy appears in "the guardian." welcome back to democracy now! thank you so much for joining us. talk about disaster patriarchy. >> good morning, amy. thank you for having me. well, i was a naomi klein was the first to identify disaster capitalism when capitalists use the disaster to generate more profits for themselves. i think disaster patriarchy is a parallel and complementary process where men exploit a crisis to reassert dominance and rapidly erase the rights of women. i think i spent months interviewing activists and grassroots leaders all around the world from kenya to france to india to find out how this process was affecting them.

and how they were fighting back. and a very different context, certain key factors cap coming up -- kept coming up. one was that women are losing their safety, the economic power, their autonomy, their education, and they are pushed onto the front lines where there often used unprotected and sacrifice. i can sorta break that down if you want me to. if we look at intimate terrorism, otherwise known as domestic violence, has really turned home into a kind of torture chamber for millions of women around the world. we did a conference recently in france where domestic violence is out of control. we are seeing the same numbers in the u.s.. it was reported that hotlines have never been so busy come the same is true in mexico and really in every cntry that i

interviewed. it is a combination of people feeling severe economic insecurity, excess of alcohol, and this confinement has just made a perfect storm for abuse. it is hard to determine what is worse. the fact man in 2020 1,000 of men still feel willing and entitled to be their wives and girlfriends and children or that no government actually thought about this and thinking about their plans for a lot down. i think we are also seeing just an outrage that is added to that that many governments have reduced funding for shelters at the exact moment they were most needed. very true throughout europe and the u.s. in the u.k., providers have said the crisis has exacerbated a lack of access for ethnic

women. it leads to additional difficulties in accessing services such as education, health care, disaster relief remotely. if we look at jobs. ok, in the u.s., more an 5 milln women's jobs were lost between the start of the pandemic a november 2020. much of the work that women do requires physical contact with the public -- restaurants, stores, childcare, health care settings. those were the first to go. then there is a lack of childcare options, which have left many women unable to return to their jobs. by the way, having children does not affect and at all in the same way. the rate of an for black and latino women was high before the by risk but is now higher. and activist and india sent a

new 39.5% of women, they have their jobs. then there is the idea of working from home where women's personal space has basically disappeared. the workload has increased tripley fold. i don't think we can overstate how exhausting, how overwhelming the pandemic is been for women who are really not getting a break in any direction. we know we women are put under greater financial pressure, their rights erode. i was talking to women who are talking about the struggle to pay the rent, that they were being prayed upon by landlords and there is a new process known as sextortio orn to pay there. -- were landlords are insisting

on sex to pay rent. how do girls may not return to school. as you said earlier, between 11 and 20 million is the estimate. i think this will be hugely problematic because we know when girls are educated, they know their rights and what to demand and that the possibility of getting jobs and taking care of their families. when they have access to education and they don't have that access, they become a financial strain and their forced into early marriages, they were sold off. sex trafficking becomes much easier. i talked to one of our activists in kenya who has been fighting to stop female genita mutilation for nearly 15, 20 years. she said the pandemic has pushed girls back into their homes. they don't even know what is happening inside homes because they do not have access to the girls. we know when girlsre cut, when there mutilated, they no love

have access to education. amy: algebraic -- i want to bring in a voice unesco predicting 11 million -- saying 11 million girls have left school could be as high as 20 million, not returning. the winner of the 2014 nobel peace prize. in 2012 she was shot in the head by taliban government who boarded her school bus. she survived serious wounds and now continues to campaign around the world for girls education. here she is urging girls to return tschool as soon as it is safe. >> they were school is open or not, hope yowill do atever you n to kee learnin. even though it may have en many months since you've been to school, don't lose hope and don't give up on your education. i know you have drms and ambitions and i believe i can make this world a better place. it all begins with education. so go back to school as soon as

it is safe. amy: nobel peace prize winner. v, continue as you talk about the ground women and girls are losing and then what is being done, how people are resisting this and what you think also governments need to do. >> last area i really want to talk about is what is happening to frontline workers everywhere. during the pandemic, i was honored and privileged to have our frontline see to what is happening to nurses in america. i worked with national nurses united, one of the biggest and most effective and radical nurses unions in the country. i interviewed many nurses on the frontline. we created this beautiful piece out of those nurses, which was done at brooklyn academy of music and traveled across the country. i watched for months -- amy: i wanted to play a clip from the docu-play "that kindness: nurses in their own

words," based on those interviews with nurses early in the pandemic. the play was produced in partnership with national nurses union. this is actor dale soules. >> we are not expendable. my family is not expendable. my husband is not expendable. my grandchildren are not expendable. my daughter works in the covid unit. she goes raight homand shers immediately. she leaves her shoes outside. she goes and showers. does not touch her kids. does not touch you. goes a showers and extra close so they do not get exposedo what s was exposedo during e day weave a saying in nnu, you save one life you are a hero. you save 100 lives, you are a nurse most of amy: an excerpt

from docu-play "that kindness: nurses in their own words," made with national nurses united. >> i love that last little line. it is so brilliant. i watched for months, as we all did. nurses having grueling 12 hour shifts, making agonizing choices, and just acting as midwives commit deciding who lives and dies. on the short lunch breaks, they had to protest over the fact they had no personal protective equipment, which put them in even greater danger. we witness women wearing garbage bags for months instd of gallons can reusing masks that were affecting them and enforced to stand the job with fevers. no one thought what would mean to lock children up with what would be like to send nurses into an extremely contagious pandemic without proper equipment.

and that is a form of violence. and again, i talked to warehouse workers, packing and shipping with no protections. women who work in poultry factories who were forced to work in close proximity who had fevers, forced to keep going on the job. i have worked for years with one fair wage and adjusted to demonstration with them last week. their salary is still $2.13 an hour, which it has been for the last 22 years. now there is a new development called maskular harassment, who men insist women pull down their masks so they can look at the faces to determine if there pretty enough to get a tip. these are just horrible notions and things that are escalating througho the pandemic. i spoke to women farmworkers in the country, who tell me they

have more instances of sexual abuse and pesticide poisoning because no one is watching and no one has their eyes on them to protect them. i think in the and come as you said at the beginning, what covid has revealed is patriarchy is here, it is not going away, it rises in disaster, and if we don't really address it now, if we don't say we have to take it on full had as a system that is literally controlling our destinies throughout the planet, we are going this the -- we are going be spinning our wheels forever. amy: the resistance that people are organizing around the world, and you have always been a leader of that, talking about v-day, calling for a global initiative on the scale of the marshall plan to deconstruct to

exercise patriot -- exorcise patriarchy. >> i want to save it is been so moving to see how many women are rising in the face of everything going on in spite of risk of infection, in spite of poverty, in spite of horrible conditions in their communities. we saw in one billion rising this year, thousands of women rising. our theme was one billion rising. women planted gardens. i think their work 10,000 gardens that were planted. 9000 -- in india, across the whole country, for example. it all over the world, women fought back, stood up to governments, demand it all kinds of protections in spite of the risk to their lives. i want to say, i have been doing this work for so long. 25 years and longer. every day, day in and day out. and if we don't really get to

the root of what patriarchy is, we will be here forever. i am envisioning this large global initiative to deconstruct and exorcise patriarchy that would -- first we have to acknowledge it, that it is the root of some the other forms of oppression from imperialism to racism, transphobia to the denigration of the earth. and then it would be an ongoing education public forum studying how patriarchy leads to those forms of repression. we would use art to help people heal and make people hold. and we would understand that a culture that has diabolical amnesia, which is certainly this country, and refuses to address its past can only repeat its abuses. i think we would have community -- amy: five seconds. >> we would study the art of listening and empathy and recreation -- reparations and apology.

we have to say we need to focus on patriarchy as something real is the system and dismantle it as a world. amy: v award-winning playwright, ,y we will link to your new pie in theç?ç?ç?ç?o■o■ñ■ç■ç■ç■

[ videcasset rating ] [ came whirrin] oncepon a me, i d a mu who to me everhing. you ow, i kn about r loversnd her bakups. we'd gto thesearties d i'd noce stranrs who re flirtg with h and-- yoknow, i'watch-- d watchher lia you ow, i kn about i'd lien in fr my bed d--