Untitled Document

[00:00:00] My name is Eugene Perier and we are here [00:00:02] at the People's Conference for Palestine [00:00:04] in Detroit. It's actually the second [00:00:06] annual people's conference for Palestine [00:00:08] and thousands and thousands of people [00:00:10] are gathered here to discuss where we [00:00:12] are in the state of the movement, where [00:00:13] we need to go, a lot of the great [00:00:15] organizing work, the cultural work. I [00:00:17] mean, so many different aspects of this [00:00:19] unbelievably powerful movement that has [00:00:21] emerged in solidarity with Palestine in [00:00:22] the midst of a genocide. And I think [00:00:24] that you can see that there's tons of [00:00:25] energy here um despite the challenges, [00:00:28] despite the ongoing Israeli atrocities [00:00:29] and crimes to continue pushing, to keep [00:00:31] organizing and keep going. [00:00:37] [Music] [00:00:40] What we're seeing in Sudan, what we're [00:00:42] seeing in Congo can be boiled down [00:00:44] pretty simply to this is that there's a [00:00:45] battle raging all across the African [00:00:47] continent to say that the 500 years of [00:00:50] humiliation of of colonialism, of the [00:00:52] impact of the stra slave trade, of neoc [00:00:54] colonialism, is that going to continue [00:00:56] for another century, another two [00:00:57] centuries, or is there going to be a [00:00:59] significant change in the continent? Are [00:01:00] people going to be able to take hold of [00:01:02] their resources and use them to [00:01:04] transform their lives supposed to just [00:01:06] transform the bank accounts of rich [00:01:08] people in Europe and the United States [00:01:09] of America? And the two conflicts are [00:01:11] very different. But when you really look [00:01:12] at what's happening, you can see that [00:01:14] there is a a concerted attempt by those [00:01:16] who have been benefiting from the the [00:01:18] theft and the of the resources of the [00:01:20] African continent, from the exploitation [00:01:22] of the labor of the African continent, [00:01:23] and that's internationally. And the [00:01:25] elites in Africa themselves are trying [00:01:27] to suppress this new impulse. So in [00:01:28] Sudan, you have a proxy war that broke [00:01:30] out after a massive protest movement uh [00:01:33] that really was trying to make the [00:01:34] country more equitable and more fair in [00:01:36] every single way. And you had a number [00:01:37] of international forces from the Gulf [00:01:39] States, from the United States, and from [00:01:41] Europe who did not want to see that [00:01:42] change happened. They imposed some other [00:01:43] changes that have resulted in what was [00:01:45] ultimately a proxy war between two [00:01:47] different factions of elites about who's [00:01:49] going to be the interlocutor with the [00:01:50] imperialist and with the West over the [00:01:52] the wealth of Sudan, which is great. And [00:01:54] in Congo, we see this longunning issue [00:01:56] that has been really running since uh [00:01:59] Leumba was assassinated in the early [00:02:00] 1960s over whether or not the resources [00:02:03] of eastern Congo which is has 24 [00:02:05] trillion dollars of mineral wealth [00:02:06] underneath its soil is powering the 21st [00:02:09] century economy in terms of our phones, [00:02:10] our batteries, uh electric cars, all [00:02:13] these different things that there are [00:02:14] people who are profiting from that [00:02:15] tremendously. But there's also a big [00:02:17] upsurge in the Congo of younger people [00:02:19] in particular who want to see a change. [00:02:21] But there's also a lot of elites, many [00:02:23] of them based in Rwanda and Uganda, but [00:02:24] also in the DRC, by the way, who are [00:02:26] themselves fighting amongst one another [00:02:27] to try to impose a reality on the [00:02:29] Congalles people, particularly in [00:02:31] eastern Congo that will keep them mired [00:02:33] in poverty and exploitation and [00:02:35] oppression. So in both places what we [00:02:37] really see is a a playing out of a [00:02:39] broader process that has a lot of [00:02:40] contradictions, a lot of different [00:02:41] nuances, a lot of different pieces to [00:02:43] it. But it really all boils down to the [00:02:45] fact that whether the same sort of [00:02:46] combination and nexus of international, [00:02:49] regional and local elites in both [00:02:51] countries will be able to keep the [00:02:52] status quo uh the way it is or whether [00:02:54] or not there's going to be significant [00:02:56] positive change for the masses of people [00:02:57] in both countries. [00:03:02] [Music] [00:03:07] Well, you know, I think one of the [00:03:08] biggest obstacles is the lack of [00:03:10] knowledge. I mean, when we're talking [00:03:11] about the African continent, I mean, the [00:03:13] the level of coverage that we exist in [00:03:15] the mainstream media, the level of [00:03:16] mythology and propaganda that's put out, [00:03:18] not just in the media, but even from a [00:03:19] lot of academia, means that most people [00:03:21] don't know that much about what's going [00:03:22] on. To the extent they do know, they [00:03:24] have the most simplistic narratives. [00:03:26] things are being wrapped in this [00:03:27] traditional, you know, it's just [00:03:28] Africans fighting, you know, and poor [00:03:29] people and all these other things that [00:03:31] don't let people see the what's really [00:03:33] going on underneath and that most of [00:03:35] what you see in Africa is based on a [00:03:38] framing that is set forward principally [00:03:39] by the United States and Europe about [00:03:41] what is acceptable, what's not [00:03:42] acceptable, and what the sort of [00:03:44] contours of African governments are [00:03:46] going to be allowed to do. And so I [00:03:47] think that's really the first step. And [00:03:48] I think you can see similar things with [00:03:50] struggles all around the world is the [00:03:51] first step is often people becoming [00:03:53] educated and knowing what's really going [00:03:54] on, understanding the stakes and be able [00:03:56] to fit in uh the relationship to the [00:03:58] struggles that they care about. So I [00:03:59] think that's really one of the biggest [00:04:00] obstacles we face right now at least in [00:04:02] the US to building stronger solidarity [00:04:04] movements is even the knowledge of [00:04:05] what's going on and the knowledge of how [00:04:06] it affects people here. [00:04:11] [Music] [00:04:16] Well, I think the struggles that are [00:04:17] happening across the African continent [00:04:18] are all interconnected and everywhere [00:04:20] you go in Africa, I can tell you that [00:04:21] the leaders of the alliances and hell [00:04:22] states are very popular and in many ways [00:04:24] what happened in Burkina Faso and Mali [00:04:26] and Nijair, these huge mass protest [00:04:28] movements that that uh uh uh rose up and [00:04:31] overthrew existing governments to [00:04:32] establish a new reality is what happened [00:04:34] in Sudan in 2019. Just unfortunately, [00:04:36] they weren't able to consolidate their [00:04:38] gains. But when you look at what people [00:04:39] were t talking about in Sudan, they were [00:04:41] talking about ending the IMF in the [00:04:42] World Bank uh structural adjustment [00:04:44] programs, having a more equitable [00:04:46] distribution of wealth from mineral [00:04:47] resources and agriculture, spreading the [00:04:49] wealth, you know, not just in terms of [00:04:51] from sort of rich to poor but also the [00:04:52] different regions of the country which [00:04:54] you know have been denied many different [00:04:55] opportunities for development and [00:04:57] growing up development. Absolutely. They [00:04:58] were talking about the need to continue [00:05:00] to have solidarity with the Palestinian [00:05:01] people. And you can see certainly on an [00:05:03] everyday basis all across the Congo, all [00:05:05] the popular social movements that are [00:05:06] fighting uh in many different ways [00:05:08] around the rights to water, around the [00:05:10] rights to land, around the the the [00:05:12] realities around having more rights to [00:05:14] their mineral resources are directly [00:05:16] talking about what is happening in the [00:05:18] alliances of health states where they're [00:05:19] taking back many of their resources. [00:05:21] They're increasing the revenues that are [00:05:22] coming in. They're putting them towards [00:05:24] healthcare and education. It's a major [00:05:25] part of the discourse. You can see the [00:05:26] same thing in Kenya. I mean Kenya which [00:05:28] has had the jinzy uprising where [00:05:30] millions of people have risen up against [00:05:31] the government of uh president RO people [00:05:34] are talking about what's happening in [00:05:35] the alliances of hell states they're [00:05:36] talking about the need to make real [00:05:37] transitions away from neoc colonialism [00:05:40] to challenge capitalism to have more [00:05:41] equitable distributions of wealth more [00:05:43] access to opportunity so everywhere you [00:05:45] look in the continent you have a lot of [00:05:46] interconnected movements that are [00:05:47] learning from each other talking to each [00:05:49] other that are expressing similar things [00:05:51] I mean Sagal is another example of this [00:05:52] with the struggle of Usman Sananko who's [00:05:54] now the prime minister uh against a [00:05:56] government that was trying to suppress a [00:05:57] mass popular movement against [00:05:58] Frenchbacked neoc colonial uh [00:06:00] governments there in Sagal. You could [00:06:02] see it in northern Nigeria with the huge [00:06:03] protest movements that arose uh in 2024 [00:06:06] that were looking very similar to the [00:06:07] movements that ultimately led to what we [00:06:09] see in the alliance of Sahel state. So I [00:06:10] think it's very consistent across the [00:06:12] entire continent that there really is a [00:06:14] mass protest movement rooted in the [00:06:15] young population. I mean 70% of the [00:06:17] African continent or something of that [00:06:18] nature is under the age of 35. There are [00:06:21] people who do not want to live anymore [00:06:23] in the reality that they saw their [00:06:24] parents and their grandparents of [00:06:26] deprivation of poverty while others are [00:06:28] getting rich on the backs of African [00:06:29] land, labor and resources. And so I [00:06:31] think it's very connected. There's a lot [00:06:32] of cross conversations and I think we're [00:06:34] going to see a lot of transformations [00:06:36] happening across the continent in the [00:06:37] next several years. [00:06:42] [Music] [00:06:46] Well, you know, the links between Sudan [00:06:48] and Palestine are long and deep, and [00:06:50] Sudan is historically one of the [00:06:52] countries that has been the most [00:06:53] supportive of the Palestinian liberation [00:06:55] movement going back many, many, many, [00:06:57] many years. And so, this is actually [00:06:58] part of the sort of cultural and [00:07:00] political DNA, you know, almost across [00:07:02] the political spectrum in Sudan of [00:07:03] people being very strongly supportive of [00:07:05] Palestine. And it's worth noting that [00:07:07] the mass protest movement that arose in [00:07:09] 2019, part of the way that the the the [00:07:11] elite forces that were tied to the [00:07:13] military were able to get the support of [00:07:16] international forces and especially the [00:07:18] United States to sort of put down the [00:07:20] protest movement and establish [00:07:21] themselves as the new leaders was [00:07:23] actually to join the Abraham Accords and [00:07:25] to actually become a part of normalizing [00:07:27] with Israel. Now, of course, now the [00:07:28] army, which is one of the fighting [00:07:30] forces, is trying to like walk that back [00:07:32] as is the RSF. Like at one point they [00:07:34] were all for normalization. Now that [00:07:35] they're all looking for support around [00:07:36] the world, they're claiming that they're [00:07:37] supporting Palestine. But we have to [00:07:39] recognize that this is what actually [00:07:40] brought the US heavily into the the [00:07:43] situation in Sudan to help put down the [00:07:45] mass protest movement to end the the [00:07:47] reality of Sudan as a base for the [00:07:48] Palestinian liberation movement. And [00:07:49] when you look at so many of the [00:07:50] sanctions the US has put on Sudan, you [00:07:52] can see many of the companies that are [00:07:54] sanctioned are sanctioned because they [00:07:55] were supporting different factions [00:07:57] inside of the broader Palestinian [00:07:58] liberation movement. So this is a [00:08:00] long-standing thing in Sudan. the the [00:08:02] the resistance committees which are the [00:08:04] backbone of the mass protest movement. [00:08:06] One of their main demands after the [00:08:07] initial coup which placed the military [00:08:10] leaders in power before the civil war [00:08:12] was in fact to roll back nor [00:08:13] mobilization and to actually continue to [00:08:15] support the Palestinian people. So the [00:08:16] connection is close. And when you look [00:08:18] at what's happening in Congo, there's [00:08:19] also a deeper connection there. I mean [00:08:20] Rwanda which is really at the [00:08:22] centerpiece of this sort of elite [00:08:24] internationally backed attempt to [00:08:26] control the resources of the Congo for [00:08:28] primarily western corporations from [00:08:30] Apple to Ford Motor Company since we're [00:08:32] here in Detroit might as well mention [00:08:33] that one uh is very close to Israel uh [00:08:36] and in fact whether we're talking about [00:08:37] cyber security whether we're talking [00:08:38] about agriculture whether we're talking [00:08:39] about many different things Rwanda has [00:08:41] always had a close relationship with [00:08:42] Israel and has never really put any [00:08:44] position uh in support of the [00:08:46] Palestinian people which historically [00:08:47] many African countries in subsaharan [00:08:49] Africa in particular have had as a major [00:08:51] part of their understanding and their [00:08:53] discourse is support of the Palestinian [00:08:54] people and national liberation movement. [00:08:56] But countries like Uganda also very [00:08:58] close to Israel by the way and countries [00:08:59] like Rwanda have played a significant [00:09:02] role. Israeli, you know, bankers and [00:09:04] miners and others are deeply involved in [00:09:05] the eastern Congo. And you know, listen, [00:09:07] you look at places like Berser [00:09:08] University, uh, which is in the West [00:09:10] Bank and Palestine. You know, they [00:09:12] celebrate Congo week. They build [00:09:13] solidarity with Congolese people. And so [00:09:15] definitely when you are are are dealing [00:09:17] with people on the continent in Congo, [00:09:19] and Sudan, Palestinian liberation is [00:09:21] deep and the relationships between [00:09:22] Israel as part of the broader US [00:09:24] imperialist regime is playing a key role [00:09:27] in helping to try to keep down the [00:09:29] popular movements all across Africa. um [00:09:32] including by the way in western Sahara [00:09:33] where they're heavily you know [00:09:34] supporting Morocco who is also [00:09:36] normalized. So you can see everywhere [00:09:37] the hand of Israel trying to put down [00:09:39] the popular movements that are trying to [00:09:40] transform people's lives in the African [00:09:42] continent after 500 years of [00:09:43] humiliation. [00:09:47] [Music] [00:09:52] If you're certainly a journalist, the [00:09:54] most important thing you can do is try [00:09:55] to cover this and try to find the myriad [00:09:57] of voices that exist, both Congalles and [00:09:59] Sudin, that can speak out in every [00:10:01] possible language. So there's no [00:10:02] shortage of people who are involved on [00:10:05] the ground in the diaspora, who are able [00:10:07] to help explain what's going on and how [00:10:09] people can understand it in a better [00:10:10] way. And if you're an activist, [00:10:11] especially here in the United States, [00:10:13] continue to raise the issue. Continue to [00:10:14] make the connections. I mean, let's look [00:10:16] at the big companies, the big [00:10:17] corporations that are ultimately [00:10:19] responsible and complicit for the [00:10:20] reality that's going on. I mean right [00:10:22] now for instance Congo is challenging [00:10:24] Apple in the courts in France and Apple [00:10:26] is saying we have nothing to do with [00:10:27] anything that's happening in the Congo. [00:10:29] But without the voracious appetites of [00:10:31] the western multinationals you would not [00:10:32] have the pressure that goes all the way [00:10:34] down to the level of 13year-olds in pit [00:10:36] mines and having short lives and being [00:10:38] poisoned by mercury. I mean it is really [00:10:40] being driven by this broader US [00:10:41] capitalist imperialist economy. And we [00:10:43] have to hold those corporations [00:10:45] accountable because they are right here [00:10:46] where we are in the belly of the beast. [00:10:48] And I think that we can do that. We can [00:10:50] make those links. It's very possible and [00:10:52] we can continue to push and I think we [00:10:53] have to continue to demand that there be [00:10:55] a popular push for a a a a backing away [00:11:00] of these western governments of the [00:11:02] broader anti- people forces in Sudan. [00:11:05] And I think that the US is playing a [00:11:07] very particular role trying to put its [00:11:08] thumb on the scale. We have to demand it [00:11:10] stop. [00:11:12] [Music]