In this episode, we take a look back at the past and look forward to the future, and try to figure out who's going to be wearing the most important thing in the world on New Year's Eve, and why it's a good thing it's not Auld Lang Synees. We also have a look at the Doomsday Clock, and the people who are counting down to the end of the world, and how they're planning for the coming apocalypse. And Gareth and Eileen try to make sense of it all, and wonder if it's all going to go to plan. This episode is brought to you by Podulters, the excellent podcast produced by the far-left think tank Civitas, and edited by Gareth Barker. We'd love to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments section below, and we'd like to hear from you in the chat too! Tweet us if you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to make the world a better place, or how to improve it! Timestamps: 0:00:00 - What is a Doomsday Clock? 5:30 - Why is it so important to have a countdown to Armageddon? 8:20 - Who's counting down the day before the end? 16:00- What's the worst thing we could be prepared for? 21:15 - Is it possible that the world will end? 22:40 - What are you prepared for Armageddon? 27:15- Is there any chance of a nuclear war? 29:30- Is Aulding the world going to survive it? 35:00 36:00s to midnight? 37:00 | 39:00 Is there a Doomsday clock? 40:00? 45:00 is it possible? 47:00 What s going to happen next? 48:00/50? 49:00+5:00 + 6:00% 50:00 / 6:30? 5:00 & 6:05? Theme song by Ian Dorsch? Music by Ian McLeod Theme by Ian McKellen Theme Song by Ian Macpherson ( ) Theme music by Brian Williams ( ) (Music by Jeffree Stars ( ) and Mark Phillips ( ) is ( ) & Mark Williams ( ) & John McDermott ( ) copyright ( ) by Jeff Perla ( ) Download MP3 by Epitaph ( )
00:01:13.000In this video, you're going to see the future.
00:01:25.000Hello there, you awakening wonders, you glorious fascists that believe nothing more than all people will be equal and allowed to become who they truly are regardless of their culture or their race, that all people should be free, that we deserve individual freedom and community democracy, that centralised establishment thinking has robbed us of our freedoms, and these freedoms must be returned to us.
00:01:49.000Don't let them drain the hope out of you, wherever you are, whoever you're from.
00:01:53.000Recognise that the old ideas are melting away and the new thing is being born.
00:01:58.000Being born from us, in this very moment.
00:02:01.000We're live on YouTube and on Twitter, just for 10 minutes, then we flip over so that we're just on Rumble, which is our exclusive home, and we can say what we want over there.
00:02:10.000But we don't use freedom of speech to create division, instead we use it to create unity, to critique establishment power.
00:02:17.000To point out that the old language is dying, that to talk of left and right in a world where Bernie Sanders is writing for Fox News, where Noam Chomsky is saying that Trump is one of the only vocal war critics, these are redundant labels, redundant terms.
00:02:32.000The world hasn't caught up with the changes of the last 10, 15 years.
00:02:36.000We've got to catch up fast though, because Armageddon is a-coming.
00:02:41.000We've got lots of things to tell you about.
00:02:42.000Lindsey Graham is advocating for sending tanks into Ukraine.
00:02:46.000Boris Johnson's in Ukraine, chatting to Zelensky, being all sycophantic and nuts.
00:02:52.000We've got a deep, deep presentation about taking, like, the weapons industry, using Ukraine as a kind of testing lab.
00:07:17.000And just so you know this, I don't advocate for any establishment political party, Republicans, Democrats, whichever, whatever.
00:07:25.000I believe in community democracy, actual democracy, individual freedom, radical change, new revelatory visions being introduced and discussed on this platform right now.
00:07:36.000After we flick over to being just on Rumble in a second, we're going to have a fantastic guest, Amazon union leader, and we'll dive a little deeply into some stories that would be contentious on the platforms we're currently on like YouTube and Twitter.
00:07:48.000Let's have a look at the mainstream media continuing to justify Biden having these classified documents.
00:07:57.000Lawrence, I'm sure you agree with me on this point.
00:08:00.000The fact that Joe Biden has documents, the fact that he opened up his house, and it's nothing like so far, nothing like the Trump document case, that shouldn't confuse I suppose that what the mainstream media has to do is continually suggest that there are meaningful and significant differences between the two potential parties that you could vote for.
00:08:24.000Because it's not nothing like it, is it?
00:08:26.000Where it says that it's nothing like the Trump case.
00:08:43.000He says Trump's a lively debate within a small framework to sort of stop you thinking, Oh my god, we could change everything actually, there's no
00:08:52.000reason at all why we should have all these centralised authoritarian structures that prohibit
00:08:56.000our freedom and ultimately serve corporate globalism.
00:09:00.000Eric Garland, that shouldn't confuse the DOJ.
00:09:04.000They should still be able to hold these two separate cases in separate silos and still...
00:09:45.000Martin Goury, who's coming on our show on Friday, is a former CIA agent, and he talks about in his book, and will be talking to us, about how the problems that we have now is our Old systems of analysis and our old taxonomies have died.
00:10:02.000Left and right are no longer relevant terms because what you have is centralized power and peripheral dissent.
00:10:10.000And I suppose that's why the culture war is continuing to gain momentum as the territory
00:10:15.000that still belongs to conventional left-right arguments has to be occupied and made ever
00:10:20.000more incendiary and seemingly significant.
00:10:23.000But I know people that have very traditional views and very progressive views, and generally
00:10:27.000speaking people wouldn't mind what people do in their own lives as long as they're allowed
00:10:33.000to, as long as there's a kind of a consensus that we leave each other alone.
00:10:37.000So the continual stoking of these cultural differences and cultural conflicts is one way that we are prevented from forming necessary unions.
00:10:46.000And that's one of the things I'm going to talk to Christian Smalls about, about the necessity not only of workplace unions at an organization like Amazon, but different types of community, people finding new ways to come together, which is going to be necessary because I don't know if you've seen the news, it's 10 seconds till midnight dead o'clock.
00:11:52.000Here's that story about Bernie Sanders writing on Fox News.
00:11:58.000If alliances are forming between presumed right-wing organisations like Fox, And an avowedly left-wing politician like Bernie Sanders, it supports Martin Goury's idea that there is the centre and the periphery and essentially Tucker Carlson and Bernie Sanders are meeting round the back.
00:12:16.000Yeah, also I think, you know, it shows that, like, you have to be open to... I mean, there's that phrase about the left and right that you were talking about earlier, Ross.
00:12:36.000I believe in social equality, I believe in justice, community justice, the right to express yourself freely, but you have to afford that to your opponents, which doesn't mean anything at all.
00:12:46.000Shall we have a look at Boris Johnson visiting Ukraine?
00:12:49.000I think when this trip was set up, Boris Johnson was a more relevant political figure.
00:12:53.000If you're watching this now on Twitter or YouTube, we're coming off those platforms in a minute and once we're on the other side of the line we'll be talking more explicitly about what we believe to be the military-industrial complex and the financial industry's involvement in Ukraine, the project to reconstruct Ukraine.
00:13:10.000Also, we're going to be talking to Christian Smalls, Amazon leader.
00:13:14.000And by God, I'm going to be crossing some lines.
00:13:16.000We've got some good WEF, Tony Blair, globalist stuff as well.
00:14:28.000Might be a few quid in there, I wonder.
00:14:31.000Okay, mate, what we're going to look at now, Lindsey Graham wanting to send these tanks, I don't want to dive into that kind of stuff, it's absolute craziness.
00:14:39.000Why do people keep putting 30 seconds up on that screen?
00:14:41.000I don't know, but the Lindsey Graham thing is interesting because he's talking about the world order is at stake.
00:14:47.000What he's saying, I mean he's being very vocal about wanting Vladimir Putin to be killed and we need to send tanks into Ukraine because the The world order is at stake.
00:14:54.000And when you've got Boris Johnson saying things like, we're going to help reconstruct Ukraine in the same way that Blackrock, we know Blackrock are involved with Zelensky in doing the same thing.
00:15:04.000You've got to wonder about this reconstruction of Ukraine and the new world order even.
00:15:09.000You know, one that doesn't, you know, in which Russia is severely impeded.
00:15:16.000I suppose what a lot of people believe, and often these people are condemned as conspiracy theorists, is that this conflict is about draining Russia of resources in order to create a unipolar world, and that after this conflict, agitation between the US and China will increase around the issue of Taiwan.
00:15:37.000Let me know in the comments, let me know in the chat if that's the way you think things are Going down.
00:15:44.000Just in case you weren't terrified enough at the sight of that clock counting you down into oblivion, it's time now for our item, Everything's Fine.
00:16:50.000They're too high in the cultural mix as well.
00:16:52.000I mean, I guess what it shows is, at this time where we're saying, you know, Bernie Sanders can go on Fox News or, you know, the right can vote for, you know, demilitarization, and then you get these kind of culture wars popping up around M&Ms.
00:17:07.000It just shows what a bizarre kind of space we're in at the moment.
00:17:11.000Yeah, we're sort of on the precipice of something nihilistic and terrifying, I would argue.
00:17:18.000Should we have a look at that presentation that we made, Gav, about how the military-industrial complex are using Ukraine to test new weapons potentially for a future conflict and demonstrate how the mainstream media are promoting literal brands. Yeah. You know, Rafie and Lockheed
00:17:39.000Martin. See if you can spot the there's an actual sort of product placement in the news.
00:17:45.000Time now for our item. Here's the news. No, here's the effing news.
00:17:51.000After the war, BlackRock get to profit from rebuilding Ukraine.
00:18:01.000But we're still in the war now, so who's going to profit?
00:18:26.000So if we don't die in Armageddon as a result of this proxy war between America and Russia, we can die in the actual war between America and China.
00:19:01.000Normally, we like to bomb people who don't have any weapons at all.
00:19:03.000Bomb a terrorist, bomb a wedding, bomb two weddings, do another terrorist in a minute.
00:19:07.000So this, in a sense, is very legitimately a real opportunity to trial these weapons.
00:19:13.000Ukraine has become a testing ground for state-of-the-art weapons and information systems and new ways to use them that Western political officials and military commanders predict could shape warfare for generations to come.
00:19:25.000The problem is there won't be generations to come if we keep provoking former and actual superpowers. Russia, yeah, they've been on decline since
00:19:32.000the Soviet Union when we made that deal with them not to infringe on former Soviet Union
00:19:36.000territories. Let's provoke them. China, they're probably not that hard, but why take my word for it?
00:19:41.000I have after all got this hat on. Let's listen to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense.
00:19:45.000He surely knows something about Ukrainian defense and how it's being ministered.
00:19:49.000We are carrying out NATO's mission today.
00:19:51.000This guy's a fucking liability, by the way.
00:19:53.000He keeps turning up on television going, yeah, of course it is a proxy war.
00:20:12.000Because wars like Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan became unpopular because America doesn't like to see its children coming home dead, there's now an agreement.
00:20:21.000Outsource the conflict in order to confront opponents but without the bad PR of the loss of American lives.
00:21:13.000Ukraine benefits because they are opponents to Russia and Russia has invaded them, whatever the circumstances of that invasion were, and they are now able to fight at at a level that is not representative of their military or
00:21:24.000economic power or standing in the geopolitical landscape. So everyone is benefiting from
00:21:29.000this, except potentially everyone if there's a nuclear war.
00:21:32.000The use of remote-controlled boats could become particularly important, military experts said,
00:21:36.000showing how warfare at sea might play out as the United States and its allies brace
00:21:40.000for potential future naval aggressions by China in the east and South China Seas and
00:22:23.000The war in Ukraine has also created a demand for weapons that were beginning to become obsolete, such as the Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
00:22:34.000Over-the-shoulder missile launchers, now at half price!
00:22:37.000Shouldn't be a war that's about bargains.
00:22:39.000You're continually told about, you know, this is helping Ukrainian grandmothers, these orphans, and all this stuff.
00:22:44.000It's really, essentially, Walmart Let's see how the mainstream media covers this contentious issue of arms sales and spending billions of dollars of taxpayer revenue on a war that could lead to a global conflagration.
00:22:53.000as thousands have been shipped to Ukraine.
00:22:56.000Let's see how the mainstream media covers this contentious issue of arms sales
00:23:00.000and spending billions of dollars of taxpayer revenue on a war that could lead to a global conflagration.
00:23:06.000I expect it will be balanced and transparent.
00:23:25.000It's gonna be so good to get that radioactive rain tumbling onto my face, knowing it was such a sexy phallic missile that provoked the conflict.
00:23:33.000So far they've only received four of these launches, but the scorch marks on the earth show they've been busy.
00:23:40.000When I see a scorch mark on the Earth, I think, yay!
00:24:44.000But this is something that is contentious and dangerous and requires responsibility, not only with the decisions that are made, but the way that we are informed about the nature of those decisions.
00:24:52.000This commander wants to thank the American people and President Biden for providing a weapon that is helping Ukraine stay in the fight.
00:25:00.000Oh Lockheed Martin, I've heard of them somewhere.
00:25:02.000I wonder how much money they make this year.
00:25:04.000That's why their message to their allies is unchanged.
00:25:07.000So CNN there are just presenting essentially a commercial for Lockheed Martin and their products, dressing it up as aid to the Ukrainian struggle.
00:25:23.000Lockheed Martin announced recently that it plans to expand its production of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, better known as HIMARS, or H-I-M-A-R-S, by more than 50%.
00:25:34.000So it's a good job that there's a commercial right in the middle of the news saying that we need more of them.
00:25:38.000The decision follows months of positive publicity for the weapons system on the news, which seems to have sparked increased interest from governments in Eastern Europe.
00:25:47.000Of course it does, that's propaganda, that's the function of propaganda.
00:25:50.000The announcement comes just a month after the army said it wanted to double HIMARS production and triple production of certain types of artillery in response to the war in Ukraine.
00:25:58.000This type of boost would require new or at least dramatically expanded production facilities, raising concerns that it would be difficult to scale back down in the future.
00:26:06.000Hopefully we can have another war then!
00:26:21.000They've got CNN on board, doing news broadcasts that essentially highlight the demand for their product as a pious endeavour.
00:26:29.000Jack Reed, Democrat, and Jim Inhofe, Republican, recently proposed a new amendment to this year's National Defence Authorisation Act.
00:26:37.000The proposal would give the Department of Defense wartime powers that would free it to buy huge amounts of artillery and other munitions using multi-year contracts.
00:26:45.000Of course, we mention that to highlight that whether you are pro-Democrat or pro-Republican, you are pro the military-industrial complex, you are pro your tax dollars being spent on this war.
00:26:55.000And again, let me iterate that supporting Ukrainian people Ending this conflict should be an absolute priority.
00:27:02.000The message that patriotism and profits for the military-industrial complex are one fused idea is a propagandist one.
00:27:10.000I believe what's best for Ukrainian people is a peaceful solution as soon as possible.
00:27:15.000This amendment will mean that they don't have to vote on it, no one has to talk about it.
00:27:18.000Essentially, your money can be funneled directly into Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
00:27:22.000That's exactly what they want to be able to tell their shareholders.
00:27:24.000The amendment would also authorise the Pentagon to skip competitive contracting for Ukraine-related deals, including billions of dollars worth of contracts to refill US stockpiles, and it would waive other provisions aimed at stopping weapons makers from overcharging taxpayers.
00:27:39.000So they're going to be able to set their own prices, there won't be competition, all these ideas.
00:27:42.000Remember how often, if you hear sort of what you might regard as socialist rhetoric, No, entrepreneurialism, capitalism, free market competition, this is what generates ingenuity.
00:27:51.000Well, we're going to be really taking a hit on the ingenuity here because they're not competing, they're not signing it off, and they're not having to account for their expenditure.
00:27:59.000There is also legislation pending in Congress that indicates that the US government believes the Ukraine war may continue for years.
00:28:06.000On October 11th, the Senate Armed Services Committee submitted its amended draft of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2023.
00:28:13.000Nestled within the draft is a provision that would establish an emergency multi-year plan to award massive defense contracts to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, BAE Systems and other war corporations to produce weapons for Ukraine and to replenish U.S.
00:28:26.000stockpiles as well as those of foreign allies and partners.
00:28:30.000Whether or not it's this war or future wars, there is kind of a policy and an intention to continue with conflict in order to service these kind of deals.
00:28:40.000They're going to give us multi-year authority and they're going to give us funding to really put into the industrial base and I'm talking billions of dollars into the industrial base to fund these
00:28:48.000production lines, said the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer Bill LaPlante. And Bill LaPlante is an
00:28:52.000accurate name because he's been planted there by a corrupt system. So when we're talking
00:28:56.000about this war, we're talking about this conflict and we're focusing on Putin's brutality and
00:29:01.000endless array of diseases and Russia's criminal invasion, all of which is true, and the suffering of
00:29:06.000Ukrainian people, certainly true, it is operating as a veil to prevent us seeing that much like the
00:29:11.000pandemic, this situation is highly beneficial to some of the most powerful interests in the
00:29:16.000world. And if what could be regarded as a crisis for you and for me is beneficial to the most
00:29:21.000powerful interests in the world, what kind of outcomes do you anticipate? Do you think there's going
00:29:26.000to be an end to the war? Or do you think the war will continue? Let me know in the chat. Let me know
00:29:31.000in the comments. A recent Ukrainian embassy reception was sponsored by Northrop, Lockheed and
00:29:57.000In order to distract you from the fact that this is systemic, this is built into the system.
00:30:01.000There is a beautiful invitation, sponsored by the military-industrial complex.
00:30:06.000Whatever you think about this war, if it were ended right now, it would be a problem for those powerful interests that spend a fortune on lobbying and are benefiting hugely from the situation.
00:30:15.000And with the added advantage of being able to test pilot their products for future conflicts, which they appear to be agitating for elsewhere.
00:30:22.000As documented in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in 2008, the Pentagon orchestrated the commentary of 75 former officers who served as radio and TV analysts, turning them into message force multipliers for the administration's point of view.
00:30:36.000Many of the retired officers who appeared on TV worked for companies that counted on military contracts, creating a built-in conflict that news organizations didn't mention when introducing the analysts.
00:30:47.000So what this video shows you is how CNN, a media partner, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon work together in order to pursue a common end.
00:30:57.000You don't need hoods and reptiles or any of that stuff when you can see in plain sight that there is a convergence of interests.
00:31:04.000The weapons industry are benefiting, the US state are benefiting, the media are benefiting.
00:31:09.000All of these people individually benefit, their interests align There is no requirement for clandestine conspiracy when overtly interests converge.
00:31:17.000This is one of the issues that we want to continually observe.
00:32:03.000People seem to be focusing a bit too much on the apocalypse and not enough on the demise of the candy spokespeople that we've touched upon earlier in the show.
00:32:15.000We've got a fantastic guest on the show now.
00:32:17.000He's created unions where it seemed impossible that such a thing could happen, where only division existed, where tyranny, centralised power, a monolith named after the lungs of the earth but seemingly determined to asphyxiate us all, Amazon, mightier than most of the planet's countries, have yielded to the power that can only be... can only be wielded When people come together, Christian Smalls is the president of the first Amazon Labor Union.
00:32:49.000Before we meet him, let's have a look at him in a moment of triumph.
00:33:10.000Y'all see what's going on with the Starbucks unionizing across the country.
00:33:14.000Christian, thanks very much for joining us on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
00:33:19.000Can you tell me, mate, how did you find yourself in this situation where you moved from working at that organisation to creating this union?
00:33:26.000Seems you've made an incredible impact.
00:33:31.000My journey started two years ago, three years ago now, actually, 2020, when I was fired for protesting outside of that same facility that we unionized, JFK.
00:33:48.000Um, about a week and a half later, Jeff Bezos himself, along with his general counsel, had a smear campaign calling me not smart or articulate that leaked to the public.
00:34:00.000And from that moment forward, I continued to organize and agitate across the country for about a year.
00:34:07.000protested in front of every Jeff Bezos mansion that we can find from New York all the way to Beverly Hills.
00:34:14.000And then when we came back, we decided that we wanted to form an independent union and we started campaigning.
00:34:21.000I spent over 300 days outside of the facility signing people up for this independent union.
00:34:29.000And then last year, April 1st, 2022, we became the first union in American history.
00:34:36.000You know, like, the union movement is regarded, I feel, as somewhat outgraded as industrialization has altered.
00:34:44.000Coal, steel, manufacturing jobs have largely disappeared and seem to be on the way out where even they currently still abide.
00:34:55.000Do you think creating a union in this space, which is ultimately within the realm of big tech, is a way that ordinary people can come together to oppose centralized power?
00:35:06.000And Christian, when you talked about in that news clip there about revolution, do you feel that new forms of union and community can create genuine opposition to unprecedented power that these kind of big tech companies have?
00:35:28.000Um, you know, we're at a point in time where, you know, workers realize the value, uh, the pandemic put the world on pause.
00:35:36.000And during that time, we realized that, you know, the power, our oppressors against us, our government has failed us and nobody's going to save us but ourselves.
00:35:48.000You know, I realized that from a company that I poured my blood, sweat and tears into for a number of years.
00:35:55.000And I spoke up one time and they terminated me.
00:36:00.000I had nobody, no Calgary, nobody to come help me out.
00:36:04.000I had to find myself in my community and with the community, uh, we formed this union and that's what it's going to take to really get the protections and the benefits and the life that we all rightfully deserve.
00:36:18.000It takes that the community come together, people coming together, realizing that we all have to build up a commonality, that we're not going to be given these things, the things that we want in life, whether it's higher wages, better medical leave options, job security, free housing, free Medicare, we're not, we're never going to be given these things, we have to fight for it.
00:36:42.000And the only way we're going to do that is by forming unions, forming community organizations, mutual aid, and things of that nature that's going to bring people together.
00:36:52.000The obligation then to support unions, even if you're not a member of one, becomes yet more significant when you describe how important and how successful your action has been.
00:37:04.000One of the things as well that's changing, Christian, is that the categories of left and right don't seem to make sense in the same kind of way they once did.
00:37:11.000I feel like you went on Tucker and talked about your union and got like a sympathetic ear there where once Fox News wouldn't have been a place where left-wing issues were looked upon favourably.
00:37:21.000Also, this is my own opinion, it seems like the Democrat party isn't willing to go at a map for workers when it matters, even though I know you met Joe Biden and stuff.
00:37:33.000I feel like the Amazon and the government have significant contracts and the relationship between big tech And the government is so entrenched and enmeshed that ultimately, whether it's the Republican Party or the Democrat Party, but you know, I guess it's more surprising that the Democrat Party don't care.
00:37:51.000It seems like that ordinary workers are not going to get the support that they require How do you find yourself navigating that space where once customarily you'd known that the left would have had your back, that the Democrats would have had your back, or Labour in this country that I'm in.
00:38:43.000Um, in our constitution, we do not endorse politicians.
00:38:47.000We don't care how good they are, how progressive they are.
00:38:50.000We love and support, um, You know, whatever supports the workers, and that's how we organize.
00:38:59.000We don't feed into the politics, and we don't rely on Democrats to save us as well.
00:39:06.000We use their support whenever that is.
00:39:09.000We don't know how and whenever they give it to us, but it comes in doses, and we understand that the time that we're in, we're going to have to hold these politicians accountable.
00:39:23.000I've been on record calling politicians out.
00:39:26.000I'm going to continue to do that as the president.
00:39:28.000I'm going to make sure that whoever I need to get support from is on notice on the public platform.
00:39:35.000And that goes all the way up to the White House.
00:39:37.000You know, I've been on record saying that Joe Biden, that claims to be the most progressive union president in history, has to do more.
00:39:46.000And he needs to bring these CEOs to the table and tell them that they need to sit at the table with the workers, especially the ones that are unionizing.
00:39:55.000Mate, have you heard much about The ways that new progressive ways that organizations like Amazon and these big tech companies could be structured, granting more power to workers, even a share of the business.
00:40:12.000When you talk about revolution, it seems like, and when any of us talk about revolution, really what we mean is, are we able to meaningfully alter, you know, even overthrow these systems when they have such a grasp on power Sometimes it feels that all we can do is create a little bit of change, a little break here or there, which I know is significant to the people that you represent if people get Medicare or people get a pay cut.
00:40:40.000But when we're talking about revolution, I suppose what we're talking about is meaningful radical change and the ability for ordinary people to Have some control in their lives.
00:40:49.000And I wonder if you ever think about how this union movement could grow, become affiliated if not with one of the existing political parties with as yet unborn political movements.
00:40:59.000I wonder if that's stuff you think about.
00:41:02.000I mean, you know, I'm at the point where, you know, we need a third party.
00:41:07.000We need a party that represent workers, the working class party.
00:41:12.000We need a party that represent the people that's actually being suffered every day, suffering, living every day in this country that's not being represented, that's not being heard.
00:41:24.000Um, you know, I'm out here in the streets, uh, daily, connecting with people, different communities, traveling the country, and I see what's going on on the ground, and it's, uh, it's really heartbreaking to see that, uh, America, which claims to be the richest country in the world, um, and we have such a crisis in this country.
00:41:45.000So for me and our movement, it is a revolution because we're at a point in time where workers are taking the power and putting it back into their own hands.
00:41:57.000And I know it's going to be a long process.
00:42:00.000You know, that's why I always remind ourselves that this is a marathon, not a sprint.
00:42:04.000You know, just imagine Amazon workers getting a contract.
00:42:08.000Amazon workers, the trillion dollar company, the most powerful company in modern day history right now, are one of them.
00:42:17.000And we're getting a contract that is going to protect ourselves as workers at the bottom of the totem pole.
00:42:23.000That's going to change the whole industry.
00:42:25.000That's going to empower, encourage people, no matter what industry they work in, from Target, to Whole Foods, to Home Depot, to Trader Joe's, to Apple, to Google.
00:42:36.000It's going to empower people to want to fight and form these unions, which we already started to see last year with the Starbucks campaigns and other campaigns launching as independent unions, not just forming our affiliate or established unions.
00:42:52.000A lot of unions are now becoming independent, and there's going to be more to come in the future.
00:42:56.000And I believe with our victory and our success of getting a contract, that's going to change the whole industry forever.
00:43:06.000You're describing there is pretty exciting because big tech presents itself as kind of convenient and friction free.
00:43:15.000You don't see the invisible people behind an organization like Amazon, you just get the package and the parcel.
00:43:22.000And with Facebook and Apple and all these companies, there's a kind of cleanliness in the way that they present themselves.
00:43:28.000And you don't see the invisible toil and suffering that sometimes when I hear about it, it doesn't sound like it belongs to this century.
00:43:36.000People not getting breaks, the peeing in the bottles.
00:43:38.000Then internationally, we know that like the kind of products that we're all relying on.
00:43:42.000I'm holding up my iPhone there, a dependent upon slave labor in like Congo, like with the cobalt mining deal and all that kind of stuff.
00:43:51.000It seems to me that what you're describing is a need for an awakening.
00:43:56.000That we've all gotten so used to being consumers, we've gotten so used to convenience, that we've come to tolerate the idea that other people's suffering is a price worth paying.
00:44:09.000That it's somehow become marginalized and concealed.
00:44:14.000Like in the age in my country with the steel workers and the coal workers, It became a source of pride, the labor unions, and it feels like what you're interested in is creating those communities again.
00:44:24.000And in order to do that, the truth has to be revealed about the human cost of these apparently friction-free, convenient, big tech devices and organizations that all of us have become kind of addicted to.
00:44:46.000We were getting up, going to the mall and shopping on Saturdays.
00:44:52.000We weren't really ordering on Amazon Prime.
00:44:57.000Just 10 years ago, you were able to go to your local Main Street in your local community and possibly still go to a Barnes and Noble or bookstore.
00:47:31.000Um, it took all of that to really put me in position to continue and fight against them.
00:47:39.000And, uh, I didn't want to unionize that first.
00:47:42.000And I, you know, those who have been following my journey from the beginning know, uh, we were just advocating on a community level with my organization.
00:47:53.000TCOEW, the Congress of Essential Workers.
00:47:55.000We were traveling, just protesting, rallying, trying to build this movement up.
00:48:01.000And then it took a whole year and a half later, after the pandemic already started, for me to realize that the only way we're going to really protect ourselves is by forming a union for Amazon workers.
00:48:16.000And that's when we begin that campaign.
00:48:19.000And, you know, the rest is history, you know.
00:48:22.000To be standing here now and continue to fight, it's been nothing short but amazing.
00:48:27.000But I know that we have a long battle ahead of us.
00:48:30.000But I can see from being here on the ground, connected with different communities, I can see the change and I can see the difference.
00:48:39.000And I can see these conversations starting to take place in different spaces.
00:48:43.000On a personal level, it must have felt like at the time that you were under most duress, an opportunity emerged.
00:48:54.000But what was it like for you to lose your job as a single parent and a father of two kids?
00:49:02.000I imagine you were under incredible financial and psychological pressure.
00:49:43.000I was really popular in the building. And, uh, yeah, to lose all of that in one day
00:49:50.000was definitely devastating, especially during the pandemic, especially being in New York City,
00:49:54.000when New York City was the epicenter of the world. People were dying every 15 minutes over here.
00:50:00.000And to lose all of that, because I was speaking out to protect everybody,
00:50:05.000uh, was definitely devastating, but also, um, empowering at the same time, because,
00:50:12.000you know, once again in t to make a decision.
00:50:16.000When they fired me, I had to make a decision right then and there, whether I'm going to just say, you know what the hell with them and take legal action
00:50:25.000or I'm going to continue advocating and
00:50:28.000Amplifying what happened to me so that doesn't happen to other people and that's when I decide to continue
00:50:34.000advocating How significant is it that people find ways to connect?
00:50:42.000That are not determined and defined by cultural conflict.
00:50:47.000It's It seems that when people have a shared plight and a shared agenda, when all the people in your organization, for example, are suffering as a result of advanced capitalism, commodification, lack of rights for workers, things that are affecting
00:51:04.000Probably billions of people around the world.
00:51:07.000And like we've discussed, Christian, stories that are simply not told.
00:51:12.000How important is it that we start to develop a vision that enables us to see beyond the amount of divisiveness and conflict that the culture pumps out, giving us reasons and ways to turn against one another on the basis of culture, religion, racial or sexual identity.
00:51:33.000How important is it to find ways to unify in meaningful, purpose-driven ways such as this?
00:51:44.000When it comes to environmental justice, social injustice, labor, when it comes to these different movements, Black Lives Matter, we have to, as labor leaders, As the working class, we have to take a stance, and we have to stand in solidarity with these issues.
00:52:06.000And like I told Lindsey Graham, it's not a left or a right thing.
00:54:53.000So like you said, this is a global movement.
00:54:56.000I'm looking forward to traveling abroad, starting with London next month.
00:55:00.000And I'm definitely going to connect with every movement that I could possibly when you're talking about Amazon.
00:55:07.000And tomorrow we're going to talk more about it when they start their strike.
00:55:13.000When you come out country, mate, I'd love you to come here and be in studio with us because I feel like if you've got global corporations that are astride the globe, that essentially transcend borders, then there needs to be a response in kind.
00:55:27.000There needs to be a worker-oriented or people-oriented movement to oppose and confront that kind of global power.
00:55:36.000You know, a lot of, I think, resurgent nationalism is a response to globalism, that people feel
00:55:42.000they don't have no control in their countries.
00:55:44.000And if there are ways that people can unite behind a common interest, like you said, quality
00:55:49.000of life, standard of life, right to dignity and respect, I feel that this could be, you
00:56:07.000I wouldn't have been doing this and sacrificing the time that I had if I didn't believe in it.
00:56:14.000I believe that we're at a point of no return.
00:56:17.000We're at a point where there's no way we can go back to what we've been getting because we weren't getting anything.
00:56:25.000So now we just have to continue organizing, continue pushing forward, and understand that this is a revolution, this is the beginning, and we have to continue to fight.
00:56:37.000And when we fight back, as we always say, we win.
00:56:54.000I think you're doing really, really powerful and important work.
00:56:57.000Congratulations on what you've achieved and what you've overcome and I'm really excited about what you'll achieve going forward and what we can achieve together because ultimately this is a Thank you.
00:57:54.000I'm actually going to ask Christian to represent me against the powers that be and the head honchos in there because I shouldn't be forced to work in these conditions.
01:00:22.000That's why we have to evolve a vision, Gal, if we are to overtake the planet and instantiate this new confederacy of devolved communities that confront establishment power.
01:01:09.000That the issues have got so problematic that people are now realising we've got to just put aside what politicians are trying to stoke us in whichever direction, you know.
01:01:18.000We've got to say, what are the actual issues?
01:01:20.000And one of those issues is localism, that globalism hasn't worked.
01:01:23.000Companies like Amazon treat the workers terribly, treat the planet terribly, treat everything terribly while making massive profits in the pandemic.
01:01:32.000We've got to find a way of fighting that.
01:01:35.000When you think about the industrial movement of the last century, the unions that emerged
01:01:40.000around steel, coal, shipyard manufacturing, the big industries in our country and presumably
01:01:45.000over there in the States, probably everywhere, part of it was like the restoration of dignity
01:03:10.000The false markers of technology and medicine distract us from the fact that elsewhere we are stagnating.
01:03:15.000There's no doubt that technology is advancing.
01:03:18.000That's what's bought about this diaspora.
01:03:20.000of information this breakdown of communities there's no doubt that there are brilliant advances made in medicine of course there are but because they are underwritten by capitalist interest late capitalist corporatist interest whatever language you like it means that people are being left behind of course amazon workers should have dignity of course they should be unionized and taken care of it like wherever we thought like we can't have this Unconsciousness, like the unconsciousness around the human cost of these trinkets and devices that we fetishize.
01:03:52.000Yeah, and I think if anything, if anything good is to kind of come out of the pandemic, it is probably that there's been a bit of an awakening in people as to where we need to focus our attention.
01:04:02.000Where as groups outside of the elites, outside of the 1%, we need to focus this.
01:04:10.000We shouldn't be, we can't just continue to be divided in the way that we have been.
01:04:13.000We need to look at who did best out of these situations?
01:04:20.000And I think that is one thing that we can say is that there was a moment in time, two years, where it gave people the opportunity to kind of look more closely at where are the problems and where do we need to focus our energy?
01:04:31.000And it sounds like that's kind of something that Christians use that.
01:04:34.000So that the pandemic could be a sort of, we could regard it as a collective awakening, like a positive thing, even though it brought about a lot of suffering, even though it was clearly an opportunity to introduce more regulation.
01:04:44.000And as Gareth just pointed out, that the most powerful interests in the world in many ways
01:04:47.000became more powerful. Big Pharma, the Big Tech, it's actually also an opportunity for
01:04:53.000us to recognise what's been going on. Alright, that's pretty good. Hey listen, don't forget
01:04:58.000to sign up to our Locals community for access to our weekly exclusive show, Stay Connected.
01:05:03.000It's extremely good and funny and strange. It's relaxed, isn't it?
01:05:07.000It is very relaxed. We respond to all of your comments.
01:05:10.000You know, it's like if you want to get deeper into this community, if you want to attend the live events, I just invited Christian there to speak at.
01:05:15.000Look, Rick Rubin, I think, is going to come too.
01:05:17.000You're doing your own guest bookings now, aren't you?