London, political organizations protest Western Media coverage of global South nations

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*Political organizations denounce The Guardian’s media campaign against Venezuela, Cuba *Announced Gaza ceasefire deal to begin on Sunday *Gaza ceasefire deal announced World Social Movements stand with Palestine

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00:00And to go further into this topic, we are now joined by Cassius J. Kalani, member of

00:05the Revolutionary Communist Group, who held the protest we were just seeing on screen

00:09from London.

00:10Hello, Cassius, and thank you for joining us here in From the South.

00:17Thank you very much for having me.

00:19It's an absolute pleasure to be invited today.

00:23OK, so Cassius, of course, tell us why hold this protest action in front of the Guardian

00:29media outlet.

00:31Absolutely, there's been many protests outside media news outlets, but we've chosen the Guardian.

00:41It likes to present itself as a liberal and very respectable outlet, appealing to progressives

00:48within the working class.

00:49You know, it says it's radical and independent and almost like an underdog against the larger

00:55media outlets.

00:56But this is a complete lie.

00:57It is owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which is worth one billion pounds.

01:02It has a very large revenue of two hundred and fifty million pounds.

01:05And the role it plays is manufacturing that consent for the imperialist narrative against

01:11Palestine, for example.

01:13It frequently tries to bring into doubt the number of casualties by referring to hospitals

01:17as Hamas run health ministries.

01:20It paints the Palestinian people as starving for no reason and completely omits the Israeli

01:26starvation of them.

01:27And when it comes to Venezuela as well, for example, as my comrade said in the video,

01:32it completely erases the voices of those who are in full support of Maduro.

01:37And it only buys into the opposition and their narrative of what is happening in Venezuela.

01:43And that is all in the interest of British imperialism.

01:46So that is why we target the Guardian.

01:48It is a sly fox that is trying to trick people who believe themselves to be quite left or

01:54liberal into supporting British imperialism.

01:57Now, Cassius, we've been seeing images of demonstrators in the protest holding Cuban,

02:04Palestinian, Venezuelan flags, and Venezuela in particular has been on the media spotlight

02:10for the past days in what analysts have described as an interference media campaign.

02:16Why do you think that outlets such as the Guardian, who present themselves as Western

02:20liberal allegedly friends of free speech and press, target Venezuela in this ways in which

02:26so many cases are just outright twisting reality?

02:30Why do you think that this happens?

02:33Absolutely.

02:36The Guardian is in full support of British imperialism.

02:40Where it draws its money from is that slightly better off section of the working class who

02:45still think they're progressive.

02:47And as a result, they will always take that narrative, but try to make it somewhat nicer.

02:52So we've seen a complete slew of lies against Venezuela.

02:56Their main writer on this, Tom Phillips, is the chief propagandist, and he's come up with

03:01some absolutely ridiculous things.

03:04He keeps quoting the fabricated election results from the opposition party in Venezuela, again

03:09exaggerates the tiny number of counter protesters.

03:13He mentions the bounty placed on Maduro as if it's a normal thing, that a foreign elected

03:18head of state can have a bounty placed against him, and then makes this sweeping claim that

03:22all the Venezuelans are against Maduro, and that because they're such a liberal and respectable

03:28media outlet, that they are concerned about the democracy in Venezuela, because this comes

03:34from a very respectable moral standpoint.

03:37And because it might resonate with some progressive people within the very large Palestine movement,

03:42they are able to then draw more people into being completely against Maduro.

03:48And of course, there are material interests in doing that.

03:50They maintain their followers, they maintain their donations, and they support British

03:54imperialism in maintaining its grip on Venezuela's gold and squeezing Venezuela's revolution.

04:01I mean, we've seen recently David Lamy has placed 15 fresh sanctions on the Venezuelan

04:07people, and it's through outlets such as The Guardian that manufacture consent for that

04:12and display a warped narrative that prevents people from standing in solidarity, not just

04:17with Palestine, but also with Venezuela.

04:21So in the face of what we're saying and what you were just describing, I wanted to ask

04:27you in the face of this media coverage from this big media outlets from particularly Western

04:32nations, what can be done to improve the world coverage and processes such as the ones in

04:37Venezuela, in Cuba, maybe strengthen smaller or media outlets linked to communities?

04:44What is your take on that?

04:47Absolutely.

04:49I think that's a really important question.

04:51What can be done to strengthen that is, first of all, point out the very obvious lies within

04:57the media news coverage of Palestine.

04:59I think due to the access of social media, due to the rise of more independent news,

05:04a lot of people have realised that the narrative is completely skewed and in complete favour

05:10of Israel, which serves the interests of Western imperialism.

05:14Even the Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans who went to that football game in the Netherlands,

05:20even football fans were able to recognise, hang on, lots of football fans go around the

05:24world, cause trouble, get beaten up, and you know, the media acts like that's normal, which

05:29it is.

05:30When it comes to Israeli settlers going abroad to a football game doing the same thing, they

05:34get special treatment.

05:36So I think a lot of people are waking up to this coverage and what our job as anti-imperialists

05:41is to do is to make sure that the people who are waking up to this have the same standard

05:46when it comes to other anti-imperialist struggles across the world.

05:52It's between linking those.

05:53A lot of people who came to our protest yesterday didn't really know much about Venezuela, but

05:58that is why it's so important to draw the links.

06:01The same way the imperialists give a completely skewed view of Palestine in favour of Israel

06:07is the same way they completely listen to the opposition in Venezuela and in complete

06:12contradiction and opposition to the Bolivarian revolution.

06:16So we are encouraging activists on the ground in Britain to join us at these Guardian protests

06:23and maybe to bring up other areas where the media is lying.

06:27For example, in Congo, in Sudan, these are just shown as humanitarian crises, or for

06:33example, the alliance of Sahel states and West Africa.

06:36There is very, you know, imperialist coverage over that.

06:39So if we can draw these links together, we can build greater solidarity and be in complete

06:45cooperation against British imperialism on our soil.

06:49Now, Cassius, I would like to ask you about another pressing issue of the week, of course.

06:56After 15 months of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, finally a ceasefire deal has been announced,

07:01supposedly to begin on Sunday, and with this a new stage in the situation in the region.

07:07Now the focus will be to ensure that the terms of these agreements are kept and the human

07:12rights of Palestinians respected as millions wait to return home and access also basic

07:18goods and services.

07:20What do you think that political, social organizations such as yours and around the world ought to

07:25do in this context to continue supporting the Palestinian struggle?

07:31I think the first thing that we should all have learned is that you cannot trust Israel's

07:35words.

07:36They say there's a ceasefire in place at the moment.

07:38It's been agreed in principle.

07:39It has not been carried out in practice.

07:42And that means we should be continuing to put pressure on Israel.

07:45This is a settler colonial outpost.

07:48We see people marching from A to B weekly saying, free Palestine.

07:52We should know that a ceasefire does not necessitate the freedom of Palestine.

07:56A ceasefire in practice might see limited aggression, as we've seen with past anti-colonial

08:02and anti-imperialist struggles.

08:04But that does not mean that aid can be blocked.

08:06That does not mean that more settlements cannot be built.

08:10So I think the most important thing is to attack the interests of the ruling class in

08:14Britain specifically for us here.

08:17We see how the banks are bankrolling the genocide, are providing loans and underwriting

08:22in the billions.

08:23For example, Barclays Bank is a large contributor of that to a variety of weapon systems.

08:29So I think to ensure this ceasefire is in place, we must completely cut off trade with

08:34Israel.

08:35We must be campaigning for sanctions because there can be no ceasefire while a genocidal

08:40and apartheid state is being bankrolled and supplied with weapons.

08:43It's completely contradictory.

08:46Exactly.

08:47That was very clear.

08:49And I thank you, Cassius, once again for joining us and allowing us to further understand these

08:54topics.

08:55Absolutely.

08:56Thank you very much for having me.

09:00That was Cassius J. Kalani of the Revolutionary Communist Group in London on the protest they

09:05held along the other organizations against the Western media campaign targeting global

09:11South nations such as Venezuela.

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