WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.690 Abby Martin is an international known journalist 00:00:02.690 --> 00:00:06.350 who hosted the known(?) Breaking the Set, on Russia Today. 00:00:06.350 --> 00:00:11.310 She currently writes and directs a weekly documentary series called The Empire Files. 00:00:11.310 --> 00:00:13.160 And tell us story(?) english. 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:16.270 She founded her own media organization, Media Roots, 00:00:16.270 --> 00:00:20.720 and sits on the board of Project Censored, one of the largest research groups in the country. 00:00:20.720 --> 00:00:26.470 Abby’s empathy, passion and editorial independence makes her unique and relatable voice 00:00:26.470 --> 00:00:29.560 to those seeking honest independent media. 00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:35.070 The place is yours. Thank you. 00:00:35.070 --> 00:00:37.680 Thank you so much everyone for that, 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:43.190 and first of all, thank you so much for The Venus Project for hosting me at this amazing event. 00:00:43.190 --> 00:00:53.630 And happy birthday to visionary Jacque Fresco. 00:00:53.630 --> 00:00:58.040 This is a man who spent his entire life innovating for a better world, 00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:01.700 and i think we need to give him one more round of applause for that. 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:13.470 Happy 100th birthday! 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:46.530 It’s a total honour to be asked to speak at the centennial celebration, 00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:48.000 so thanks again. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.370 And it is great to me that so many people here 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:54.730 who already know my work from Russia Today, Breaking the Set. 00:01:54.730 --> 00:01:57.840 My new show tells stories a little different from a little bit, 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:01.580 and less energy, but a little more depressing, maybe. 00:02:01.580 --> 00:02:04.960 And i was (?) the Empire Files and i (?) tell a story (?). 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:09.600 It is a weekly documentary series that provides (?) historical(?) and political contacts 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:12.000 to the most fascination that we face today. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.550 Which i think that is very important when we are looking at these issues in an isolated context, 00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:20.760 specially reacting to the mainstream media (?) new cycle(?). 00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:25.710 And for the alliance for the brutal (?)cracy to the US funding(?) America, 00:02:25.710 --> 00:02:28.810 each chapter the Empire Files related(?) there 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:32.040 another devastating effect of the militaristic imperialism. 00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:40.940 So that was we check it out, if you have it yet, on YouTube. Thank you. 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:45.470 Most people are here because they are very currently aware already 00:02:45.470 --> 00:02:48.790 after the crisis of the civilization that we face. 00:02:48.790 --> 00:02:52.150 But i want to be (?) statistic that i think are really exemplified 00:02:52.150 --> 00:02:55.070 that is everything that is wrong in the world we look in today. 00:02:55.070 --> 00:03:01.340 According to the latest (?) study, 62 people now own more wealth 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:04.940 than half than every body living on the planet. 00:03:04.940 --> 00:03:07.570 Think about this statistic for one second. 00:03:07.570 --> 00:03:13.840 62 people, just 62 people own more than half of the world’s population. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:18.000 The gap between the richer and poorer is widening at an alarming rate. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:25.000 The wealth of the poorest half 3.6 billion people, following by 1 trillion dollars since 2010. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.320 And at the same time, the wealth of the world’s richest 62 lucky mother fuckers 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:34.400 has increased by more than half of trillion dollars. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:41.660 These obscene trajectory proves that if people made more money does not trickled down, 00:03:41.660 --> 00:03:46.520 instead untapped trillions hold(?) offshore. 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.950 In the US for the first time, were over 50 years, 00:03:49.950 --> 00:03:55.010 over half of the public school students are living in poverty or food insecure. 00:03:55.010 --> 00:03:57.000 Think about that too. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.630 I mean, how are teachers supposed to meat standardized testing requriements, 00:04:00.630 --> 00:04:06.080 when they are busy worried about whether or not are students eating food or wearing shoes. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.000 Instead of organizing the help those most in need, 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.890 our rootless system criminalizes its poverty and homelessness. 00:04:12.890 --> 00:04:17.230 The extreme consequences of which we are plain(?) all around us, 00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:22.720 driving desperate people to commit violence, crimes and terrorism. 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.940 This growing dysfunction is built into an economical structure 00:04:25.940 --> 00:04:30.170 that institutionalized its barbarism at any quality(?). 00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:33.000 But it is not just a system in the abstract. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.000 This global war installed its powerful rulers. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.010 I saw the way it works first in during my carreer. 00:04:40.010 --> 00:04:43.710 I didn’t start out wanting to be a journalist. 00:04:43.710 --> 00:04:49.450 I began as an anti-war activist and organized when were in college during the lead of the Iraq war. 00:04:49.450 --> 00:04:51.890 But i quickly saw the issues i was (?) behind 00:04:51.890 --> 00:04:55.970 whether(?) being distorted or completely ignored in the media. 00:04:55.970 --> 00:04:58.270 And what we see in the media is completely obedience 00:04:58.270 --> 00:05:01.730 to the criminal and murderous of Bush administration, 00:05:01.730 --> 00:05:04.210 propelled me, forced me to act. 00:05:04.210 --> 00:05:07.630 I though myself video production and put myself out of there in the community, 00:05:07.630 --> 00:05:09.700 for San Diego and Oakland. 00:05:09.700 --> 00:05:13.440 And the first journalism and project that i founded called Media Roots. 00:05:13.440 --> 00:05:15.110 You know, was not just one issue. 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:20.310 It was every issue, because it all stands for the same criminal corrupt system. 00:05:20.310 --> 00:05:26.310 From net neutrality to food justice, i wanted to build an under reported aggregate(?) of stories 00:05:26.310 --> 00:05:30.360 that impacted everyone because i was convinced that people (?) knew what is happening. 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.420 If they only knew what this government was doing around the world, 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:36.000 then of course it would organize to stop it. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.060 But, in (?) masses today’s world, is a dumping challenge, given the state of journalism. 00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:44.810 It doesn’t take long your protocol awakening to realize that 00:05:44.810 --> 00:05:48.500 the establishment press we have(?) all being trained to trust. 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:54.030 It exists just as not arm of the corporatocracy. Only utilized to maintain itself. 00:05:54.030 --> 00:05:58.120 Didn’t start often that way, it started of as a free public service. 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:01.140 But as the corporatocracy became more in (?), 00:06:01.140 --> 00:06:06.000 telecom companies got hugely rich and profiting in (?) public air waves. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:12.580 And begin (?)ing the (?) on the market, (?) up, just as we have seen in the average industry. 00:06:12.580 --> 00:06:17.720 And in 1980’s, 50 corporations controlled most news media in America. 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:21.510 By 1992, that number fallen to 2 dozen. 00:06:21.510 --> 00:06:28.340 And today, only 6 corporations control 90% of everything in America can see (?). 00:06:28.340 --> 00:06:33.000 About a 120 or so executives on the board of these 6 companies 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.190 also are in a inter locking(?) positions in every industry, 00:06:35.190 --> 00:06:39.350 from defense to pharmaceuticals, to banking. 00:06:39.350 --> 00:06:43.610 A sign from this (?) conflict of interest lies on the problem of self centered share(?) 00:06:43.610 --> 00:06:46.970 and advertise pressure which makes it(?) now works. 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:53.410 Right now, who is heard of the TPP? I am sure many people. Okay, good job. 00:06:53.410 --> 00:06:57.000 But, of course, this hugely important so called free trade deal, 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.730 what people are calling (?) in steroids between all countries, 00:06:59.730 --> 00:07:04.060 they are completely (?) national sovereinghty undermining US laws, 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:06.000 totally blacked out. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.610 100% on the mainstream media. Why? 00:07:08.610 --> 00:07:12.220 Well, the corporate sponsors are under these negotiations in a secret deal. 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:16.550 600 corporate advisers negotiating this deal (?) countries, 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:21.940 without any sort of a semblance of democratic participation from the people (?). Unbelievable. 00:07:21.940 --> 00:07:26.580 Net neutrality, another important issue of our time, maintain the (?) nature of the web, 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:29.250 has been totally sidelined by the same media companies, 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:33.050 controlled by (?) telecommunication companies. 00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:38.700 The same companies that are trying to install a pay-to-play network on the internet. 00:07:38.700 --> 00:07:44.220 Many people around the world maybe wondering how reality started bilionaire, 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:47.840 with zero political experience as this close to becoming 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:51.610 a president of the United States of America, as (?). 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:58.860 But i think a quick scan of our (?) media tells us one reason. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:04.870 America’s salivating mainstream media (?) is (?) legitimizing Donald Trump 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:10.770 by covering him 24/7, because he fears souls, baby. 00:08:10.770 --> 00:08:13.820 And apparently such as fascism. 00:08:13.820 --> 00:08:18.410 Trump has been giving media coverage than hell Democratic campaigns combined, 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:23.350 23 times more than Bernie Sanders. It is unbelievable. 00:08:23.350 --> 00:08:28.420 The CBS had last (?) actually recently busted about this. 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:34.400 He said, Trump may not be good for America but he is damn good for CBS. 00:08:34.400 --> 00:08:38.010 The money is rolling in. And this is fun. 00:08:38.010 --> 00:08:40.740 It is going to be a very good year for us. 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:46.570 Sorry, is a terrible thing to say, but bringing on Donald, keep going. 00:08:46.570 --> 00:08:51.450 The media may understand the consequences of promoting Trump’s xenophobic bigotry. 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:54.620 But the short term profits from companies like CBS, 00:08:54.620 --> 00:08:58.700 far out of the away of the dangers of the Trump’s presidency. 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:02.390 The corporate take over (?) has (?) 00:09:02.390 --> 00:09:05.550 any (?)semblance with the democracy in this country. 00:09:05.550 --> 00:09:10.140 For decades, journalists in DC have cared far more about their access, 00:09:10.140 --> 00:09:12.460 but about their jobs. 00:09:12.460 --> 00:09:16.780 I saw this in first hand in DC when i was an actually scolded by media officials 00:09:16.780 --> 00:09:20.960 for asking questions on soliciting to Rand Paul in congress. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:25.010 When i first was a newbie, i got my official press badge, 00:09:25.010 --> 00:09:29.570 and i was, cool, now i just go ask and confront politicians in the hall of congress. 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:34.430 And very quickly, you know, the first person i saw walking on the hall was Rand Paul, 00:09:34.430 --> 00:09:37.560 and i asked my question, i said why did you endorse Matt Romney. 00:09:37.560 --> 00:09:40.090 He ignored me, kept going, and i thought it was the end of it. 00:09:40.090 --> 00:09:45.000 A week later, RT was starting to get calls from the congress press (?), 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.230 trying to arrest me for stalking and harassment. 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:51.000 Yes, i wanted to put on air and they didn’t want to, 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.000 because they were really caring(?) on audience about that time, 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000 and i was really new and really didn’t know what to do. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:00.520 The charges were all basically empty threads. 00:10:00.520 --> 00:10:02.880 But they did call me into the office, 00:10:02.880 --> 00:10:05.500 and i sat down into an interrogation within the halls of congress, 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:08.180 with all that main bureau chief heads(?), from the corporate media networks, 00:10:08.180 --> 00:10:11.070 and they basically told me you don’t do that. 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:16.860 You don’t come in here, and we were access that we worked for decades to maintain. 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:21.000 And now it is my first lesson of how journalism actually worked in DC. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.260 You know, the media doesn’t only work to protect its bottom line. 00:10:24.260 --> 00:10:28.500 And also plays the key role in manufacturing consent for empire. 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:33.050 Conditioning us to believe that somehow be caused or (?) in a particular manner, 00:10:33.050 --> 00:10:37.070 (?) that world game to go killing millions of people around the world. 00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:40.800 Displace mean countless millions more. 00:10:40.800 --> 00:10:45.470 Dictate the future for tenths of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people, 00:10:45.470 --> 00:10:48.590 every year around the world. 00:10:48.590 --> 00:10:55.160 Even so called alternative press out like Vice and others promoted US empire American exceptional(?), 00:10:55.160 --> 00:10:59.340 have very dangerous notions that keeps society subservient. 00:10:59.340 --> 00:11:03.980 The myth self justify untold criminal policies by nationalizing the war economy 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:06.980 that runs on dept and destruction. 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:10.170 Those in power have to have reasons to control the media, of course, 00:11:10.170 --> 00:11:15.850 not only told why white washed the long list of injustices and crimes they cared every day. 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:21.320 But they can seal the cataclysmic course that is driving us down. 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:28.610 Those in power doesn’t just control the media, of course. They control energy resources too. 00:11:28.610 --> 00:11:34.780 Under this system, the US continues to rely on the industry of imperialism all life on Earth. 00:11:34.780 --> 00:11:36.770 According to the latest UN report, 00:11:36.770 --> 00:11:40.950 in order to avoid the worst predicted affects of climate change, 00:11:40.950 --> 00:11:45.000 3/4 of non existent fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.850 That mean halt all production stopping right now. 00:11:48.850 --> 00:11:52.770 And that is to avoid the worst effects, the worst effects. 00:11:52.770 --> 00:11:57.980 But the empires are doing the opposite of that. Chasing profits at any cost. 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:03.000 Under Obama, the US was become the world’s largest oil and natural gas producer. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:04.910 That is outstanding. 00:12:04.910 --> 00:12:08.780 The US military is the biggest polluter on the planet. 00:12:08.780 --> 00:12:11.010 You have the example from all environmental legislation, 00:12:11.010 --> 00:12:15.000 from the clean air act to the Kyoto treaty. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:18.000 With all interrogation about how the richest country in the world 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.810 could possibly pay for health care and education for its citizens. 00:12:21.810 --> 00:12:27.350 Little(?) as asked, about how we can possibly afford to maintain endless war occupation, 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:31.730 as well as the military budget that stands bigger than the next 7 countries combined. 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:36.000 It is this system put the needs at the people and the environment first, 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.040 there would be very little dependency in such damaging field(?) source. 00:12:40.040 --> 00:12:42.560 Stand for engineers as you have seen in the documentary this morning, 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:46.610 if already developed the cost effect of state by state planned transition, 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:51.400 the entire US to renewable energy sources by 2050. 00:12:51.400 --> 00:12:57.020 The money spent on the Iraq war 1, which killed 1 million people, 00:12:57.020 --> 00:13:02.400 5% of Iraq’s entire population, and planted the seeds for ISIS to flourish, 00:13:02.400 --> 00:13:08.560 could have covered all global investments to halt climate change trends. 00:13:08.560 --> 00:13:13.420 Think about that. The Iraq war could have halt the global climate change trend, 00:13:13.420 --> 00:13:15.000 just a cost of that. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.420 There is plenty of money to solve many of the pressing problems. 00:13:18.420 --> 00:13:22.990 The issue is in resources. It is how they are being used. 00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:28.350 You know, as much as Cuba criticized it’s never (?) achievements, 00:13:28.350 --> 00:13:32.830 i was able to spend weeks there, reporting and (?) fascinated that, 00:13:32.830 --> 00:13:37.960 under a (?) economic embargo, this small island nation still able to produce, 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:41.360 instead of living comfortable(?) with most European(?) countries. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:44.620 High quality free education, high quality free health care, 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:48.000 a (?) more, as human rights. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.170 Not to mention that completely green sustainable agricultural system. 00:13:52.170 --> 00:13:58.440 Amazingly, or not so amazingly, Cuba’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the entire hemispheres. 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:02.070 Often enough, we have seen that people would have their basic human needs met, 00:14:02.070 --> 00:14:06.470 they are less likely to commit crimes. 00:14:06.470 --> 00:14:10.380 I mean, you know, these (?) accomplishments were made 00:14:10.380 --> 00:14:12.490 in an economy based on scarcity. 00:14:12.490 --> 00:14:15.860 Imagine what can be done in the richest country in the world 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:20.330 if people came first, not profits 00:14:20.330 --> 00:14:24.560 To continue to success the any nation (?) the global economical order, 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:30.270 even a small island nation like Cuba, poses a huge treat to the corporate hegemony. 00:14:30.270 --> 00:14:33.000 This is wide, this (?) this normalization process, 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.940 the US government is still spending countless millions on the ground for (?) there. 00:14:37.940 --> 00:14:44.870 We have seen how far their empire will blow, to crush any and all alternatives. 00:14:44.870 --> 00:14:48.870 Those in power also wield the most mass military in human history, 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:54.060 into a way that (?) very real (?) ideas that provided an alternative to their system. 00:14:54.060 --> 00:14:57.000 Both in broad an (?) home. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.310 Over the last century, (?) US government has done everything that is powered(?), 00:15:00.310 --> 00:15:03.000 to (?) out alternatives to its rule, 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:09.060 from ground up to to massive arrests of thousands of anarchists, socialists, lefts(?) in US, 00:15:09.060 --> 00:15:12.000 making it illegal to even be a communist, 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:18.010 to carry on military interventions in over 70 nations just sent in world war 2, 00:15:18.010 --> 00:15:23.320 causing an untold(?) human misery, all in the name of fighting ideas. 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:28.060 Today, the us empire has at least 900 military installations around the world, 00:15:28.060 --> 00:15:29.910 the Pentagon does not even know, 00:15:29.910 --> 00:15:33.280 because they (?) military bases they have, what the number really is. 00:15:33.280 --> 00:15:38.550 They have (?) in almost every region on world to maintain an endless war of occupation. 00:15:38.550 --> 00:15:42.000 But it was done(?) all it is(?). 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:49.490 Very rarely, sometimes, a glitch in the matrix provide a rare political opening for us. 00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:52.690 Those in power are also (?) elections, obviously, 00:15:52.690 --> 00:15:57.060 a familiar through a college delegate process their own mission of third parties from the debates(?). 00:15:57.060 --> 00:16:00.000 But Bernie Sanders has defined all odds, 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.000 because he is bringing a message of occupy Wall Street, 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:08.180 a movement completely and radically marginalized in the mainstream, to the mainstream. 00:16:08.180 --> 00:16:10.950 To the entire nation. 00:16:10.950 --> 00:16:17.700 His popularity, he is made it okay that criticizing capitalism. 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:21.520 For all the critiques on Bernie Sanders (?) policy (?) look. 00:16:21.520 --> 00:16:25.930 His popularity is opening a path for us to criticize the system, 00:16:25.930 --> 00:16:28.780 when just 5 years ago was unheard. 00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:32.260 This is a huge thing for us now, according to a recent (?), 00:16:32.260 --> 00:16:35.610 young people between ages of 18 and 29, 00:16:35.610 --> 00:16:39.890 more favourably look at socialism than they do capitalism. 00:16:39.890 --> 00:16:43.870 It’s a huge feet(?) against the relentless propaganda campaign 00:16:43.870 --> 00:16:46.910 that existed for almost a century. 00:16:46.910 --> 00:16:51.760 The two party dictatorship is unraveling fast. 00:16:51.760 --> 00:16:53.760 Having voters rejecting the candidates 00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:57.600 that the establishment literally begging them to accept as amazing. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:03.090 Only good things that comes from the corporate monopolies (?) like this. 00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:09.060 Those in power have an end game. It’s purely dystopic. 00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:12.000 And right now there is a huge opportunity for change. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.710 Real change. Real alternatives. 00:17:15.710 --> 00:17:20.670 And the voices in this room has so much potential to be heard right now. 00:17:20.670 --> 00:17:26.200 It is time to see the momentum (?), start building an Utopia we wish to see. 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.950 Because in the words of Jacque Fresco, 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:34.140 if you think we can’t change the world, it just means you are the ones that wont. 00:17:34.140 --> 00:17:40.170 Thank you.