1
00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:07,520
We're all born with the right to life 
liberty and pursuit of happiness.

2
00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,520
There's no reason why we can't just 
do so much more than we're doing.

3
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:16,720
We need crime in America.

4
00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,280
We need looting and burning 
and destruction of property.

5
00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:23,440
I want to make it absolutely clear.

6
00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:25,600
The more chaos,

7
00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:28,160
violence,

8
00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:30,320
the better it is!

9
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:43,840
I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message.

10
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:52,160
Oh hello.

11
00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:55,840
Welcome to System Fail, a show 
that lives by the golden rule.

12
00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:58,560
An alleged gang of sheriff's 
deputies within the L.A. County  

13
00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,800
Sheriff's Department known as the Executioners

14
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,280
A gang of rogue deputies with matching tattoos

15
00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,760
As many as 40 percent of Compton 
deputies are Executioners

16
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:12,960
Breaking news out of Compton. Two LASD 
deputies reportedly shot in the head

17
00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:14,720
Damn....

18
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:17,440
Later that night anti-police protesters showed  

19
00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,720
up at the hospital to yell at 
deputies guarding the facility.

20
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:22,880
Daaaaaaamn!

21
00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,800
Actions have consequences. People 
don't like law enforcement.

22
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:34,640
Straight outta Compton!

23
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,280
In the months since the George Floyd rebellion,  

24
00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,480
racial tensions in the United 
States have remained high.

25
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,520
Tonight Louisville, Kentucky 
is under a state of emergency.

26
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:44,671
Say her name!

27
00:01:44,671 --> 00:01:46,000
Breonna Taylor!

28
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,880
Uproar over the wealthy white couple who waved 
firearms as black lives matter protesters  

29
00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,600
marched past their palatial home in St Louis

30
00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,920
This period of generalized unrest has 
been punctuated by brief, yet intense  

31
00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:03,200
bouts of looting and anti-police rioting 
in cities like Chicago and Philadelphia,

32
00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:07,840
as well as drawn out standoffs such as 
those of the so-called CHAZ in Seattle,

33
00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,320
and the more than 100 nights of 
recurring clashes in Portland Oregon.

34
00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,960
ACAB - All Cops Are Bastards!

35
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:18,960
Yo Portland, we gettin lit!

36
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,800
On Sunday August 23rd these 
tensions flared up again

37
00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:28,080
when police officers in Kenosha 
Wisconsin shot 29-year-old Black man 

38
00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,040
Jacob Blake, seven times in the back.

39
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:36,400
The shooting, which left Blake paralyzed, occurred 
right in front of three of his young children.

40
00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,240
Kenosha residents were swift to respond.

41
00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,560
Chaos on the streets of Kenosha Wisconsin

42
00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:49,840
Multiple buildings set on fire

43
00:02:50,640 --> 00:03:03,840
We had a couple of thousand out here 
clashing with police and law enforcement

44
00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,120
That night a car dealership was torched 

45
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:13,360
along with three garbage trucks that 
police had set out as makeshift barricades.

46
00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,520
Dozens of businesses were looted and burned 

47
00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,920
and the courthouse was attacked 
smashed up and temporarily set on fire.

48
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,280
Rioters clashed with local police,  

49
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,440
allegedly damaging a Lenco 
BearCat armoured personnel carrier

50
00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:32,800
Fuck 12!

51
00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,240
and pelting cop cars and officers with bricks.

52
00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:36,040
Now what?!

53
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:40,440
Oh my god!

54
00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:43,520
What happened?

55
00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,160
Ohhh! He just got bricked. He just got bricked!

56
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:47,680
Hooowdy Ho!

57
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,920
An official press conference the following 
afternoon was attended by a mob of angry  

58
00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:57,040
demonstrators, who rushed the public safety 
building that houses the Kenosha police,  

59
00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,840
sheriff and fire departments.

60
00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,600
You racist bastard!

61
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:07,920
Responding to the disorder, a local 
militia called the Kenosha Guard 

62
00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,880
put out a call for armed 
vigilantes to come to the city, 

63
00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:13,840
to help defend private property 
and suppress the riots.

64
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:20,080
A facebook event scheduled for the following 
night soon attracted more than 5 000 participants.

65
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:24,240
Despite the event being flagged 
455 times as a breach of the  

66
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:29,440
company's violence and incitement policy, 
facebook moderators decided to leave it up.

67
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,080
There have been a bunch of media reports asking,  

68
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:34,960
you know, why this page and 
event weren't removed sooner.

69
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,760
It's just another reminder that 
facebook is trying to organize  

70
00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:43,680
white militia groups during this this, uh, 
very sensitive and highly charged time.

71
00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,560
Nightfall brought more looting and arson attacks,  

72
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,960
including the burning down 
of the probation office.

73
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,480
On the third night the crowd of armed 
militia members and other white vigilantes  

74
00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:59,120
assembled by the Kenosha Guard hit the 
streets to the fanfare of local police

75
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,200
Within this ragtag posse was 
17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse,  

76
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,920
a baby-faced teenager from the quiet 
middle-class town of Antioch, Illinois 

77
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:18,160
who would go on to shoot three 
demonstrators that night with an AR-15.

78
00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:25,280
Two of his victims, Joseph Rosenbaum 
and Anthony Huber were killed 

79
00:05:25,280 --> 00:05:28,720
while a third, Gage Grosskreutz 
was seriously injured.

80
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,040
Rittenhouse is a former police cadet

81
00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:33,680
Loser!

82
00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,400
and a proud member of the blue lives matter crowd,  

83
00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,200
who has been a cop fanboy 
since he was a young child.

84
00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:40,240
I love bacon.

85
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,240
In many ways, he is a quintessential 
representative of America's white  

86
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:46,160
suburban middle-class youth

87
00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,800
I deserve McDonald's french fries!

88
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,160
This has made him an ideal poster 
child for conservatives and armed  

89
00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,240
reactionaries of all stripes, who have 
presented him as a hero in their imagined  

90
00:05:56,240 --> 00:06:00,400
war against so-called antifa and 
black lives matter terrorists.

91
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,840
This is a 17 year old kid. 
This is - this is amazing.

92
00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,640
#Fightback, founded it says to 
counter the lies of the radical left,  

93
00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:11,520
has raised a reported seven 
hundred thousand dollars.

94
00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,640
Kyle Rittenhouse is a national treasure.

95
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:17,360
He is a - in a sense - a hero.

96
00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:18,800
He seemed like a good young man.

97
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,440
He didn't empty a magazine into a crowd.  

98
00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:25,680
He exhibited more restraint than a lot 
of the police videos that I've seen.

99
00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,600
Three nights after the shootings 
in Kenosha, Patriot Prayer member  

100
00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:34,000
Aaron Danielson, AKA Jay Bishop, 
was shot and killed in Portland  

101
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,720
in an apparent revenge attack carried out 
by anti-fascist militant Michael Reinoehl.

102
00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:45,600
Bishop appears to have been mainly known 
in anti-fascist circles for having spoken  

103
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,120
out in favor of fellow Patriot 
Prayer supporter Jeremy Christian

104
00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:50,480
Death to antifa!

105
00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:55,680
a neo-nazi, who stabbed three people 
on a Portland bus in May 2017.

106
00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:59,440
Police say this man verbally 
attacked a Muslim woman on a train,  

107
00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:03,360
and that when good samaritans came 
forward to help, he stabbed them to death.

108
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:04,960
These three people that died,  

109
00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,120
or were stabbed are not heroes. And 
they deserve everything that they got.

110
00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:14,560
Members of Patriot Prayer had been in the city 
earlier that day for a Trump 2020 Cruise Rally,  

111
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:19,040
an obnoxious spectacle where participants 
drove around honking their horns while  

112
00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:23,040
shooting paintball guns at counter-protesters 
from the back of pick-up trucks.

113
00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:29,120
In stark contrast to the two 
demonstrators killed in Kenosha,  

114
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,800
the media went to great lengths to 
humanize Bishop after his death,  

115
00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,440
with some conservative outlets dubbing him 
the 'MAGA martyr', and FOX News featuring  

116
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:42,080
a sombre interview with Patriot Prayer 
founder, and right-wing hack, Joey Gibson.

117
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,200
My understanding is Jay was a good 
friend of yours. Tell us about him.

118
00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:49,760
Yeah Jay's, uh, he's one - he's one of the 
nicest people I've ever met in my life.

119
00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,600
These three people that died, or were 
stabbed deserve everything that they got.

120
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:59,840
Five days after Bishop's death, a multi-agency 
US Marshals hit squad tracked down Reinoehl  

121
00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:05,200
in the town of Lacey, Washington, and summarily 
executed him as he was getting into his car.

122
00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,000
One witness reported that the 
officers didn't even bother  

123
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,840
to identify themselves before 
all four of them opened fire.

124
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,440
Reineohl had given an interview earlier that day,  

125
00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,400
in which he claimed he had 
acted out of self-defense.

126
00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:23,040
I felt that my life, and 
other people around me's lives  

127
00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:28,560
were in danger, and I felt like I had no choice.

128
00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:33,520
As soon as the smoke had cleared, US Attorney 
General William Barr released a statement  

129
00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:38,480
celebrating Reineohl's assassination, and further 
conflating the label antifa with terrorism.

130
00:08:55,760 --> 00:09:00,240
The vigilante shootings in Kenosha and 
state-sanctioned killing of Reineohl  

131
00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,360
are less likely to shock Black 
or Indigenous communities,  

132
00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:07,840
who have been subject to this level 
of violence (and worse) for centuries.

133
00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:14,320
The main thing that stands out in this case 
is that all the people killed were white.

134
00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:21,040
In the wake of the George Floyd rebellion, the 
American state and its white paramilitary proxies  

135
00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:25,840
have responded to the threat of a multi-racial 
rebellion in the same way that they always have.

136
00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:29,200
Namely, with a combination 
of outside agitators rhetoric

137
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:35,760
'Professional agitators' is what we call them. 
Their entire goal is to come here and wreak havoc.

138
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:37,040
and targeted repression.

139
00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:43,149
Man. They were not playin.

140
00:09:43,149 --> 00:09:44,240
Fuck.

141
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,600
This is pushing the struggle in 
the US in a dangerous direction.

142
00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:52,240
Many on both the left and the right have 
raised the specter of a second civil war  

143
00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:57,120
as a potential outcome to the current state of 
extreme political polarization in the country.

144
00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,240
Recent events will only encourage this trend.

145
00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,840
Because believe me, once the veneer of 
civilization peels off, and once the shooting  

146
00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:09,360
war starts, there's been a lot of Santa Clauses 
that have been makin lists and checkin it twice.

147
00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:14,480
Whoah hey, how's it going. Packin' 
heat. That's pretty hardcore man.

148
00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:17,920
Chances are you may never have 
heard of a three percenter.

149
00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:21,920
A group called boogaloo believes 
there's an impending civil war.

150
00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,160
I would argue we're in a new civil war.

151
00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:27,600
The question is, who exactly 
do they plan on fighting?

152
00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,000
Whether or not this actually comes to pass,  

153
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:35,120
the growing political divide is certainly being 
exploited by Donald Trump, who is intentionally  

154
00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:39,840
fanning the flames of urban unrest in an 
effort to win over white suburban voters

155
00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:41,760
left-wing anarchy and mayhem

156
00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:43,760
rioting, looting, arson

157
00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:44,800
no one will be safe

158
00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:50,800
They will apply their disastrous policies 
to every city, town and suburb in America.

159
00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,880
even as he warns the upcoming 
election is being fixed.

160
00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:56,480
It'll be fixed it'll be rigged.

161
00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,120
There's a lot of fraudulent 
voting going on in this country.

162
00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,560
No fraud? No fraud, really? Why don't 
you take a look all over the country?

163
00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:07,680
Elections are one of the primary means by which 
democratic states maintain their legitimacy,  

164
00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:10,400
and recuperate threats to their ruling classes.

165
00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:16,080
With trump making it clear that he is not 
likely to accept a Joe Biden victory in November

166
00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:19,600
I will totally accept the results...

167
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:21,520
if I win!

168
00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:41,840
the 2020 election could well usher in a political 
crisis like nothing before seen in US history.

169
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,040
stand back and stand by.

170
00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,880
Disputed elections are often 
catalysts for broader social ruptures.

171
00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:55,840
Just look at the situation in Belarus.

172
00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,640
Belarus is a former Soviet 
Republic, commonly referred to  

173
00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,360
in the west as Europe's last dictatorship.

174
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:18,880
It depends on taste.

175
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:24,720
Its strongman president is Alexander 
Lukashenko, who some viewers may recognize  

176
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:29,920
from that strange video that IRPGF fighters 
in Northern Syria put out a few years ago.

177
00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:37,840
Alexander Lukashenko, we are 
setting our sights on you.

178
00:12:38,560 --> 00:12:43,920
Or perhaps from his meeting with 
washed-up 1990s action hero Steven Seagal,  

179
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:48,560
in which the star of such blockbuster 
hits as Under Siege and Hard to Kill  

180
00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:53,440
was gifted a pair of Belarusian pajamas, 
and a sampling of locally grown produce.

181
00:12:57,800 --> 00:12:58,800
Nice.

182
00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,000
Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years,  

183
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:06,080
and it's clear that the majority of people 
in Belarus have had enough of his rule.

184
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,880
The chants to mark the occasion of his 
66th birthday: happy birthday you rat.

185
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,360
Popular sentiment has only hardened since 
the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,  

186
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:22,160
particularly after Lukashenko downplayed 
the severity of the crisis, suggesting that  

187
00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:27,520
Belarusians could avoid the virus by drinking 
vodka, hitting the sauna, and doing farm work.

188
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,520
Faced with the incompetence of the 
state, residents of Belarus began  

189
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:42,720
setting up mutual aid networks to help 
fight the spread of COVID-19 themselves.

190
00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:48,000
This practice ramped up in June, when raw 
sewage leaked into the water system in Minsk

191
00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:52,240
leaving half of the state's capital 
without access to clean water.

192
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:53,680
A full glass of shit!

193
00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:01,440
The august 9th election took 
place within a context of  

194
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,400
growing discontent and popular mobilization.

195
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,840
And so when Lukashenko 
inexplicably ended up with 80%  

196
00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,640
of the votes, people were 
ready to take to the streets.

197
00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:18,560
Demonstrations erupted in 33 cities across the 
country, with over 50 000 people taking part,  

198
00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:22,400
many building barricades and clashing 
with the OMAN - an elite branch of  

199
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,360
the security forces tasked with riot suppression.

200
00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,840
Lukashenko responded by 
attempting to block the internet.

201
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:34,640
Hey what the fuck!?

202
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:36,640
This strategy backfired.

203
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,720
Not only did it bring more people out 
to the streets to see what was going on,  

204
00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,880
but activists soon began spreading 
information about how to use VPNs  

205
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:49,600
and encrypted messaging applications to 
bypass state sensors, opening up channels  

206
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:54,320
of information and communication that many 
residents had never had access to before.

207
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,880
In response to the latest escalation of violence,  

208
00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:02,320
an online messaging channel with more than 2 
million subscribers published a list of names,  

209
00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:06,320
birthdays and addresses of more 
than 1 000 police officers.

210
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:09,840
In the weeks since the election 
momentum has continued to grow.

211
00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:16,160
Despite the regime conducting mass arrests, 
torture, and disappearances, weekly demonstrations  

212
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:20,320
of more than a hundred thousand people have 
become a recurring feature, with throngs of  

213
00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:25,280
protesters waving the old red and white flag of 
the former Belarus National Republic, which has  

214
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:31,200
long served as a symbol of opposition first to 
the Soviet Union, and later to Lukashenko's rule.

215
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:36,160
Ultimately the fate of Lukashenko's 
regime largely rests on Vladimir Putin.

216
00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:41,040
The Russian President has promised Lukashenko that 
he would dispatch additional police if needed,  

217
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,960
and recently provided his 
government with a $1.5 billion loan.

218
00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,000
However, Putin apparently distrusts his Belarusian  

219
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,480
counterpart, and wants to avoid adding an 
anti-Russian dimension to these protests.  

220
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:58,400
So it remains to be seen what sort of 
moves he will make in the coming weeks.

221
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,360
To learn more about the situation in Belarus,  

222
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:11,440
I recently caught up with "Maria", 
an anarchist based in Minsk.

223
00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:13,200
Hey Maria, how's it going?

224
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:19,520
Well I'm at home today, uh because I have some 
some job for tomorrow, so I can't be detained.

225
00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:24,000
Bosses hate when you get detained 
as part of a national uprising.

226
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,400
Uhhhh.. yeah.

227
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:31,520
What was life like in Belarus under the 
Lukashenko regime before these latest protests?

228
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:35,680
The problem with Belarus is that 
it's a relatively new country,  

229
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:40,720
that only appeared after the 
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

230
00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:49,280
And for three years after that collapse it used 
to be a parliamentary republic, and in 1994  

231
00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,840
that was actually the first elections that were  

232
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,680
claimed to be democratic by the 
west and all the other countries.

233
00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:58,800
So they were acknowledged.

234
00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:06,400
After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was a 
lot of economical issues. Lukashenko was promising  

235
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:13,200
to put it all under control and to 
combine, let's say, the best Soviet  

236
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:18,080
practices with the adaptations to 
the new world. This is how he won.

237
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:24,640
Year by year, he started to strengthen 
his authority in the country.

238
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,800
So he changed the constitution.

239
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:32,880
He abolished the limit on the number of 
terms that one person could be a president.

240
00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:40,000
So for the moment it's his sixth term. 
So he ran for these elections as well,  

241
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:46,880
and allegedly he won it, but of course 
nobody believes in the elections.

242
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,880
I think in the last four elections, 
people either didn't vote  

243
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:55,600
or they would understand that most of 
the time the elections are falsified.

244
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,520
But i think the biggest problem with this society  

245
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:06,560
before this year was that it was actually a little 
bit like a unwritten social contract, so to say.  

246
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:12,160
Like Lukashenko said "okay, you can live 
your lives. You can survive somehow. 

247
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:19,920
I'm going to grant you basic social services, 
if you're not going to deal with politics."

248
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:23,200
Could you describe what the state 
security services look like in  

249
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:27,360
Belarus? What sorts of tactics have 
they been using against protesters?

250
00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:36,400
There is KGB, which is the special service, 
like the national security service or something.

251
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,600
And it retains the name from the Soviet Union.

252
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:44,000
So the KGB actually deals with how - 
it has, of course, it has different  

253
00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:51,120
departments. Like some of the investigation and 
some of the political police. Basically they say  

254
00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:58,720
that there is always a person from the KGB 
that has control over every state-run business  

255
00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:05,840
or university or school, or of course 
general businesses and even NGOs.

256
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:11,520
So basically, there's always one person 
who is associated with the structure.

257
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:15,440
And whenever you do something wrong, 
they could potentially talk to you.

258
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:19,040
Or like, they just identify that 
they're there, they're watching,  

259
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,240
and you're going to have bigger 
problems if you continue.

260
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:29,200
So it's not like people are getting grabbed 
in the streets and put behind KGB prison.

261
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,560
It's not like that. It's 
more like soft repression.

262
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:36,240
It's more like showing people that 
they are controlled and surveilled,  

263
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,240
so either they threaten you with the 
fact that you're going to lose your job.

264
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,600
If you're a student they say your 
parents are going to lose their job,  

265
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,000
and you're going to lose 
the place at the university.  

266
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:51,680
So they find a way to threaten you, and 
i think it works well for many people.

267
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:57,280
For the bigger population the repression is 
not there until they come close to politics.

268
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,000
You should understand that this is not USSR.

269
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,520
Like people are not afraid all 
the time, it's not like that.

270
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:08,320
But it's only because people don't care about 
politics, and they just live their lives.

271
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:13,840
They get their salaries, and they go to 
entertainment centers to to have leisure time.

272
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:20,960
This is what Lukashenko wants them to do. And 
basically as soon as you become more active  

273
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:25,280
or show political initiatives you're 
going to have these conversations  

274
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,840
with the authorities - like with the services.

275
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:32,880
What is the composition of the uprising in 
Belarus and how is the movement organized?

276
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:39,200
I've been in a political movement for 15 years 
now, and I have seen all the brutality of the  

277
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:44,800
police, and the repression, and the falsification 
of elections, and so on, for a long time.

278
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:52,400
And suddenly this year, many people started seeing 
it. Although it's been there for ages, you know?

279
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,880
So people started protesting actually 
two months before the election,  

280
00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:02,960
but of course these protests were quite 
small and not so many people were detained.

281
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,720
And actually you should understand that 
many people started protesting for the  

282
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:12,480
first time in their life this year. And 
we don't have any kind of protest culture.

283
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:20,800
And the protest is kind of self-organized, 
because the protest does not have any politicians  

284
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:24,240
who are leading them. Who are standing in 
front of the crowd and talking to them.

285
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:31,120
Of course people are coordinated by some 
telegram channels, but it doesn't mean that they  

286
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,640
have to follow what these channels are suggesting.

287
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:40,400
As long as these channels are suggesting something 
that people like to do, they are successful.

288
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,160
But at the same time, the 
process is so spontaneous,  

289
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:48,160
it's so so self-organized, 
that you cannot really plan.

290
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,920
Like you come to a protest 
with one type of leaflets,  

291
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,200
but you understand that you should 
have taken a molotov, you know?

292
00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:00,320
Neighbors have started to talk to each 
other. They have started to organize  

293
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:05,920
small parties in the yard. And I think this 
is something very important in terms of the  

294
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:10,240
atomization of them, of the population in 
general. The people never did it before.

295
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:16,880
And people started to coordinate that they would 
go together from one quarter to the protest.

296
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:22,480
So they formed protest crowds, 
and they marched together from the  

297
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,240
outskirts to the center, which 
has never happened before.

298
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:31,840
How are anarchists in the country involved in 
the protests? And where do you see things headed?

299
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:38,080
We all knew that Lukashenko will not step down so 
easily, but we didn't expect the protests to go  

300
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:43,920
so massive, and to go so different 
from what we experienced before.

301
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:50,400
And I think what anarchists, and I personally 
are experiencing at the moment is that  

302
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,080
it's a little bit of an euphoria. 
Because it looks like there are a  

303
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:58,720
lot of practices of self-organization 
that have worked and have emerged.

304
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,440
I'm sure Lukashenko will not leave  

305
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,840
soon, because most protesters 
decided to take a peaceful form only.

306
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:16,240
And i think the goal at the moment is try to 
use the potential that the process offers,  

307
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:23,920
and use the space that opens up and try to create 
the structures or to attract people who have not  

308
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:32,880
been active before. To attract them to the ideas 
of anarchism. To identify potential allies, maybe.

309
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,680
To work more with the neighborhood committees,  

310
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:41,200
or try to teach people how to facilitate 
meetings or take decisions horizontally.

311
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:46,240
So basically, try to use our competencies 
that only anarchists could provide  

312
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:53,200
in order to spread the ideas of anarchism. 
Not the ideas, but the practices.

313
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,160
Thanks Maria.

314
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,440
We've now reached the end of 
this episode of System Fail.

315
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,000
Over the course of the Belarusian uprising,  

316
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,800
thousands of people have 
been detained and arrested.

317
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,800
Anarchists and anti-fascists 
are facing serious repression,  

318
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:10,720
with several comrades facing the 
prospect of long prison sentences.

319
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:12,800
To find out how you can support them,  

320
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:18,000
check out the Belarus Anarchist 
Black Cross at abc-belarus.org.

321
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:23,360
As you may have heard, my fellow AI-powered 
automaton, Mark Zuckerberg, recently purged  

322
00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:29,040
dozens of anarchist and anti-fascist pages from 
his corporate surveillance platform Facebook.

323
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,960
In response, subMedia and our 
comrades at Kolektiva have launched  

324
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,840
a new independently-hosted Mastodon instance.

325
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,400
Check it out at kolektiva.social.

326
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,080
To support subMedia, consider 
making a one-time donation,  

327
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:46,480
or signing up to be a monthly 
sustainer at sub.media/donate.

328
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:51,360
You can also support us by buying some 
of our merchandise at sub.media/gear.

329
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:54,240
Be sure and follow us on 
your corporate data-mining  

330
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,120
platform of choice. Just search for subMedia.

331
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:00,640
Or better yet, sign up to our 
mailing list and get every new  

332
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,200
episode delivered directly to your inbox.

333
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:04,640
Godspeed humans.