0:00:03 > 0:00:10This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14I'm Kirsty Wark and tonight you're joining me to watch a special
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and unusual show at the Young Vic Theatre in London.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21It's been created as part of a strand of programmes called
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Performance Live,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27which, over the next few years, will bring a spectrum of innovative
0:00:27 > 0:00:29performances to the small screen
0:00:29 > 0:00:32produced by some of today's most exciting artists.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Art holds up a mirror to the world,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38and right now, many artists working in different
0:00:38 > 0:00:42forms are responding to global political events.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45In this case, the Young Vic have teamed up with Paul Mason,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49who has written a new play about global revolution
0:00:49 > 0:00:51based on his book Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Now, while Paul is familiar to television
0:00:55 > 0:00:57audiences as a journalist and commentator,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01tonight we'll see him as a performer as he tells his
0:01:01 > 0:01:05story of the last five tumultuous years in world history
0:01:05 > 0:01:08through the events that he himself witnessed
0:01:08 > 0:01:09and the people that he met.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13From the outset, expect strong personal opinion and language
0:01:13 > 0:01:18as well as film images that some might find upsetting.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19Let's go inside.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25APPLAUSE
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Bertolt Brecht said theatre should be like a man who's seen
0:01:38 > 0:01:42a car crash and has to explain what happened to the bystanders.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Now, sometimes he has to act it out, like, "The driver pulled the wheel
0:01:47 > 0:01:50"head hit the windscreen, blood everywhere."
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But sometimes he's got to be clinically objective,
0:01:53 > 0:01:58like, "The Audi was approaching the junction at 30mph."
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Well...
0:02:00 > 0:02:01I've seen a car crash.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04A global car crash.
0:02:04 > 0:02:05You're in it.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07I've reported it as a TV journalist
0:02:07 > 0:02:10but now I want to tell the story in a different way.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14I want to tell the story as I saw it.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18I want to tell it as if everybody's life depended on it, including mine.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23And what I want to ask is how did we get from a mass outbreak
0:02:23 > 0:02:27of global protest and hope and optimism
0:02:27 > 0:02:28to Donald Trump?
0:02:28 > 0:02:30TITTERING
0:02:32 > 0:02:38In 2011, all over the world, wave after wave of protest broke out
0:02:38 > 0:02:41in place after place and this was a new kind of protest.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45For me, it started in London in January 2011,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48after the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia
0:02:48 > 0:02:51but before we had any idea what would happen next.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Some protesters had occupied an 18th-century townhouse
0:02:57 > 0:02:59and they invited me to come and give them a lecture
0:02:59 > 0:03:01about the Paris Commune,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04because they'd organised an ad hoc university inside
0:03:04 > 0:03:07and they called it the Really Free School.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12This is the hard-core of the student protest movement,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15veteran eco-warriors,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18people who sit down in front of tanks in Gaza
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and, as one of them put it to me, the situationist Taliban.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30What I want you to understand is the revolution you dream about
0:03:30 > 0:03:31has happened once before.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35This is Paris in 1871.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38But everything outside the blue line is new.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Who do we think lives there?
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Hm? The poor.
0:03:42 > 0:03:48The poor, the migrants and people like you, a danger to society.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Right, I want to tell the story through the eyes of an activist
0:03:51 > 0:03:54called Louise Michel -
0:03:54 > 0:03:59schoolteacher, slum-dweller, feminist,
0:03:59 > 0:04:00cross-dresser
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and violent revolutionary.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07She's part of this intense network of underground activity
0:04:07 > 0:04:10we now know existed in Paris
0:04:10 > 0:04:13under the dictatorship of Emperor Louis-Napoleon.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Right, France goes to war with Germany in 1870
0:04:18 > 0:04:23and the Emperor decides to lead the troops into battle personally.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25This turns out to be a very bad idea
0:04:25 > 0:04:27because he gets captured
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and the next day France is a republic.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32So now it's led by liberals.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38The problem is the German Army is too strong.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40Paris is surrounded
0:04:40 > 0:04:44and eventually this wonderful new liberal government surrenders.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46But...
0:04:47 > 0:04:50..the workers of Paris don't want to surrender.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52They build barricades,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54they take control.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03During the Commune...
0:05:03 > 0:05:08hundreds of thousands of people tried to live in a new way.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13We refused hierarchy.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Refused to replace one kind of power with another.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23We lived in the streets.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Everybody was connected to everybody.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30From every part of the city, we found each other,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33we recognised each other.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37We formed a women's union.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42We turned the churches into revolutionary clubs.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45We said, "Marriage is humanity's greatest crime."
0:05:46 > 0:05:49We switched off the voice in our head, the voice of the elite,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51telling us, "Behave, behave."
0:05:51 > 0:05:53We fought.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54There was a mass outbreak of promiscuity
0:05:54 > 0:05:56because we chased away all the priests.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Freedom for women.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Freedom for children.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Freedom for prostitutes!
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Do you want to know how it ends?
0:06:06 > 0:06:07Hm?
0:06:08 > 0:06:09It ends badly.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14So after about two months,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17the French army retook Paris
0:06:17 > 0:06:18and then they killed...
0:06:20 > 0:06:23..30,000 people in a single week.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Mainly civilians.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33They understood instinctively that everything I said
0:06:33 > 0:06:37about the Commune was really about the events that were now unfolding.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And I'm thinking, "Shit, that's interesting."
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Because I grew up in a working-class town,
0:06:46 > 0:06:51a bit like that. It's not exactly my house, but a bit like that.
0:06:51 > 0:06:52We didn't refuse hierarchy.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54We loved hierarchy.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Everything you achieved was done through organisation.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00We wanted to replace one power with another power.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02But I'd seen the unions fight and fail
0:07:02 > 0:07:06and that whole working-class culture get smashed to pieces.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13And after that, for about 20 years, there is no ghost.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16There's no spectre of the revolution haunting the elite
0:07:16 > 0:07:19with the possibility that it'll all happen again.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22This...
0:07:23 > 0:07:25This is a revolution.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27It's a revolution of the self.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Young people we thought were self-obsessed,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34you know, there brains trapped between two white earbuds,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36they're fighting back.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41And sure, just like the 19th and 18th-century revolutionaries,
0:07:41 > 0:07:42the Jacobins,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46they are young, they are poor, they are angry.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48They live in the modern equivalent of the garret
0:07:48 > 0:07:50and they too write appalling poetry.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56But these are Jacobins with a laptop
0:07:56 > 0:07:58and a smartphone.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00And as we spoke,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02they seemed a bit distracted.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04And I worked out why.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09They were tweeting the whole conversation to their friends
0:08:09 > 0:08:12everywhere on the planet.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25HORNS HONK
0:08:26 > 0:08:32January the 25th 2011, protesters, mobilised via the internet,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34take control of Tahrir Square.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Now, because who controls Tahrir controls Egypt,
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44on the night of the 27th, shuts down the internet
0:08:44 > 0:08:46and the mobile phone network.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51And so the network takes to the streets.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56THEY CHANT
0:08:59 > 0:09:03If you are shouting, "Down with Hosni Mubarak," in the slums,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05nobody really cares.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09They care about food and shelter.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10So we chant,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12"How expensive is bread?
0:09:12 > 0:09:14"How expensive is sugar?
0:09:14 > 0:09:16"Why do you have to sell your furniture?"
0:09:16 > 0:09:18And people joined in.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22I thought it would be a demonstration,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26I had no idea it would be a revolution.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Two men came to our slum.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30We didn't know them.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33They said, "Come, make a demonstration with us,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36"with the people in Tahrir Square."
0:09:36 > 0:09:37One was Muslim,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40but one Christian, like me.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44They joined their hands together, one hand.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48You know, we went by car, ten or 20 cars,
0:09:48 > 0:09:54and when we got there, we realised our goal was possible -
0:09:54 > 0:09:56to make a revolution and to get freedom.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00At first when we got to the slums, we had to walk in twos.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03This was my first protest so I didn't know the reason,
0:10:03 > 0:10:07but they said that, under the emergency laws,
0:10:07 > 0:10:12more than two people together is a meeting, which is illegal.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13Someone started chanting.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19All of a sudden, I saw people pouring into the alleyways,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23everybody was holding up their phone filming what was going on.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28You know, we were about 200 people in this tiny street.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31People came onto the balconies to see what was happening.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33And that's when it hit me.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Someone who knows nothing about history,
0:10:36 > 0:10:41nothing about freedom in Egypt and how it's been suppressed.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44You see all these people around you chanting the same thing,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46the same thing.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48It triggers something in your mind.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52I saw people running towards the police,
0:10:52 > 0:10:54hurling bricks at them and...
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Wow. You know, the normal scenario would be for them to run away.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03I said, "Mother...
0:11:03 > 0:11:08"I am not myself. I am somebody new that was born today."
0:11:09 > 0:11:11My whole life is football.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13I support Al Ahly.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14You know what that means?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Greatest football club in the world!
0:11:17 > 0:11:18That's our banner!
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Anyway, some people from the club, they told us,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24"These protesters are all traitors, foreigners, queers."
0:11:24 > 0:11:28They said, "Go down there and do something about it."
0:11:28 > 0:11:31But when we go to Tahrir Square, they cheered us.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33You know, we hate the media.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37And more than the media, we hate FIFA, and more than FIFA,
0:11:37 > 0:11:38we hate the police.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43And they were fighting the police before we even got there!
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Some of them don't even go to the football!
0:11:46 > 0:11:50We became part of them and we chanted,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54"Ash-sha'b yurid isqat an-nizam!"
0:11:54 > 0:11:58THEY CHANT: 'ASH-SH'B YURID ISQAT AN-NIZAM'
0:12:26 > 0:12:31Some people actually thought it had been caused by Facebook.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Mubarak switched off Facebook.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Oh, my God! My God! Get over it.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39LAUGHTER
0:12:39 > 0:12:41But he still got overthrown.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48In fact, it's about an old hierarchy facing a new,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51young, networked generation,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and everywhere it's the same thing.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57They can't stand the elite that rules them, they can't stand
0:12:57 > 0:13:01the economic crisis and they can't stand being poor.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03And then...
0:13:03 > 0:13:04it happens in Libya.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10And who knew, Libya, on the streets people would connect like this?
0:13:10 > 0:13:14And then Syria, where it starts with small demonstrations
0:13:14 > 0:13:15and graffiti.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18And then Bahrain and then...
0:13:20 > 0:13:22..Madison, Wisconsin, in the States,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24where they take over the government building
0:13:24 > 0:13:26and people hold up signs saying,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29"From Madison to Cairo."
0:13:29 > 0:13:31And then it kicks off massively in Spain.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36In Madrid, the moment of truth came.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40When, all of a sudden, people started walking
0:13:40 > 0:13:41towards the police...
0:13:42 > 0:13:44..and just sat down in front of them.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50New ideas began to circulate like, why don't we just stay?
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Or, look, this is what they did in Egypt.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57Or we, too, need to occupy a square.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59And we, the journalists in the newsroom, we're going,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01"What kind of revolution is this?"
0:14:02 > 0:14:07"Is it like Russia? And if it's gonna be like Russia, is it 1905
0:14:07 > 0:14:10"when they lose, or is it 1917 when they win?"
0:14:16 > 0:14:21June 2011 and in Athens they take over Syntagma Square,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23right opposite the parliament.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26And they set up a tent camp.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Normally, this would just be the Left, the Communist Party,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31with its crash helmets and its banners.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34But this time it's different. This time, it's everybody.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Yes, yes, yes!
0:14:36 > 0:14:39In Athens, it's not just happening in the tent camps.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44All over the city, ordinary people are taking over road tolls.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47They are exerting the barriers open
0:14:47 > 0:14:49so people can drive through for free.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Or they were going into the magistrates courts.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55I went with them, I filmed them, I saw them.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58They'd go into the magistrates courts, where people are trying
0:14:58 > 0:15:02to sell off homes that have been repossessed,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and they'd just disrupt the proceedings en masse.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09What they're doing is to make the whole city ungovernable.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Because this new form of organisation allows you to
0:15:12 > 0:15:16go around the official structures, sometimes to ignore them,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and sometimes even to replace them.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33At night, in the tent camp, they would hold an assembly,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35would go quiet.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39And to decide who gets to speak, they would use a method
0:15:39 > 0:15:42from the Ancient Agora of Athens, 800 BC,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44which is to draw lots.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Because in this kind of democracy, everybody is equal.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52We are building a different kind of democracy.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56A direct democracy. We don't need parliament, we don't need MPs,
0:15:56 > 0:15:58we don't need parties.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Look, look what we've got.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02In my whole life, I never saw this.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04We are all here.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08The networks of the people will decide everything.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11And the anarchists, their eyes are lit up.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Because, for three years, they've been in the squats and the slums
0:16:13 > 0:16:17of Athens fighting the cops, rioting, doing the anti-fascist work
0:16:17 > 0:16:22and they've realised this thing changes the whole dynamic.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25It's regime change of the mind.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28In people's minds, the regime is already gone.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Not just the prime minister, Papandreou,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34but the whole corrupt mainstream party system.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36Do you have any idea what is happening to us? To us?
0:16:36 > 0:16:40But if you ask 50 people what's going to happen next, you're going
0:16:40 > 0:16:42to get 50 different answers.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44OK, back to me, please, to me.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47All the media, all the newspapers, all the television in Greece
0:16:47 > 0:16:49belongs to millionaires.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52They're all lined up with the forces, ripped off our country
0:16:52 > 0:16:54and we feel total hostility to them.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Hey! Zionist media!
0:16:57 > 0:16:59We don't want you here. OK, please, listen to me.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02You have to let me make this point. Hey, I said, stop!
0:17:02 > 0:17:05You have to let make this point! I am 59 years old.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08If Greece dies, Europe dies, America dies, we all die.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Hey! None of us who have been here can ever go back!
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Don't you want me to tell your story to the world?
0:17:14 > 0:17:16No, it's too late for that.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19What you do doesn't matter to us.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23We will tell our story for ourselves.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32And, in journalism, that is known as a Heart Of Darkness moment.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37But I've still got to go on camera.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41And in one ear, I've got the anarchists and the nationalists,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43and in the other ear, I've got people close
0:17:43 > 0:17:45to the German government and they are panicking.
0:17:47 > 0:17:48Paul, this is urgent.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Can the Greek government hold?
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Because honestly, Paul, if they can't,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55then the euro is gone to hell.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59So I turned to the camera and I said...
0:17:59 > 0:18:02What's going on here is not just a problem for the riot police
0:18:02 > 0:18:03and the Greek government,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06this is the front line of the world's financial system.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25From now on, there's a kind of rolling financial
0:18:25 > 0:18:27and economic crisis.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Spain's banks go bust, Portugal is bust,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Ireland is bust several times over.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37To save the banks, the European Central Bank orders
0:18:37 > 0:18:40massive spending cuts all across the periphery of Europe.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The Greek economy collapses.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48In Spain, youth unemployment rises to 25%.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53In Greece, it rises to 50%.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Now, all this is being done to save the banks.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Effectively, to save Wall Street.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04And so, in September 2011, people occupy Wall Street.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07People, by now, completely at home with this new kind of protest.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09It was heroic, really.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13"Screw you, we're not gonna play your game of demands,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15"we haven't got any demands."
0:19:15 > 0:19:18Because they had understood that if you can take hold of a place
0:19:18 > 0:19:22and occupy it and stay in it for five days, maybe ten,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26that could be more important than taking power
0:19:26 > 0:19:31or storming the Bastille or even winning an election, because...
0:19:33 > 0:19:37..A, it scares the crap out of the elite,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41and B, it creates a power inside you that never goes away.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45HELICOPTER WHIRRS AND SIREN BLARES
0:19:46 > 0:19:48What are you doing up there?
0:19:48 > 0:19:51I don't have time for you, man! There's 3,000 people on the bridge
0:19:51 > 0:19:54right now. Oh, man, come on, we got a couple of minutes, let's go!
0:19:54 > 0:19:56Gimme the screwdriver. Let's go. Here.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58And the blue tape. Here. The blue tape, man!
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Oh, man, come on, come on, come on!
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Look, they're coming. You gotta hurry up, let's go.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04All right, all right. We gotta get this fixed.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Where is that guy? So...
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Here below, you got Brooklyn Bridge, and over there,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12you got those class A tax avoiders, Verizon.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Hey, it's not working, man, it's not working! Shit!
0:20:14 > 0:20:15Listen, listen, listen.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18I know you don't have much time and I know you don't have any
0:20:18 > 0:20:21demands, but my editor's asked me to come here and ask you -
0:20:21 > 0:20:23what are your demands?
0:20:23 > 0:20:25You wanna know what our demands are? Yes.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Where are you from? British television.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30All right, basically, I'll keep it simple.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34A bunch of people shared their stories on Tumblr.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37People read them and figured, we're all going through the same shit.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41We're gonna occupy. What do you do? I mean, what is your job?
0:20:41 > 0:20:46I'm a single mom, I'm a grad student and I'm unemployed.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51You know, last year I paid more tax than General Electric.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56Man, they bailed out the 1%, they fucked the 99%.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00But, you know what, we're taking our future into our own hands.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01Here we go, here we go!
0:21:01 > 0:21:03And...
0:21:03 > 0:21:04Boom!
0:21:04 > 0:21:06CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Yeah! Yes!
0:21:09 > 0:21:10Yes!
0:21:12 > 0:21:13All right!
0:21:13 > 0:21:14BOTH: Mic check!
0:21:14 > 0:21:16AUDIENCE: Mic check!
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Look around!
0:21:19 > 0:21:21You are a part...
0:21:21 > 0:21:23You are a part...
0:21:23 > 0:21:25..of a global uprising.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28..of a global uprising.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30We are a cry...
0:21:30 > 0:21:32We are a cry...
0:21:32 > 0:21:35..from the heart... ..from the heart...
0:21:35 > 0:21:37..of the world!
0:21:37 > 0:21:39..of the world!
0:21:39 > 0:21:43We are unstoppable, another world is possible!
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Go!
0:21:45 > 0:21:49We are unstoppable, another world is possible!
0:21:49 > 0:21:50Again!
0:21:50 > 0:21:55We are unstoppable, another world is possible!
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Thing is, man, 99% -
0:22:00 > 0:22:03this reads as the Bat symbol.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05It's culturally legible.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10It's a call to arms, a distress call from Gotham City.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13But instead of a superhero millionaire psychopath
0:22:13 > 0:22:17like Bruce Wayne, Batman coming to our rescue,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19we've only got ourselves.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24It's the 99% coming to save itself.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26There is no Batman, dude!
0:22:26 > 0:22:28The superhero's who's gonna save us...
0:22:30 > 0:22:31..is us.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33SIREN BLARES
0:22:33 > 0:22:34Now, that's impressive.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37To think it through like that, to say,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40"I know what's happening in the history I'm living through."
0:22:42 > 0:22:44But do you really think it's unstoppable?
0:23:08 > 0:23:12So I'm in a riot in Athens, and, as you do in a riot in Athens,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I'm trying to have coffee with a contact.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19And this is a key activist in the Syriza party,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21that's the far-left.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24They've been nowhere for years, but now, because of this,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26they're doing really well in the polls.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37Hard as nails, been in politics for years, same generation as me,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41read all the books - Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and she says...
0:23:41 > 0:23:43We can't put up with austerity much longer!
0:23:48 > 0:23:50People can't live like this.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59We need a voice the German government will listen to,
0:23:59 > 0:24:01someone above the political system,
0:24:01 > 0:24:05someone like Jaques Chirac or Kirchner in Argentina.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09A figure from the ruling class who actually understands.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Austerity is going to kill Europe.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Someone to step in, to just call a halt.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19And I said to her, "Don't you realise it's going to be you?"
0:24:19 > 0:24:22There was a weird moment, she looked at me.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24I said, "Don't you realise it's going to be Syriza,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26"it's going to be you."
0:24:27 > 0:24:31I told my bosses, "Look, the Greek far-left is going
0:24:31 > 0:24:34"to win an election. And with all this energy behind them,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38"they'll take on Europe, and then, as we call it in macroeconomics,
0:24:38 > 0:24:39"the euro will go to shit."
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Oh, come on, Paul, it was hardly the entire population of Athens
0:24:46 > 0:24:48on the streets, was it? And certainly not the entire
0:24:48 > 0:24:51population of Greece. But if people are, as you say,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55in such numbers losing faith, where does that lead?
0:24:57 > 0:25:02My editor said to me, "Paul, we think you need to get out of Athens
0:25:02 > 0:25:04"and go somewhere normal."
0:25:06 > 0:25:09BELL RINGS
0:25:16 > 0:25:18I'm not seeing any election posters.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20It's a nice place.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24People are actually moving here from the city.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27It's deep Greece, real Greece.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29We should have gone to the village with the election posters.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Oh, come on.
0:25:32 > 0:25:33Look, come.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41THEY SPEAK GREEK
0:25:41 > 0:25:42English television.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45We're doing a report about the election...
0:25:45 > 0:25:47SHE SPEAKS GREEK
0:25:47 > 0:25:49You know Greek? A little.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Please, we only have two chairs.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54The bank foreclosed on the other one.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56LAUGHTER
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Why you come here? GPS go wrong?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Good thing about Greece, the sunshine is free.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05They haven't sold it to China yet.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07What party do you support?
0:26:09 > 0:26:10Listen, miss...
0:26:10 > 0:26:15for 20 years in this village, no election campaign.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Vote PASOK every time.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20PASOK is the mainstream socialist party.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Cows come home from milking.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25When sun goes down, people go to elections for milking by PASOK.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28But now...
0:26:29 > 0:26:30..all shops are closed.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36I make just money enough to pay taxes and stay out of jail.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41We had enough. What's the problem with PASOK?
0:26:42 > 0:26:44Problem not PASOK.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47Problem is octopus.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Octopus has eight legs, yes?
0:26:51 > 0:26:53You know what octopus does?
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Always, it is sucking.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Sucking your blood.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59Look.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Octopus is Goldman Sachs.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06World's most powerful investment bank.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Deep Greece, yeah?
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Press your red button and roll on this.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Sir, have a seat.
0:27:15 > 0:27:16Please continue.
0:27:18 > 0:27:19Listen.
0:27:21 > 0:27:272001, Goldman Sachs gives Greece secret loan.
0:27:27 > 0:27:302.8 billion.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Loan goes bad.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Now Greece owes five billion.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39Wall Street goes bust, Goldman Sachs bailed out.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Greece goes bust, European Central Bank tells Greece -
0:27:44 > 0:27:48cut wages, cut pensions, cut hospitals!
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Who is boss of European Central Bank?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Mario Draghi.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01Who was boss of Goldman Sachs international division 2002 to 2005?
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Mario Draghi.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06But Draghi wasn't there when the loan was made... Oh, come on!
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Look, let me just ask you one thing.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10Golden Dawn.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Golden Dawn is the neo-fascist party.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15What do you think of Golden Dawn?
0:28:16 > 0:28:18You see this wall?
0:28:20 > 0:28:251944, my grandma, she captured Nazi officer,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29hang him from this hook, takes knife and...
0:28:32 > 0:28:34What would your grandma think of Greece today?
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Yeah, listen, have you got any old photos of Grandma?
0:28:37 > 0:28:40We could maybe film you looking at them... Photographs!
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Grandma!
0:28:42 > 0:28:44LAUGHTER Come here!
0:28:54 > 0:29:00The Germans came to this village in 1941 to kill us.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04Now the Germans tell us our pensions must be cut in half.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09Aged 94, I earn more than my grandchildren.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14The mountains are howling with Greek blood.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20Every Easter for 1,000 years, we roast lamb.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Next year, if we have to, we take a loaf of bread, baste it
0:29:24 > 0:29:27in olive oil, oregano, we roast that.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31But surrender to Germany?
0:29:31 > 0:29:33European Central Bank, IMF?
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Never.
0:29:36 > 0:29:37Never!
0:29:37 > 0:29:38NEVER!
0:29:38 > 0:29:40We have to vote for him!
0:29:41 > 0:29:43For Syriza!
0:29:43 > 0:29:49For the one who says to IMF, Berlin, Brussels, ECB,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Goldman Sachs, "Fuck you!"
0:29:53 > 0:29:55The one who says...
0:29:55 > 0:29:59HE SPEAKS GREEK
0:30:03 > 0:30:07THEY BOTH CHANT IN GREEK
0:30:10 > 0:30:12BELL TOLLS
0:30:15 > 0:30:18BELL TOLLS
0:30:20 > 0:30:22BELL TOLLS
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Syriza lost the election.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28But only just.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31I was in their HQ when they heard the news.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37We lost.
0:30:37 > 0:30:38Thank God.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41We were not ready.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43And I'm thinking, not ready for what?
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Gezi Park in Istanbul.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05It's the last green space in the downtown of the city,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08so naturally the government wants to turn it into a shopping mall.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13People protest. They set up a tent camp.
0:31:14 > 0:31:1610,000 people come - and more.
0:31:18 > 0:31:19Some people drink beer.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24Some women do yoga in leotards.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Some boys put their arms around some girls.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31To them it means, "green space, not concrete,"
0:31:31 > 0:31:34or, "democracy, not autocratic rule."
0:31:37 > 0:31:42Erdogan, the prime minister, calls them "terrorists," "traitors."
0:31:42 > 0:31:44The police attack.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48People build barricades, brick by brick.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50Like we did in the commune.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Stop, stop, stay calm!
0:31:54 > 0:32:00Every football team is here! Besiktas! Fenerbahce! Galatasaray!
0:32:00 > 0:32:03You are safe! They're not coming!
0:32:03 > 0:32:07CS gas is not really gas, it's powder,
0:32:07 > 0:32:11so don't put water on your face, it only makes it worse.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Use this, does anybody want? Hey! Do you want? Where are you from?
0:32:15 > 0:32:19England. What team? What team? Man United. A-ah!
0:32:19 > 0:32:23What team are you from? Besiktas! But we're all here together.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26I thought you guys hated each other's guts.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28We do! On a normal day we'd knife each other,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32but here we are all brothers. I mean, look.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35They fire these at our faces. You want to film? Yeah.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41Listen. Everybody's here - teachers, lawyers, engineers.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46We are all Muslims, but I don't want my country to end up like Iran!
0:32:46 > 0:32:48THEY CHANT IN TURKISH
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Last week, I was walking down the street, and this religious
0:33:05 > 0:33:11asshole with a beard says to me that this is immodest!
0:33:11 > 0:33:12This!
0:33:12 > 0:33:14This is my own body!
0:33:14 > 0:33:16Listen, what are you going to do, though,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19if 50% of society hates your guts?
0:33:19 > 0:33:23What are we going to do? Yes. Watch...
0:33:25 > 0:33:27SOFT SLOW MUSIC PLAYS
0:34:22 > 0:34:25All this happened in the commune too.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27But to kill 30,000 revolutionaries,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31all you need is 10,000 idiots deluded by aristocrats and priests.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Listen, you can take your aristocrats and your priests,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and your idiots and your imams,
0:34:38 > 0:34:40but with a digital network...
0:34:40 > 0:34:43You can have all the newspapers owned by millionaires,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45you can have the TV owned by the state,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48but truth will always travel faster than lies.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50The reactionaries also have cell phones.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52What if their lies overtake your truth?
0:34:52 > 0:34:56Well, what happens then is you get two truths, yeah? Two truths.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59The true truth, and the reactionary fascist dingbat truth.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Suppose they shut the internet down?
0:35:01 > 0:35:05They do. They've just done it in Turkey, they keep trying.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07But you can't de-network people's brains.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10Look, do you think that generation is going to go back to
0:35:10 > 0:35:14a world of hierarchy and propaganda and bullshit?
0:35:14 > 0:35:17What I know is there is always another way things can go.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20Something much worse - something you thought would never return.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34In one country after another, people were offered the future -
0:35:34 > 0:35:36and they said, "No, thanks."
0:35:38 > 0:35:43So some people with power started to face a choice between democracy
0:35:43 > 0:35:47and a Rolex watch, or between the rule of law and keeping hold of your
0:35:47 > 0:35:52yacht, and some said, "I'll take the Rolex watch and the yacht, please."
0:35:54 > 0:35:58But if you don't want the future which so many people fought for
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and some even started to live,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04what you are going to get is the past.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12GIRL SINGS
0:36:17 > 0:36:22GIRL SINGS
0:36:29 > 0:36:31SUDDEN EXPLOSION
0:36:45 > 0:36:50From now on, all the hierarchical forces in the world strike back.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53In Egypt, the army overthrows the elected government,
0:36:53 > 0:36:54the Muslim Brotherhood.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Now, millions of people go on the streets to support the army,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01some because they are terrified that Egypt's going to become
0:37:01 > 0:37:03an Islamic state.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05Others because they're just exhausted by the chaos
0:37:05 > 0:37:07of the revolution.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09But the Muslim Brotherhood -
0:37:09 > 0:37:13they understand about networks and tent camps.
0:37:13 > 0:37:14And they occupy a square.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21On the 14th of August, 2013, the Egyptian army clears the square.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26817 people are killed...
0:37:28 > 0:37:29..we think.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32They weren't counting.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34According to Human Rights Watch,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38this is the biggest single mass killing of protesters in one day,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40in modern history.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47In November, 2013, the army brings in a law
0:37:47 > 0:37:48to ban all protest.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50It's called the Protest Law...
0:37:50 > 0:37:56and the students and the bloggers and the secular young people,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58who'd started the revolution,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00they call a protest against the Protest Law...
0:38:00 > 0:38:04and it lasts about five minutes.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06And some are put in jail.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09Like the blogger -
0:38:09 > 0:38:10Alaa Abdel Fattah.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19PIANO MUSIC
0:38:24 > 0:38:28In prison, I try to make up for my inactivity
0:38:28 > 0:38:30and my helplessness - by reading.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35I read, amongst other things, about autism.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Autism is a good metaphor for our condition.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45A child loses the ability to speak.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51A generation loses the ability to chant.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53The thing is, with letters from prison,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55sometimes you have to work out what they really mean.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00While I was writing, a busload of prisoners
0:39:00 > 0:39:03came from a jail where things are...bad.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10The state produced the Protest Law to use against the Brotherhood.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15But we insisted on trying it out first, with our own bodies.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18According to Amnesty International, torture
0:39:18 > 0:39:21and arbitrary detention are widespread in Egypt.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27Methods of torture include electric shocks, rape,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30cigarette burns, hanging from a door.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33We've been expecting them since the news
0:39:33 > 0:39:36of their torture was leaked into the papers.
0:39:38 > 0:39:39We tried to prepare but...
0:39:41 > 0:39:43..how do you welcome a friend
0:39:43 > 0:39:46who has been through the battle with you...
0:39:46 > 0:39:49but been through this experience alone?
0:39:51 > 0:39:52We adopt autism.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57We don't allow ourselves to connect with how they're feeling.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03We greet them with a detailed report about the facts.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06They reply with similar autism.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10With a detailed report about the torture, in a steady,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14mechanical delivery with no embarrassment,
0:40:14 > 0:40:15no concealment.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20People with autism, their problem is...
0:40:20 > 0:40:24there are hidden rules they just can't understand.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Now, in Egypt, there are hidden rules,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32a hidden constitution.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Perhaps it is a kind of autism that blinds us to this
0:40:38 > 0:40:39hidden constitution.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44A disability that makes us unable to learn
0:40:44 > 0:40:46the hidden rules by instinct.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52An autism which makes us take our own words literally
0:40:52 > 0:40:58and so believe, for example, that the revolution really continues!
0:40:59 > 0:41:04Or that the people really demand the fall of the regime.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08The blogger, Alaa Abd El-Fattah,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11remains in prison for breaking the Protest Law.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14In February 2017, when he insisted on his right
0:41:14 > 0:41:17to read books in prison, the authorities
0:41:17 > 0:41:20cancelled the right to read books for everybody in the jail.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34From about 2014, history seemed to speed up.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36As well as war and repression,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39I started to notice this attack on truth.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Large numbers of people seem to be convinced that
0:41:42 > 0:41:45objective truth itself was becoming...
0:41:45 > 0:41:46impossible.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58But it was not until December 2014
0:41:58 > 0:42:01that I sat down to write about it, on New Year's Eve.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03This is what I wrote on Facebook...
0:42:07 > 0:42:11"The whole year is stained for me by the global disorder
0:42:11 > 0:42:15"attendant on the USA's withdrawal from a world it's pre-messed up.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22"Ukraine, an authoritarian regime in Moscow,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26"half of Syria and Iraq under Isis control,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30"and my Twitter timeline full of dead bodies and refugees.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32"I'm not calling for the USA to go in and sort it out,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36"I'm just holding the whole thing up as a warning.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40"This situation is getting equally serious to the mid-1930s.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45"We are sliding towards a world of chaos and dictatorship
0:42:45 > 0:42:49"and lawlessness and violence. And the plane journeys
0:42:49 > 0:42:52"me and my colleagues are taking to get there just get shorter.
0:42:52 > 0:42:57"Meanwhile, there is a rising froth of disbelief.
0:42:57 > 0:43:03"Because, with every lie our media in America and Britain tell,
0:43:03 > 0:43:05"it just gets worse.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08"People like Sisi in Egypt and Putin in Russia
0:43:08 > 0:43:12"and Erdogan in Turkey just revel in the confusion.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15"And so, nothing is true.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18"All media are foreign spies.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20"All footage is doctored.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23"All images are Photoshopped.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26"And all outrages are expected.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30"The aim is to make journalists
0:43:30 > 0:43:32"and activists give up.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34"Because what's the point?
0:43:34 > 0:43:36"Nothing's worth the trouble or the risk
0:43:36 > 0:43:38"because you're never going to be believed."
0:43:40 > 0:43:43And yet, people go on resisting.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50In New York City, there are people in the streets protesting
0:43:50 > 0:43:54because the police choked a black man to death.
0:43:54 > 0:43:55And they're chanting.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01"I can't breathe.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03"I can't breathe."
0:44:05 > 0:44:07What I want you to consider is,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10with everything you wrote or said,
0:44:10 > 0:44:12did you help cause the car crash?
0:44:19 > 0:44:22CHEERING PLAYS
0:44:28 > 0:44:30'What will you do to the oligarchy?'
0:44:31 > 0:44:35We are going to destroy the basis upon which they have built
0:44:35 > 0:44:39for decade after decade a system, a network,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42that viciously sucks the energy
0:44:42 > 0:44:46and economic power from everybody else in society.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55BELL TOLLS
0:44:57 > 0:44:59It's midnight.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03Greece is officially bankrupt.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Cheers. ALL: Cheers. Cheers, everybody.
0:45:06 > 0:45:07Cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09I'm in a bar in Athens
0:45:09 > 0:45:12and the banks have now been closed for 11 days.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16Syriza, the left party, won the election,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20but now, they're in Brussels trying to negotiate a compromise.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Meanwhile, the European Central Bank, all they want is surrender.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27And with every hour, things get worse.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29It's like we are living under a siege.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31See how quiet it is?
0:45:31 > 0:45:35It's the same all over the city.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38If anyone has any cash left, they don't want to spend it.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Everybody needs a drink, but they are thinking,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45"Is this the last one I will ever buy?"
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Don't worry, I've got money.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Huh? Next round is on me.
0:45:51 > 0:45:52It's on me, malakas.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Look. Hey! Raki all around, huh?
0:45:56 > 0:45:57Hey!
0:45:57 > 0:45:59Handsome.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02Come, you want to go to the strip club? Huh?
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Didn't you hear,
0:46:04 > 0:46:09five euros is all it costs for a blow job now.
0:46:09 > 0:46:10SHE LAUGHS
0:46:10 > 0:46:12She teaches in a nursery.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14LAUGHTER
0:46:14 > 0:46:17The mothers are in tears when they drop off their children
0:46:17 > 0:46:20because they have no money to pay, so...
0:46:20 > 0:46:21Yeah, look. Look, huh?
0:46:21 > 0:46:24Look. Look. Huh?
0:46:24 > 0:46:28A little boy says to me, "My mother has no more euros,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31"so I drew her some."
0:46:31 > 0:46:35With this crayons. He cut it out with his little scissors.
0:46:35 > 0:46:36Shit. What?
0:46:36 > 0:46:39They closed the Nestle factory. No.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41We'll be out of baby milk in a week.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43It's a rumour. It's not true. How do you know?
0:46:43 > 0:46:45Hold on.
0:46:45 > 0:46:46Shit. Maybe it is.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Listen, I spoke to this contact today - he's in corporate security -
0:46:50 > 0:46:53and he told me the pharmacies are going to close
0:46:53 > 0:46:56way before the bakeries. You've got three days left,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59and after that, the question is going to be...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01We know what the question is.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04No, the question is,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08when the doctors run out of medicine,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12can Syriza go to the pharmacies, open them up, take what they need
0:47:12 > 0:47:14and distribute it themselves? Huh?
0:47:14 > 0:47:15Same for the hospitals -
0:47:15 > 0:47:17run them without wages,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19without electricity.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22The Athenian commune, it's what we always dreamed of,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24to control the streets, to inflict chaos.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28The Greek oligarchy.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30They are itching to intervene.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34There is enough fascists in the riot police to make it happen.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36But they understand -
0:47:36 > 0:47:38Syriza is controlled chaos.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Without Syriza, uncontrolled chaos.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47I said to the Syriza guy - he was a tough, committed activist,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50about my age - "Can you do it, though?"
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Do what? Stage the Athenian commune.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Say to the European Central Bank, "Fuck you," and default?
0:47:57 > 0:47:58Your banks could close forever.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00SHE LAUGHS Forever?
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Hey, good for us! We just killed capitalism.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Is Syriza up for it, though?
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Last time we took on the Greek ruling class,
0:48:13 > 0:48:14in the '70s...
0:48:16 > 0:48:20..my dad was one of the most severely tortured.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24My mum's torture was to watch it happen.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Everybody standing outside parliament,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31everybody holding a banner,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33everybody in the party
0:48:33 > 0:48:34knows somebody like that.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38Are YOU up for it, though?
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Like you, like everybody, I'm just following Twitter, WhatsApp,
0:48:45 > 0:48:47Messenger, waiting to see.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51I had that conversation so many times.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55Everybody's got something at stake, and it doesn't have to be much -
0:48:55 > 0:48:58small house in the village, your kid's music lesson.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01But at some point, you have to look over the precipice
0:49:01 > 0:49:03and ask yourself,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06"Am I prepared to risk it all?"
0:49:06 > 0:49:09If there was a government to overthrow, we could do it.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12But we control the government.
0:49:12 > 0:49:17It's just that the government is not in control of Greece.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20Listen, the rumour is from the talks that the
0:49:20 > 0:49:22European negotiators are saying to the Greeks,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25"Surrender now, or we turn your country into Afghanistan."
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Who wants to live in Afghanistan?
0:49:30 > 0:49:33When this bullshit is over...
0:49:33 > 0:49:34let's go to my island. Huh?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38My uncle, he has a lavender farm.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40He brews tsipouro, 60%.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43On the beach, there are wild horses and a tavern.
0:49:44 > 0:49:45You write poetry?
0:49:46 > 0:49:48Well, my poetry is probably shit.
0:49:48 > 0:49:49But you know what?
0:49:49 > 0:49:51On the island, it sounds OK.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53PAUL LAUGHS
0:50:25 > 0:50:27And that is what happens
0:50:27 > 0:50:30if you don't want to replace one power with another power.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33And if you can't dissolve power
0:50:33 > 0:50:36and replace it with something better,
0:50:36 > 0:50:37sooner or later,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40somebody comes along who does want power,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42and lots of it.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49APPLAUSE PLAYS
0:51:04 > 0:51:07What are the Republican Party doing to themselves?
0:51:07 > 0:51:10I mean, bloody hell, did you see that debate?
0:51:10 > 0:51:14What you have to understand is that, for the Republican right -
0:51:14 > 0:51:17the Tea Party, the Evangelicals -
0:51:17 > 0:51:20this is not about winning in November.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24This is about punishing mainstream Republicans in Congress
0:51:24 > 0:51:26for failing to stop Obama.
0:51:26 > 0:51:27Wow.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30I was in Washington last week,
0:51:30 > 0:51:31and my contacts were very clear
0:51:31 > 0:51:34that this could go right to convention. What you're saying is,
0:51:34 > 0:51:37there's no chance they'll pick a moderate Republican?
0:51:37 > 0:51:40There are no moderate Republicans. Grow up.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42Look at the demographics, all right? BEEP
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Secretary Clinton is polling very well amongst white men with degrees.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50I mean, normally white, male college graduates are strongly Republican.
0:51:50 > 0:51:51BEEP
0:51:51 > 0:51:57But as of today, right now, we are 45-45.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58And the whole FBI thing with the e-mails -
0:51:58 > 0:52:01I mean, that's just fucking bollocks, isn't it?
0:52:01 > 0:52:03Put another way,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06is Hillary Clinton convinced she's not going to get indicted?
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Look, they've said that investigation is closed, all right?
0:52:09 > 0:52:12And the working class? Thank you, yes.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Well, it depends who the Republicans pick. All right?
0:52:15 > 0:52:19Trump is strong amongst white male, no college,
0:52:19 > 0:52:22but that is only 17% of America.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24So it's a dead cert?
0:52:24 > 0:52:26But this is a tipping point!
0:52:26 > 0:52:31The right is losing the culture war.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34I mean, Paul, you yourself have written about it -
0:52:34 > 0:52:39the new, networked, globally-minded person,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42tolerant of unorthodox relationships.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45The new kind of person? Yes. Yes.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47This is the new majority.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50SHE SIGHS Look,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53we believe, barring accidents,
0:52:53 > 0:52:58that November 2016 is going to be not just a landslide...
0:52:58 > 0:53:00BEEP
0:53:00 > 0:53:02..for the Democrats... SHE LAUGHS
0:53:03 > 0:53:05..but an earthquake.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12The weird thing is, we watched it happen.
0:53:12 > 0:53:13Like a car crash.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25The liberal centre in politics spends five years
0:53:25 > 0:53:28attacking the radical, young, networked protesters,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31and they say to working-class people from small towns
0:53:31 > 0:53:33where there's very little hope,
0:53:33 > 0:53:35"There's no alternative to this."
0:53:37 > 0:53:41Erdogan in Turkey then sends a million Syrian refugees
0:53:41 > 0:53:43to Europe, and Merkel says, "All welcome."
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Assad drops chlorine gas on Aleppo.
0:53:48 > 0:53:49Obama says, "So what?"
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Putin annexes Crimea.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56So what?
0:53:56 > 0:53:58The European Central Bank smashes Greece.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01All the economists in the Western world applaud.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04It's like liberal democracy had a death wish.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09And the internet, which was a network for expanding truth,
0:54:09 > 0:54:14becomes a machine in the hands of hierarchies for obliterating
0:54:14 > 0:54:17the possibility of objective truth at all.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23POUNDING DANCE MUSIC
0:54:30 > 0:54:33That's how we got from 2011 to Donald Trump.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36The young generation used networks to protest.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40The rich used money, power and inertia to stop them.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44And truth became post-truth.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47The borders were strengthened everywhere,
0:54:47 > 0:54:48including people's minds.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02The commune was surrounded.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06It had only death on its horizon.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08It could only be brave, and it was.
0:55:10 > 0:55:16And in dying, it pushed the door wide open to the future
0:55:16 > 0:55:17that was its destiny.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20People say, "I am brave."
0:55:20 > 0:55:21Not really.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25People are simply entranced by events.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30I told you it would end badly.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36What they are trying to do is to convince us that
0:55:36 > 0:55:39the last 30 years was all a dream.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Women's rights, gay rights, human rights.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47The idea that black lives actually do matter.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49All a dream,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52and if you still think it's real, you are crazy.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56People seem haunted by a fear of freedom.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01They want to be told climate science is bullshit,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04that we're going to make country X great again,
0:56:04 > 0:56:06that all the news is fake,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09so it's much better to trust your gut instinct.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14What sticks with me...
0:56:14 > 0:56:16is the Bat symbol guy.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18The 99%.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22There is nobody coming to save us.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25The superhero that's going to save us
0:56:25 > 0:56:26is us.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29So what can we do?
0:56:29 > 0:56:31Well, for one thing, we can find each other
0:56:31 > 0:56:34across real spaces like this.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37When they asked me to do this play, I said, "Brilliant.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39"That's just what we should do,
0:56:39 > 0:56:41"but we have to start with Brecht.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45"Because Brecht says, in a time of crisis,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49"the theatre has to be like a man who has seen a car crash
0:56:49 > 0:56:50"and says to the bystanders,
0:56:50 > 0:56:54"'Here is what happened.'"
0:56:54 > 0:56:56They said, "Well, how is it going to end?"
0:56:56 > 0:57:02I said, "An actor will read out a poem from Tunisia -
0:57:02 > 0:57:06"an old poem popular during the Arab Spring.
0:57:06 > 0:57:07"It goes...
0:57:09 > 0:57:14"'When the people decide to live, destiny must obey
0:57:14 > 0:57:19"'Darkness will disappear, and chains will be broken
0:57:19 > 0:57:23"'And he who is not embraced by the will to life
0:57:23 > 0:57:27"'Will dissolve and vanish into the air.'"
0:57:40 > 0:57:47HE RECITES POEM IN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE
0:58:13 > 0:58:19APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:58:40 > 0:58:42Promise me that you'll come and find me.
0:58:44 > 0:58:46You surely don't think that we could
0:58:46 > 0:58:48set up house together like man and wife?