ABBY MARTIN: "We are not angry enough".

We are really delighted to welcome Abby mom to these shores. And please stick around after the screen because Abby is with us. Some of you had the opportunity to meet her, some of you have not yet. We're going to spend the 20 30 minutes directly after the film talking about what we plan on doing about it, what we are already doing about it. This is a beautiful film, but it's also a hard film. >> Well, sorry about the rain. I'll make this brief. known as the Kyoto Protocols. It was the first commitment from industrialized nations to reduce their CO2 emissions. >> This is a very good climate change agreement. >> But the US lobbyed for its military to get a blanket exemption on the grounds of national security. Thanks to the Pentagon, militarism [music] has been excluded from the totals of all climate pledges and plans ever since. That makes the agreements, in other words, a farce. According [music] to their latest official numbers, the US military is the single largest consumer of [music] fossil fuels on the planet at 270,000 barrels of oil a day. It would take the average American driver over 40 years [music] to burn as much fuel as a single flight of a Boeing Pegasus. Given what science is showing us in regards to [music] the climate crisis, how can the military be given a free pass? [music] The United States is the only country which militarily occupies the entire planet [music] with nearly 1,000 bases spread across almost every continent. Russia has nine, China has [music] one. >> The toxic waste dumps, the super fun sites. I mean, when you start to get a macro view, this is why it [music] becomes clear the US military is the largest poller on the planet. [music] >> The Arctic is considered the largest unexplored perspective area for fossil fuels on Earth. >> The sea ice is changing and what that's doing is it's uncovering areas of exploration for rare earth minerals. So for the companies out there, invitation, open invitation. [music] >> The fight against the war machine and the fight to save the planet is the same fight. >> This change climate change. >> What do we do about the military? [music] What do we do about destruction of the earth as we know it? >> [music] >> Knowing where we are in the crisis, it's a really good time for each one of us to ask ourselves a question of how do we want to be [music] remembered for how we behave during this time. Shame >> and let that question define how we're going to live our lives. >> It's a film that hits you in front of the head like it it slaps you across the face. Um, and it's kind of necessary because we are so inundated with with false information, with propaganda, with horrible news all the time. So this is nothing new, right? This is how genocide becomes the status quo is incubated by a system like this. This is what has been deemed normal by the ruling class of our respective countries. So in a way none of this is new, right? But it's fascinating to see it all synthesized and coalesed into just a 2hour narrative of these huge massive crises that no one really wants to face, no one wants to tackle, no one wants to talk about. But in a way it it let it fuel that fire in your gut. Um because this is the truth. This is the the reality without rosecolored glasses. what the richest men in the world are trying to hide from us, are trying to offiscate from us the truth that's right in front of our faces. Like Barry Sanders says, "See what you see. Don't be duped. See what's right in front of your eyes. We are all children of this imperial system, of this madness. Australia is the launching pad for my government's crimes and atrocities." Um, so this film, I mean, it could have been 10 films. And we've been asked many times, why didn't you make 10 films, including my husband, why are you doing this? Um, because I knew the power of of sitting someone down and clockworking the [ __ ] out of them and saying, we're not mad enough. We're not angry enough at what these monsters have done to us. At what they've destroyed, at all the lives that they've taken, that they've killed, the land that they've desecrated, that they've destroyed. We're not angry enough. We're not angry enough. And so, there's something really powerful about sitting with the truth that's trying to be hidden from us. That's sit just sitting with it and knowing what they have done. taking stock of that, unpacking the trauma in a room of of people who care, who are motivated, which is why I'm on this director's tour to bring people together to kind of rediscover, reclaim our humanity when the rest of the world's lost their [ __ ] mind, especially here in Australia, [applause] that you can't say from the river to the sea while children are being slaughtered in front of our eyes. So yeah, I've been around the world and what's amazing is it's not China and it's not Russia that people are scared of. It's a world where Gaza is deemed acceptable, normal for the ruling class that this is our their hands are tied and saying we can't do anything about that. That's the world that people are terrified of. They're terrified of the soldier with a gun raping and pillaging their neighborhood with impunity. That's what they're scared of. And so I'm here with this director's tour, with this movie as a tool, one more tool in our arsenal. One more thing that we can do, cuz 5 years ago, Scott, I, you know, we embarked on this odyssey. It's my Odyssey. I'm glad you guys didn't see the Odyssey. I'm glad you saw my Abby Martin's Odyssey. Um, but when we embarked on this adventure, this this horrifying nightmare to hell, um, we we wanted to make it an intervention in the environmental movement. We wanted to make environmentalists realize that you can't advocate for the environment without being an anti-imperialist. [cheering and applause] >> And over the course of the last 5 years, I feel like that has been so laid bare, hasn't it? With Gaza, with Iran, all of these things are are just so clear. And so this movie comes kind of too late, but at the perfect time for us to use it, utilize it for our movements, for movement building, for advocacy. environmental organizations, activist organizations, and just every single person that you love and knows to show them that we are all victims of this system. There's 20 different entry points in this movement for all of us to understand how we are victims of it. >> [applause] >> I think the fact that we're here, that there's 200 of us, could have been anywhere else tonight, but we're here means that it's not too late. How do they let you into these arms f? So, you're just going to rock in there with some shiny business card and hair all done. How do you get access to some of these things that some of that footage I've never seen anything like that before? You're inside the literally the belly of this machine of death. How do they let you do that? And will they keep letting you [laughter] Probably [snorts] not. They probably won't let anyone on the Rimack warship. But there is this contradictory narrative that that goes throughout the film is that on one hand, the military is so secretive. They don't grant you any interviews. They don't even talk to you. They run away from you. On the other hand, I'm on the Rimack warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. How the hell do they let me in there? Cuz they dumb. >> Cuz the military is dumb. They didn't Google me. [laughter] >> They don't know what they're doing. which again shows us the the the opening that we have, right? These people are actually dumb. Um so yes, there is this kind of you know this benality of of evil type situation going on where it's this hive mind. We need the oil, we need we need a train, we need but then there's this also like the benality of just like the stupidity of evil, right? It's just everyone is just kind of operating as part of that self-preservation. And when you confront them with the truth, their brain starts shortcircuiting. Like the guy who was just like, I don't I don't actually know if it's worth it, but we have to train. We have to get the oil. Um, and and what was most bizarre, Scott, is that when I was on the Rimpac warship, I I thought I would be completely surrounded by journalists who were trying to ask the tough questions, who were going to confront these generals and all the top military brass. And I was surrounded by military journalists. That's a whole thing that I uh Yeah, that that that was fun. Defense one, Navy News, Air Force One, all of the journalists who exist to revel in weapon systems that exist to bolster the military-industrial complex. They hated me. They were trying to get me out of the way, throw me off the ship before I even got to the military command. So, it just shows you the lack. It's not It's not the lack of access. It's the lack of actual practice of doing the job. Where the hell are the other journalists? Where the hell are they in the wake of Gaza? How could we take this profession seriously when they have abandoned all of their colleagues being hunted and killed? It's insane, especially here in Australia. I'm learning a lot today. [applause] I'm learning a lot how crazy the political climate is here. Scott, I wanted you to just add why it is so important because this is a very US- ccentric movie. I know my country world rules the world. I'm very sorry about that. Um, but you know, why is it so important here? I'm learning so much about the damage of okas and the possibilities for Australians to really agitate about this issue. >> You're going to ask me things. >> Yeah, >> there are some of journalists of courage in the room with us tonight. I want to single out Kathy and Peter in particular. Maybe that's a bit naughty, but [applause] we do have them. Read their stuff, watch their stuff, subscribe, listen to community radio, listen to the independent voices who are out there. Um, quick show of hands. who's read a uh really beautiful and very brief book that you'll kill in less than two or three hours by uh professor is it professor or doctor Clinton Fernandez called subimperial power hands this is fantastic and this is a small piece of your homework there's going to be more go and find that book subimperial power by Clinton Fernandez it beautifully and very succinctly places Australia in the global power dynamic that we get something out of this we benefit from I'm used to like in in I'll probably share this with everybody in the room whether you were involved in trying to stop the war in Iraq or subsequent invasions or there are people here probably involved in campaigns before that that we're kind of this psy we just get pissed on that will take our guys they will send them off to die they don't give a [ __ ] they will not be there for us if our time comes they will not it's an extremely transactional and one-sided relationship what Clinton identifies as the degree to which we benefit Australian elites, Australian capital, the comprador class that acts as the intermediary between the global empire and local resources, land, labor, minerals, oil and gas. There are some concentrated beneficiaries here and this book outlines it really beautifully and strategically. What is our role and how the hell are we to disrupt that? Um, which is going to, this wasn't on my list of things I wanted to ask, but we should maybe put this front and center. production company is called the Empire Files. The language of imperialism has maybe fallen a little bit out of favor. It sounds a little bit >> lefty. You know, we're used to confronting the Great Power or the Australian Alliance or orchestra, whatever you want to put it. You've squarely put Empire in the headlines. Can you talk about the importance of that frame mentally and maybe what it changes about how we would do this work? Mhm. I mean that I think that's the big problem with this kind of neoliberal doctrine that we've been living under for so long which atomizes all of these struggles which has co-opted all of this progressive movement advocacy and folded it into the very systems of oppression. And that is what I I feel like has been very clarifying over the course of the last 5 years is how central international solidarity um is and foundational it is to all of our struggles around the world. environmentalism. I mean, climate change, militarism, Gaza, ICE, in the streets of Minneapolis, all of this is connected. And they've wanted us to be siloed and atomized. They want us to be brain rotted on the devices that Elon Musk controls while he's profiting off this destruction. And he doesn't want us to be in the room together to to make these connections. But I'm seeing all of this be understood. For the first time in my 41 years, I was in the streets in Iraq in the Iraq war buildup and Palestine was off the table. >> Yeah. >> Nope. It's too controversial. It doesn't stop mixing messaging and occupy Wall Street in the streets of Oakland saying, "No, no, no. It don't occupy Obama's headquarters. It's not about him. It's about Wall Street." It was like this misunderstanding of the larger structure in place. And now it's completely understood. Gaza changed the world. Gaza completely changed the world forever. It exposed the the complete nonsensical foundation of all of this whole the glue holding all this together of the pretense of human rights and democracy is completely stripped bare. It's explicitly about pillaging and plundering. So that that's why international solidarity because everything's a case study of the larger structure of my country imposing a military dictatorship at the barrel of a nuclear armed gun subjugating billions of people under its boot. Australia is part of that indentured servitude. It's under the opaces of a strategic partnership. We know the truth. We know the truth about why Australians why Australian politicians are scared. They're not scared of China. They're scared of the US. They're scared of the gun to their head, but not not not really because of a military invasion. They're just scared of tariffs and sanctions and and a financial cost to standing up. That's [snorts] the cowardice that we're looking at today. Um, so international solidarity is paramount. It's paramount and it always has been, but now it's just so clearly obvious that anything that happens in Gaza is going to come back here. It already has to indigenous people. They've always known. But for us, the more privileged people, I'm the most spoiled privileged person in the world. I'm an American citizen. I'm I'm a white middle-class American citizen. I have the privilege and the duty to do everything in my power to fight against this insanity because yes, I see children being pulverized every single day. And I know I'm not going to accept this as normal. No matter what the media is telling us, the gaslighting, we're not going to accept this as normal. We're going to continue to fight for something that we know is different and alternative to this. So everywhere around the world, there's a current that's so powerful and it's it's that current of international solidarity. It's why our lives are no different than the child living in the rubble in Gaza. It's no different than the Iraqi child with congenital heart failure. To look in their eyes and take stock of what we have done, I think is very important. And this film is trying to show that the profound empathy that that binds us together, the humanity that binds us together and also our attachment to the earth that that the commodification of capitalism has really just made us despondent and and detached from everything that we know and love, the sanctity of our of our land. So, this movie again, it's it's it's kind of a profound explanation and expression of international solidarity, and I hope I hope people can really take that away from it. [snorts] >> [applause] >> There's a couple of sequences late in the piece which are really extraordinary. The sidebyside footage of Marines going through a doorway in I don't know if it's Afghanistan or Iraq and then same guys, same uniform, same tactical equipment except now they're in Minneapolis and now they're everywhere they're here. Palestinians warned us [clears throat] that this would happen. And people like Anthony Loenstein warned us that Gaza is a laboratory and it doesn't stay over there over the horizon. You you traveled a fair bit in the making of this film and the scenes from Okinawa are really moving and I wonder if you could tell us >> [clears throat] >> um like what do we learn from struggles elsewhere if we just let these imaginary borders on our maps and in our minds dissolve for just a second or what are people experiencing there? What tactics have they tried? What's worked there? and maybe with Okinawa as a as a bit of a focus. Um what do you think we can learn from these struggles? >> We have to learn to fight in sustained ways. Um you know seeing Red Hill the success of indigenous people working with military families building a big coalition to fight for the sanctity of their land to fight for the preservation of their water supply. They built those tanks over the the aquafer. I mean what the heck? That's the thing. Every base is a story of danger. Mhm. >> It's a story of not only legacy contamination of what these people have done, but how they can't be trusted now. Every base that houses these toxic contaminants is a is a story of danger. And that's what's going to happen here at August. I don't even remember your [ __ ] question. I'm just going to go this other pretty good [laughter] question. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. The internet. Okay. What the the lessons that we can glean from all these people around the world. I mean, look, I I became an anti-imperialist reading the book Blowback from Chomers Johnson, especially the chapter on Okinawa and learning about the complete and utter impunity with this antiquated status of forces agreement. I knew that I wanted to go back there and learn from them. See, going back there 20 years later and realizing they are still doing this day in day out, taking shifts >> just for the chance, just for the chance that they'll stop this, just for the chance to preserve those dongs, just for the chance to stop the the dredging of their beautiful Hanoko Bay. Ultimately, they know it falls on our respective countries. It falls on me. It falls on you. They have been faced with an existential crisis. They see their land disappearing before their eyes. And and what we have to remember is after Okinawa's destroyed, what's next? Australia. You guys are the next line of defense for my government's insanity. >> And that's that's the inevitability of the destruction. It doesn't stop. It doesn't have borders. [snorts] It's global. It's generational. This is going to impact all of us all around the world for decades, for centuries. But I I continue to learn the lessons from them. How could you How could you stop, Scott, when I go and visit these people who have been doing this for 30 years? How could you stop? How could you stop? When my brothers and sisters in Gaza are having children in the most insane, horrific conditions that humanity has imposed on these people because they believe in the future. They want to fight for a better life. And we're sitting here with the privilege and the duty to think we're too comfortable to do anything because of what might happen because of this gun to the head of Australia. I think that's we have to take a step back and and realize it is here. This is this is not survivable frankly. So it is uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to have these conversations, but that's what the moment that we're living in is. It's dangerous and it's unpredictable, but that's what makes it also beautiful and exciting because of the unpredictable nature of it. Because of how much can change so quickly, because of how much it already has changed in the last year. That's what we can do. We have this opening of the complete collapse of these so-called international norms and rules imposed by the the elites, the western powers that we all known as a farce. But but really this collapse provides this opening for all of us to seize not only to reclaim these narratives to push truths like this, but to build the movement that we know is possible to actually beat this. >> Mhm. >> And it comes with international solidarity. And it actually is led by indigenous stewardship over the land. And that's the lesson gleaned from all of these people. What is the solution? Indigenous stewardship over the land. They've always known how to maintain the land. That's why Pearl Harbor was the oyster. It was the pearl of the Pacific. Indigenous people, Aboriginal people here knew how to do the the burns to to control the land, to control the fires. All of this is known. It's not something novel or new. It's us trying to band together to figure out the creativity and ingenuity and not succumb to the inevitability of militarism, the inevitability of empire, the inevitability of okas. That's what they want us to do. They want us to be paralyzed and to think it's too [ __ ] late. I'm just going to buy my paper straws and compost. And by the way, I'm a militant composter. Don't stop doing that. That's not the lesson to take away from this. The lesson is that we have to do more. WE HAVE TO DO MORE. >> [applause] >> WE'RE NOT MAD ENOUGH at what these monsters are doing to us every day. We're not mad enough at the lives that they're taking. We're not mad enough. So, so again, look, it's a lot. And And you probably cried. You probably were you felt sick. That's good. Feel it. Feel it. Because they want us to be numb. And so, it's okay to cry. You probably see me on [ __ ] TV. I'm a mess. I'm a mess on the internet because I feel I'm feeling everything because it's because none of this is normal. Actually, none of this is normal. So, that one thing that I've learned in Australia is people are very chilled out. [laughter] >> Very chilled out. Everyone's kind of like going, you know, everyone's kind of hanging out. Very, very chill vibes here. You're not angry enough. You're not angry enough at what my government is doing to you. [applause] Who's [ __ ] ready to be [laughter] a mess on the internet? Who's ready to be a mess on the internet and elsewhere? The person, ironically enough, in 2011 who announced that big Pacific pivot that put us on the front line was Barack Obama. And he did it in the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Julie Gillard. And I happened to be in the room when he did it. You remember him? skilled ortor, great in a suit, funny guy, actually, >> quite a soothing presence, was the one who put us on this [ __ ] front line. So, I I think it's really interesting now. The system, the empire is chewing its face off like it's it's absolutely mad now. But the bones and the substructure has been there for hundreds of years. You know, they're tell they're kind of tell me if you think this is true or if I'm a little bit out of my mind. I find it refreshing that they're not pretending to be nice anymore. this thing is raving mad, extremely dangerous, and it's just taking the oil and killing people. And they used to be smooth. >> You the coup would happen and it would be smooth, and now it's not smooth. Now it's honest. Like, is that a reasonable reading of the situation? >> It's definitely an overextension of of the imperial machine because they know that they've lost the public conscience. And I think it's it's it's a result of Gaza. Again, Gaza changed the world in so many ways, but we see the overextension not over not only Israel, but the US with the Iran war. This is why they they tried to stave off Iran for so long, cuz they knew what would happen, but they cannot help themselves. >> Yeah. >> Because it's the insatiable thirst of growth. It's a parasitic expansion sucking all of our life force, draining the planet. So yes, I think that it's a very accurate assessment to say it's a rabid dog in a corner lashing out and that's why the violence is so extreme. That's why the propaganda is so desperate and pathetic. That's why they're trying to criminalize people for saying from the river to the [ __ ] sea. >> They wouldn't be doing that if they knew that they had the public behind them. They wouldn't be doing this. So that that you have to continue to go back to the fact that they know that they've lost and this is a result of how extreme that they have to act to preserve the status to preserve the status quo because they've lost the plot. Man >> and they're dumb >> and they're dumb and they dumb. >> They dumb. >> If you want to know how something works, study it when it's coming apart. >> And it's coming apart. And into those gaps, we can inject creativity and courage and probably a bit of madness. Stuff that hasn't been tried before. Stuff that hasn't been tried in a while. Stuff that's been tried elsewhere but maybe not here. Twist up the repertoire. Do you have some crazy ideas that haven't been tried yet? [clears throat] This is the audience participation part. Has anybody got a really interesting idea? >> [ __ ] come on. >> Not everything. >> Okay. [laughter] Okay. You don't have to shout it out if you're not comfortable to do that. You're right. Everyone is very chill, aren't they? You don't have to shout out your crazy idea, but I bet you know what I mean internally. What's the thing that maybe is a little bit scary that you haven't tried yet that you need to enroll your mates in and then bring it forward. And don't ask for permission. >> Don't wait for somebody to come along and give you a general strike. Withdraw, withhold our labor, [applause] whatever it may be. So, what are the kind of unifying strands of everything that you've seen? or the people that you've worked with, you're working right inside the machine in the Imperial Core. What are the unifying threads and what do you think we should be trying out? >> One thing that's really exciting is seeing the fight against data centers in the US. That is a winnable fight that is happening that is absolutely and what's crazy people have asked, how come you didn't include Trump, right? >> We easily could have continued the film. I mean, it took six years. Again, it was my odyssey. Um, you know, co feels like a goddamn fever dream now, but all the pregnancies and and hairstyles and everything. And yes, we could have continued. We could have continued to today. It's gotten so much worse. Isn't it insane that for the last 2 years that this film was basically wrapped up that AI mean AI wasn't even a part of the film. That's how fast this is advancing. So because I think we've seen this kind of fatigue and activism, this lull because of the unmovability [clears throat] of the Gaza genocide with our respective governments, people have now tried to backed off and figured out how do we strategize differently. What are what are the tactics that work? And what's working right now is stopping these data centers because the data centers are kind of like the face of the war machine now. people understand that they represent Palunteer, that they represent the technocratic billionaires, all of the people who were trying to virtue signal before, all the people who just folded into the Trump administration, that we see them very clearly for who they are, who they represent, what they're profiting off of. The data centers are are the new fight. They're the new reclamation of kind of the working class struggle coinciding with this international solidarity that's exploding all around the world. And it's winning and it's winning in droves. And it's incredibly inspiring because no one really wants to put a a spotlight on the victories that are happening in the US, but it's happening all across the country. Over half of them have been shut down in the last year. [applause] >> So, I mean, there's so many tactics that we can glean from, but I think it's so so localized to what's happening here. I mean, right here in Woolangong, if I said it right. I mean, there's ports. There's there's insane fossil fuel infrastructure right here an hour away. I mean, Sydney, god damn, there's a big harbor. I'm sure there's ships going in out of there that carrying some crazy [ __ ] right? I mean, there's a million things that we can do. But, but but what's amazing to me also, Scott, is the fact that there is some sort of proportional representational democratic system here that we actually lack in the states. So, we have a different fight ahead where we're trying to hijack the Democratic Party to to, you know, use it as a vehicle to advance these these ideas and we're coming up against so many roadblocks. But I find it really fascinating that there's a functional party that does exist that can advance anti-imperialist ideas here. So, there's so many things. >> Oh, and who would that be? [laughter] >> I can't say it, but you you can say it. >> Yeah, the Green Party. Come on. I mean, what in the book? >> Yay. Yay. >> Yay. Um, >> look, there's a lot that can be done here. There's a lot that can be done here. >> We're not mad enough. >> You know, things are bad in the United States when you find our political system admirable. Like, that's [laughter] that's [ __ ] terrifying. That's that is the scariest thing I've heard all night. [laughter] Um, but you have just had this really interesting kind of lightning um traverse across the continent. So, they flew you into Perth a week and a half ago. You're at the IPAN conference in Adelaide. You were down at Sterling Naval Base. I think Adelaide, you did some field trips around there. Uh Melbby, Wooling Gong, Sydney. You've clearly kind of been inhaling all the the orca stuff, the inquiry, all the kind of things that are going on. What are your kind of first impressions of the the local struggles here and the shape of things? What have you seen? >> I mean, it's incredibly [snorts] inspiring to see hundreds of people like Adelaide. It's like a church city. I mean, I was just walking around. I was like, why is everything closed? And then there was like 400 people that showed up at the screening. So I mean it's I'm I'm incredibly blown away at the interest actually in [snorts] Australia. Even though it's very kind of chill, people are very people are bubbling up. You can feel the agitation in the air, right? The war with China. I mean the fact that my belligerent neofascist government is committing these atrocities in your name as well using Pine Gap. You know, all of these things are in the periphery. you know how insanely ludicrous this assault on free speech is here. Everyone knows it. You can all see it. >> And so that's what's so beautiful about this moment and being here is is realizing how starved people are for this truth >> to synthesize this to use it as a tool to say yes. Finally, I've been thinking this for 5 years. Yes, it's so obvious. Yes, now we have it. Now we have it. Now we can hold screenings. Now we can show it to environmental groups. We can show it to our local politicians. We can show it to the people who are in the military >> because it changes people's minds. It changes people's lives. >> That's what the truth has the power to do. And and you can read a million academic articles, but you can watch one movie and you can never forget the feeling that it gave you and what it motivated you to do and not do in terms of joining the military. So, there's so many things that we can do. Um, but I'm so excited to be here because I feel like it's a [ __ ] perfect time with OKAS in >> um and and the ability to fight against this. There's no there's a precedent, Scott. I mean, you talked about in the 70s the fact that this this happened. We had a you guys had a prime minister that was fighting against this. There was a coup d'etah. Um, this this has a rich legacy here of anti-imperialism. It can be resurrected again and integrated with the Gaza struggle. >> Who's in? Yeah. >> Who's in? >> Guess who's in? [applause] Um, you're bouncing to Alto and New Zealand tomorrow um, for I think one night screening in Oakuckland. They successfully repelled United States nuclearpowered and nuclear armed warships. They still have the spy base infrastructure. They're still deeply politically inshed. It's a five eyes country. But that's a solid win for for decades, for more than 30 years. >> So, [applause] we're going to wrap up. You've been super patient. >> Yeah. None of us are angry enough, but you're here. You're still here and you didn't walk out. So, you're holding that despair and now are thinking maybe about what can I do that's just that little bit outside my comfort zone that I haven't tried before or that I want to try again. Can you paint? Can you raise money? Can you sing? Can you organize? Whatever it is that you can do, whatever your idea is, don't wait for permission. Don't wait for somebody to come along. I'm going to throw you one more question in a sec, but before I do, while I've got the mic, I want to thank a few people who made this possible. This thing is entirely volunteer organized. >> Okay, there's no like paid cadre back there cooking these things up and making them happening. It's just regular folk who made this happen. Um, particularly want to thank um Andrew and Chenaz from IPAN who organized this national conference over the last week that you might have seen. [applause] um some great media, some great ideas. You attended that and uh our dear Beavenon from IPAN who would have been here and is in fact here. In fact, if you take one of his leaflets, you can take uh some of Bevon's heart and thoughts with you tonight. Um, I want to thank Kavita from Progressive International Pacific and particularly my dear partner and comrade Competta, Lissa from Progressive International Pacific who put her whole heart and soul [applause] into bringing us here to the Dendi crew. Um, folk who made us welcome, kept the lights on, made everything go. We love you. [applause] Uh, and I said I'm going to throw you one more question, but I also want to say like we flew you through 18 time. They flew her to Perth and then back across to [laughter] the east coast. So, you've crossed all the oceans and kind of flogged yourself to bring your voice and these words and these images to us. Thank you for making it out here as well. Seriously, >> thank [applause] you. In amidst all of this stuff, whether what brought you here was the Jongs and the Seagrass or a nuclear armed psychotic empire, wherever along that spectrum brought you into the room, how do you hold hope given the darkness and the scale of the thing and how much momentum it has, what we have to bring to bear against it, how do you bring hope to bear in that work? >> Take us out. >> Take us [laughter] out. Yeah, no pressure. Um I think I mean there it is difficult you know and I think all of us know in this room it's difficult every day you wake up and it's a new village raised a new video of someone wailing over their dead child. Uh your government continuing to justify these things. Journalists getting sued or in legal trouble for simply speaking the truth. journalists in Gaza being hunted alongside their family. It's very hard. It's very hard to have hope. And and sometimes I do look at my children with this overwhelming sense of guilt and privilege that they're safe only because of just geographical luck. But on the flip side, you look at the entire span of human history, there's been so many centuries of horrific. I mean look at abject slavery was defined humanity for centuries. Jim Crow was the law of the land and there were thousands of people who said absolutely not. This is insane. We're not going to accept this as normal to have people as indentured slaves. We're not going to accept this. And they continued to fight because they knew they had the imagination that that was not the finality of human existence. So I think you know you look around the world and and again I go back to Gaza because I asked my friends who live there still and who you know who are having children. My the videographer from Gaza Fights for Freedom had a child named Elsa and she's beautiful and >> 80,000 born in the last 3 years in 80,000 babies born >> oh my god >> that's incredible. >> And they're and they carry it on. They carry on the love, the family, the preservation of their culture. And we have to continue to fight because there's so much that has not been robbed and destroyed. There's so much left to preserve. There's so much beauty to fight for. I just pet a red kangaroo a couple days ago. It's like a mythological goddamn creature. I want my kids to do that. I want them to go snorkel in Hanokco Bay. I want them to see all this. I want to fight. Not because we know that we'll win, but because we have to. And everything in my life, everyone that I know and love, my comrades that I just met here, my husband, my children, it was all born and bred out of the struggle, out of just being rooted in in the movement and trying to fight for something that's better than this. Because stepping over bodies in the streets and trying to tell my three-year-old that no, no, this is some people have been deemed expendable. No, this is normal, kids. This is something that we can't do anything about. That's not acceptable. That's not acceptable to to let the system tamp down everything. The imagination that no, this isn't okay. No, just because we've been complacent. No, just because we've lived years of of this being the status quo. No, none of this is okay. And so I continue to just bear down on the notion that absolutely not. I'm not going to accept this. I'm not going to accept this. And when my kids are old enough to understand and they look at my face, as I know so many of you have children and you know exactly what I'm talking about, when they look at you and they say, "What did you do? What did you do?" Are you going to tell them that you didn't do everything that you possibly could to give them an actual livable future? What are we going to tell them? What are we going to tell them? So, it's never been a choice for me. It's never been a choice for me. But having kids, it it it is so beyond me. It's so beyond me. But the hope also comes from all the critters, all the creatures, all the critters, all the love and solidarity of all the people that I meet along the way. The elders in Okinawa, the people in Hawaii, the people that I meet every single day around the world who say, "I watched Gaza Fights for Freedom. It made me an anti-ionist. I watched this episode of Empire Files. I understood Latin America. This movie changed my life. I'm not joining the military." And it happens every single day. >> Every day. [applause] SO, it [applause] is scary. It's a scary moment. We all know that. And it is sometimes it can be paralyzing. And that's okay. You give yourself the time and the space to process all of the [ __ ] But then you find yourself again and you let that fire burn and you let that rage fuel the love because that's what we fight for. They ask us, "What do you fight for? You're fighting against imperialism. You're fighting against capitalism. We fight for love and we fight for life." [laughter] Because that's not what this is. This is a spiral of death. This is a parasitic vampiristic force that exists to destroy and kill for profit. And we fight for the opposite of that. We fight to preserve life because we love life. And that's what we fight for. And that's why we're here tonight. Because we care. Because we give a [ __ ] Because we're awake. and we're based in the reality based community. >> So let it fuel you. Let it fuel the fire. Go out there AND SUPPORT OUR GREATEST ENEMY. Support the organizations here. Progressive international. I [applause] can. But I'll leave you with this and it's a little plug. >> Israel >> and [ __ ] Israel hard. From the river to the sea, baby. World >> from the river to the sea. But I'll leave you with this. There's so much to say. There's so much that you can do and I want you to continue your conversations out there. But but I am going to plug the merch out there >> because this if you want to do one little passive thing, you can wear the shirt that says the US military is the world's largest poller. And baby, you will never be more popular. It doesn't matter where you go in the world. That is the the glue that everyone's like, "Yes, who are you? I want to be your friend." So [laughter] go be that person. Spread the word of the movie. Help me put this out there to the world. I need your help. This is not going to get on Netflix. >> [laughter] >> This is I'm going to be like Bernie Sanders now. It's not me, it's us. It is truly us. We are all victims of this. We are all one human family and we are all in this together, BABY. >> [applause] >> THREE Australians from US imperial president. [cheering] [applause] [cheering]