Original subtitles

♪♪

Reporter: We are starting this morning

with live pictures now from the United Nations,

where we are awaiting the start of the General Assembly.

Woman: We're done. It is a jam-packed morning.

♪♪

President Obama will be one of the first speakers,

but the list is long.

Obama: You see greater polarization,

more frequent gridlock.

Most ominously, we see the fears

of ordinary people being exploited.

Newscaster: We'll also be bringing in our guest

who has been joining us this morning, Carne Ross.

He's a former British diplomat.

So, I guess I want to ask just your overall impressions.

Producer: Stand by. Stand by.

The sort of esthetic of the whole thing

is rather revealing of what's wrong with diplomacy.

Who's really affected here? Where the Syrian people?

Where the Palestinian people? Where are the Libyan people?

Okay.

We're actually gonna get in one other quick break.

Producer: And music up.

[Men screaming]

♪♪

We face completely different circumstances

in the 21st century

from the 20th century.

[Men shouting]

The rise of these global problems

like climate change,

economic instability.

[Indistinct chanting]

There's a really deep crisis mounting,

I think, of people feeling we're not in control of things.

These things are running out of control.

It's almost like a despair.

[Indistinct shouting]

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[Beeping, static]

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[Typewriter clacking]

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[Crowd cheering]

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This is where I had the security vetting for --

to join the Foreign Office,

where I was interrogated and cross-examined

on the details of my personal life,

my sexual history,

my political leanings,

my proclivities for drinking and gambling,

the origin of my Eastern European relations,

all was discussed in great detail.

I threw myself at the Foreign Office.

They could have whatever part of me they wanted, gladly.

You give us your personal secrets,

and you belong to us,

and you become one of us.

♪♪

I started to think of the world

through the prism of we rather than I.

What would Britain want in the circumstance

rather than what I thought was right.

[Cheers and applause]

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[Cheers and applause continue]

♪♪

[Chanting in German]

[Cheers and applause]

♪♪

My first job was up on that top floor up there

in Western European department.

Down there, that office there in the corner,

that used to be my office when I was a speech writer

for the foreign secretary,

whose office is, in fact, up there.

Another one of my departments was up here.

I was head of the Middle East Peace Process section,

as it was then known, in better days.

And up there is what's called the resident clock room.

I was on one night

when the British ambassador in Moscow rang in tears.

Actually, he was crying,

saying that, I think, six of the diplomats at the embassy

were being expelled by the Russians

for activities outside of their diplomatic status,

in other words, espionage.

And he was terribly upset about it,

and he reported that

to the resident clerk who happened to be me that night.

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This is where we pass

resolutions on Iraq,

on weapons inspections

and sanctions on Iraq, as a whole,

and above all, on the Iraqi people.

And, you know, I would be sitting

behind my ambassador in one of those chairs

where, you know, all the ambassadors

would raise their hands to get this resolution through.

You know, you can see what this feels like.

It's a very rarefied place.

The reality of Iraqi people is definitely not here.

♪♪

What sanctions did

to the Iraqi people was horrific.

We knew they were suffering,

and yet, it wasn't real suffering to us.

It was just people suffering.

We'd be in talks in Washington where people would say,

"Well, you know, I hear those reports, too,

but I'm sorry --

containment's the priority here."

It was like literally ordering

our needs of security

over the needs of ordinary people,

and there was considerable suffering.

♪♪

I was a ferocious negotiator.

I took pride in being ferocious,

I took pride in how quickly

I could articulate our arguments

and put down any counter argument.

You know, that was my job,

and I was extremely effective at it,

and I had a reputation for it.

And, you know, personally, on a professional level,

that was something that was a cause of pride for me.

And now I look back on that, and I think,

"How on earth did I feel proud of that?"

I do -- I feel --

Much more today, I feel shame.

♪♪

When I met Iraqis who lived through that,

I can hardly look them in the eye.

I feel so ashamed.

One Iraqi I met after all of this said,

"So, you were part of the genocide of my people."

That's not an easy thing to hear.

It's pretty -- I was pretty upset by that.

And there's some truth in it.

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[Horns honk in distance]

My apartment looked downtown,

so I had an extraordinary view of downtown Manhattan.

I could see the Hudson on one side

and the East River on the other.

It was an amazing view.

And my apartment looks directly down

towards the World Trade Center.

The two towers were in the middle of my view.

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For weeks afterwards,

the smoke continued.

And there was ash

on my windowsill for weeks afterwards,

and I'd wake up every morning

and see this column of smoke.

Uh...

Yep.

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All the families were kept

queuing on the street outside in the pouring rain

because they weren't let in until security were happy

and, you know, the VIP's places had been reserved.

A number of Tony's people,

the team who came with the prime minister

are vicious little people.

They behaved abominably.

They were incredibly bossy

and nasty to the local staff

who were also very, very traumatized.

After the terrible...

events of last week,

there is shock and disbelief

and there is anger, but...

'round the whole of the world.

♪♪

Ross: The day after the attacks,

we negotiated a resolution in the Security Council

to condemn the attacks.

Never has a resolution of the Security Council

been passed so quickly.

I was actually sitting in the British seat,

so I negotiated this resolution,

and there was an enormous upwelling of sympathy

for the people who'd suffered.

And you just felt

the drums of war beating.

You just felt this momentum,

this train had started,

and there was no way anybody was going to stop it.

Good afternoon.

On my orders, the United States military

has begun strikes

against Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps

and military installations of the Taliban regime

in Afghanistan.

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This guy was called Khalili.

He's a leader of the Hazara in Afghanistan.

Me with my little notebook.

"Well, Mr. Khalili, I'm here to relay to you

what the British government feels about Afghanistan.

Grateful if you could tell me what you think."

That's -- I think that's me.

Yeah, it is me.

It's the perfect romantic image of the diplomat, isn't it?

Sitting with the Afghan tribesmen,

discussing the political future.

They're like, "Don't claim to me

you're gonna be here in perpetuity,

helping us build democracy.

We know exactly what that means."

You know, the naivete with which we went in there, you know,

the proclamations we made, I made myself,

that Britain was going to stick with Afghanistan

until we built democracy and all of that.

And...

what is it, 13 years later?

Heavy fighting still going on.

From...this --

that was literally glue tacked

next to my pillow,

such did I love this picture

when I was a schoolboy.

It's a romantic image of the Mujahideen

in Afghanistan, 1981,

and the Soviet invasion --

to this, the British invasion,

2002,

in Afghanistan.

So it was childhood dream fulfillment, wasn't it?

That's what it is.

Now shattered.

[Chuckles softly]

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Powell: Saddam Hussein's intentions have never changed.

He is not developing the missiles for self-defense.

These are missiles that Iraq wants

in order to project power, to threaten,

and to deliver chemical, biological,

and, if we let him, nuclear warheads.

♪♪

Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged

from air, land, and sea.

Their mission --

to remove Saddam Hussein from power

and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.

♪♪

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Ross: David Kelly had just given a talk

at the new school where I was a fellow,

and afterwards, we had lunch here.

We were talking about the claims

that the government made before the invasion,

that Iraq posed a threat.

You know, we were just...

I guess, quizzical.

I didn't really understand it and nor did he.

[Bell tolls]

♪♪

Reporter: Dr. Kelly is a scientist

with long experience of Iraq's weapons programs.

He came forward earlier this month

and told his bosses he'd had

an unauthorized meeting in a London hotel,

with BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Ross: David was revealed as the source of this story,

and he was basically hounded

by the government, the MOD.

His employer basically hung him out to dry.

And eventually, he testified in parliament.

My conversation with him was primarily about Iraq,

about his experiences in Iraq

and the consequences of the war,

which was the failure to use weapons

of mass destruction during the war

and the failure by May the 22

to find such weapons.

That was the primary conversation

that I had with him.

And you certainly never mentioned the "C" word.

Why did you feel it was incumbent upon you

to go along with the request

that clearly had been made to you

to be thrown to the wolves,

not only to the media, but also to this committee?

I think that's a line of questioning

you'd have to ask the Ministry of Defence.

I reckon you're chess.

You've be thrown up to divert our probing.

You ever felt like a fall guy?

I mean, you've been set up, haven't you?

That's not a question I can answer.

But you feel that?

No, I accept the process is going on.

Man: I'm sorry. I accept...?

I accept the process that's happening.

Ross: I imagine he found the public attention unbearable.

I wrote to him expressing my solidarity with him,

but he didn't reply.

Reporter: Police are expected to confirm later today

that a body found in Oxfordshire woodland is that

of the Ministry of Defense Weapons expert David Kelly.

Reporter #2: Dr. Kelly's wife has told a friend

that he'd become extremely stressed,

had been caught in the middle of the row

between the BBC and the government

over its use of intelligence and the threat...

Reporter #3: ...inquiry will look at the circumstances

surrounding Dr. Kelly's death.

It's expected to look at his questioning

earlier this week by the Commons for...

Man: This is an absolutely terrible tragedy.

I'm profoundly saddened for David Kelly

and for his family.

He was a fine public servant.

♪♪

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Ross: I came with several of my colleagues

from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.

♪♪

We were all devastated.

♪♪

And I remember one of them just wept copiously,

copiously throughout the service,

but it was completely overwhelmed

by the blaring media circus

that David's death had become.

♪♪

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And that was, of course, a breach,

a moment...of rupture,

after which, there was no going back.

Trust...

Mytrust in government,

my political leaders,

to an extent, I'm afraid to say my colleagues, too,

was destroyed.

Once and for all.

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Reporter: Well, today, evidence will be published that says

the government did not really believe that British diplomat...

Reporter #2: In his submission to it,

Mr. Ross said, at no time, did Her Majesty's government

assess that Iraq's WMD posed a threat.

Reporter #3: The more we learned about the beginning of the war,

the more uncertain the rationale for it seems to be.

♪♪

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Ross: Before offering my testimony,

I would like to pay tribute

to a man who should have been here to give his account.

His testimony would have been authoritative,

rigorous, and honest,

for these were his qualities.

At the UK mission in New York,

we relied considerably on David Kelly

as one of the few experts able to interpret and convey

with the scientist discipline and objectivity

the complex and uncertain picture of Iraq's WMD.

I hope that this inquiry will do all it can

to restore the values which David's work exemplified.

I wanted to read that out at the beginning of my testimony.

Before I went into the room

to sit in front of Chilcot and the others,

I was taken to a side room,

and the senior Ministry of Defence official

in charge of the secretariat for the inquiry

very aggressively said to me

that if I read out that statement,

the TV cameras would be turned off.

Mr. Ross, you were affairs secretary

in the UK mission at the United Nations in New York

from late '97 to June 2002, I think.

Yes.

And we'll be asking Mr. Ross for evidence based

on his recollections and insights

into the deliberations and actions

at the United Nations on Iraq,

which are relevant to our terms of reference,

where Mr. Ross's role gave him firsthand knowledge

on which to draw

in giving evidence to this inquiry.

It was realistic or wasn't it,

that Iraq could soon have posed a threat --

a WMD-based threat?

I found this claim absolutely extraordinary.

I mean, we never believed that in the time I worked on it.

We never argued it to allies or others,

and nobody ever believed

that these things actually existed.

We thought there might be one or two dismantled devices

left in some kind of warehouse somewhere.

But there was no hard evidence

of Scuds being wheeled around in the desert,

waiting to be fired.

If there had been, we would've seen them.

And the third part of the threat is the intention.

And there was no evidence of that, either.

♪♪

They had deliberately misled the public

by claiming that Iraq was a threat when it wasn't

and that there were no alternatives to war,

when they were.

To lie to the public

and to the servicemen and women you're sending to war,

it's the gravest -- gravest of disservices.

Government is established

to provide security for the people,

and to lie about war,

to make false decisions about war,

that's the worst thing any government can possibly do.

♪♪

The fact that that deliberation,

that consideration of alternatives

did not take place is, to me, a disgrace,

and it should be remarked upon.

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We advised South Sudan before their independence,

Western Sahara.

What we try to do is advise our clients

on how to maneuver diplomatically.

Syria coalition --

desperately difficult issue, of course.

They are an external opposition movement

fighting the Assad regime.

Somaliland,

where the overwhelming majority of the population

want to be an independent country.

Independent Diplomat --

it's a diplomatic advisory group.

It's a group of former diplomats and international lawyers

who advise democratic governments, countries,

and political movements around the world

on diplomatic strategy.

Both the work of Independent Diplomat

and my own personal philosophy is driven by the belief

that people should be part of the decisions that affect them.

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Modernity and the movement of money

and the movement of ideas

means that power is sucked out of local communities

and ends up being located almost nowhere.

We run around thinking maybe the power's in parliament

or maybe the power's for the bankers,

or maybe the powers for the journalists.

Politicians don't really, in many ways,

have the kind of power that people imagine.

In fact, most of the life of a politician

is desperately trying to eek anything out.

There isn't really any power here.

You get here and it's like "The Wizard of Oz."

But somebody has power, don't they?

I mean, somebody has the power to make

the great decisions of state taxation

or whether to wage a war or not.

I mean, these are real powers.You're completely right.

Theoretically, a census state can wake up in the morning

and make a huge decision,

But if you look at Britain, the reality is,

it's unbelievably difficult in practice

to do almost anything.To wage a war?

Is it so difficult to wage a war?

I mean, it doesn't seem to have been too difficult

in the last few years.

Oddly, waging a war is, ironically,

one of the things that is easier to do

because it's about other people's countries.

[Indistinct shouting]

♪♪

[Indistinct chanting]

♪♪

♪♪

[Chanting continues]

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♪♪

[Whistles blowing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whistles continue]

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This is the home of Occupy Wall Street.

This is where the movement began,

where people began staying in this park,

having meetings

about the concerns of Occupy Wall Street.

Funnily enough, they had mass meetings

called general assemblies, which is a bit like --

not exactly like the meeting

of the General Assembly in the UN,

rather the opposite, because these were mass meetings

that anybody could participate in.

-Our process! -Our process!

-Our process!

-Is direct democracy!

-Is direct democracy!

-Is direct democracy!

-There is no! -There is no!

-There is no!

-Hierarchy! -Hierarchy!

-Hierarchy!

[Cheers and applause]

-Occupy everything

-Occupy everything!

-Everybody has the potential for leadership

and that people are naturally collaborative

and that given the opportunity,

people want to work together in community

to solve mutual problems,

because I think inherently

we understand that we have power together

rather than sort of, like, what's taught to us,

which is this dog-eat-dog notion of competition.

We need to be able to unlock our imagination

and to be able to even dream out of that paradigm.

How do you dream?And -- How do I dream?

I dream by helping people take over the streets.

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

Over four million people

have entered their fourth day

without power across 12 states

following the devastating Superstorm Sandy.

Concern is growing for people

who lack food, water, and heat.

The hallways are dark. The buildings is dark.

The whole projects is dark.

It's like a war zone out there.

♪♪

Premo: The morning of the storm,

a couple of us started activating these networks

that had been sort of grown up around the Occupy movement

and solidified around Occupy Wall Street.

♪♪

Shapiro: We were able to use the networks to say,

actually, this is an incredibly effective way to organize,

much more effective than the Red Cross and FEMA

and other institutions that are set up to do relief.

♪♪

I was driving back soon after Sandy

with a volunteer who had not been a part

of the Occupy Wall Street network,

and as we were driving back, she said, "You know,

I always thought that government

was going to be there to protect me,

and what I'm learning is that it's not,

that that's a lie that I've been told."

And I think these moments, like Sandy,

are moments where we expand the perception

of what's really going on.

♪♪

These crises are only getting worse and worse.

There's these waves that are intensifying

and the crises themselves

are going to keep creating these cracks,

where more and more people come in.

♪♪

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Chomsky: Anarchism has a pretty broad sweep,

but the basic conception is

that humans have a fundamental need and right

for free creative work and life

under their own control,

meaning any kind of hierarchy,

domination, master-servant relation,

or simply relation -- any such relation

is going to have to justify itself.

But if it can't, it will sort of be dismantled

and replaced by a more free,

co-operative, participatory society.

Don't you have an overly optimistic view

of human nature.

Well, the other view also does.

It relies on the optimistic view

that if we have leadership, it'll be benign.

The evidence of history

is overwhelmingly against that.

So yes, we're not angels,

but is the solution to that

to create structures and institutions

which bring out the worst in us?

Is it helpful to think of anarchism as a process,

a set of principles

that guide action, means not ends,

principles like equality, inclusion, respect, freedom?

Exactly as you said,

you can't really make a means-end distinction,

The means you choose are designed

for the ends you have in mind.

If we find ways

to liberate ourselves from cultural,

political, economic

and other forms of oppression,

we'll discover aspects of our nature,

which we didn't even --

we weren't aware that we possessed.

What is an ideal anarchist society look like?

Probably the peak of modern anarchism

was Spain in the 1930s.

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Ross: It was when anarchism was actually happening.

Anarchism was actually put into practice

as a political philosophy,

and this is virtually the only time

that it happened in recent years.

[Sirens wail]

[Woman screams]

[Speaking Spanish]

That's extraordinary.

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[Whistle blows]

[Gunfire]

[Gunfire continues]

Ross: This is where the communists

attack the anarchists,

The anarchist revolution was brought to an end,

and it happened right here

at the telephone exchange.

[Gunfire]

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It happened.

Anarchism took place here.

it was real,

and it was to Orwell, at least,

very attractive,

something very appealing about it,

something beautiful.

And it made real these ideas

that have been around for a long time

and have been also hopping around in my head recently...

that it's not just a theory.

It's actually a practice,

and when put into practice,

it can be extraordinary.

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It's a very interesting painting

because it shows the march of the villagers of Marinaleda

towards El Humoso,

which is a farm that was owned

by the local aristocrat, disused,

and the villages occupied the farm.

Ross: You led the original occupation

of this land?

Sí.

[Speaking Spanish]

And how does that work?

People have two options. Okay?

If they have their jobs and they cannot work here,

they have to pay monthly an amount of money.

Right.

And the second option is working here

and doesn't have to pay anything...

I see....because you are giving your job here.

You are building your own house.

And people in the village

participate in building the houses,

but they don't know which one they're gonna live in.

Yes.So they devote equal effort

to whichever house they're building.

They build all the houses.

All the houses are the same.Yeah.

And then after they build...Yeah.

...there is a raffle,

and they choose one of them.

If you win the raffle, you get the best house.

[Chuckles] I hope.

Yeah. I hope so.

You're going to live in one of these.

Yes. Oh, that's great.

That's great.

I think this system should be in everywhere.

Yeah.

But people like me can't build anything.

You know, I'm useless with my hands.

You know, if I built one of these houses,

it would be a disaster.

No, because you can make

what you put between the bricks.Oh, the cement.

I could make the cement.

[Both laugh]Cement.

You can do that.

Yes.So, you are participating.

You are working for your own house. Yes.

So...Yeah, I could make cement.

I probably -- could probably manage that.

♪♪

[Indistinct speaking over loudspeaker]

♪♪

[Speaking Spanish]

[Conversation in Spanish]

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♪♪

[Conversations continue]

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Ross: What is the best thing about being part of cooperative?

[Speaking Spanish]

♪♪

[Gordillo speaking Spanish]

Mm-hmm.

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Uh-huh.

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[Horn blares]

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[Siren wails]

♪♪

Who was the main party on the negotiation?

I actually don't know who initiated it.

Right. Who initiated the --

But did Mr. Orstero came to the council

and said he wanted it.Yeah, he came to the council.

Okay.

And so, you know, the council --

Traditionally, when the envoy comes in,

they've got something new to do.

If they can manage it, they'll churn something out.

Yeah. But, you know, that backs them up.

[Indistinct conversation]

So, it was negotiated the previous week,

but it wasn't adopted.

And then over the weekend...Yeah.

...you know, there was the marketplace killing in Douma.

the Syrian regime bombing the marketplace there,

killing 100 people in one go --

111 people-plus in one go.

And then, of course,

the council just carried on and adopted...

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[Indistinct conversations]

Richards: Initially, when we were brainstorming the business,

we thought the idea of a co-op would be really good.

We've always relied on our employees.

I mean, they brought as much to the table as we have

in a lot of ways. Yeah.

And it just kind of, you know, felt right

to kinda share the wealth of the store.

-Have a great day. -Thank you.

When they told you

they wanted you to join the co-op,

how did that make you feel about your work here?

It meant so much to me because they didn't have to do that.

Like, regular jobs don't do that,

and just for them to sit there

and want to see us grow

even as individuals, for us to own something,

and them willing to share their baby,

'cause this store's like their baby to them,

so for them to open their arms and let us in,

I'm just honored.

Do you think it could be more widespread?

I think it can be widespread.

I think if people get

the proper education about co-ops

and, you know, just as far as that,

it can be something a lot of other businesses can do.

♪♪

Ross: I do believe that with a will

and a bit of energy,

change is actually possible.

♪♪

Changing a few people's lives, if we all did that,

that would amount to global change.

Have a great day.

♪♪

♪♪

Reynoso: [Speaks Spanish]

It's very important to work together and know each other,

and you want to be able to work together

to make sure that you're solving the community's problem, right?

That this is about doing as much as you can

for the entire community.

Reynoso: A lot of people think that elected officials

are like the kings of the people.

But I'm more of a soldier of the people, right?

So they make the decisions, and I have to go follow through

and make sure that I use their collective power

to get things done.

We're gonna be able to see how we can use that money,

and the great thing is that it's your money.

It's su dinero.

I have no decision-making power in any of this.

So, you guys decide what you do with $1 million.

[Cheers and applause]

This is a district of 155,000 people,

something like that, so imagine the city spends

hundreds of millions of dollars --

schools, hospitals, roads,

all the rest of it in this district.

Wouldn't it be better if these meetings

could decide hundreds of millions of dollars?

Yes, I think so.

I think that what New York City is trying to do is

really, really get to a point where --

We're like testing it out. It's almost like a pilot thing.

I think this is contagious, what's happening right now,

and the city council is really taking it on.

♪♪

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Ross: I spend a lot of my time

asking rich people for money

to do our work.

I met the most extraordinary brave woman

from the occupied Western Sahara,

which is illegally occupied by Morocco,

who is a human rights defender, has been tortured,

solitary confinement,

separated from her children for decades.

A wonderful, brave woman

who I've met many times over the years.

She's an absolute inspiration.

And whenever I see her, I feel really good,

and I feel really -- kind of my tank fills up.

And fairly recently this was, I went back to my desk,

and I was about to send an e-mail

to Richard Branson's foundation

to ask for money for one of our projects,

and in my inbox was an e-mail

telling me that Branson's Virgin organization

had just organized a kite surfing festival

in the occupied Western Sahara,

and I just came home to me

that we are dependent on the very people

who are the status quo

to change that status quo.

It doesn't make sense.

There is something wrong with this model,

and I'm really, really struggling with that right now.

♪♪

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[Shouting indistinctly]

[Shouting continues]

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Ocalan: Spanish anarchism created a political culture

that spoke to the deepest feelings of the culture

of the people themselves.

It was not a party. It was not only a movement.

It was, above all, a whole education,

a whole way of life, a way to live.

In this sense, it was a truly people's movement.

It was not invented in the British Museum,

like socialism.

He explored. He went back to first principles.

What is it that works?

How do people really interact face to face?

How do people live richly?

And from there, he developed,

you know, what became communalism,

but a theory of anarchism, basically,

of a democratic anarchism,

of people interacting,

making decisions face to face.

And he also blended that with ecology.

The thing that we have to recognize and my opinion

is that there are, in the world today,

millions of people who under different names

are really anarchists.

Deep in the culture of the people

is the desire to regain their power,

to create their own institutions,

to create their own life ways,

to take control of their lives.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

So, this is a map of Syria,

and where I'm going to go is into Rojava,

which is basically this area here

under Kurdish control,

and they control a band of territory.

So going along like this all the way to about here.

But I'll be floating around here,

visiting the various kind of towns.

ISIS are up here.

They come across here, basically, in a line up here,

more or less, including Mosul.

So, I'll be keeping in this bit.

Yeah, I didn't know I was gonna

have to take body armor and a bloody helmet.

I didn't know that.

♪♪

Girl: Hi!

Hi.

How are you?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

This road is noisy and crowded,

as you can hear, because the traffic's

been diverted from the main road to Mosul,

which is over there,

but we haven't gone on it

because Mosul's under

the control of ISIS at the moment.

But we're heading that way.

We're going around Mosul...

for obvious reasons.

♪♪

♪♪

This is a UN refugee camp

for all the Yazidi people who've been driven out by ISIS.

God knows when they'll get back to their homes.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Just makes you realize

what an epic disaster Iraq has become.

This was partly our work.

We didn't create ISIS,

but we created the situation that created ISIS.

But these are the people paying the price

for the epic mistakes

of Western policy.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Indistinct conversations]

Over there, Rojava, our goal.

Lots of Kurds trying to get across.

♪♪

In this corner of Syria,

something extraordinary going on,

and whether it really is extraordinary,

whether it is replicable,

whether there are things that we can learn

for the rest of the world

is what we're crossing the river for.

♪♪

♪♪

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And here we are in Syria.

♪♪

♪♪

Hi. How are you?

I'm Khan. Nice to meet you.

Hi. Spas.

Spas.

We've been met by the YPG,

which is the Kurdish militia,

the Kurdish People's Army,

which has been fighting ISIS here in Syria.

[Radio chatter]

[Man speaks Kurdish]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Speaks Kurdish]

[Machinery whirring]

[Man speaks Kurdish]

[Man #2 speaks Kurdish]

♪♪

♪♪

[Speaks Kurdish]

♪♪

♪♪

So this is self-government in action,

and here is the level that matters in Rojava --

decisions for here are taken for here.

Decisions that affect,

as much as possible, are made here.

And if decisions need to go to a higher level,

then they'll go up to the next level,

of the Legislative Assembly.

But as far as possible,

decisions about things that matter here

are made in that room right there.

[Laughter]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Speaks Kurdish]

[Cellphone clicks]

[Speaks Kurdish]

[Speaks Kurdish]

Ross: Do you feel, as a young person,

that your ideas are taken seriously

in the assembly?

First time, it was hard on us...

Yeah. ...because it was the first time

that we had this young age in the parliament. Yeah.

And everybody was new on here,

especially as a young woman.

They see new ideas.

They see how we work in the Parliament.

They take our ideas seriously, and they believe in it.

Here, we are trying to build a system

for the whole world to take ideas from us.

I've been in a lot of crappy chambers

where you see people sitting like this --

Security Council, Parliament, blah, blah, blah.

This one, though, although it's a bit shabby,

it's kind of the best.

You could almost make a kind of inverse paradigm

that the shabbier the collective chamber,

the better the democracy.

The more ornate and gilded,

the more the more jaded the democracy,

the less representative.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Where we're heading is to a reconciliation lunch

between two families.

This is an example of the way

that the justice system here works,

because rather than going to court,

these two families have been encouraged to have consultations

and negotiations between each other.

Hi.

Take my shoes off.[Speaks Kurdish]

[Indistinct conversations]

[Speaks Kurdish]

[Indistinct conversations]

Is what's happened here satisfactory for the family?

[Speaks Kurdish]

♪♪

There's a real sense of having arrived somewhere

that's very special for me.

♪ Do-do-do

Books...

It's like, you know, for anarchists,

this is like Republican Spain during the Civil War.

This is --

This is our Ithaca.

♪♪

Socks.

♪♪

[Conversation in Kurdish]

Good morning. Hello. Thank you.

♪♪

[Xelil speaks Kurdish]

Ross: Yellow is YPG?

Red is ISIS. Xelil: Yeah.

This is where colorblindness doesn't help.

Yeah. [Both laugh]

[Speaking Kurdish]

This is where we are here?Yeah.

We're 8 kilometers from -- from ISIS front lines.

Ross: Nobody has a rank in the YPG.

They just have teams,

this being a non-hierarchical society,

based on anarchist philosophy,

but for a non hierarchical army,

they seem to have done pretty well.

[Man speaks Kurdish]

Totally flattened.

Shooting from up here, obviously.

I'm not surprised civilians

haven't wanted to come back here.

♪♪

[Horn honks]

♪♪

♪♪

Don't know -- Is it okay to shake hands?

Yes.

Hi. Greetings.

Spas.

Spas.

Spas.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

♪♪

So, this is the tip of the spear...

of the fight against ISIS.

♪♪

They're all so young.

♪♪

♪♪

[Indistinct conversation]

So, is ISIS in those houses there?

[Man speaks Kurdish]

They come out in the evening?

-Yes. -Like rabbits.

So, are they on that hill over there, as well?

[Speaks Kurdish]

Isn't it the same for us, though?

I mean, don't they --

If you appear at the parapet here,

don't they take a potshot?

♪♪

♪♪

I know what you're fighting against,

but what do you think you're fighting for?

[Children shouting, indistinct conversations]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

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These people have built democracy.

They have built the largest area of Syria

that is stable and democratic.

It's an inclusive democracy,

where Syrians, Arabs, and Kurds

alike are given a fair crack of the whip.

You know, what's not to support?

They are fighting ISIS.

They are sacrificing hundreds of lives.

They are the people fighting the world's war

against these this -- this horror.

The problem is, nobody's listening to them,

and countries even like America, which is at war here,

is not talking to them at a political level.

The military have contacts with the YPG,

but at a political level, they're not talking.

And that's a hell of a battle,

and it's a battle, you know, I'm glad to take on.

I have rarely felt

more solidarity with a cause

than I feel with these people here.

It sounds romantic.

You know, I'm not Lawrence of Arabia.

I'm just a guy in an NGO,

struggling, doing what I know how to do,

but this is what I'd like to do.

This is for me, you know,

why I do what I do.

And I am really, really, really...

I'm really sad to leave.

Really sad.

♪♪

♪♪

[Horn blares]

It's like coming back out of the rabbit hole.

What did I see? Was it real?

Can it happen here?

And I'm greatly upset by it

because I feel that they're fighting an epic fight.

And here, you know...

we're talking about a new iPhone

and the fact that Apple

had chosen to use a stylus on the iPad,

and Donald Trump,

a racist and a misogynist and a billionaire,

is the center of political attention.

So, the bile rises,

and we think we're better than them.

You know, we think we have a superior system.

I'm like, what -- Who's the idiot here?

♪♪

♪♪

[Gunshots, screaming]

♪♪

-Hands up! -Don't shoot!

[Police radio chatter]

[Indistinct shouting]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

All: There is no priority!

[Cheers and applause]

Occupy everything!

[Cheers and applause]

♪♪

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