RUSSELL BRAND: Yeah, The Trews is my TV show that I made with Gareth. It's not on the television; it's on the Internet.
AMY GOODMAN: So it's a combo between "truth" and "the news"?
RUSSELL BRAND: It's one of the cleverest puns in human history.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you talk about this issue of disabled and elderly residents in an assisted living center in Rockaway, New York -- this is after Sandy, after Superstorm Sandy -- being asked to return aid to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Let's go to that clip from The Trews.
RUSSELL BRAND: "Can we have our money back?" "But the hurricane, disabled." "Money back."
FEMA AID RECIPIENT: I asked them, "Do we have to pay this back?" And they said, "No, it's a gift from the president."
RUSSELL BRAND: "You know that gift I gave you?" "Yes, we all appreciated it." "Mmm, that makes it a little bit harder to say what I'm about to say." "Oh, what is it?" "Give it back."
AMY GOODMAN: There it is.
RUSSELL BRAND: I'm proud of The Trews because what it does is it gives us an opportunity to provide an alternative news narrative. What I've noticed since I've come in this sphere of public debate talking about politics, which I do in my book with, like, input from insightful and brilliant figures such as Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, that, like, it's sort of like people are having a go at me, like I'm not allowed to participate. You know, "Shut up! Look at your hair! Listen to your accent! Be quiet!" It's like a really sort of fiercely guarded, like, realm -- not just from the right, but from the left, as well. If you sort of go, "Hey, I'm actually from a background where people are affected by stuff like this. This is what we think. Can we talk about this in a different way?" people are so fiercely territorial and protective, it's interesting. And it's not difficult to see why there is such political stasis and such immobility, because people don't welcome new debate. Not ordinary people. Ordinary people like it. Ordinary people are engaged and excited. But I would say there's a kind of circuitous establishment that's interested in a kind of peculiar circle jerk of exchanging opinions.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what you did at Occupy Democracy and what it is, what it is here in Britain.
RUSSELL BRAND: Well, Occupy--the Occupy movement is a leaderless, decentralized campaign movement, so it's the same in the U.K. as it is in America. There were a group of protesters occupying Parliament Square, a coalition of groups interested in issues such as, like, you know, fracking, animal rights, but primarily our inability to have any political purchase through democratic process, like that voting doesn't make any difference. No one's interested in presenting alternatives to draconian, restrictive trade agreements, whether they be European or TransAtlantic. And we have no -- and these are the rules and regulations that affect people's ordinary life. And so, I suppose something like Occupy Democracy is people venting that frustration and demonstrating their belief that there's a need for change.
So I support that, because what I reckon is important, and what I talk about in my book, Amy, is that creative, local direct action is the answer, that we shouldn't be looking for sort of glamorous new figures to lead us. We shouldn't be looking to conventional politics. It's not going to provide any answers to people, like the women of the New Era Estate in Great Britain, who were being evicted from their homes because their areas got trendy now, so all of the rents have gone up. These people were going to be evicted from their homes. They organized themselves. They campaigned. And now Richard Benyon, MP, the wealthiest politician in the houses of Parliament there, has packed his bags and run from the confrontation. But still, the Westbrook group, the developers that own 90 percent of the estate, still have to be confronted. Still, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has to be confronted, because, you know, it's difficult to get any political purchase. There are no political figures that are interested in representing ordinary people.
AMY GOODMAN: Might you run for mayor of London?
RUSSELL BRAND: I don't think I would really want to be part of that political system. What I'm interested in is ordinary people being engaged, whether it's for union activity in their workplaces, new coalitions or people that are taking control of the places that they live, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: You have talked a lot about the power of corporations and also materialism.
RUSSELL BRAND: How come you're allowed a glass, and mine's plastic? Why am I not trusted?
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