CIVIL VIRTUE OUTRAGED, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY TRIUMPHANT
21ST CENTURY WITNESSES THE RETURN OF MEDIEVAL BARBARIANISM,
BESTIALITY AND CORRUPTION OF POLITICAL POWER
FREEDOM TO JULIAN ASSANGE!
Please
read this repost of an article by Thomas Scripps "Assange turns
50 in Belmarsh prison, his life still under threat", published
here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/03/assa-j01.html
, and the following articles by Oscar
Grenfell published on the same web site:
"Key witness against Assange admits to lying in exchange for US
immunity" here:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/28/assa-j28.html
and "Corporate media blacks out admission that witness against
Assange lied for US indictment" here:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/03/stun-j03.html
.
* *
*
"WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange turns 50 today (July 3rd, 2021). It is an
occasion to record the enormous suffering that has been inflicted on
the heroic journalist by the imperialist powers, in retaliation for
his exposure of their war crimes and human rights abuses.
Assange
has now spent more than one fifth of his life facing persecution by
the US state and his allies, starting with the freezing of his
account by Swiss bank PostFinance and the launching of a bogus sexual
assault investigation by Sweden in November-December 2010. He lost
seven years from June 2012 trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy in
London and has been incarcerated for more than two years in Belmarsh
maximum security prison.
During
this time, he has missed the birth and early lives of two sons and
been kept separate from his partner of six years, and fiancée of
four, Stella Moris. Prevented from travelling, and denied the most
basic means of communication, Assange has had his globally
significant work as a journalist brought to a halt. He has been
denied the opportunity to defend himself against a relentless
campaign of slander and abuse.
The
effects on Assange personally have been devastating, described by UN
Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer and campaign group Doctors
for Assange as psychological torture. His UK extradition judge was
forced to acknowledge that he had suffered severe depression and is
at serious risk of suicide.
Far
worse is planned. Assange is fighting extradition to the US where he
faces charges under the Espionage Act with a possible life sentence.
Assange would then be imprisoned in conditions “not built for
humanity”, in the words of two former US prison wardens who
testified at his trial, subjected to an effective living death—in
close to continuous solitary confinement and denied almost all
contact with the outside world.
There
is no indication that this vicious persecution will cease. A highly
calculated ruling by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January that
Assange could not be extradited to the US on mental health grounds
has not changed his conditions one iota. He remains held on remand in
Belmarsh and the US Department of Justice has signalled its
determination to pursue the case, even as the pack of lies it has
assembled against Assange collapses
.
No
information has been released about the status of the US government’s
appeal of Baraitser’s decision, or the counter appeal by Assange’s
defence team. It remains unclear when these appeals would be heard,
leaving the WikiLeaks founder in a legal limbo. The deciding High
Court goes into recess at the end of July, not returning until
October.
What
is certain is that the ruling class still intend to make an example
of Assange, whose work with WikiLeaks did them immense political
damage and contributed to an upsurge of anti-imperialist sentiment
across the world. WikiLeaks uncovered tens of thousands of unrecorded
civilian casualties and the use of death squads and torture during
the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The organisation exposed US
support for military coups and brutally repressive regimes, its
rendition of innocents and minors to Guantanamo Bay and published the
infamous “Collateral Murder” video.
Former
CIA director then secretary for defence under Obama, Leon Panetta,
summarised the American government’s response: “All you can do is
hope that you can ultimately take action against those that were
involved in revealing that information so you can send a message to
others not to do the same thing.”
Besides
the destruction of Assange’s health and denial of his freedom, his
pursuit has set chilling precedents which tear to shreds legal and
democratic rights. His extradition case has been characterised by the
routine abuse of due process, including denying him proper access to
his lawyers and key documents and the 11th hour introduction of a new
indictment. He and his legal team have been subjected to surveillance
by the American state, while plans have been exposed to kidnap and
even assassinate him. The charges against him criminalise basic
journalistic practice, placing it under the Espionage and Official
Secrets Acts.
Every
step of this pseudo-legal witch-hunt has been upheld by the British
courts. It has proceeded with only the faintest of murmurs in the
liberal media and official “left” politics. Any past commitment
to democratic rights in these layers has so thoroughly collapsed that
they have been able to cough up just a handful of articles and
parliamentarians, offering even the most tokenistic support for
Assange.
Despite
the persistent efforts of the official Don’t Extradite Assange
(DEA) campaign to curry favour in these circles, the sum total of
their endeavours in the UK is a motley cross-party crew of 24
parliamentarians. The presence of Conservative MP David Davis in this
group confirms its utterly toothless character. This right-wing
backer of Boris Johnson feels perfectly at ease playing at supporting
democratic rights in the company of Labour “lefts” Jeremy Corbyn,
Richard Burgon and John McDonnell, who have proven themselves utterly
harmless to the British state and its interests.
The
24 do not even feign confidence in their ability to set Assange free,
or to build a movement which could. Instead, they have directed their
attention to issuing humble appeals to Assange’s chief persecutors.
On June 11, they signed an open letter to US President Joe Biden
congratulating him on his election and concluding, “We appeal to
you to drop this prosecution, an act that would be a clarion call for
freedom that would echo around the globe.” The letter reads, “You,
like us, must have been disappointed your predecessor launched a
prosecution carrying a 175-year sentence against a globally renowned
publisher”.
This
is said of the man who labelled Assange a “high-tech terrorist”
and who has seamlessly continued the Trump administration’s case
against the WikiLeaks founder, as part and parcel of America’s
intensifying war drive.
As
far as the DEA carries out an international campaign, it is to set up
similar groups of politically disparate figures in different
parliaments around the world making the same lame appeals. On
Thursday, an open letter signed by members of the German Bundestag
representing the Left Party, the Free Democratic Party, the Greens
and the ruling Christian Democratic Union and Social Democratic
parties called on Chancellor Angela Merkel “to urgently advocate,
during her forthcoming visit to Washington to meet with US President
Biden, an end to the persecution of Julian Assange.”
None
of this is politically serious or credible. Assange will not be freed
by appeals to the conscience of the ruling class. The fight for his
freedom depends on the mobilisation of a mass social force in defence
of democratic rights and against war, the international working
class, who must be alerted to Assange’s plight and organised in his
defence.
Amid
a resurgence of class struggle in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
and its economic fallout, and a dangerous escalation of militarism
across the globe, the Socialist Equality Party is confident this
perspective will find a mass hearing."
-
