Protests in Australia continue to break official silence on Julian Assange

By our reporters 

7 August 2019

Over the past weeks, there have been growing indications in Australia of popular support for Julian Assange and opposition to the attempts to extradite him from Britain to the US, where the WikiLeaks founder faces the prospect of life imprisonment for exposing American war crimes.

Last Sunday, prominent supporters of Assange rallied in Sydney, in opposition to the welcome given to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the Liberal-National Coalition government, the Labor Party opposition and the entire political establishment.

Despite briefings by Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange’s lawyers, in Canberra last week, no political party or parliamentarian, including from the Greens, has issued a statement defending Assange or demanding that the US end its pursuit of him.

John Shipton addressing the protest

At the Sydney protest, Assange’s father John Shipton condemned the Australian government’s refusal to even raise the issue of Assange with Pompeo, declaring: “Silence is complicity.” Shipton branded the US secretary of state as a “warmonger,” and in comments to the WSWS stressed the importance of ordinary people taking action in support of Assange.

Mary Kostakidis, a well-known Australian journalist, outlined the significance of the dismissal last week of a civil case against Assange brought by the US Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Kostakidis stated that the verdict was a damning refutation of claims that Assange colluded with Russia to undermine the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton in 2016. She cited the ruling, stating that WikiLeaks’ 2016 publications, exposing Clinton and the DNC, “deserved the highest First Amendment protections.”

Mary Kostakidis

The journalist declared that a successful US prosecution of Assange under the Espionage Act would have “frightful repercussions for press freedom around the world.”

“We need Australian media to also recognise the importance of this case,” Kostakidis said. “Whether they support the individual or not, whether they like his personality or not, is irrelevant, as it is in all human rights cases.”

James Ricketson, an Australian documentary filmmaker, reviewed his own experiences, being convicted and imprisoned on bogus espionage charges by the Cambodian government. He stated that the Australian government had only taken action in his defence, after it was compelled to do so by public pressure.

Significantly, Ricketson stated that Assange had provided timely and useful advice to him that aided in his release from prison last year. The filmmaker exposed the various pretexts used to justify the persecution of Assange, noting that he had been demonised and scapegoated “like refugees and immigrants have been.”

The rally followed other actions and initiatives in support of Assange.

A crowd-funded campaign established by designer Somerset Bean to print and display posters urging people to lobby government representatives to free Assange has raised more than $20,000 in three months, well in excess of the initial goal of $5,500. The campaign has been extended to include “Bring Assange Home” billboards displayed on trucks driving around Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

A change.org petition started by Phillip Adams, calling on the Australian government to prevent the extradition of Assange to the US, has attracted over 165,000 signatures.

Assange supporters display banner at football match [Credit: Jacob Grech]
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/07/assa-a07.html