Today marks the seventy-third Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering. We are here because Julian Assange is in prison in the UK while being completely innocent, both legally and morally! He is a journalist who published great volumes of truth about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan! It is astounding that he is in prison while the war criminals he exposed experience impunity. Anyone who thinks this situation is OK, has the impossible task of explaining themselves! If you think it is NOT OK, please join us in standing up for what’s right! Use your voice to help free Julian Assange! When there are enough of us saying ‘Free Assange’, our political leaders will be forced to do the right thing and use the power they have to free him.
In our current culture of intimidation, made evident by the arbitrary detention and torture of Julian Assange, truth appears to be falling by the wayside and it is apparent that people censor themselves to keep their jobs and their social media accounts. This culture of intimidation must be replaced with something better. We must create a culture of truth even though we see efforts to intimidate us. A culture of truth is born out of people bravely and defiantly speaking truthfully from the heart. Truth is our power. We must hold our governments to account by voicing the truth! We can be certain Julian Assange will be freed when enough of us speak up truthfully for him and his actions of exposing the truth!
A culture of truth encourages us to discuss anything that is important to our well-being. A culture of truth will bring about a better understanding of reality. And a culture of truth helps to free publishers, like Julian Assange who published politically inconvenient truth about war crimes to enable a culture of truth.
There is plenty that is wrong in this world but there’s one thing we can be sure of! Julian Assange did the right thing by exposing the crimes of war criminals! David McBride has also done the right thing by exposing war crimes! Both of these brave people are being politically persecuted for doing the right thing! We have seen more than enough of governments combining their efforts so they can hide war crimes and persecute the brave people who expose them! Standing up for Julian Assange and David McBride is one sure-fire way we can all do the right thing! If enough of us speak up, the persecutors will have no choice but to back down or face political suicide!
We can all use our voices to stand up for a just and better world by saying ‘Free Assange’! It is very simple but with everyone saying ‘Free Assange’, a clear message will go right to the top! This simple phrase takes no effort when you are aware of the truth that Julian Assange is completely innocent and that his persecutors are protecting the war criminals his publishing has clearly exposed!
Democracy is about everyone having a say! In a democracy, everyone must always be able to speak up and have a say! Julian Assange, along with everyone else, has the right to expose government corruption and war crimes, without political persecution! Democracy isn’t complicated! Democracy is founded on the basic truth that everyone has a right to have their say!
We need the truth! We need an open debate! We need free speech! We need a free press and we need a free and safe Julian Assange! We must all stand up to the plate and fight for Julian’s freedom because his freedom is the exact same thing as our freedom!
Although Julian Assange should be free, the US government wants to assert world-wide power over the press and we see puppet governments like the UK and our own in Australia, completely willing to facilitate Julian’s persecution! We must all stand up to this nonsense! Our own freedom is intimately tied to Julian’s.
We are standing here to fight against the nonsense of corrupt governments! We say, ‘Free Assange!’ because we know it is important for us to defend the democratic rights of everyone! Governments, without ethics, won’t agree. Mainstream media, paid to publish war propaganda, won’t agree. Corporate bullies, wanting greater control over their work force, won’t agree. But if we want true democracy and the peace that goes with true democracy, we must develop our solidarity! We must show solidarity with Julian Assange, the journalist who has done more than anyone to uphold democracy and peace by making it possible for us to know the truth about government corruption!
We must participate in democracy by standing up for everyone’s right to be truthfully informed. Democracy is driven by the people. Our voices count! Our right to view the evidence of corrupt activities counts. Stand with us! Say NO to political persecution. Say ‘Free Julian Assange!’.
It makes perfect sense for people to question so called ‘authorities’ when facts don’t match the official narrative. It is dangerous to go along with sources of information that are known to have histories of misleading the public. Think for yourself and stand up for Julian Assange who is standing front and centre for our right to know the truth!
We must all be willing to think for ourselves and we all need the benefit of being able to hear from those who think for themselves. This is not a game of follow the leader! There is too much at stake. People die due to the poor decisions of ignorant or malevolent leaders who need to be held to account! We must hold them to account! With the truth, ordinary decent people are powerful! Standing up for Julian Assange and the right to know truth, is the way we will win! And win we must!
We need public oversight of the systems that have been used to keep Julian Assange arbitrarily detained for over 10 years. No one should be allowed to benefit from war crimes and no one should be allowed to suffer for revealing them!
We must keep fighting until Julian Assange is free and all other journalists are able to freely publish public-interest information. We need a culture of truth and we need to be eternally vigilant!
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!