Thank you to everyone attending our seventy-fourth Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering, and thank you to all the people across the globe who are standing up for Julian Assange and for the rights of people everywhere to be truthfully informed about the lies and abuses of our governments. Thank you to all the people who realise that our voices count, and that expressing ourselves helps us all to learn the truth, and to act positively on that truth!
As the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange is an important figure for the wellbeing of society because he has made it possible for ordinary people to glimpse the inner workings of our system of government. His journalism has given us proof that our governments are built on a foundation of secrecy, lies and surveillance!
It is this system that makes the scapegoating and persecution of whistle blowers possible. It is NOT surprising, therefore, that this same system is responsible for the persecution of Julian Assange! Even though Julian is completely innocent, this system has made it possible for governments to conspire against him so he can be punished, simply for journalism.
It is almost two years since the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Nils Melzer, first informed the world that Julian Assange has all the signs of having been subjected to prolonged psychological torture. Nearly two years later, nothing has been done to remedy this situation. Julian is still being held under torturous conditions in Her Majesty’s Prison, Belmarsh, in the United Kingdom while our Australian government refuses to use its diplomatic privilege to do anything that might alleviate these torturous conditions.
Julian’s work of making it possible for all of us to know the truth about our governments, demonstrates he is a kind, intelligent and ethical human being who believes in doing what he can to help us all live in a more free and open society! If we want to live in a free and open society, understanding the true nature of our oppression is clearly an important first step! Even though Julian Assange is now being cruelly persecuted, he successfully performed this important first step on our behalf. It is now up to us to use our great ability of speech to spread the word to each other. We must also be aware that smears and lies have been put out by the powerful as a strategy to hide their corrupt use of power. We must bravely stand up, spread the word and speak up for Julian Assange as he is worthy of hero status from all decent people!
Julian Assange is a true hero, in every sense of the word, but the orchestrated smear campaign has put doubts into the minds of many. Although all of the smears have been soundly debunked, many people harbour some of these doubts about Julian’s character! If you have any doubts about Julian, please consult the work by the great, independent, Australian journalist, Caitlin Johnstone! Simply Google the words, ‘debunking all the assange smears’ and you will be able to read Caitlin’s expert debunking of every one of the grotesque smears that have been fabricated over the last ten years or so!
The collective persecution of Jullian Assange, involving the apparently democratic governments of the US, UK, Ecuador and Sweden, along with the complicity of the Australian government shows us we shouldn’t underestimate the depth of the corruption. This corruption is clearly not isolated to one or two bad apples. The corruption is systemic and it will not be solved by calling out individual politicians. Politicians have come and gone but Julian’s situation has steadily become more dire. Our corrupt system manages to launder itself through a process of substituting one bad politician with another. We must not fall for the illusion of just one or two bad apples. We must realise that the problem of governments concealing their wrongdoings from the public, needs to be addressed by public action.
We must play the ball rather than the player. We need to focus on our right to see evidence, know the truth and our ability to unite. More repressive laws and more militarised policing will just make things worse! We need greater transparency of governments and corporations and we must make it our business to make sure there are ways for us to be more informed!
All corruption depends on our collective ignorance. Julian Assange is at the forefront of the fight for our right to know the truth. If we want to defeat corruption, we must first free Julian Assange.
Thank you to all the people who are speaking up about Julian Assange & helping the general population to be more truthfully informed, and thank you to all those who are listening!
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!