Today is Julian Assange’s 51st Birthday

Assange appeals against his extradition to the High Courts. Such an appeal would likely begin to address the real issues of democratic rights at stake in the more than a decade long persecution of Assange, which the US government and British courts have largely contrived to exclude from proceedings thus far.

Julian Assange’s wife Stella Moris, mother of his two sons

Julian Assange turns 51 today – for almost 12 years he has been deprived of liberty, this is his 4th birthday in a UK jail for publishing the truth and protecting the public’s right to know – he must be freed. Julian Assange recently suffered a mini-stroke recently and is in poor health.

“Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over.”- Amnesty International

On June 17, 2022, the United Kingdom approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States to face charges, primarily under the nation’s Espionage Act, for releasing US government records that revealed the US military committed war crimes against civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the killing of two Reuters journalists. If found guilty, Assange faces a jail term of up to 175 years.

Immediately after British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced last month, that she had approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States, the publisher and journalist was stripped naked and placed in a bare cell of London’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

This latest abuse of Assange’s democratic and human rights was reported by his father John Shipton to a rally in Berlin last Tuesday and at other speaking engagements in Europe. It is a continuation of what outgoing United Nations Rapporteur Nils Melzer has branded as the state torture of Assange by the British and US authorities.

Assange’s lawyers are seeking a further appeal for the British courts. But Patel’s announcement makes clear that the fight to free the WikiLeaks founder has reached a new stage of urgency. Assange’s very life is in danger. At the same time, Australia’s new Labour-led government has made crystal clear that it will do nothing to defend Assange, despite the fact that he is a persecuted Australian citizen.

Patel’s order is the latest stage in a decade-long conspiracy against Assange, involving the US, British and Australian authorities. They have trampled on all of his legal and democratic rights, and perpetrated what outgoing United Nations Rapporteur Nils Melzer branded as state torture against Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has not committed a single crime. His supposed wrongdoing has been to shed light on the illegal wars of the last 30 years, their mass killings and violations of international law. See Melzer’s recent book The Trial of Julian Assange

The stepped-up pursuit of Assange coincides with a further escalation of imperialist war. The journalist who revealed to the world’s population the crimes of the previous imperialist wars in the Middle East and Central Asia is being silenced while the perpetrators are preparing new wars and crimes across the globe.

The US and NATO are now engaged in a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. At the same time, Washington is confronting China in the Asia-Pacific. The recently-concluded NATO summit openly presented these as two fronts in a single conflict.

The US-led confrontations have nothing to do with protecting “human rights” or “democracy,” as the persecution of Assange makes clear. Instead, they are part of a new imperialist redivision of the world, which threatens a global catastrophe.

Take Action

SPEAK UP!

Download and Send the International Federation
of Journalists letter to the US embassy for your country.

Fill in and send IFJs model letter to US embassy in your country calling for the immediate release of Julian Assange. Encourage your members to do the same; the more, the better!

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Email IFJ at communications@ifj.org when your union has sent the letter and share it widely on social media with hashtag #FreeAssangeNOW

The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) calls on workers, students and professional people to attend its online meeting on Sunday July 10, at 3pm Australian Eastern Standard Time to defend and free Julian Assange.

The persecution of Assange is an attack on the mass opposition among workers and young people to these war policies. It is intended as a precedent for broader frame-ups and victimisations. This is being pursued, as part of a turn to authoritarian forms of rule, directed against a resurgence of working-class struggle, including major strikes in Britain, the US and Australia.

At this meeting, Socialist Equality Party speakers from Australia and Britain will outline the need for a stepped-up campaign for Assange’s freedom.