Above Photo: Fashionblabla/Flickr
As part of its campaign in the federal election, the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) is holding a rally and meetings demanding freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and for Chelsea Manning, the courageous whistleblower who has been detained by the Trump administration for more than five weeks.
The illegal arrest of Assange, by British police in London’s Ecuador embassy on April 11, is a major attack on the democratic rights of the working class. It is aimed at facilitating Assange’s extradition to the US, where he will face concocted charges over WikiLeaks exposures of US war crimes, mass surveillance operations and diplomatic intrigues.
The attempt to prosecute Assange, for lawful publishing activities, is nothing less than a move to abolish freedom of the press and free speech, and to create a precedent for the suppression of growing opposition to militarism, social inequality and authoritarianism. It must be opposed by all workers, students and young people.
The Australian political establishment, is playing a central role in this conspiracy. Every Australian government, beginning with the 2010 Greens-backed Labor government of Julia Gillard, has refused to defend Assange, an Australian citizen, instead collaborating in the US-led vendetta against the WikiLeaks founder. The Greens, the unions and the pseudo-left groups have for years maintained a complicit silence on his persecution.
The SEP rallies and meetings will demand that the Australian government immediately use its legal discretion and diplomatic powers to secure Assange’s safe passage to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the US. The events will be aimed at building the mass movement that will be required to compel the government to fulfill these elementary obligations.
SEP election rally: Free Julian Assange! Defend democratic rights!
Sydney
Saturday, April 27, 11am,
Outside Parramatta Town Hall,
182 Church Street, Parramatta,
SEP meetings: The jailing of Assange and Manning—An attack on the working class
Sydney
Saturday, May 4, 2pm,
Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre,
80 Rickard Rd, Bankstown, Lansdowne Room 1&2,
Tickets: $5 /$3 concession
Melbourne
Saturday, May 4, 3pm,
Multicultural Hub,
506 Elizabeth St, Melbourne,
(Opposite Victoria Market, cnr Therry St),
Tickets: $5/$3 concession
Brisbane
Monday, May 6 (Labour Day), 2pm,
SEP Oxley election office,
5/12 Queen St, Goodna,
(upstairs, above coffee shop, with lift access),
Tickets: $5/$3 concession