In this video Thomas Scripps, the Assistant National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Britain, urges people to take part in an emergency online public meeting to discuss how to fight for the immediate freedom of Julian Assange. It will be held this Wednesday December 22 at 7 p.m. (AEDT) and 8 a.m. (GMT). Click here to register.
Scripps, a leading World Socialist Web Site writer on Julian Assange, will speak at the meeting, which is organised by the SEP Australia. He will be joined by Oscar Grenfell, also a regular writer for the WSWS on Assange and the national convenor of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Australia.
On December 10, the UK High Court cleared the legal path for Assange to be extradited to the United States. This pseudo-legal travesty means that the WikiLeaks founder’s life hangs in the balance. Already, more than a decade of physical and mental torture has taken its toll, with Assange suffering a stroke in October.
This award-winning journalist, an Australian citizen, is being persecuted for exposing the atrocities, human rights abuses and other crimes carried out by the US and its allies internationally, including in the imperialist wars and invasions of the Middle East.
For this, Assange has been the victim of a protracted conspiracy involving the US, Swedish, UK and Australian governments. He is being charged under the US Espionage Act—the first time in history a journalist has been charged under that legislation. If extradited, he faces 175 years in prison or even the death penalty.
No faith can be placed in the British judicial system or the US, UK and Australian governments. They have all made clear their intention to remove him to the US. Instead, the demand for his immediate release must be taken out among the broadest possible layers of students, workers and professionals. This demand needs to be linked to the rising working class struggles against the big business policy of “letting rip” the COVID-19 pandemic, the massive levels of social inequality and the drive toward new wars.
We urge all defenders of democratic rights and opponents of imperialist war to participate in the online public meeting on Wednesday. Click here to register.