Sign the open letter initiated by Sydney Stop the War Coalition.
To: Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard
Anti-war activists salute Wikileaks’ courage and determination in exposing the lies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ruthlessness in which the biggest imperial power – the US – seeks to maintain its global dominance.
We believe that Julian Assange and his colleagues’ unremitting efforts in shedding light on the truth about these wars provides vital and valid documents for anti-war and human rights activists in Australia and across the globe in the struggle against unjust wars and occupations.
We strongly condemn your threats against Wikileaks. The fact that you and your US counterparts are so infuriated by Wikileaks,that you want it shut down and are trying to criminalise Julian Assange shows just how powerful the truth is.
Julian Assange has reminded the world about the power of the corporate media, the lack of government accountability, and the injustice of the wars you and others are waging.
Wikileaks should be congratulated for its service to humanity and for reminding us who the real criminals are.
Troops out of Afghanistan! Justice for Palestine! Hands off Yemen and Iran!
Sign the petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/pip123/petition.html
Read the leaks: www.wikileaks.org
www.warlogs.wikileaks.org/iraq/diarydig
mirror sites if wikileaks is down:
I am an anti-war activist, a Solidarity member and a supporter of Wikileaks but I would not sign this.
At the time that this letter was created – it was not clear whether Julian Assange had committed criminal acts (against the 2 women who have made allegations against him) or not.
It is looking a lot worse for him today, in light of the leaked police documents from Sweden.
I fear that Solidarity and other groups have done themselves, women in general and all victims of sex crimes, a great disservice by appearing to have jumped to the defense of Assange’s behaviour towards these women without knowing the facts.
If the allegations are true – then Assange has in fact committed criminal acts, regardless of whether the Swedish authorities reaction was somehow politically motivated or not.
Unfortunately, this letter sounds (to me) like Solidarity and the Sydney Stop the War Coalition are discounting the possibility that the allegations against Assange could have any merit at all.
In turn they are therefore, however unwittingly, minimising the experience of many other women, men, and children who have endured some form of sexual abuse.
Trish,
If you read the letter it does no such thing. It refers to efforts by the Australian government and the US to criminalise Julian Assange, which implicitly refers to their efforts to prosecute him under the Espionage Act (or the Australian government’s own investigation to see if Wikileaks had committed any crimes under Australian law carried out by the AFP). It may not be completely clear, but the open letter does not refer to the sexual assault charges, or in any way dismiss them. These claims should be heard, but that should in no way diminish the need to defend Assange and Wikileaks from attempts to charge them for their work in releasing documents that shed light on the real workings of US imperialism.