https://socialistaction.org/2020/04/06/ny-free-julian-assange-rally-registers-broad-support/
NY Free Julian Assange Rally Registers Broad Support
Socialist Action / 18 hours ago
Free Julian Assange event in NYC. (Photo: Marty Goodman)
By MARTY GOODMAN
Feb. 15 was the first large event in New York City calling for freedom
for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who faces 175 years imprisonment
under the Espionage Act of 1917 for exposing U.S. war crimes, torture,
and human rights abuse. The size and enthusiasm of the event shows
support for Assange and free speech rights is growing.
The NY Assange panel included many well-known free-speech and justice
advocates and attracted over 200 to the campus of the City University of
NY Law School (CUNY). Sponsors were the Courage Foundation, a national
whistleblower defense group; the National Lawyers Guild, and FAIR, a
media watchdog organization. Endorsing was the very active NYC Free
Assange Committee.
Speakers at the CUNY panel were Jim Goodale, who provided a unique
perspective on the responsibilities of journalism as the former General
Counsel for the New York Times during the release of the Pentagon
Papers; Glen Ford, Executive Director, Black Agenda Report; Renata
Avila, international lawyer, public and legal advocate for Assange; and
Max Blumenthal, a journalist at The Grayzone.
Video interviews for the program were projected onto a screen, which
featured Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower on Vietnam
and Cambodia and MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, linguist and
political philosopher.
Alice Walker addressed the audience via a live telephone hook-up. (see
you-tube+Joe+Friendly for videos of this and other NY Assange events)
Daniel Ellsberg told the audience, “Julian Assange is now the first to
ever actually have been indicted as a journalist and that will mean
essentially that we won’t have a free press.”
Noam Chomsky compared the persecution of Assange to the war waged by
fascist dictator Mussolini against Leftist writer Antonio Gramsci, whose
court prosecutor famously said, “We must stop this brain from working.”
Said Chomsky, “Assange faces that and possibly even worse. If the notion
freedom of the press means anything this is a textbook example of an
effort to undermine it.”
Said Alice Walker, who visited Assange in the Ecuadoran Embassy, “This
is a man of character. We should continue with all our might to get him
out of incarceration to reconnect him with his father and his children.
This is incredibly vital and crucial to our freedom of speech.”
Panelist Glen Ford helped put it all in context, “U.S. imperialism is
unprecedented in world history in claiming the power, the right to
police the world and to imprison and kill anyone that opposes its global
supremacy. Assange and WikiLeaks were put at the top of the Empire’s hit
list. Assange became the Empire’s public enemy number one.”
During the Q&A period links were made between journalist Assange and
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed-up by racist Philly cops on a murder
charge in 1982 and, like Assange, Mumia’s health was brutally ignored by
prison authorities. Also discussed was whistle-blower Edward Snowden,
forced to flee the U.S. for Russia; the case of Black Liberation Army
member Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba in 1984, and the jailing and
murder of members of the Black Panther Party.
Feb. 24 was Assange’s first day of trial in the UK and a global day of
protest in more than 25 cities. In New York the NYC Free Assange
Committee held a midday rally at the UK Consulate in Mid-town Manhattan.
About 75 attended.
Speaking at the demonstration was civil rights lawyer and co-author of
the indispensable book, “In Defense of Julian Assange,” Margaret
Kunstler. Said Kunstler, “Delivering real journalism is a risky
undertaking with uncertain rewards. Truth has become a revolutionary
thing. Assange is accused of espionage and faces a show trial under a a
law that has a lugubrious record (the Espionage Act-MG)….Everyone who
has ever been tried under the law has been found guilty. There is no
defense. WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are under the threat of extinction
but our rights are threatened too.”
Speaker Ben Norton, journalist at Grayzone, told the mid-town crowd,
“WikiLeaks has enriched our understanding of the crimes of this
government that claims to act in our interest but of course it doesn’t
and we have their own US State Department cables that prove it. When US
politicians from both the Republican and Democratic parties go on TV and
say Julian Assange is a spy, Julian Assange is responsible for whatever
accusations they smear him with, that is a lie because Julian Assange
has done the noble duty that the vast majority of journalists refused to
do.”
Other speakers at the rally included Michael Smith, a member of the
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and co-author of “Who Killed Che?”; Kim
Ives, editor of “Haiti Liberté” newspaper; Marty Goodman of Socialist
Action and others.
Check-in with NYC Free Assange on Facebook or email
NYCFreeAssange@xxxxxxxxx for details on future events.
Share:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on
Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in
new window)
April 6, 2020 in Uncategorized.
Related posts
Assange: Empire of Surveillance and Imperialism
Book Review: The Trials of Julian Assange
UNAC antiwar conference registers gains
Post navigation← Workers Say “No” to Virus, Defy U.S. Navy
Search for articles
Search
Search …
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Social Media
View socialistactionusa’s profile on FacebookView SocialistActUS’s
profile on Twitter
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
--
___
Thomas Paine
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason