SEP (Australia) meeting announces rallies in defence of Julian Assange
By
our reporters
18 December 2018
The Socialist Equality Party announced at a public meeting last Sunday that it will organise demonstrations in defence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange next March in Sydney and Melbourne.
Delivering the main report at the Sydney meeting, which was livestreamed internationally on Facebook, SEP national secretary James Cogan stated that the protests, on March 6 in Sydney and March 10 in Melbourne, would be aimed at mobilising the widespread support for Assange among workers and young people.
The rallies would expose the role of the entire Australian political establishment in the persecution of the WikiLeaks founder, Cogan said. They would reiterate the demand that the Australian government take immediate action to secure Assange’s return to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the United States, which is seeking to prosecute the journalist and publisher for his role in the exposure of war crimes, illegal diplomatic intrigues and mass spying.
James Cogan’s report to the meeting
Cogan stated: “It is legitimate to ask why we have selected those dates, given the possibility that Julian may be forced from the embassy well before March. We believe it provides sufficient time to build the widest support for the demonstrations, in workplaces and among students, under conditions in which we anticipate that the political establishment, media and the trade unions will maintain a wall of silence or actively oppose them.”
He stressed that the social force that had to be independently mobilised in the fight for the freedom of Assange was the working class.
Addressing a diverse audience of workers, students, young people and retirees, Cogan also announced…