SEP meeting attendees speak out in defence of Julian Assange
By
our reporters
18 December 2018
Workers, students and young people responded with enthusiasm to announcements at a Socialist Equality Party meeting last Sunday that the SEP will hold rallies next March in defence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Those in attendance expressed their hostility to the role of the Australian political establishment in the persecution of the publisher, and their admiration for WikiLeaks’ exposure of US-led war crimes and illegal diplomatic intrigues.
James, a mature-aged history student, said he attended the meeting, because he “felt a responsibility to support a hero who is under fire, someone who is a very important figure, a world-wide figure. Someone who is telling the truth and exposing corruption.
“The photo of Assange’s current condition outraged me. It made me realise how much he has been suffering especially in the last couple of years in the embassy. He has committed no crime, he has exposed the truth.
“Assange is being victimised because the American war machine has to go on. They can’t stop it. It’s their main source of income. They need wars. We’ve got business people dictating to governments. Assange is a very dangerous figure because he’s making these things transparent.
“We’re living through a stage of history with mass rumblings and opposition from below. We’ve had things like 40 million people go on general strike in Brazil last year and now the emergence of the Yellow Vest movement in France. Under these conditions, workers need people like Julian Assange exposing the truth more than ever.”
Gus, a construction worker, came to the meeting after attending a lecture by WSWS international editorial board chairman David North…