178th Week, Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gatherings, 2023-04-21
More terrific impromptu speeches by members of the public in defense of Julian Assange, and a slice of Sydney.
More terrific impromptu speeches by members of the public in defense of Julian Assange, and a slice of Sydney.
Why did the David Hicks case attract so much public support in Australia, when Julian Assange’s apparently does not? The establishment press was still a lot freer in Australia then. It still covered anti-war protests, protest against the introduction of new terrorism laws, and even Hicks’s scandalous treatment by the Australian government. It’s not doing that for Assange.
Update 28 Apr: Follow RFK Junior's campaign on Twitter. Less than 3 days ago there was a surprising and welcome development in the unfolding contest for the Presidential election to be held on 5 November 2024. On the morning of Friday 21 April, less than three days ago, Robert F Kennedy Junior (RJK Junior) the nephew of President John F Kennedy (JFK), asked of Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, why he "imprison[ed] Julian Assange" and of Democrat Supporters of sitting President Joe Biden why "your candidate persist[s] in Trump's prosecution of the most consequential journalist of the 21st century? " He did so in the tweet embedded below:
I posted the following letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus at around 11:00am on Thursday 7 April during a protest for Julian Assange outside the electoral office of Mark Dreyfus in the Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc. I had hoped to hand a copy of this letter to Mark Dreyfus in person or, at least, to a member of his staff, but his office was unattended. For security reasons, as explained to me by a member of the Federal Police, there was no slot through which I could put the letter, so I had to send the letter through the mail. I expect that my letter would have been received in Mark Dreyfus' office the next day and that my letters to Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong will arrive at Parliament House on Tuesday 11 April following the Easter long Weekend. I have also e-mailed this letter, with the subject Please act humanely now to end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange, and sent CC copies to members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group.
From 10am until 12pm tomorrow, on Thursday 6 April, outside the electoral office of the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc, supporters of Julian Assange will be protesting to demand that the Australian government act to end the British Government's imprisonment of Julian Assange.
Included below is an example of the letters I sent late in the evening of Monday 27 March to each of the 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group. I point out that, in spite of its size, the efforts of this group so far appear to have made little difference towards making the Albanese government act to end the UK's illegal imprisonment of Assange or even to just hold this government to account for its failure to do so.
The following article has been adapted from the leaflet handed out at the weekly Vigil for Julian Assange in the evening of Friday 17 March 2023 at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station: Julian Assange, the multiple award-winning Australian journalist, has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day in London's Belmarsh pr
Melbourne State Library 1 pm Saturday 18 March against AUKUS US $170b nuclear sub purchase and alliance No AUKUS Coalition, Solidarity Melbourne and Melbourne 4 Assange
Join us - rally, say No to War – protect truthtellers 8am Monday 20th March at the ACT Courts. On the 20th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, and as the Coalition of the Willing which was responsible for the illegal invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 has regrouped as AUKUS, we should remember the legacy of that disastrous war and other destructive wars.
On March 3, 2023, protesters gathered outside Mark Dreyfus, the Australian Attorney General's office, to complain of Dreyfus's failure to object to the British Government's illegal and cruel imprisonment of heroic Australian citizen, Julian Assange. March 3 is Assange's birthday. Inside is the text of James Sinnamon's speech on that occasion.
Text of James Sinnamon's speech (video embedded below)
Previously published 7 March 2023 on Consortium News and on 4 March 2023 at Declasified Australia: At the Belmarsh Tribunal for Julian Assange, held at Sydney University’s Great Hall on Saturday 4 March, Kellie Tranter (@KellieTranter), a lawyer, researcher, and human rights advocate, in a 7:40 minute speech, reported that despite private and public requests for diplomatic assistance for the WikiLeaks publisher, Canberra’s policy — shown by FOI documents — has been one of complicit inactivity in the face of his persecution:
In person and online event this Saturday 4th of March the Belmarsh Tribunal reconvenes for its fifth session in Sydney University Great Hall.
It was the 169th Assange Friday night vigil outside Sydney Town Hall and, for once, ABC Australia turned up. But they were there for a Gay Pride event at the town hall.
In the early hours of Thursday 16 February, the last day on which the House of Representatives, the lower house of Australia's two houses of Parliament, is to sit until the next sitting begins on Monday 6 March, I have been individually emailing members of the House with my Open Letter entitled "Lift Parliament's gag on discussion about Julian Assange - an Open Letter to members of the Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group".
The following Open Letter has been sent to all 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group (Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group).
From 4pm, this coming Saturday 11 February, come down to the Victorian State Parliament to celebrate Julian Assange for the Global Carnival Worldwide Mobilization for Assange. Meet at Parliament Steps at 4pm Saturday 11 February 2023.
Update, 8 Feb 2023: I have received a reply from Josh Wilson and responded further below. They both now precede my original "Open Letter" of 6 February, which is further below.
Engrossing discussion of the arcane and unfair legal and political web entrapping Julian Assange: Lee Camp's excellent questions allow Stella Assange to use her legal and personal experience to comment in depth on the political relationships and laws and legal systems involved, such as the post 9-11 terrorism extradition laws; Britain's unequal status in US-British extradition laws; the incompatibility of how freedom of the press as conceived in the US is not possible in Britain
At Woodford Folk Festival, 28 December 2022, Prime Minister Albanese spoke about how democracies all over the world are coming ‘under attack from a whole range of corrosive, insidious forces’ and that ‘no-one is immune’ (see Appendix 2 below). He also said that by next year there will be an indigenous voice in parliament.
Every Friday at Sydney Town Hall, this group continues to stand up for Julian Assange. Stirring speeches about Australia's whistleblowers and Australia's involvement in war-crimes, Albanese's failure towards Assange, our crocodile tears for the prisoners of other regimes, but not for Julian Assange.
As the embedded YouTube video below shows, yesterday, on 30 November 2022, in the House of Representatives, during question time , Dr Monique Ryan, the independent member for the north-eastern Melbourne metropolition seat of Kooyong, pointed out to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that only political intervention will free Julian Assange.
There are two critical facts which, to me, don't seem to have been taken into account by many of those, both here and overseas, who are fighting for Julian Assange's freedom. Had these facts been understood and then acted upon, I believe that Julian Assange would be free today or, at worst, our prospects of freeing him in the near future would be much greater than what is now the case.
Next week, both the House and the Senate are sitting. We must demand that, this time, its gag on discussion about Julian Assange be lifted.
Update, 5pm Thu 24/11/22: Except for an automatically-generated response from Helen Haines MP, I have received no response from any one of the 11 representatives I emailed very early this morning. Later today, I will, likewise, email another 22. I am writing to each one of you in the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group to ask you to try, as hard as you are able, to use your voice and your vote to support Julian Assange in Parliament during this current sitting which ends, in the Senate, next Friday 2 December and, in the House, next Thursday 1 December. |
This article points to the utter failure of Australia's parliamentary system to deal with Julian Assange's predicament and the associated public concern.
Aussie Cossack gave a stirring and original speech in defense of Assange at the Sydney Town Hall Friday night vigil for Assange on 4 November 2022.
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