Make your Prime Minister act to free Julian Assange: Protest Victorian State Library, 12pm Sunday 18 September

You can help build the protest by printing and distributing the A5 leaflet from which this article was adapted (front page PDF, back page PDF, instructions are included below)..

This Sunday at 12pm outside the State Library of Victoria at 328 Swanston Street, there will be a protest to support Julian Assange. Protesters will be demanding that the Federal Labor Government use the power vested in it as a sovereign national government to make the UK Government end its illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange. Prior to the protest, Ben Smith will be providing music from 11AM.

The Master of Ceremonies (MC) will be Amber Petty. The speakers will be Christine McKenzie, Jerome Small, Fiona Patten, Sami Shah, John Landers and Mark-Extinction Rebellion.

Text of Leaflet

Two and a half years ago, Julian Assange completed his maximum 50 week sentence for 'skipping bail' in 2012. Had he not skipped bail, he almost certainly would have been imprisoned in solitary confinement for the rest of his life by the United States government for 'endangering US national security.' He supposedly endangered US national security by revealing, through Wikileaks, facts about US war crimes in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and elsewhere. These revelations were supposedly in violation of the US 1917 Espionage Act, when he is not even a US citizen! Julian's imprisonment is in violation of UK law and the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees free speech. Why has Anthony Albanese failed to act to end this illegal imprisonment? Why has this never been debated in your national Parliament?

As the world cries out for Julian Assange’s freedom, the Australian Parliament remains silent

An Australian government, resolved to free Julian Assange, would have found both domestic and international public opinion overwhemingly on its side. Domestic examples include the Melbourne City Council and the Randwick Council in NSW which have both passed motions in support of Julian Assange. International examples include Mexican President Obrador and the German Bundestag who have both called for Julian Assange’s freedom. Faced with this, both the UK and the US would have, almost certainly, backed away very quickly and allowed Julian Assange to return home to Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fails to act

However, Anthony Albanese, who, 4 months ago, became Prime Minister of Australia, has failed to act, as he surely knows he could have, to free Julian Assange. He has not only failed to act, he refused even to give to the Australian people, through its Parliament, a full explanation for this inaction. To date his ‘explanations’ remain short outbursts, here, against ‘megaphone diplomacy,’ and, there, against Twitter supporters of Julian Assange.

Why does your Parliament refuse to discuss the illegal imprisonment and torture of that most famous of all Australians?

At least since 2020, supporters of Julian Assange have been prevented from putting to Parliament the case for why the Australian government can and should act to free Julian Assange. On 2 December 2021, Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie tried to put a motion which called for the government to speak to both the US and UK governments to end Julian Assange’s imprisonment but even debate on that motion was disallowed. Prior to that, on 10 June 2021, Labor MP Julian Hill was also prevented from putting to Parliament a motion in support of Julian Assange.

Clearly those in control of our Parliament know that, far from putting this matter to rest, such a debate would, in fact, make far more Australians aware of just how monstrously Julian Assange has been treated. They would no longer accept the tired old excuses, given to them by this government for its inaction.

How to print leaflet from the two embedded files.

There are two PDF files rather than one PDF file. One file is for the front page and the other file is for the pack page. This is a work-around to cope with the fact that, for a reason not know to me, the customer-operated printers at OfficeWorks no longer print on more than one side, leaving the back page blank. The work-around suggested to me by an OfficeWorks staff member was to print each of the A4 pages separately, thence use the photocopier to copy two single pages onto both sides of one A4 sheet of paper. I then subsequently had an Officeworks staff member guillotine the bundle of A4 printed pages into two bundles of A5 leaflets, for a charge of $2 (or $5 for larger bundles).

I was able to have all the work done for me on a subsequent batch of leaflets for little more by Lachlan at Minuteman Press in Seaford, Victoria. Lachlan charged me $40 to print 500 A5 leafelets, whilst the same would have cost me $45 ($40 for printing $5 for guillotining) at OfficeWorks. At Minuteman Press, it would not have been necessary for me to have one file for the front and another for the back page.

Your help needed to have leaflets distributed over the next three days prior to 12PM on Sunday

Over the next three days I plan to go into the Melbourne CBD to distribute my latest batch of 500 leaflets. It took me four hours to distribute 342 leaflets out of 400, before I decided to call it a day last Sunday. I could use help distributing my current batch from anyone willing to travel into the Melbourne CBD 'tomorrow' on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or on Saturday morning prior to the protest. Hopefully, with the help of others a good deal more than 500 leaflets will be distributed in the coming days.

Hopefully that will help make the attendance Sunday's Protest big enough to make a decisive difference in the fight for Julian Assange's freedom.