[D66] Julian Assange’s life is in danger! | wsws.org

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wsws.org:

Julian Assange’s life is in danger!
7 October 2019

In an interview with the World Socialist Web Site last week, John
Shipton, the father of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, spoke of his
fear that his son “may die” as a result of the conditions under which he
is being imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison in London.

Shipton’s statement is not an exaggeration. Serious concerns about
Assange’s physical and mental health have been raised by others who have
been able to visit him since he was sent to Belmarsh, including his
brother Gabriel Shipton, journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, fashion
designer Vivienne Westwood, actress Pamela Anderson and United Nations’
Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer.

The conclusion that must be drawn is that Julian Assange—an Australian
citizen, journalist and publisher responsible for bringing into the
light of day US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the diplomatic
intrigues and corruption of governments around the world and the scale
of CIA spying and black operations—is the victim of a slow-motion
attempted murder by the combined forces of the American, British and
Australian state apparatuses.

There are ample grounds to accuse Washington, London and Canberra of
calculating that Assange’s death is preferable to the years-long and
politically fraught process of extraditing him from the United Kingdom
to the US for a show trial on charges of espionage.

Assange is being kept in solitary confinement for up to 21 to 23 hours
per day. He has next to no access to outside information or telephone
calls, a library and, above all, human interaction apart from with
guards. When he does leave his cell, he is prevented from speaking with
inmates and minimal time outside is spent alone. He is allowed only two
one-hour personal visits per month, and even those have been subjected
to provocative interference by the prison authorities. He has suffered
significant weight loss and, according to those closest to him, some
signs of mental disorientation, despite his determination to stand by
his principles and his actions.

This treatment is being inflicted on a man who is being persecuted for
the “crime” of telling the truth. He defied the oppressive power of the
US state and its allies and has therefore been subjected to a relentless
campaign of personal slander and state persecution.

His abuse in Belmarsh is in stark contrast to that of convicted English
fascist Tommy Robinson, who has publicly thanked the prison’s governor
for the extent of the liberties, visits and personal attention he was
provided while he served barely 10 weeks of a 19-week custodial sentence.

Assange was hauled to the maximum-security prison on April 11, after the
Ecuadorian government reneged on the political asylum it had granted him
inside its embassy in London. He sought sanctuary in the small building
on June 17, 2012 only after, in a procession of judicial travesties,
British courts repeatedly upheld a warrant for his extradition to Sweden
to answer questions—not even charges—over fabricated allegations of
sexual assault.

The sole motive behind the Swedish pursuit of Assange was to extradite
him on to the US. It is well-known that a secret grand jury empanelled
in Virginia by the Obama administration in late 2010 indicted Assange
for WikiLeaks’ publication of US military and diplomatic secrets leaked
by whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.

For close to seven years, Assange endured what the United Nations
formally assessed as “arbitrary detention” and “torture” at the hands of
the United Kingdom. British authorities rejected requests that he be
permitted to leave the small embassy for sunlight or to receive medical
treatment without facing immediate arrest. The protests of the UN were
dismissed.

Even after the fraudulent investigation against Assange was finally
abandoned by Sweden in 2017, the British government did not relent.
Instead, it collaborated as Washington pressured Ecuador to cut off all
Assange’s communications and, ultimately, to renege on its provision of
asylum. Throughout this entire time, successive Australian governments,
as part of their sordid strategic alliance with the US, fully supported
the flagrant violations of its own citizens’ rights and liberty and
refused to raise a word in his defence.

The custodial period of the vindictive and rare 50-week sentence imposed
on Assange for violating his bail terms ended on September 22. Under
normal circumstances on a minor bail-related matter, a person would have
been released. But in the case of Julian Assange, nothing has proceeded
in a “normal” fashion. Fundamental, and in some cases centuries-old
democratic and legal rights and precedents have been cast aside.

The latest example, of too many to list in one article, was on September
13. British judge Vanessa Baraitser pre-empted even an application for
Assange’s release and ordered that he remain incarcerated on the pretext
he would “abscond again” from the extradition trial that is set to begin
on February 25, 2020.

The ruling effectively condemned Assange to Belmarsh for years. His
legal team would be expected to appeal all the way to the highest court
to prevent his rendition to the US, where he faces a life sentence of
175 years on 17 charges of espionage and one of conspiracy.

In an act of sheer brutality, Chelsea Manning has been re-imprisoned by
American courts for refusing to testify to the grand jury impanelled by
the Trump administration that indicted Assange. She could be detained
until late 2020 if the grand jury serves out its entire 18-month term.
In addition, she is being vindictively fined $1,000 per day, threatening
her with nearly $450,000 in fines and financial bankruptcy. The American
state is attempting to force her to retract her repeated evidence that
Assange played no part in obtaining the leaked information.
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The international working class is the only social force that can compel
the American, British and Australian governments to end their collective
persecution of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. A movement must be
forged around the world that is orientated to the independent
mobilisation of workers and young people in political protest, strikes
and other industrial action that demand governments act to release them.

Appeals to the moral conscience of the US, UK or Australian governments
are worse than useless. They uphold the class interests of the
imperialist ruling elite and they are determined to destroy all
independent media that expose the lies that support their wars,
intrigues and other crimes. WikiLeaks, Assange and Manning are being
persecuted to intimidate and silence all would-be whistle-blowers,
principled journalists and advocates for political and social change.

The Democratic Party in the US, with the complicity of Bernie Sanders
and so-called “left” Democrats, has been at the forefront of seeking
Assange’s extradition.

In Britain, absolutely no confidence can be extended to the Labour Party
or its leader Jeremy Corbyn, who, by his silence, is fully supporting
the judicial charade underway to justify Assange’s illegal rendition to
the US.

In Australia, no parliamentary party is demanding that the government
cease collaborating with the persecution of one of its citizens by the
United Kingdom and the United States. In the case of the Australian
Greens, it is so determined to avoid any criticism by the official
political and media establishment that it is defying the sentiment of
its own grass-roots membership.

The thoroughly pro-big business and corrupted trade union bureaucracies
have rejected every appeal made to them to oppose the flagrant attack on
democratic rights taking place.

Even more glaring is the silence of the pseudo-left organisations
internationally. A range of such formations, from the Democratic
Socialists of America, to the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist
Party in the UK, to Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative in
Australia, boycott every action taken in defence of Assange in order not
to disrupt their subservient relations with the establishment parties
and the trade unions.

[...]

James Cogan