While the tug-o-war known as Julian Assange approaches his fourth year in His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh, London, the community of local people trying to help free him will rally in Lismore on March 18.
Northern Rivers NSW 4 Assange spokesperson and rally co-organiser Yvonne Preston says this will be held on the weekend of the 20th Anniversary of the Iraq War. ‘In Julian’s quest to bring us the truth about a war, he has been illegally detained in the torturous cell of the highest security in Belmarsh Prison fighting an ominous extradition order to America. “The first causality of war is the truth” said Hiram W Johnson.
’Thirty-six million people protested against the Iraq invasion. One million civilians died. They were written off as “collateral damage”. Two people ended this war. Julian was one of those two!’
As the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange Published 700 000 Documented War crimes. These were leaked by an IT soldier from the US military, Chelsea Manning. These publications in collaboration with the Guardian and New York Times along with multiple news corporations published these documents as a matter of public interest. Both, Manning and Assange went to Jail, Manning was pardoned.
Preston says it’s imperative that if we the people commit our hard-earned faith, money and time towards our leaderships interests, then we should always reserve the right to have a really good look into what our leaders are doing at any time. ‘It gives us a much-needed strength to believe in our societies, our militaries and our governance.
A Lismore lad
‘As most people already know Julian, is from Lismore, Goolmangar. “He grew up within the soil and fabric of our society”. This is how his father, John Shipton refers to his early life in the Northern Rivers. He goes on to say that he is a product of his environment, in his care about humanitarian and environmental concerns.
‘On the 18th of March as part of a global demand to #Free Assange, we stand in solidarity to bring our boy home. So let’s be loud and inspired from our core. Bring your message to the world in banners, signs and express our heartfelt concern. This could be our final opportunity to do this.’
The Lismore rally will feature Speakers – Filmmaker Kym Staton (Free the Truth), Graham Dunstan, and lawyer for humanitarian issues Eddie Lloyd.
The event will be MC’d by Roy Drew from Northern Rivers 4 Assange group on Facebook and Twitter. And what would a gathering for freedom be without music? The event will be blessed by the tunes of Brodie Buttons and Lucie Garlic of Northern NSW.
There will also be a letter writing and picture drawing (for the kids) station. Send a message of support to Julian, to the Belmarsh Prison to show him your support.
If you can’t make it, then there is so much you can do online, visit; www.assangecampaign.org.au/ sign the petitions, and send off automated emails to the most influential people in his detention.
‘As lawyer Ben Wizner so poignantly stated: “A country in which a publisher has been extradited and imprisoned for publishing truthful information will be a very different country than the one we have lived in our whole lives. And let’s make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that we don’t become that country”,’ says Preston.
Visit Team Northern Rivers NSW 4 Assange pages on Facebook and Twitter for updates and interesting links.
The Lismore rally for Julian Assange will be held on March 18 at the Lismore Memorial Baths.
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