In the face of mounting threats, the working class must defend Julian Assange
25 October 2018
Bill Van Auken: The fight to defend Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who is being pursued by Washington for daring to make public classified documents exposing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and the plots hatched by US officials and embassies around the world, is now at a critical juncture. The mobilization of militant and active solidarity on the part of workers and youth all over the world is of utmost importance.
Assange is facing an escalating threat that he will be handed over to the British authorities and ultimately extradited to the United States to face trumped-up charges of espionage, punishable by life imprisonment and even the death penalty.
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Why is Washington stepping up the pressure for the surrender of Assange? It is not the result of any new “offense” committed by the WikiLeaks journalist in exposing US imperialism’s crimes. He has been held incommunicado in the Ecuadorian embassy for months.
Rather, it is bound up with the drive by the US government and the major technology corporations to impose a regime of censorship on the internet, blocking the access of a broad public to antiwar, anti-government and socialist views. Preparing for war abroad and repression at home, the ruling establishment wants to lay its hands on Assange in order to set an example that those who dare to expose its secrets will be punished. The aim is to silence and intimidate all those who are fighting against war, social inequality and the assault on democratic rights....