Protesters at Ecuador embassy vigil in London demand freedom for Julian Assange
By our reporters
21 June 2018
The World Socialist Web Site spoke to some of those attending Tuesday evening’s vigil in London to demand freedom for WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. The vigil marked six years since Assange was forced to take refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy.
Wiesje from the Netherlands came to support Assange because he had exposed the lies of governments and the press and was now being treated “vindictively.”
She noted how the Netherlands government was implementing laws to suppress information under the guise of “fake news.”
The European Union, which includes the Netherlands, is voting this week on a Copyright Directive, Wiesje explained, “that installs copyright filters to censor information and restrict the sharing of links as had happened with YouTube’s changing of its algorithms. It means information will be even more concentrated in the hands of the big corporations.
“All the governments of the European Union say they are opposed to ‘fake news’ but the real distributors of fake news are papers like the New York Times and Washington Post. In Holland, the TV we get fed is pure propaganda, a narrative of the government.”
Clara has been involved in the Free Julian Assange campaign from when he first took refuge, protesting outside the Ecuadorean Embassy every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“Julian has been confined to a small box room for years, unable to see friends and families or access the internet. His health has been suffering. His detention is an abuse of human rights and equivalent to torture.
Jennie from London said the speech to the vigil by Socialist Equality Party assistant national secretary Julie Hyland was a “very good and very concise call for freedom of speech and defence of Julian Assange. I thought the point she made about Jeremy Corbyn not saying anything about him for the last three years was very interesting. It shows he is with all the other politicians. They are all afraid of Julian and the secrets he revealed about American war crimes. They want him hung, drawn and quartered.”
Susana, from Portugal, has lived in the UK for 12 years. She said, “I hope Julian can get safe passage to Australia or where he wants to go. I found out what has been happening to him on Twitter and have been following his case for two years. He was framed. We don’t know anything about these women [who originally made allegations of sexual misconduct, that were then dropped by Swedish prosecutors for lack of evidence but only after years had passed]. He knows about the criminal acts of governments and the corruption from the roots.”
Lucy is an actress who attended the vigil with her father. She said, “[My father] introduced me to what’s going on and sent me an article from the WSWS about it. I wanted to come along for more information. At the end of the day [Assange] is a human being with human rights.”
Lucy was particularly concerned about the democratic principle of innocent until proven guilty. “It’s not fair what happened to him, it’s like McCarthyism. Anyone can say anything now. If I dislike someone and say they abused me, it’s like a witch trial. People are going to be scared to speak out. And what’s [Labour leader] Corbyn done about it!?”
Retired financial adviser, Lincoln, said he has been a WSWS reader for “four or five years. I was planning to attend these vigils for a long time and seeing [independent journalist] John Pilger doing the same thing, I decided it was long overdue.
“There are people trying to control the agenda and everything we know. If someone tries to tell the truth they are shut down. It’s hard to find balanced news in the US. One side supports Clinton, Fox News supports Trump. RT [Russia TV] has to register as a foreign agent, the same happened to [Iranian broadcaster] PRESSTV. But we have American propaganda like in the cold war with Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
“Governments want to make an example of anyone who goes against the status quo or threatens to take control of the agenda away from them. It’s Julian Assange now, it’s us tomorrow. Something they don’t control is the Internet and they want to control it.
