Yesterday afternoon a handful of people held a vigil at he British consulate in Brisbane to mark the attempted extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. We held signs reading, "Free Julian Assange, Free Bradley Manning" and "In An Age of Universal Deceit Telling The Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
It was a bit of a disappointing turnout, but the vigil was not advertised other than by our email network. However the police must have been taking lessons form Wikileaks, because they knew all about it, and well outnumbered us!
There were plain clothes police, ordinary police, special task force police, not to mention security guards, and the manager of the Waterfront Place which houses the British Consulate!
All this for six people with our small signs and leaflets!
After half an hour Sean O'Reilly and I attempted to deliver a letter to consulate. This plan was also known by the powers that be! We were greeted outside the front doors by the building manager who said police would come to escort us
into the foyer. This they did. And to save us the trouble of climbing 26 flights of stairs (or using the lift even) they sat us down in some leather armchairs and said the Consul representative would be down shortly.
Sure enough, Megan was not long in arriving. We all
shook hands and Megan accepted our letter. She informed us she had already told the Embassy in Canberra we were coming (we had not even told her!). She would pass on our letter to them. They would read it and then pass it onto " Downing St ". A little polite chit chat and we were back out on the streets, amazed at the turning of a letter delivery into a major diplomatic
event!
We continued to vigil and leaflet for another hour, and headed back to "normal" life.
Lets hope Julian Assange can do the same after two days in a London court.
Jim Dowling
(Catholic Worker - Peter Maurin Farm, Dayboro, Queensland, Australia)
LETTER DELIVERED
1 Eagle St
Brisbane Consul General
British Consulate
7th February 2011
To Whom It May Concern.
We the undersigned write with urgent concern for the wellbeing of a fellow Queenslander presently before the courts in London.
We refer to Julian Assange who is facing an extradition hearing at this time.
We do not seek to interfere with legitimate court procedure, but we strongly believe the Swedish accusations are politically motivated and have nothing to do with the pursuit of justice.
We further believe that if Julian Assange is extradited to Sweden he will then be extradited to the US where he will face life in prison for exercising his right of free speech and freedom of the press. What awaits him if he is sent to the US can be seen by the present inhuman treatment of Bradley Manning who has been in solitary for 8 months for the “crime” of passing on information about war crimes to the Wikileaks organisation which Julian Assange represents.
We urge that all attempts to extradite Julian Assange be rejected, and the British government offer him the protection he deserves.
More accounts of solidarity actions here
Comments
Phonycracy is hell with the devil in hiding
Surprise! When phony politicians talk about hearing the voices of the people, this is a reference to stealing private communications, not to paying due attention when they are publicly addressed. Yes they are really that dumb.