In Defence of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange: Open Letter to the Australian Government from Australian Citizens and Other Concerned People:

In Defence of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange: Open Letter to the Australian Government from Australian Citizens and Other Concerned People

Dec 6th, 2010

The campaign against WikiLeaks and its spokesperson Julian Assange is now in full swing. Cyber attacks, multiple legal prosecutions, blocked bank accounts, slanders and threats of violence are now the order of the day as Goliath attempts to grind down, demoralise or at least discredit this David. By releasing tens of thousands of secret US diplomatic documents, WikiLeaks has given us all an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the nature of US global power. We are now all witness to the unhappy spectacle of how that power protects itself.

Voices from the same corporate media that obediently recycled government lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, leading to an illegal invasion and to the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqis, now sermonise about how вirresponsibleв WikiLeaks is. American vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has labelled WikiLeaks a "terrorist" organisation (to be dealt with accordingly), and some conservative commentators call for Assangeвs assassination. To its shame, the Australian government has joined the chorus, recently seeking to place WikiLeaks on its blacklist of censored internet sites, and threatening that Assange may be arrested if he returns to Australia.

We reject this state organised repression of those brave whistleblowers who are trying to inform us about the real operations of government and corporate power. This is not finally a matter of striking the вright balanceв between security concerns (privacy; personal and collective safety) and freedom of information (the publicвs right to know). In fact the WikiLeaks team has shown itself sensitive to these competing demands. Whether or not it makes mistakes here or there is a secondary issue. The real issue is the elementary health of the social organism, which needs to know the truth about itself like a body needs fresh air and oxygenated blood. The real issue is an increasingly blind and coercive state and corporate machinery, which no longer faces real internal opposition, which communicates with us through PR-processed spin, and which treats all serious dissent as вterrorismв. Now it says openly that it is a crime to reveal government crimes. This is a racket, and WikiLeaks is exposing where and when the racketeers know it is a racket.

We, citizens of Australia and other countries, call on the Australian government to reverse its threat to arrest Julian Assange. We call on it to have even half his courage and to say вNoв to pressure from other governments to clamp down on WikiLeaks. Assange and his co-workers should be offered asylum in Australia and legal protection from political repression.

We make these calls knowing that the Australian government will not change course easily. It has chosen loyalty to its caste over loyalty to its compatriot. It has chosen to вprotect democracyв by promoting fear. We therefore say: If this government wants to shame itself again, let it not be in our name.