Last lap of the election…

It looks like curtains for Sunak on 4th July. Despite the fact that there is little enthusiasm for Keith Starmer on the street nothing the Conservatives say can shift Labour’s 20 point lead in the opinion polls. Amongst the Tory grandees the blame game has already begun with Remainers looking to the Liberal-Democrats while the die-hard racists and what’s left of their Brexit faction turn to Nigel Farage’s Reform platform. In Islington over a thousand volunteers are helping Jeremy Corbyn in his fight against the Labour machine to keep his seat in parliament and Nigel Farage managed to break the bourgeois consensus on Ukraine last week. 
To the eternal shame of the fake left Labour MPs who pose as peace campaigners while supporting NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine Farage’s repeated calls for a peace settlement
 take Russia’s legitimate demands into consideration. To the horror of Sunak and Starmer, who closed ranks to denounce Farage as an apologist for Vladimir Putin, Farage’s comments were favourably received on the street even in die-hard Tory and Labour areas. This is not surprising. Though tatty yellow and blue Ukrainian flags still fly over some Government buildings no-one on the street really cares about Zelensky these days. 

Assange: the end of a nightmare

 Seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London followed by five years cooped up in a dungeon in Belmarsh. Julian Assange paid a very high price for defending journalistic freedom. Now he walks free following a plea-bargain deal with the American courts that led to his release this week. We all wish him well as he starts to rebuild his life in Australia.
The WikiLeaks founder will now fight for a pardon that Donald Trump says he will seriously consider if he returns to the White House while Assange supporters vow to continue to campaign to change the law in the United States to prevent further prosecutions against journalists.
We’ve learned many lessons from the Assange campaign whose ultimate victory was undoubtedly due to Assange’s refusal to grovel to imperialist demands and his campaign’s determination to fight for his freedom across the globe. That campaign swayed the Australian Labor government into pressing for his release. It clearly also influenced the Biden administration that is well aware that it needs to woo the liberal constituency in the United States with a show of clemency if it hopes to beat off the challenge from the Trump camp at the presidential elections in November.
The lesson learnt is to have no faith in British “justice” or the courts and constitutions of the other members of the “free world” in Europe. They will all do the bidding of their masters in Washington when the chips are down. The American whistle-blower Edward Snowden made a wiser choice when he fled to Russia in 2013...

Free all political prisoners in Ukraine!

Western politicians are the first to proclaim their support for civil liberties and religious and political freedom. Some civil rights campaigners are elevated like icons by the Western “human rights” campaigners. The chosen few even get awards from the European Parliament and the United Nations. But those who serve the interests of imperialism.
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks campaigner languishes in Belmarsh jail ignored by those who loudly proclaim their support for free speech in the bourgeois media.
We see the bourgeois ‘human rights’ gang brand freedom-fighters as “terrorists” whilst passing off the brutish gunmen who served imperialism in Syria as the “moderate opposition”. We see the imperialists and their lackeys  holding “Summits for Democracy” to provide a platform for a new propaganda offensive against People’s China, Russia and the rest of the world that refuses to submit to Western economic and political control.

We see some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, such as Israel, Ukraine and, of course, the USA itself, hailed as bastions of freedom and democracy. 
In Ukraine all opposition parties have been banned. Thousands of Ukrainians – journalists, politicians, elected representatives, activists, priests, sportspeople, and even Ukrainian negotiators and military officers have jailed on trumped up charges of “treason” or support for Russia. Some have been tortured or murdered by the police or the fascist militias that prop up the Zelensky regime.
Since the Russian intervention most of our media has claimed that the fascist groups in Ukraine have changed their spots and are no longer fascists, but "patriotic defenders of Ukraine". We refuse to believe this ridiculous claim which is completely at odds with the evidence.
We think it is essential to speak out about the actions of a government for whom the British government seems to have unlimited resources to support, at a time when millions here in Britain are facing a grim and uncertain future and our basic public services are chronically underfunded and understaffed.
We stand side by side with the victims of fascist oppression in Ukraine. We demand their immediate and unconditional release and the restoration of full civil and political rights in Ukraine.

Something for everyone

They say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good and that was certainly true of last week’s by-election results. Labour and the Liberal Democrats both took Conservative seats and the Tories managed to hold their other former bastion in suburban London.
Though there was, indeed, something for everyone in the results the biggest winners were the Lib-Dems, once again on the come-back trail. The Tories actually held onto Boris Johnson’s old seat, albeit by the skin of their teeth. And though the Starmer crowd were disappointed in failing to take all three seats the overall swing in their favour puts them on course to victory at the next general election. 
That, however, is not a foregone conclusion. With little to choose from between Labour and the Conservatives there’s going to be little incentive to even bother to vote next year. This can only work in favour of the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats who   share a firm commitment to take Britain back into the European Union and would almost certainly ally with the Remainer factions in Labour and the Tory party to create favourable conditions for a “rejoiner” second referendum in the not too distant future.
We had a golden opportunity to open the doors to free trade across the world when we left the EU. Boris Johnson wasted it crawling to the Americans. But returning to the EU is not the answer. You only have to look at what’s happening on the streets of France to see that the European Union is hardly a pillar of social justice. The only way out of the capitalist crisis is socialism and that can only come by ourselves alone, not the European Union or the United States of America. 

Free Assange!

A London court issued an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States this week. Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison since he was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019 for breaching bail conditions in a separate extradition case involving Sweden.
    Behind all this lies the less than hidden hand of the Americans who want to get their hands on the maverick journalist to face charges that could lead to the death penalty or a life-time in jail. The Americans have charged Assange with espionage after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents revealing war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.But Assange is an Australian who has never lived in the US and that country has no jurisdiction over him. Still that sort of thing has never bothered the country that built the concentration camp at Guantánamo or that has secret torture bases – not so secret after Wikileaks – all around the world.
    The persecution of Assange has been condemned by journalists and human rights activists across the world, who have slammed the US and British authorities for attacking press freedom by going after the WikiLeaks founder.
    The bourgeois media tell us that information technology was transforming our lives for the better. The internet, Twitter and other social networking services are hailed as forces for individual freedom of expression and valuable tools of “democracy” when they are used to foment reactionary unrest and regime change in countries that dare to stand up to imperialism. But it’s a different tune when the boot is on the other foot.
    When WikiLeaks releases embarrassing documents, when the crimes of imperialism are exposed by ‘hactivists’ for all the world to see, the internet becomes ‘irresponsible’ and the most craven bourgeois pundits start calling for censorship, government control and the prosecution of those who have dared to break the ruling class consensus.
    Russia is condemned for allegedly manipulating social media to influence elections in the heartlands of imperialism, and WikiLeaks reviled for releasing tranches of documents that expose the crimes of imperialism and the dirty work of their intelligence agencies.
    Assange’s ‘crime’ was his refusal to play the bogus ‘human rights’ game and turn a blind eye to the crimes of imperialism. He worked together with former US soldier and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning to expose atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the notorious ‘Collateral Murder’ video that shows American helicopter gun-ships mowing down innocent civilians in Baghdad under the cover of fighting ‘terrorism’.
    Assange’s defence team have until 18th May to challenge the decision and make representations to Home Secretary Priti Patel before she makes her decision on the ruling.
    WikiLeaks' chief editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said that by issuing the extradition order, the Westminster Magistrate's Court had signed Assange's death sentence. "Extraditing Assange would be a risk to his life," Hrafnsson told the crowd assembled in front of the court. "It would be equal to a death sentence. Now, Julian's life is in the hands of Priti Patel and Boris Johnson. They need to do the right thing." Let’s hope so...

Justice for Assange!

British judges are not known for their liberality and our courts are generally not sympathetic to those who jump bail. Nevertheless, the sentencing of Julian Assange to 50 weeks in jail – just two weeks shy of the 12-month maximum for this offence, smacks of the vindictiveness that the bourgeoisie reserve for those who politically offend them.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail by a London court this week for skipping bail to enter the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was holed up for almost seven years until police dragged him out last month. His sentence, for seeking and receiving asylum, is twice as much as the sentencing guidelines. The so-called ‘speedboat killer’, jailed for six years for the manslaughter for the death of his girl-friend in a crash on the Thames, only got six months extra for failing to appear in court. His supporters now, quite rightly, doubt whether he will receive a fair extradition hearing when it comes up this week.

The persecution of Assange is part of a world-wide imperialist campaign to suppress anything that challenges the lie-machines that exist to justify bourgeois rule. In the past they masqueraded as champions of “democracy” and “human rights” to justify the Cold War and neo-colonialism in the Third World. The ‘New Media Age’, with independent global TV networks and a world-wide internet network than cannot easily be controlled, has broken the bourgeois media monopoly and now the ruling class are resorting to fascist methods of censorship and persecution in a new drive to stifle anything that challenges aggression, oppression and exploitation.

Assange’s ‘crime’ was his refusal to play the bogus ‘human rights’ game and turn a blind eye to the crimes of imperialism. He worked together with former US soldier and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning to expose war-crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the notorious ‘Collateral Murder’ video that shows American helicopter gun-ships mowing down innocent civilians in Baghdad in 2007 during the American occupation of Iraq.

Manning spent around seven years in prison for exposing war-crimes. She’s now back in jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Assange faces even worse retribution if he falls into American hands.

The Americans want to criminalise long-established source protection practices and journalists working with whistle-blowers who disclose classified information for the public interest. Scores of media freedom campaigns, news outlets, United Nations representatives, politicians and public figures are opposed to Assange’s extradition to the USA and they have warned of its worrying implications.

Jeremy Corbyn has called on the May government to oppose any American request to send the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder for trial in America for obtaining classified information from former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

 Corbyn said: “The extradition of Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government” and Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, likened the case to that of computer hacker Gary McKinnon, whose US extradition was blocked by the Tory government in 2012 when Mrs May was home secretary.

If Assange is extradited to the USA he will face charges that could lead to a long stretch in prison. This must not happen.

Defend Julian Assange!

The arrest of Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London last week is another despicable crime of British imperialism. The founder of WikiLeaks was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by the police on Thursday after Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, revoked his political asylum. Assange had spent almost seven years in the building after being welcomed there by the previous president, Rafael Correa. Now he’s in Belmarsh charged with jumping bail and under a previously secret US indictment – a development which Assange predicted and stated as his reason for going into the embassy in the first place.

Assange, an Australian citizen living in Sweden, came to Britain following rape allegations that he strenuously denied. Assange was avoiding an arrest that he feared would lead to his deportation to the USA, where he faces charges that will put him behind bars for many years to come. The then progressive government of Ecuador offered him asylum and Assange took refuge in their embassy in London when the British government moved to send him to America. But Assange was denied free passage to leave the country.

Seven years later reactionary forces willing to do the bidding of US imperialism are back in charge in Ecuador. The Moreno regime handed Assange over to the police in exchange for around $4.2 billion worth of IMF loans/aid. No wonder former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa called Moreno the "worst traitor" in his country's history for handing the WikiLeaks chief over to the Metropolitan police.

In the past the bourgeois media told us that information technology was transforming our lives for the better. The internet, Twitter and other social networking services were hailed as forces for individual freedom of expression and valuable tools of “democracy” when they were used to foment reactionary violence in Iran, Ukraine and throughout the Arab world.

But it’s a different tune when the boot is on the other foot. When WikiLeaks releases embarrassing documents, when the crimes of imperialism are exposed by ‘hactivists’ for all the world to see, the internet becomes ‘irresponsible’ and the most craven bourgeois pundits start calling for censorship, government control and the prosecution of those who have dared to break the ruling class consensus.

Russia is condemned for allegedly manipulating social media to influence elections in the heartlands of imperialism, and WikiLeaks reviled for releasing tranches of documents that expose the crimes of imperialism and the dirty work of their intelligence agencies.

Assange’s ‘crime’ has been his refusal to play the bogus ‘human rights’ game and turn a blind eye to the crimes of imperialism. He worked together with former US soldier and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning to expose war-crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the notorious ‘Collateral Murder’ video that shows American helicopter gun-ships mowing down innocent civilians in Baghdad under the cover of fighting ‘terrorism’.

Manning spent around seven years in prison for exposing war-crimes. She’s now back in jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Assange faces even worse retribution if he falls into American hands.

Jeremy Corbyn says that Julian Assange should not be extradited. The Labour leader said: “The extradition of Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government.”

Corbyn is calling on the May government to oppose the attempt to put the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder on trial in America for obtaining classified information from former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. This call must be echoed throughout the labour movement.

Free Manning! Free Assange!

Let Assange go!

Rumours abound, within the corridors of power, about a deal that could allow Julian Assange safe passage from his refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The fugitive founder of WikiLeaks fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape charges that he vigorously denies.

Assange publicly declared he would go to Sweden if that government could guarantee he would not then be sent on to face charges in the USA. The Swedes would not guarantee that. His supporters believe that the Swedes were doing the bidding of American imperialism, enraged at the Australian whistle-blower’s publication of thousands of embarrassing secret communications between the US government and its embassies and military bases around the world.

There is little doubt that heavy pressure on both Britain and Sweden was wielded behind the scenes by the US government, with the ultimate objective of getting him sent to the USA where he could face the death penalty. He has never lived in the USA and that country has no jurisdiction over him. But that sort of thing has never bothered the country that built the concentration camp at Guantanamo or that has secret torture bases – not so secret after WikiLeaks – around the world.

WikiLeaks has done a lot of damage to imperialism by exposing its ugly, deceitful, cruel and greedy underbelly. Genuine left-wing communist and workers parties around the world have long supported demands for Assange’s release to a country of his choice. Let’s hope that the rumours are true…