Ten cities across the world are hosting a week of events dubbed “First they came for Assange,” featuring Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek, Yanis Varoufakis and Patti Smith, among others. It marks four years of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s detention.
Julian Assange has been unable to leave Ecuadorian Embassy since June 19, 2012, due to the UK police’s 24/7 watch on the building, a legal case opened against him in Sweden, but, crucially, because of what he says is Washington’s persecution for publishing and maintaining the largest trove of explosive leaks in world’s history.
“First they came after Julian Assange, then they came after Chelsea Manning, then they came after Edward Snowden… who is next?” says the site of the global ‘Assange week,’ which focuses on the fate of those who blew the whistle and draws attention to the diminishing of freedom of expression globally.
Now is a critical time for whistleblowers, believes Srećko Horvat, one of the organisers of the event. The collective appeal on the websites states that “unless there is an increase in political pressure,” not only there won’t be any change in Assange’s fate, but instead “everyone opposed to the political and financial powers might soon become a target.”
“We are gathering all around the world on [June 19] to speak out for Julian, because he has spoken out for all of us, we are speaking out before there is no one left to speak out,” said Horvat, a Croatian philosopher and founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25).
“The inspiration for the title of the event, ‘First they came for Assange,’ comes from the famous Martin Niemöller poem about the cowardice of intellectuals and purging of dissidents,” he said. -RT
