This
resolution was unanimously adopted by the Fifth National Congress of
the Socialist Equality Party in the US, which was held July 22–27,
2018. The WSWS will be publishing a report on the Congress and the
main resolution and report in the coming days.
The
Fifth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US) sends greetings
to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and resolves to develop the widest
possible political campaign against the threat by the US government
to seek his extradition to the United States to face manufactured
charges of espionage.
This
Congress denounces the plans of the Ecuadorian government to
repudiate the asylum it granted Assange in 2012. We denounce the
collaboration of the British, Australian and other capitalist
governments in the relentless persecution of this courageous fighter
for truth.
The
publication by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange of leaked US military,
diplomatic and intelligence files is not a crime. It is critical and
independent journalism that has exposed imperialist war crimes,
corporate abuses and anti-democratic intrigues.
WikiLeaks
has provided an immense service to the American and international
working class. Since its founding in 2006, the media organization has
contributed to educating and alerting millions of workers and young
people as to the real relations within capitalist society in the US
and around the world.
The
vendetta against Assange is an acute expression of the broader
assault on all the democratic rights of the working class. As it
condemns the mass of the population to poverty and social misery, and
as it conspires to wage devastating wars against its economic and
strategic rivals in Russia, China and elsewhere, the American ruling
class is moving toward dictatorial forms of rule. A conscious attempt
is underway to suppress opposition, including by censoring and
silencing alternate sources of information such as WikiLeaks and
sources of political perspective such as the World Socialist Web
Site.
The
persecution of Assange and Internet censorship has been directly
facilitated by the self-styled “liberal” parties and media, the
trade unions and the pseudo-left organizations around the world. The
representatives of the privileged upper middle class, these
tendencies have aligned with the ruling class and the descent toward
dictatorship and war. In the process, they have repudiated any
defense of fundamental democratic rights. They have either joined the
vilification of Assange or maintain a complicit silence.
The
great social force that the SEP (US) will fight to mobilize in
defense of freedom of speech and democratic rights, and against
Internet censorship, is the American and international working class.
The SEP
(US) demands the immediate and unconditional end to Assange’s
involuntary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he
sought political asylum in 2012. The US, British and Australian
governments must guarantee that he and other WikiLeaks staff will not
be prosecuted and that the operations of WikiLeaks can continue
unhindered.
The
struggle for socialism requires democracy. The survival of democracy
requires socialism.
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