Clara Campos is a representative of the Julian Assange Defence Committee (JADC). For the last seven years, Clara and other members of the JADC maintained a vigil outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The vigil continued until the day that Assange was illegally seized, arrested and dragged out of the Embassy by British police on April 11. Clara spoke at the May 12 public meeting in London, hosted by the Socialist Equality Party, in defence of Assange and courageous whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Her remarks on their campaign are published below.
For years we stood vigil outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in support of WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange witnessing the Embassy siege by the Metropolitan Police, in full force, the face and arms of the British state, as it kept him trapped and surveilled. The intention is clear--his arrest and silencing, and collecting all information relating to his publishing operation with a view of stopping him.
They did not stop him. Julian Assange remained fierce in his defence of WikiLeaks publishing and continuing to produce that fruit of knowledge that gives us hope for a better world. From crimes committed on the battlefield or the dark corners of government, from the bowels of prisons where torture and horror crushes bones and souls, to the ways in which modern secret services monitor and hack into our lives, WikiLeaks has been there inviting our society to take a good look of what is being done in our name.
Armed with that knowledge we can defend ourselves and the human rights we the people have fought long and hard to uphold. We in return must be fierce in the defence of Julian Assange.
His brutal arrest on the 11th of April intensifies his Arbitrary Detention further. We must act now in mobilising to free him. He is one of us.
But what can we do as citizens in his defence? What can we do when we witness the state deploying the security, diplomatic and even judicial resources in this assault on one of us?
The answer is simple, we follow our conscience and let it guide our steps and turn to one another encouraging each other to be brave and act upon our conscience. And our actions are political as we project our opinions and will on the democratic process, we function in.
We are organising rallies, public meetings, protests, and raise money for his defence. We write letters and visit our Members of Parliament; we pack out the public galleries at his court appearances and file complaints when the judge violates our constitutional rights and closes them. We protest outside the courts and mobilise whatever skill we each and every one of us possesses in this fight for justice.
Please join our mailing list and we’ll invite you to join our solidarity campaign.
A full report of the London public meeting can be read here
The speech delivered to the meeting by Socialist Equality Party (UK) National Secretary Chris Marsden can be read here