@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:
Actually I am surprised that most of the Support Assange campaign has taken place on the internet, despite the obvious connection to the medium of WikkiLeaks, because I have difficulty believing it can be as effective as having people leaving the comfort and security of their homes to stage physical demonstrations in a public place.
Given sufficient publicity, I can't imagine it’s very hard to get thousands of digital "signatures" on any on-line petition. If I were a government leader I would certainly judge as more passionate and committed a person joining a protest rally in from of an official building than one who hits a few keys and signs an on-line petition.
Perhaps in this way Australia differs from the US.
If US politicians and leaders actually appreciated the power off the internet, the massive cables leak may never have been allowed to happen. I doubt they look to it, other than in terms of polling results, to put their finger on the pulse of the American people.
In any case, unless there are revelations from with the Australian government that the Support Assange campaign actually influenced its decision on how to communicate and act, assumptions that it did are pure speculation.
I don’t think, Finn, that it so much that Australia is “different to the United states”, it’s more a case that
this particular issue has been treated very differently compared to previous major political campaigns I can recall in Oz. For example, opposition to our country’s decision to become involved in the invasion of Iraq drew massive rallies here. Some of the largest ever seen in our cities. Public demonstrations are definitely not unusual here, but this campaign has entirely
different in nature. Why an internet campaign in this particular instance, rather than “taking to the streets”? Because an
immediate response was required in response to events which were occurring, thick & fast. This was actually the best & fastest way, in my opinion, for us to respond in the circumstances.
As I mentioned in my post,
the focus of the Wikileaks campaign here has been the Australian government. Both examples I gave you were in the form of
open letters to the PM. And I believe they have been extremely effective in making the public’s opposition to our government’s stance known. Which was: that many of us totally rejected what our government had said and done in response to Wikileaks.
It is very unusual here for something like 6 thousand people to add their
names, as online signatories of the open letter posted on the ABC. At extremely short notice. I can’t recall anything like that ever having occurred here before.
I also cannot recall just about ever every media publisher in this country publicly standing up to the government as they did in
their open letter. That also hasn’t happened before. Declaring publicly that they supported freedom of information & rejected any government pressure to be silenced on the Wikileaks .
As a result, our government has considerably softened its initial aggressive stance. In fact it's gone pretty much silent on Wikileaks. And, even though it was not the intention of the public campaigns, this government’s electoral support has slumped considerably. The most recent opinion polls tell us that the current government would lose office if an election was held soon. I’m certain that the perceived lack of leadership on this issue has been an important contributing factor.
So I would argue that this is not just armchair activism, from “the comfort and security of our homes”. It was simply the most effective response open to us at very short notice. And I believe it has gotten our message across to the government, loud & clear. What more could we ask for?
What form/s any future campaign/s might take, I can't tell you. Because I don't know. It will most likely depend on what eventuates & what responses are considered to be most effective at the time.
One of the requests (from the first open letter), which our prime minister has not addressed, is this one. And I believe that it should be. (As do all the signatories on the open letter to the PM, obviously) There is genuine concern here about Julian Assange's safety & his rights.
Quote:"We therefore call upon you to condemn, on behalf of the Australian Government, calls for physical harm to be inflicted upon Mr Assange and to state publicly that you will ensure Mr Assange receives the rights and protections to which he is entitled, irrespective of whether the unlawful threats against him come from individuals or states."
If you have any further questions or comments about this post, I may have to respond at a later time, Finn. I’m very short of time today. Pre-Christmas commitments are going to keep me occupied. Frivolous reasons, I know.
But that’s how things are today.
