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Gawd I love a good protest. There have been hundreds over the years. Or is that thousands? My feeling is that Fred has put his finger on something. There is a growing unease about the attacks on Likileaks and particularly the framing of Assange. Last night the coverage on the public hchannel SBS was very sympathetic to Assange. There were three vox pops from Sweden and they were all sceptical about the rape charges. Despite a supportive article in today's Guardian from Amelia Gentleman (sic) the details of the allegations, and the manner in which they have been raised have given rise to a widespread conviction that Assange is the victim of a plot. I think it has become a mistake to create the rape charge. It must have seemed a good idea at the time, but who's buying it now? really? Moreover to refuse him bail seemed an act of gratuitous bastardy. It simply made Assange out to be a martyr. If he is harmed now there might well be an uncontrollable back lash. So I expect he will be released on bail shortly. And the charge may well peter out. The difficulty for the Americans however is that we are clearly now in new territory. The traditional silly season when politics leaves the front page is a thing of the past. Night after night the revelations keep coming. No one knows when or where it will end. The Australian has an article on how Prime Minister Gillard misjudged this matter when she launched a vicious attack on Assange. So at a time when Capitalism has no good news to deliver; at a time when it has nothing to give us but blood, sweat and tears, the evidence of the duplicity and corruption of our politicians could just maybe tip us over into a change of consciousness. Let us hope so. comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
