For the past several months, the Julian Assange campaign has been promoting a human chain event where people surround parliament for Assange’s freedom. This event has been promoted as a focal point for the Julian Assange movement and a way to get everyone together for a big event.
Unfortunately, the RMT, as part of their current strike campaign, declared a rail strike on the 8th October. This made it impossible for some people to attend who would otherwise have come.
The RMT must have known about this event as it was being heavily promoted for months. Calvin, during the London Enough is Enough protests, asked RMT boss Mick Lynch for his views on Assange, the video is embedded below.
Enough on Mick Lynch and the RMT’s (deliberate or otherwise) attempted sabotage of the event. I was able to get there via a Birmingham TUC coach. There were coaches organised from other areas on the country as well.
I was fearful for the turnout (due to the RMT), but it was brilliant. It was difficult to estimate the number of people who turned up because everyone was so spread out along the route. By the time we turned up (1pm), the chain was already all the way round Parliament.
I walked round and then stayed parallel with the Thames on the right-hand side as that is where the chain had the least people.
There was at least several thousand there, I would say. However, mainstream media have been downplaying the size of the event, saying that there were ‘hundreds’ there which is beyond pathetic.
The amount of coverage was also quite small from what I could tell from a search last night. So as per the course for the MSM, then.
Another notable feature of this protest was the amount of people from different places, not just in the UK but from other countries. In terms of the UK, not only Birmingham but Liverpool and Manchester were represented. One of the women on the Birmingham coach had driven down from Huddersfield to get on it.
The person next to me and his girlfriend were from Spain. Germany was also represented:
Even Graham Elwood was there. (I saw him walk past with Dimmack and was like ‘I swear that’s Graham Elwood’.)
I even overheard someone saying that people from Australia were there!
Lastly the government chopper was in full attendance. It was hanging over our heads without moving very much for a long time.
Overall, this event was a success for the Julian Assange movement. There were a few celebrities there, such as Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Russell Brand. This is the angle being focused on by the mainstream media to the extent that they are discussing this at all (which is very limited). More important is the mass of ordinary people that turned out for Julian Assange. The Julian Assange campaign needs to build on the momentum from this event to continue to put the establishment under pressure.
Video footage from the event will be uploaded next week.
Cassandra's Box 