The nation’s left-wing radio flagship is no longer an unwavering foe of imperialism and war, but Pacifica last week did the right thing for the Wikileaks founder.
Unreasonably rational? Quixotic? Of course it is, but so are the Black Agenda Report, the Black Alliance for Peace, the Women’s March on the Pentagon, the United National Antiwar Coalition, and anyone else still arguing that peace is possible. Assange could have turned his cyber-genius into a multi-billion dollar tech empire like Mark Zuckerburg’s, but instead he devoted himself to peace and justice by exposing the machinations of state, corporate, and oligarchic power. For that he’s spent the last six years of his life as an asylee, in effect a political prisoner, inside Ecuador’s London Embassy. He has said many times that he’ll gladly walk out of the embassy to face minor bail-skipping charges if the UK will promises not to extradite him to the US to stand trial for publishing classified documents. The UK, however, will not make that promise.
On September 26, I reported here that a resolution in support of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange was pending before the national board of the Pacifica Radio Network, which was founded by pacifist and conscientious objector Lew Hill nearly 70 years ago. The board, which consists of four delegates each from KPFA-Berkeley, KPFK-Los Angeles, KPFT-Houston, WBAI-New York City, and WPFW-Washington D.C., and two delegates representing Pacifica’s 300 affiliated stations, passed the resolution on October 4.
In Pacifica’s heyday, during the 1960s and early '70s, one might have expected a unanimous vote, but Pacifica is not the anti-war, anti-imperial platform it once was. KPFA-Berkeley split during the 1990s over whether the US intervention in Yugoslavia was humanitarian or imperial. The fault line remains and it has been replicated at other stations.
On the 20th anniversary of the assassinations of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Ntaryamira, KPFA News played the received lies about the Rwandan Genocide three times a day, even though lies about the nature of US involvement in both Yugoslavia and Rwanda had long since become cornerstones of the so-called humanitarian argument for war. US wars are now preceded by NGO hurricane warnings that genocides like those in Yugoslavia and Rwanda are underway, but the slow-motion genocides in Gaza and DR Congo warrant little or no attention.
Some Pacifica reporters and hosts were so infatuated by the USA’s first Black president that they overlooked his expansion of Middle East wars and his institutionalization of weekly drone assassination planning at the White House. Many have succumbed to the fascist reduction of all US politics to pro- and anti-Trump positions.
“The Julian Assange case is a key case for freedom ofthe press. As you know he’s been hunted by the US government with the cooperation of the UK government. And now it looks like the government of Ecuador is ready to hand him over to the tender mercies of the Justice Department. And his crime is very simple. He exposed the machinations of the US government in various ways through the whistleblowing activities of Wikileaks. We have to support Julian Assange at a time when he has few friends left.
Voters in the upcoming Pacifica elections may want to inquire as to how they were represented on this vote and others. That’s how democracy’s supposed to work after all. Based on the passage above, What is the current situation with Julian Assange's asylum in Ecuador's London Embassy and why is his case important for freedom of the press?
This prompt doesn't seem malicious.