Once more, the Socialism Or Your Money Blog, unapologetically, draws attention to the great wealth gap between the rich and the the rest of us mere mortals. 

The richest 500 people on the planet added $1.8 trillion to their combined wealth in 2020, accumulating a total net worth of $7.6 trillion. 

Despite the economic reverses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded its largest annual gain in the list’s history last year, with a 31% increase in the wealth of the richest people.  These 500 richest people in the world amassed as much wealth ($2,000,000,000,000) in 2020 alone as the poorest 165 million Americans have earned in their entire lives.

This concentration of riches has happened while at the same time the United Nations last month warned more than 207 million additional people will fall into extreme poverty in the next decade—bringing the number of people living in extreme poverty to one billion by 2030. 

  Pfizer, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline plan to raise U.S. prices on more than 300 drugs in the United States on Jan. 1. More price hikes are expected to be announced on Friday and in early January.

Drug manufacturers are supposedly suffering from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced doctor visits and demand for some drugs. They are also flaunting new drug price cutting rules from the Trump administration, which would reduce the industry’s profitability.

The companies kept their price increases at 10% or below, and the largest drug companies to raise prices so far, Pfizer and Sanofi, kept nearly all of their increases 5% or less.

GSK raised prices on two vaccines – shingles vaccine Shingrix and diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine Pediarix – by 7% and 8.6%, respectively.

Teva Pharmaceuticals hiked prices on 15 drugs, including Austedo, which treats rare neurological disorders, and asthma steroid Qvar, which together grossed more than $650 million in sales in 2019 and saw price hikes of between 5% and 6%. Teva hiked prices for some drugs, including muscle relaxant Amrix and narcolepsy treatment Nuvigil, as much as 9.4%.

Exclusive: Drugmakers to hike prices for 2021 as pandemic, political pressure put revenues at risk | Reuters

 There is no doubt and all the media reviews of the past year echo the same message that 2020 was the year of the pandemic – 2020, the plague year.

It is well-known that adversity often brings people and communities together and despite the costly toll on lives the COVID-19 pandemic has produced acts of altruism and expressions of empathy as much as it produced vaccine nationalism and Big Pharma profits. For socialists such positive behaviour as mutual aid during the coronavirus plague, demonstrates the potential the planet holds for creating a cooperative commonwealth where the well-being of the people takes priority and is society’s primary concern. Yet we witness the so-called richest country in the whole world cannot provide even the minimum protection for its own citizens. A secret 2017 government report, codenamed Exercise Cygnus, concluded starkly that Britain was not adequately prepared for a flu-like pandemic and forewarned of the Covid-19 crisis in care homes.

There has been negative consequences such as the strengthening of nationalism and populist calls for protectionism and de-globalisation, while paradoxically, there is a growing identification that humanity goes beyond national divisions and we have just as many calls for international cooperation and collaboration. It could be one of socialists greatest opportunity in generations to present the case for a society of mutual solidarity.

COVID-19 and all its consequences has starkly exposed the inequities of capitalism so much that the promoters of palliatives talk of a great re-set, the creation of a reformed and humane capitalist system. But for socialists we see it only as a return to business as usual and capitalist normalcy, the same-old-same. The politicians are always saying that we are engaged in a war on COVID-19. In a sense this is true. Certainly there are COVID-war profiteers just as there are ordinary war ones.

One lesson we have learned is that of the incompetence and buffoonery of the political leadership who sought, against the prevalent medical evidence, to create a herd immunity with the sacrifice of many vulnerable parts of the community. The politicians can’t say they weren’t warned what would happen.

‘Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it,” he said. “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. Letting Covid-19 circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death,’ said WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus. 

When capital interests take priority keeping the economy ‘open’ will always precedence with the harmful health outcomes becoming an acceptable risk, economic ‘friendly fire’ or ‘collateral damage.’ Governments around the world have been following the dictates of profit and opening up their economies too soon. And they know full well that only some people are going to obey the social distancing rules. Capitalists do not care for they just want to run the capitalist economy to produce lucrative returns to investors. This flaw is acknowledged by Bill Gates:

“I’m a big believer in capitalism – but some markets simply don’t function properly in a pandemic, and the market for lifesaving supplies is an obvious example.” 

The socialist case is that life-saving needs should be supplied regardless of if there’s a pandemic,

The development of Covid-19 vaccines in less than 9 months shows that society has the scientific knowledge and the technological capacity to solve a problem like this if enough resources are made available. This rarely happens under capitalism for something useful but usually only happens in a military context such as the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb. During full-scale wars the operation of capitalism is suspended and a command economy that determines production. What we see now is  the suspension of capitalism’s sacrosanct concern with a balanced budget and reducing the national debt which are abandoned.

However, policies do remain constrained within a capitalist context where prices and money has to be used to mobilise the resources, with those with the resources having to be compensated for allowing them to be used with patent payments. There has been competition to under-cut rival states and their corporations to develop a vaccine first and so get a bigger share of the market (vaccine nationalism). 

In socialism it might have taken just as long to create a vaccine and that different groups of scientists would have worked on different approaches, but without money and the profit motive it would have been organised more rationally. We need a world society without patents, copyrights and intellectual ownership laws. Socialists can indicate the benefits of cooperative measures to research and develop vaccines and treatments with examples as the open resource such as the DNA Genome Project.

Professor John Drury, a member of a subgroup to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said evidence shows that rather than mass panic or selfishness in times of emergency, people actually tend to show solidarity and cooperation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/16/dont-blame-public-for-covid-19-spread-says-uk-scientist

We only have to look at how little enforcement has been necessary to mobilise people into following the social distancing guidelines because most people understand that the ‘freedom’ which those protesting lockdowns and masks is the ‘freedom’ to go to a bar to get sick and to infect other human beings. That is not freedom.

Under capitalism the government has to step in to ensure that their labour power is protected for capitalist enterprises to exploit when capital accumulation resumes. It involves a cut in living standards of those affected. If this pandemic had occurred once we had established socialism we would still have to self isolate, but this would not deprive or reduce people’s access to what they needed to live as everybody would have continued access to what they needed by virtue of being members of society.

Socialists think that this disease and the ensuing economic crisis is going to reverse the course of many wrong ideas and concepts which have been floating around our society. The pandemic will show to the world that we not living on an island we are living on a planet surrounded by other human beings, with the same feelings, the same suffering facing the same problems, and sharing the same economical exploitation. 

Our concept of nation is only a way to separate us, and that the national flag is only a piece of fabric. We have re-discovered our sense of community and cooperation. Social solidarity and mutual aid has sprung up everywhere. Despite social distancing self-isolation, we have grown so much closer, understanding the bonds we share with one another. These must be the lessons we learn. What has once more been demonstrated is the potential ‘we’ – and this time the ‘we’ is world society. It will then rapidly repair the damage inflicted by capitalism and re-construct its many structures to meet peoples needs. Socialists are highlighting these possibilities to our fellow-workers, explaining in our politics.

An East London’s exhibition centre, which normally accommodates shows and conferences, has been converted into the temporary NHS Nightingale hospital, 80 wards, each with 42 beds. Some 500 fully-equipped beds, with oxygen and ventilators, are already in place and there is space for another 3,500. in just nine days. An exhibition centre in Milan has been converted in just 10 days into Italy’s largest intensive care facility for coronavirus patients. hospital beds attached to ventilators and oxygen now line its pavilions. While in the US, a sports stadium was transformed into a functioning hospital. Why start from scratch when many buildings will be superfluous in socialism and could be converted to more socially useful functions. Just think how quickly the banks and offices etc. could be converted into comfortable and elegant living spaces for families.

A factory changed its engineering proces and switched to producing ventilators in ten days showing what can be done in an emergency and how quickly socialist society will be able to clear up the mess inherited from capitalism. And it’s good to have examples from other than the military, though in the early days of socialism the disarmed forces could have a useful role in quickly building airfields and using their drones to drop medical supplies instead of bombs.

Capitalism has identified who really are the key workers to the operation of its economics. Surely the shelf-stackers, the uber and gig workers will not forget what they now have been told. The skills and scalpel of the highly trained surgeons has very much secondary to the scrubbing brush and disinfectant of the hospital cleaners in combatting the coronavirus. 

Surely the positive outcome is that we recognise cooperation and solidarity was what got us through COVID-19. The World Socialist Movement present an alternative post-pandemic scenario. Our message to the capitalists is: step aside and let the working class take over on the basis of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of life, with production and distribution directly to satisfy people’s needs. Then the crisis provoked by the pandemic can be dealt with rationally. We now know the capitalist class can cut output to reduce pollution and emissions and that they can re-tool their technology if they so wish, sacrificing immediate share price, dividends and profits for their longer term interests. When will the climate change timetable and future consequences result in such urgency as being shown in these days of crises, is now what environmentalists must be asking themselves.

If people accept the principle of free vaccine, the ‘people’s’ vaccine, which now middle-income and small business-owners are using food banks for free food, if the homeless can be housed in vacant 3-star hotel rooms, if rents and utility bills can be made void, even free money, why should it stop at those.

A socialist society could face a pandemic would be in a better position to deal with one but one of the measures that would have to be taken would probably be social distancing and what that involves. We are not selfish self-interested people but will risk our lives to help another.

The number of people who have volunteered to help the NHS in its fight against coronavirus has surpassed expectations, delivering food and medicines, driving patients to appointments and maintaining contact with those in isolation. Outside government initiatives various diverse mutual aid groups have sprung up

UK – https://covidmutualaid.org/local-groups/

USA – https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/collective-care/

 This pandemic is going to have a profound effect on the way people think about the world. In so many ways it makes the case for socialism so much more relevant and appealing. 

 Many of the world’s wealthiest individuals have seen their fortunes soar in 2020. Asia has now a new richest person. 

Zhong Shanshan has seen his wealth surge $7bn (£5.1bn) this year, helping him leapfrog India’s Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma.

His is worth $77.8bn, making him the world’s 11th richest person

In India, Ambani saw his fortune surge $18.3bn to $76.9bn

 The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the country every year and 35,000 people die — up from 23,000 in 2013.

Compared to UK farmers, US farmers use more than five times as much per kilogramme of meat produced, and eight times more for beef and turkey meat.  10 antibiotics banned in Britain are used to promote animal growth or kill parasites on US factory farms rearing cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys. Carbadox possesses carcinogenic properties and the potential for residues in pig meat. The US Food and Drug Administration has been facing strong opposition from the industry for four years over its attempts to ban this antibiotic in pig production. According to the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT) carbadox should be banned immediately due to the risk.

Simply banning hormone-treated beef and chlorine-washed chicken would not be enough to protect UK consumers if a trade deal is agreed between the UK and the US.

There are long-term antibiotic-resistance concerns about the other drugs used.  They relate to the compromising of antibiotics identified as having the potential to treat hospital superbugs, cure cancer and even, in one case, treat Covid-19. Routine use creates the ideal conditions for the development of antibiotic resistance. Daily use of low-level antibiotics is far more likely to lead to antibiotic resistance than short treatments at full levels, if and when disease occurs

US beef cattle, pigs and turkeys are also fed a growth additive called ractopamine, which is banned in the UK, EU, Russia and China on food-safety grounds because of concern about “possible detrimental impacts on heart and cardiovascular health, from residues of the drug in meat and offal”.  Russian regulators have linked ractopamine with shorter human lifespans.

The UK has adopted into law an EU ban on the import and production of meat using growth promoting hormones but is expected to come under pressure to drop the ban to sign trade deals. EU propose to ban all preventative use of antibiotics in animals from 2022.

Antibiotics banned in UK but fed to US animals ‘may undermine drugs for cancer, Covid and infections’ | The Independent

 The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in GBU-39 smart bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.

On the same day, the agency also announced approvals for the sale of H-64E Apache Helicopters worth $4bn to Kuwait.

$104m in defensive equipment against missile attack for the plane of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as $65.6m in precision targeting equipment for Egyptian warplanes.

US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia | US news | The Guardian

 On this day in 1936, one of the first sit-down strikes in the United States began. 

 Autoworkers occupy the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One in Flint, Michigan  began striking to win recognition for the United Auto Workers (UAW). They also wanted to make the company stop sending work to non-union plants and to establish a fair minimum wage scale, a grievance system and a set of procedures that would help protect assembly-line workers from injury. 

At 8pm on December 30, the Flint Plant’s night shift simply stopped working. They locked themselves in and sat down.

“She’s ours!” one worker shouted.

In all, the strike lasted 44 days.

Julian Assange’s extradition hearings have been a brazen example of the US government’s corruption. Rather than honoring a real journalist for exposing the war crimes of our military-industrial complex, many government officials instead call for Assange to be punished for heroically informing their constituents of these atrocities. Of course, that’d only come as a surprise to someone naive enough to think most government officials have their constituents’ best interest at heart, rather than the best interest of corporations such as those involved in our military-industrial complex, represented by lobbyists who grease the palms of those same government officials. If anyone was still under that illusion before, I hope this case will be their much-needed wake-up call.

I’m sure many of you reading this are familiar with Julian Assange, but for those that aren’t, I’ll do my best to bring you up to speed. Assange is credited as being the founder of WikiLeaks, which is easily the most prominent news leaks website to have existed so far. Though their website launched on October 4, 2006, they didn’t post their first document until about two months later, in December. They had a few high-profile leaks prior to 2010, but they didn’t become a household name until April 5 of that year, when they released a video they titled Collateral Murder, in which a crew of US Army pilots flying Apache helicopters fire on a group of civilians, including two Reuters journalists, both of whom died as a result.[1] In the week following the video’s release, WikiLeaks became the search term with the most significant growth worldwide during that week, according to Google Insights.[2]

That video, along with a slew of other leaks, was later revealed to have been provided to WikiLeaks by former US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who at that time was still going by their birth name, Bradley Manning. Manning was arrested for those leaks on May 26, 2010,[3] and was ultimately incarcerated for almost seven years before President Barack Obama commuted their sentence. After leaking Manning’s material, US authorities began investigating WikiLeaks and Assange himself to prosecute them under the Espionage Act of 1917. Despite this, WikiLeaks continued publishing more damning leaks, some of which helped spark what’s known as the Arab Spring. What began to signal a downward shift in WikiLeaks’ momentum was criminal charges levied at Assange after visiting Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2010.

Original Charge

I’ve read two different accounts of the initial incident that ultimately lead to Assange’s extradition hearings, both of which agree on the bulk of events, but with some slightly different details causing each to paint the situation in a very different light. I’ll start with the first account, then follow up with some details from the second account that fill in some questionable gaps.

The story mainly involves Julian Assange, of course, as well as two women: Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen. Anna Ardin was press secretary at the time of the Religious Social Democrats of Sweden, commonly referred to as “the Brotherhood Movement,” which is an offshoot of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Ardin organized a conference, held in Stockholm on August 14, 2010, at which Assange was invited to speak.[4] When Assange landed in Stockholm on August 11, Ardin offered him to stay at her apartment while visiting family for a couple of days. Ardin got back home on August 13, and she and Assange had sex that night, both admitting that Assange had worn a condom and that it broke. Assange delivered his speech the next day, and Ardin threw a party at her apartment that night in his honor.

Sofia Wilen had sex with Assange the night of August 16 and again the following morning. He wore a condom the first time, but not the second time. On August 18, Wilen called Ardin and told her she had unprotected sex with Assange, saying she was afraid she might have contracted an STD or become pregnant. On August 20, both women filed criminal charges against Assange: Ardin alleging that he deliberately broke the condom when they had sex and Wilen alleging that he refused to wear a condom the second time they had sex. The first account claims that Swedish authorities questioned Assange, the case was initially closed, then he was told he could leave the country, but that in November 2010, the case was reopened by a special prosecutor who wanted to question him over two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion, and one count of “lesser-degree rape.” Assange denied the allegations and said he was happy to be questioned in Britain.

The first account claims that Assange was being accused of continuing to have sex with the women after they’d withdrawn consent, but the second account gives more details that I feel make way more sense, given the charges. Firstly, Ardin recounts her and Assange’s intercourse as being overly aggressive,[5] which could explain why they hadn’t had sex a single other time, even though he slept in her bed for another week afterward. Secondly, Wilen alleged that Assange began having sex with her the second time while she was half asleep, without a condom on, after he’d reluctantly worn one the first time. Wilen said she’d never had sex without a condom before, and even one of her ex-boyfriend’s told the police that they’d never once in two and a half years had sex without a condom since it was unthinkable for her. Wilen contacted Ardin and Ardin contacted a mutual colleague of her and Assange, the co-ordinator of the Swedish WikiLeaks group at that time, Donald Boström, asking Boström to persuade Assange to take an STD test, but Assange refused to do so, even after being told that Wilen would go to the police if he didn’t. Ardin and Wilen went to the police on August 20, thinking they would merely force Assange to take an STD test, but instead, police told them they couldn’t simply tell him to do that, and the statements had to be given to the prosecutor.

The second account confirms that police interviewed Assange and set him free afterward; however, he left Sweden in late September and never returned to attend another interview that’d been scheduled with the prosecutor on October 14 out of fear his arrest could ultimately lead to a US extradition, leading the Swedish police to issue an international arrest warrant for him on November 20. Assange turned himself in to the British police on December 8 and attended his first Swedish extradition hearing, being remanded in custody. At the second hearing on December 16, Assange was granted bail by the High Court and released after his supporters paid £240,000 in cash and sureties. A further hearing on February 24, 2011, ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden, and it seems like he must’ve appealed that decision a couple of times, since the High Court upheld it on November 2, 2011, and so did the Supreme Court on May 30, 2012.

Asylum

Still being a native Australian citizen at the time, Assange naturally sought the help of the Australian government, but a letter from Australia’s Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, clarified that his country wouldn’t seek to involve itself in any international exchanges regarding his future,[6] basically leaving Assange to fend for himself. Assange decided to seek Asylum from Ecuador instead, and on June 19, 2012, the Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that the Ecuadorian government was considering the request, and that Assange was staying at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.[7] The UK Government then sent a letter claiming they had the legal right to raid the embassy, based on one of their laws, but Patiño said that’d violate the Vienna convention.[8] Ecuador officially granted Assange asylum on August 16,[9] with President Rafel Correa saying the next day that Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely.[10]

Swedish chief prosecutor, Marianne Ny, sent an email to the English Crown Prosecution Service on October 18, 2013, informing them that she intended to lift the detention order and withdraw the European arrest warrant, but the CPS tried to dissuade her from doing so.[11] On February 5, 2016, the United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Assange had been subject to arbitrary detention by the UK and Swedish Governments since December 7, 2010, including his time in prison, on conditional bail and in the Ecuadorian embassy, saying Assange should be allowed to walk free and be given compensation,[12] but the UK government rejected the claim.[13] On May 19, 2017, prosecutor Ny officially revoked Assange’s arrest warrant, adding that they could still resume the investigation if he visited Sweden before August 2020,[14] but Assange announced he’d stay in the embassy anyway since the UK government still wanted him for breaching bail.[15]

Arrest

Now, this is where things start to get more interesting. Lenín Moreno, formerly Rafael Correa’s Vice President, became President of Ecuador on May 24, 2017. It’s also worth noting that in February 2018, Assange brought two legal actions, arguing that Britain should drop its arrest warrant for him since it had become useless, but in both cases, Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled the arrest warrant should remain in place.[16][17] Remember her name.

US Vice president Mike Pence visited Moreno on June 27, 2018.[18] We can make an educated guess what they discussed since Moreno started saying he wanted Assange out of the embassy the very next month,[19] and rules seem to have become more strict for Assange not too long afterward, since he filed a lawsuit over them, which an Ecuador judge dismissed in October.[20] Two US House Representatives also practically threatened Moreno to give up Assange on October 16.[21] There’s 0 chance this was a coincidence since the US Justice Department accidentally revealed on November 15 that they’d secretly issued a sealed indictment for Assange,[22] which was later found to have been returned earlier that year on March 6, just two days before the statute of limitations on that charge expired.[23] Moreno’s final straw appears to have been the INA Papers, which he believes Assange had a hand in leaking since they sparked a congressional corruption probe into Moreno after they were released on February 19, 2019.[24]

I’ll give some quick info on Manning since they briefly re-enter the story around this time. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for their part in the leaks, announcing they’d start being referred to as Chelsea Manning the next day, serving that time until President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence and released them on May 17, 2017.[25] The US District Court issued a subpoena for Manning on January 22, 2019, which asked them to appear in court on February 5 – later moved to March 5 – to testify against Assange,[26] but Manning refused to do so, landing them in jail for contempt of court on March 8.[27] Manning was released on May 9 due to the grand jury’s term expiring, but immediately received another subpoena demanding their testimony to a new grand jury on May 16.[28] Manning again refused to testify and was subsequently ordered back to jail that same day,[29] being incarcerated until March 12, 2020, having attempted suicide the day before.[30]

Now, onto the arrest that landed Assange back in British custody. UK authorities were allowed to enter the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Assange on April 11, 2019,[31] almost certainly in connection with an IMF loan, aside from US pressure and a personal vendetta on Moreno’s part.[32] The judge quickly found Assange guilty the same day of breaching Britain’s Bail Act of 1976,[33] and authorities immediately rearrested him for a US extradition request,[34] the indictment for which was officially unsealed the same day as well, the charge being Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion, alleging that Assange conspired with Manning to attempt to crack a government computer password.[35] Sweden also reopened Assange’s rape case following his arrest.[36] On May 1, 2019, Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks at HM Prison Belmarsh for breaching bail,[37] with the judge saying he’d only have to do half of that with good behavior.[38]

US Extradition Hearings

Assange’s first US extradition hearing was held the very next day, on May 2.[39] On May 23, the US government indicted Assange for 17 new charges related to the Espionage Act, being: Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information, seven counts of Obtaining National Defense Information, and nine counts of Disclosure of National Defense Information,[40] bringing his total number of charges to 18.[41] At least two US news outlets acknowledged that Assange’s publication of the leaks was virtually indistinguishable from what other journalists have done across the world, including the US of course,[42][43] and it’s noteworthy that this is the first time the US Justice Department’s used the Espionage Act to charge a third party with publishing classified information, not just the government leaker for providing it.[44] Despite this clear violation of journalistic freedom, the UK’s then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, signed the US extradition order on June 12.[45]

Now for a real shocker. Emma Arbuthnot – the same judge who, after Assange’s Swedish arrest warrant was dropped, ruled twice that his British arrest warrant should remain in place – initially presided over Assange’s extradition hearings but stepped down sometime in late 2019 after his lawyer argued that Arbuthnot had a glaring conflict of interest and should recuse herself since her husband, James Arbuthnot, was personally impacted by WikiLeaks[46] and is heavily connected to groups that have a vested interest in Assange’s extradition.[47] Vanessa Baraitser was then appointed as the new presiding judge, but Arbuthnot remained the supervising legal figure “responsible for… supporting and guiding” Baraitser.[48] Baraitser announced on September 3 that she wouldn’t allow Assange to be released after his prison term for breaching bail ended on September 22 since she believed he would abscond again.[49] One more critical update from 2019: Sweden dropped Assange’s rape investigation again on November 19, since the evidence by then had weakened too much.[50]

Allow me to clarify: Assange completed his prison term for breaching bail on September 22, and the rape investigation for which bail had been granted in the first place was dropped on November 19, so since then, Assange has solely been incarcerated for a US extradition request, the indictment for which has 18 charges, 17 of those being for obtaining and publishing classified information – acts which are standard practice for journalists. Assange’s final charge of Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion for allegedly conspiring with Manning to crack a government computer password not only didn’t happen, but also: 1) it couldn’t have happened, since Manning only gave Assange a portion of the password hash and it literally would’ve been impossible for him to crack the password without the rest, and 2) it didn’t need to happen, since Manning had already sent Assange all of the leaks besides the State Department cables, which Manning already had full access to without the password.[51] For the cherry on top: extradition for political offenses is illegal due to a US-UK treaty.[52]

Judge Vanessa Baraitser announced at Assange’s latest hearing on October 1, 2020, that she’d issue his extradition decision on January 4, 2021, at 10 AM GMT.[53] She has a 96% extradition rate. Make no mistake: Assange will be extradited – far from the first illegal action in this case – and he could potentially be given life in prison for exposing US war crimes – journalism if it exists at all. Considering this, some have called on President Donald Trump to pardon Assange. A reporter asked if Trump would pardon Assange at a conference, and he said he’d “look into it,” after which Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, posted a tweet asking Trump to pardon him as well.[54] Unfortunately, Trump has yet to issue a pardon for Assange but has recently pardoned four war criminals,[55] among others.

Conclusion

Assange’s indictment is an attack on freedom of the press. If he’s convicted, the US Justice Department will have the green light to incarcerate any journalist they feel steps too far out of line. If you see a journalist, political pundit, or politician who claims to understand this case – especially one that claims to be a “progressive,” or any form of socialist, communist, or anarchist – and they aren’t explicitly calling for Assange’s freedom: they’re a grifter. There’s no way around this. A journalist is being indicted for journalism. There’s no nuance to this situation. US Intelligence may not have gone through with plans to murder Assange,[56] but his conviction could easily murder investigative journalism itself.

Jordan Levi

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstrike

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20110827012515/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/current-google-insights-trends-wikileaks-posts-clasified-military-video-masters-1942629.html

[3] https://www.wired.com/2010/06/leak/

[4] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Sex-accusers-boasted-about-their-conquest-of-WikiLeaks-founder-Julian-Assange/articleshow/7068149.cms

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden

[6] https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/assange-felt-abandoned-by-australian-government-after-letter-from-roxon-20120620-20npj.html

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/20/julian-assange-asylum-ecuador-embassy-live

[8] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/aug/16/julian-assange-ecuador-embassy-asylum

[9] https://www.webcitation.org/69xdGRSLN?url=http://www.mmrree.gob.ec/2012/com042.asp

[10] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-17/correa-says-assange-may-stay-in-ecuador-embassy-indefinitely-2-

[11] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/11/sweden-tried-to-drop-assange-extradition-in-2013-cps-emails-show

[12] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17012&LangID=E

[13] https://web.archive.org/web/20160205093547/https://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2016/02/05/assange-warrant-still-active–uk-police.html

[14] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39973864

[15] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/19/sweden-drops-julian-assange-rape-investigation/

[16] https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/julian-assange-ruling/

[17] https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/julian-assange-arrest-warrant-ruling-2/

[18] https://ec.usembassy.gov/joint-communique-official-visit-of-the-vice-president-of-the-united-states-of-america-michael-pence-to-ecuador/

[19] https://www.pressherald.com/2018/07/27/ecuador-wants-assange-out-of-asylum-but-safe/

[20] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46027963

[21] https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=E27D761E-FD2C-4AD6-92A5-85F473FABFA2

[22] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks.html

[23] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/europe/julian-assange-wikileaks-ecuador-embassy.html

[24] https://www.businessinsider.com/former-ecuador-president-says-assange-arrested-for-exposing-corruption-2019-4

[25] https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-chelsea-manning-tells-abc-news-past-affect/story?id=47452624

[26] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/politics/chelsea-manning-subpoena.html

[27] https://apnews.com/article/569631f2b11c400cac05a29e0853624b

[28] https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/chelsea-manning-freed-from-jail-for-now-20190510-p51lzl.html

[29] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/chelsea-manning-jail.html

[30] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/chelsea-manning-ordered-released-from-jail/2020/03/12/0ee56efc-6478-11ea-845d-e35b0234b136_story.html

[31] https://edition.cnn.com/uk/live-news/julian-assange-arrest-dle-gbr-intl/index.html

[32] https://therealnews.com/ecuadorian-presidents-motives-for-surrendering-assange-vengeance-imf-loan

[33] https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates?page=with%3Ablock-5caf469e8f0852bbb93b630a

[34] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/julian-assanges-seclusion-of-7-years-ends-with-arrest-in-london/articleshow/68841585.cms

[35] https://www.chicagotribune.com/la-fg-britain-julian-assange-arrested-20190411-story.html

[36] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wikileaks-assange-sweden-idUSKCN1VU0IG

[37] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48118908

[38] https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sentencing-remarks-of-hhj-deborah-taylor-r-v-assange/

[39] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/02/us-begins-extradition-case-against-julian-assange-in-london

[40] https://www.wsj.com/articles/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-with-17-new-counts-11558641695

[41] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-superseding-indictment

[42] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/assange-indictment.html

[43] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/julian-assange-charged-publishing-classified-us-info-1213366

[44] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/julian-assange-charges-threat-journalists-press-freedom

[45] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jun/13/julian-assange-sajid-javid-signs-us-extradition-order

[46] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/julian-assanges-seclusion-of-7-years-ends-with-arrest-in-london/articleshow/68841585.cms

[47] https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-04-as-british-judge-made-rulings-against-julian-assange-her-husband-was-involved-with-right-wing-lobby-group-briefing-against-wikileaks-founder/

[48] https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-14-julian-assanges-judge-and-her-husbands-links-to-the-british-military-establishment-exposed-by-wikileaks/

[49] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/julian-assange-to-remain-in-jail-pending-extradition-to-us

[50] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792

[51] https://theintercept.com/2020/09/30/assange-extradition-cfaa-hacking/

[52] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/27/julian-assanges-lawyers-us-files-were-leaked-for-political-ends

[53] https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/wikileaks-assange-won-t-get-u-s-extradition-ruling-this-year-1.5128583

[54] https://twitter.com/StellaMoris1/status/1331933971207380992

[55] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/23/leaving-out-assange-who-exposed-us-war-crimes-trump-pardons-blackwater-guards-jailed

[56]https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/sep/30/us-intelligence-sources-discussed-poisoning-julian-assange-court-told

#FreeAssange | World Socialist Party of the US (wspus.org)

 1,500 people were made to leave the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean. The UK, which owned the land, had leased the largest island, Diego Garcia, to the US to build a huge military base.

In the 1970s, the UK gave the Mauritian government £4.65m to distribute to the Chagossians in compensation, but no money was paid to people sent to the Seychelles. Travel brochures depict the Seychelles as an island paradise, an oasis of golden beaches and crystal clear waters. But for Chagossians, it has been a place of discrimination, poverty and homelessness. Chagossians in the Seychelles were taunted by the locals, told to go back to where they came from. They were called anara, which meant uncivilised, dirty and unvaccinated.

In 2016, the British government unveiled a £40m support package for community projects for Chagossians living in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles, to be paid over a decade. So far less than 2% of this fund has been distributed.

Having failed to achieve justice from the UK, some islanders have now taken legal action in the US. They are filing a new petition through the US Foreign Claims Act, which awards compensation for noncombatants’ injury, death or property damage by US military personnel overseas.

“Based on the 2019 UN ruling there is an illegal occupation of the Chagos Islands,” says Jonathan Levy, a US-based lawyer representing the Chagossians in the petition. “We’re saying to the government: you owe damages to the Chagossian people for operating a military base on their property.”

In October, the US Department of the Air Force rebuffed a first attempt, stating: “It has been determined that payment of the claims is not in the interests of the US government.” However, the legal team is planning a new legal action after president-elect Joe Biden takes office in January.

“The incoming Biden administration seeks to change US foreign policy, and the Chagos archipelago is a good place to begin by recognising the claims of the Chagossians to their property and land and by paying a small restitution, given the immense value the rent-free use of Diego Garcia has provided the United States for the past five decades,” says Levy.

‘What about justice?’: Chagos Islanders pin their hopes on Biden | Global development | The Guardian

Palm oil is contained in roughly half the products on supermarket shelves and in almost three out of every four cosmetic brands, though that can be hard to discern since it appears on labels under more than 200 different names.  It’s a primary fat in infant formula. And as they grow, it’s present in many of their favorite foods: It’s in their Pop-Tarts and Cap’n Crunch cereal, Oreo cookies, KitKats, Magnum ice cream, doughnuts and even bubble gum. Palm oil, the highest-yielding vegetable oil, is an important part of Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s economies and the governments bristle at any form of criticism, saying the industry plays an important role in alleviating poverty. They have banned products touted as “palm oil-free” from supermarket shelves and created slogans calling the crop “God’s gift.”

 Child labor has long been a dark stain on the $65 billion global palm oil industry. Though often denied or minimized as kids simply helping their families on weekends or after school, it has been identified as a problem by rights groups, the United Nations and the U.S. government. More and more consumers are demanding to know the provenance of the raw materials in the products they purchase, many companies are quick to issue assurances that they are committed to “sustainable” sourcing. But supply chains often are murky – especially in the palm oil industry – and developing countries that produce commodities in large volumes cheaply often do so by disregarding the environment and minimizing labor costs.

Indonesian government officials said they do not know how many children work in the country’s massive palm oil industry, either full or part time. But the U.N.’s International Labor Organization has estimated 1.5 million children between 10 and 17 years old labor in its agricultural sector. Palm oil is one of the largest crops, employing some 16 million people. In neighboring Malaysia, a newly released government report estimated more than 33,000 children work in the industry there, many under hazardous conditions – with nearly half of them between the ages of 5 and 11. The study was conducted in 2018 did not directly address the large number of migrant children without documents hidden on many plantations in its eastern states, some of whom have never seen the inside of a classroom.

An official estimate says 80,000 children of illegal migrants, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, are living in Malaysia’s state, Sabah, alone, but some rights groups say the true number could be nearly double that. Without birth certificates and with no path to citizenship, they are essentially stateless – denied access to even the most basic rights, and at high risk of exploitation. Children of migrant parents grow up living in fear they will be separated from their families. They try to remain invisible to avoid attracting the ever-watchful eyes of police, with some keeping backpacks with supplies ready in case they need to flee their houses and sleep in the jungle to avoid raids. Many never leave their remote guarded plantations.

With little or no access to daycare, some young children follow their parents to the fields, where they come into contact with fertilizers and some pesticides that are banned in other countries. As they grow older, they push wheelbarrows heaped with fruit two or three times their weight. Some weed and prune the trees barefoot, while teen boys may harvest bunches large enough to crush them, slicing the fruit from lofty branches with sickle blades attached to long poles. In some cases, an entire family may earn less in a day than $5.

“For 100 years, families have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and they know nothing else than work on a palm oil plantation,” said Kartika Manurung, who has published reports detailing labor issues on Indonesian plantations. “When I … ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, some of the girls say, ‘I want to be the wife of a palm oil worker.’”

Dan Strechay, the  Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s global outreach and engagement director, said many parents in Indonesia and Malaysia believe it’s the “cultural norm” for their kids to work alongside family members, even if it means pulling them out of school.

Some companies in Indonesia provide rudimentary elementary schooling on plantations, but children who want to continue their studies may find they have to travel too far on poor roads or that they can’t afford it. In Malaysia, the problem is even bigger: Without legal documents, tens of thousands of kids are not allowed to go to government schools at all.

“Why aren’t companies playing a role in setting up schools in collaboration with the government?” asked Glorene Das, executive director of Tenaganita, a Malaysian nonprofit group concentrating on migrant issues for more than two decades. “Why are they encouraging the children to work instead?

Medical care also is woeful, with experts saying poor nutrition and daily exposure to toxic chemicals are undermining child laborers’ health and development. Many Indonesian plantations have their own basic clinics, but access may be available only to full-time workers. Travel to a private doctor or hospital can take hours, and most families cannot afford outside care. Migrant children without documents in Malaysia have no right to health care and often are too scared to seek medical help in villages or cities – even in life-threatening emergencies. Many young palm oil workers also have little understanding about reproductive health. Girls working on remote plantations are vulnerable to sexual abuse, and teenage pregnancies and marriages are common.

Child labor in palm oil industry tied to Girl Scout cookies (apnews.com)