Free Assange! (by Alexandre Oliva)
Reprinted with permission from Alexandre Oliva.
For years, I've fought, to the limited extent I can, to rehabilitate people of extreme social relevance who became targets because of their own success, and suffered character assassination by means of false accusations raised by their powerful enemies.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was jailed for over a year over false accusations of corruption, sentenced by a corrupt judge as part of a political persecution plan to prevent him from running for president in 2018, when nearly every poll showed he was likely to win. The corrupt judge joined the government that won that corrupted election. The former judge's bias and coordination with the prosecution were acknowledged by superior courts, and the veredict was annulled. Lula became a free man, ran for president in 2022, and he's president again. He had been a pretty good president in the 2003-2006 and 2007-2010 terms. He dared care about including the underprivileged, socially, economically, and educationally. That was his crime.
Julian Paul Assange was accused, jailed and tortured by US vassals for publishing about actual crimes perpetrated by the US government. The actual criminals were not as much as investigated, let alone charged. Assange was persecuted over fabricated allegations of sexual misconduct, for which he was never charged either. That was a maneuver to prevent him from defending himself, so that the false accusations would keep hanging over him, turning public opinion against him. He was tortured into a guilty plea deal, in which publishing information a foreign government doesn't want published is misrepresented as a crime, endangering freedom of the press worldwide. That enabled him to escape the torture that was killing him, and to get out of jail. Nobody gets to have or experience freedom as long as the unjust law that establishes censorship of the press prevails, and criminals got to order the evidence of their crimes to be destroyed, but he's now as free as most of us. He wanted government criminals to be held accountable. That was his crime.
Richard Stallman was accused, cancelled and verbally mob-lynched over false accusations, exaggerations and misrepresentations. He has never been charged, cancellation and isolation have denied him a fair chance at a defense, and numerous victims of disinformation have presumed him guilty. He has devoted his life to fighting for freedom, for ethics, for emancipation, for self-determination, for people and peoples to have control over their computing, their own lives, their own bodies, their governments. His unusual ideas threatened from the most lucrative exploitation models to some authoritarian monstering cults, who have responded by demonizing him for decades, attempting to vaccinate and distance people from as much as listening to his ideas. These are the crimes for which he remains unjustly punished, presumed guilty, ostracized, but without charges, without a right to a fair trial.
I recall one day shortly before the pandemics started, when I pondered about these three people, and contrasted myself with Cazuza's song that went "my heroes died by overdosing." My heroes weren't martyrs, but they were under duress and attack. One challenged Brazilian and international economic elites by socially including the people and promoting a multipolar world. One challenged the Imperial Bellic States of America by promoting freedom of the press and demotratic accountability. One challenged the richest megacorporations by leading a social movement for users to control their computing, the very means megacorporations and governments are resorting to to keep people under their control.
Imperfect humans as they might be, I feel honored that I've supported them, fought for our shared causes and for their rehabilitation, even while a lot of people fell for the lies that demonized them.
Today, we can celebrate a huge step for a man, a small step for humankind.
But the fight is still on.
So blong,
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