I am on the GetUp mailing list. I received this email today asking me to sign up to a statement about WikiLeaks. See at the end of this post what GetUp is. We don’t have anything like this in NZ.

I signed up. In case it’s not already obviously on the public record I am an Australian citizen as well as a New Zealander. I am a New Zealander but lived for 14 years in Oz. In order to vote I needed to become an Australian citizen, which I did.  I believe in the power of your vote.

I believe that turning WikiLeaks into a lynching session will invoke an extreme reaction.

This is not a simple matter. We are not talking about open versus closed  – we are not talking about secrets versus transparency- these are  false dichotomies – things are not black and white – it’s shades of grey. I will post more about this.

In the meantime, if this issue moves you then record your views via GetUp. As of midnight (just passed) 67,855 people had signed up and they had raised more than $312,000 in around 24 hours (I think).

Dear Clare,

In case you missed it, Australians have responded in record numbers to outrageous threats from the US towards WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, an Australian citizen.

Already, 50,000 Australians have signed on to a statement about WikiLeaks, and GetUp members have contributed $250,000 so far – enough to book a full-page ad in leading world newspaper, The New York Times.

Now we need to make that statement as powerful as possible, by turning 50,000 signatures into 75,000 and even 100,000 in the next few days.

The most important thing you can do is take one brief moment to click on the link below to read and sign up to the statement:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

The second very important thing you can do is tell your friends, family and colleagues about this campaign. Those you know are much more likely to open, read and take action on an email if it comes from you, so you are the key to building this movement.

So many Australians are angered by the threats to WikiLeaks and Juilan Assange from the US and by our Government’s failure to speak out against them. They want something to do about it, and you can give it to them. Forward our original email below or click here to use our handy facebook and Twitter tools to spread the word.

Thanks for standing up,
The GetUp Team

—–Original Email—–

Dear Friend,

Sarah Palin wants Julian Assange hunted as a terrorist.¹ She’s among a swelling chorus of American politicians calling for the arrest – and even the death – of the Australian citizen who runs Wikileaks. It’s a shame that real terrorists, the kind we should be focusing our attention on, don’t show up at British Police stations with their lawyers, as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange did yesterday.

Here in Australia, Prime Minister Gillard pre-emptively judged Mr. Assange “illegal,” even as the Attorney General confirmed that no Australian nor international crime by wikileaks has been identified.²

The death penalty? Judgment before trial? This isn’t the kind of justice system we have in Australia. If our Government won’t stand up for the rights of Australian citizens, let’s do it ourselves.

We’re printing ads in the Washington Times and the New York Times with the statement our Government should have made, signed by as many Australians as possible. Will you add your name to the signatories, and invite your friends to join too?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

The statement:

Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder:

We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way.

As Thomas Jefferson said, “information is the currency of democracy.”³ Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act.

Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we’ve experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label Wikileaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces.

If Wikileaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought.

We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States.

We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information.

We’re printing this statement in the Washington Times and the New York Times early next week – and the more Australians sign, the more powerful the message will be. Please add your name by clicking below, and forward this message to friends and family:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

What has started with WikiLeaks being branded as terrorists won’t end there.

In fact, just yesterday U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, said that the New York Times should also be investigated under the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing a number of the diplomatic cables leaked to Wikileaks.⁴ We can help stop such plans in their tracks, by showing how they are affecting the image of the US in the eyes of their staunchest friends and allies.

Click here to sign the statement before it’s published in the New York Times and Washington Times.

Thanks for being part of this,
the GetUp team.

—

¹ Beckford, M., ‘Sarah Palin: hunt WikiLeaks founder like al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders’, The Telegraph, 30 November 2010.

² Oakes, L., ‘Oakes: Gillard gushes over US leaks’, Perth Now, 4 December 2010.

³ The quote is widely attributed to Jefferson, but some now dispute whether he actually said it. We know, at least, that he said “knowledge is power,” even if Francis Bacon did say it first.

⁴ Savage, C., ‘U.S. prosecuters study WikiLeaks prosecution’, The New York Times, 7 December 2010.

---

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here.

Authorised by Simon Sheikh, Level 5, 116 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 12th, 2010 at 12:17 am and is filed under #OpenLabourNZ, comms & IT, democracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.