Beat the Blockade on WikiLeaks on April 5

Beat the Blockade on WikiLeaks on April 5
16 March, 2012 – Greenleft

Today marks the launch of “Beat the Blockade” — a day of action on April 5 to protest the extrajudicial financial blockade of WikiLeaks and raise vital funds for its work to continue.

While Julian Assange continues to fight legal battles under the serious threat of extradition to the United States to face secretly drawn up espionage charges, WikiLeaks continues to analyse and publish information that reveals truths about the world, its power relationships and injustices, most recently the Stratfor release, the “Global Intelligence Files”.

And yet they struggle to continue under an extended ban processing on payments to them by US corporate giants Visa, MasterCard, Western Union, PayPal and Bank of America.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam today called on the Australian government to act: “It’s time our government pushed back on companies including Visa, Mastercard and Paypal, and demanded to know why they are continuing the crippling financial blockade of WikiLeaks.

“If it turns out the blockade is legal under Australian trade practices law, then that’s a problem the Australian Parliament should fix. In the meantime, it’s up to each of us to beat the blockade in our own way.” …more

By logging on to beattheblockade.org on April 5 and donating at least $5 by one of the easy payment methods, people around the world can send a message to the companies engaged in the blockade — and the governments that regulate them — that censorship of a free press publisher and denying consumers their rights will not be tolerated.

Since December 7, 2010 an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union on WikiLeaks. …more