Julian Assange Is President Obama's Pussy Riot

“There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.”
--Julian Assange, Sunday, August 19, 2012

Two days after three members of the Russian feminist collective known as Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail for hooliganism, Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange appeared on the steps of the Ecuadorian embassy in London to make a speech drawing attention to the United States and Britain’s political persecution of him. While following these events in the news, it occurred to me that Julian Assange is in some ways President Obama’s Pussy Riot.

Of course, the main difference between the situations is that we have good reason to believe that the persecution of Pussy Riot is the result of personal vindictiveness on the part of Russian president Vladimir Putin, or at least of the corrupt system of his making, whereas the persecution of Julian Assange is one of vast governmental tradition of long standing and has little to do with the whims or personal malice of President Obama or Prime Minister David Cameron.

The two persecutions, however, are similar in that of government cracking down on individuals who have embarrassed it by bringing before the public what the government would prefer remain unsaid. Pussy Riot, by shouting anti-Putin messages in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow drew attention to the church’s collusion with a political leader. Julian Assange, through documents released by Wikileaks, has made the dirty deeds and dishonesty of Washington available for anyone with a computer to see.

It seems that my blogs often come around to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and again I am reminded of something I heard him say in a YouTube video in which he appeared on stage with Assange. We all know that our governments are involved in shady schemes and lying about it. Nobody doubts this. But when someone presents that in an undeniable manner, it’s a scandal. Our governments, as well as many who know their governments are guilty, would prefer that the crimes stay covered up, albeit openly.

What a joke that soon after Assange’s speech, the White House issues a warning to us not to allow Assange to divert us from the charges of sexual assault against him. I cannot speak to these charges against Assange--they should be addressed--but is there anyone who seriously doubts he would not be the center of an international brouhaha if it were not for the political implications of his journalism?

At the end of his speech, Assange raised three problems that need addressed: the ongoing incarceration without trial of Army Private Bradley Manning, the sentencing of the Bahrain Human Rights Centre president Nabeel Rajab for a Tweet, and the sentencing of Pussy Riot for their performance. To these, we should add the political persecution of Julian Assange. We must not allow the government to silence voices of truth.