Julian Assange's: World Tomorrow. (Episode 7: The Occupy Movement)

Cablegate Analysis: COMBATING EXTREMISM IN GREECE -- Anarchists, Neo-Nazi's, Protests & Civil Liberties

As the floodgates of diplomatic cables has recently been unleashed via Wikileaks, I was inspired to do some fresh perusing of the newly available files. Originally looking for what the cables had to say about anarchists, I stumbled upon the following lines in a document classified as "SECRET" under the subject heading "COMBATING EXTREMISM IN GREECE":

Greek society also views enhanced police capabilities with a jaundiced eye. Greeks are hypersensitive to any perceived limits on personal freedoms; as an example, security cameras around town have been vandalized. Members of Parliament have also inveighed against their use; attempts to pass off the cameras as trafficams have been only partly successful.

While I knew the Greeks were less tolerant than Americans of police abuses (since police collaboration with the Nazi's in WWII), I found the phrasing of these lines to be somewhat interesting. The Greeks aren't described as vigilant about preserving their rights, they are rather described as "hypersensitive." And the author seems to lament that "attempts to pass off the cameras as trafficams have been only partly successful." While this phrasing in itself should be something of an embarrassment, it's somewhat telling in how issues are presented and phrased. And, presumably, Americans have fallen for the tactic of trying to pass off surveillance cameras as trafficams.

Wikileaks, Julian Assange & Modern Anarchist Praxis

Most people could probably not name very many anarchists -- historical, contemporary, or even fictional. A few might cite artists like George Orwell or Leo Tolstoy, and fewer still will be aware of prominent historical anarchists like Emma Goldman or Peter Kropotkin. The historical impact of anarchist practice has largely been glossed over in the curriculum of government run, and compulsory, public schools. People generally aren't aware of anarchists fighting for the first labor rights in America or giving the first public talks on birth control. People are unaware that it was the anarchists who brought about the Russian revolution which was subsequently derailed by the Bolsheviks. People are largely unaware of historical anarchist movements in Spain, the Ukraine, and elsewhere. As for contemporaries... most people might only be able to name Noam Chomsky as an anarchist (and that is probably something of a misnomer).

But now... in the headlines of all the world's newspapers, on the lips of all the television pundits, all over the internet, and in the running for Time magazine's "Person of the Year," we have Julian Assange. One may argue about whether or not he precisely fits into the definition of what an anarchist is, and some dyed-in-the-wool anarchists will perhaps turn up their noses at the suggestion, but Julian Assange is engaged in anarchist acts and has presented governments around the world with damning attacks against their credibility and legitimacy.