ANDREW MURRAY surveys a quaking continent whose leaders have no idea how to respond to an openly contemptuous United States
Julian Assange and Tolpuddle: two great miscarriages of justice
HELEN MERCER explains the parallels between the two cases, and why the Committee to Defend Julian Assange will be at the festival this year
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“Give me the freedom to think, to speak and to argue freely, according to conscience above all other liberties” — George Loveless, leader of the Tolpuddle Martyrs,1834.
“One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice” Julian Assange, imprisoned on remand in Belmarsh for over four years.
THE Tolpuddle Martyrs were trade unionists transported to Australia in 1834 for seeking higher wages. Julian Assange is an Australian journalist who faces imminent extradition from Britain to the US for publishing the truth about US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. At first sight, the two cases seem completely different.
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HELEN MERCER welcomes an account of how US labour leadership collaborated with the state and betrayed their membership
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A look at the writing of war correspondent James Aldridge 40 years ago reminds us of the eastern perspective when a second front was finally opened on D-Day, 1944, says HELEN MERCER
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HELEN MERCER casts an experienced eye over an ambitious exhibition that nevertheless contains painful gaps
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HELEN MERCER is disappointed by a depiction of Englands ‘coastal commons’ that lacks compassion and fails to illuminate the root causes of their decay
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Stella Assange warns case sets dangerous precedent for press freedom
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At long last the WikiLeaks founder is free. For all those who care about freedom of speech it’s time to celebrate, writes TIM DAWSON of the International Federation of Journalists
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The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE is compelled by a lucid, if partisan, account of the Assange case that highlights the acquiescence of the Australian government