HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSEA MANNING!
Free Her Now!

photo from a protest in Berlin earlier in the year

A vigil on the steps of St Martin in the Fields has been called by Payday Mens Network and Queer Strike:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSEA MANNING!

Free her now!

TUESDAY 17th DECEMBER 2013 at  3pm until 4.30pm

Vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields

Trafalgar Square London WC2N 4JJ – Charing Cross Tube

(St Martin’s request that vigils on the steps are silent)

Other actions will take place in Philadelphia and San Francisco more here

Payday & Queer Strike write:

CHELSEA MANNING IS 26 ON 17th DECEMBER

Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning is the US soldier sentenced to 35 years in jail for leaking thousands of documents to Wikileaks exposing US and other governments’ war crimes and corruption. She is 26 years old on this day. Ever since she was detained and tortured in 2010, international protests, including from LGBT people, have demanded her release. Demonstrate your support for her courageous whistleblowing, and for all who blow the whistle on corruption, dictatorship and dirty government secrets.

35 YEARS FOR WHISTLEBLOWING

The sentence imposed on Chelsea Manning is harsher than that of most soldiers convicted of murder and definitely more than those found guilty of rape and other torture. The US Government wants to make an example of Chelsea Manning to discourage whistleblowing on any of their crimes including surveillance on all of us. Defending whistleblowers is vital to defending ourselves against these state crimes. And defending Chelsea is vital to encouraging more whistleblowers to come forward.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT 

Thanks to Chelsea we know about:

• The “collateral murder” video of a US helicopter crew killing Iraqi civilians
• The cover-up of rape in Iraq & Afghanistan
• The extent of drone strikes
• US dirty tricks in Haiti, Venezuela & elsewhere
• The corruption of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali that spurred the 2011 revolution
• Israel consulting Egypt & the Palestinian Authority before invading Gaza

STANDING WITH OTHERS

We also stand in solidarity with others in this:

Julian Assange

Founder of WikiLeaks, confined by the UK Govt in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012. Join the daily vigil.

Edward Snowden

US computer expert exiled in Russia for revealing massive spying by US and UK govt agencies NSA and GCHQ. More here.

Jeremy Hammond

Stitched up by the FBI. Jailed for 10 years in Nov for hacking the private intelligence contractor Stratfor, exposing the use of paid informants, revealing the extent of their unregulated spying and giving us the valuable information in the Global Intelligence Files (GI Files). More here.

Barrett Brown

US journalist who reported on firms like Stratfor who is being prosecuted for linking to the hacked information. Now gagged by the federal court and unable to write about the case, he faces 100 yrs in prison. More here.

Veterans for Peace UK will also be joining the vigil:

Birthday Vigil

When?
Tuesday 17 December 2013
1500 – 1630 hrs

Where?
St Martin in the Fields
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 4JJ

Tube – Charing Cross / Leicester Sq

Join Payday Men’s Network & Queer Strike, Veterans For Peace UK and others as we vigil for Chelsea on her birthday!

CONTACT INFO

Payday Mens’ Network
UK: PO Box 287 London NW6 2QU / 020 7267 8698
US: PO Box 11795 Philadelphia, PA 19101 / 215 848 1120

Queer Strike
UK: PO Box 287 London NW6 2QU / 020 7482 2496
US: PO Box 14512, SF, CA 94114, / 415-626 4114