General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "WikiLeaks has problems with 'democratic processes': Dr Cannold" [View all]struggle4progress
(117,949 posts)I was a member of the WikiLeaks party national council and have been a friend of Julian Assange since university. Here is why I am resigning from my position
Daniel Mathews
Wednesday 21 August 2013 23.19 EDT
... National council meetings have been held at least weekly for several months. Until last Friday, Julian had attended precisely one meeting. He is extremely busy, of course, and has many important things to do. Helping Edward Snowden is surely more important than attending a council meeting. But still, attending one out of the first 13 National council meetings of the party (all of which he could call in to) is a fairly low participation rate in ones own party, for a man confined to an embassy equipped with a telephone ...
Although Assange had not attended the meeting, after receiving the councils resolution by email he quickly wrote a long email entitled NC micromanagement of preferences, in which he expressed his displeasure with the council in making such requests, and proposed an alternative structure for preference decisions. Negotiations would be done by lead candidates, with no restraints on them, and Assange having a right of veto. He proposed giving the national council a role in rubber-stamping the results of this process.
Thus, one member of the national council was proposing to grant themselves a right of veto and to reduce it to a rubber stamp. Given the eagerness of some to pursue deals even with the far right, I and several others on the national council were keen to retain the national councils role in these important decisions.
I told the council that the party could have been set up autocratically, but it was not set up that way. It was set up with a reasonably democratic structure, with a governing council with membership and representation from various sectors supportive of, and related to, WikiLeaks. If it could be overridden by the lead candidate when he disagreed, it would be a sham. This received the support of several others on the council, and it thus appeared that the council would not be reduced to a sham ...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/22/wikileaks-julian-assange