Published 31 March 20111 June 2012 · Main Posts / Politics Rundle on Assange Editorial team Our new edition – featuring the exquisite illustrations of Shaun Tan, an open letter from Alexis Wright, and essays from Wendy Bacon and Bob Gosford – is out and we’ll be publishing articles from it online over the next few weeks. If you make haste with your subscribing, however, you’ll be certain of securing a copy of what is sure to be a limited edition. ‘Open-eyed conspiracy his time doth take’, Guy Rundle’s lead article in Overland 202, delves into the clandestine world of WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange: ‘Are you interested in being involved with a courageous project to reform every political system on earth – and through that reform move the world to a more humane state?’ Sometime in December 2006, a former Melbourne University maths student, still hanging around the common room, posted the question to the students’ society network. His rather alarming message explained that the organisers proposed to launch their campaign in two months but were being overwhelmed by a media cascade with more than 51 000 (!) page hits on Google and stories in the Washington Post and so on. ‘Now we have only twenty-two people trying to usher in the start of a world-wide movement,’ the post continued. ‘We need help in every area, admining, coding, sys admining, legal research, analysis.’ The organisation was WikiLeaks; the post’s author was Julian Assange – and, characteristically, the list of tasks included ‘writing, proofing, manning the phone, standing around looking pretty, even making tea’ (italics mine). Four years later, no-one – whatever criticisms they might make of Assange – could accuse him of boasting idly. Few political interventions have achieved such spectacular effects in so short a time. The WikiLeaks website already feels like it’s been around for ever, even though it’s actually less than five years old. Its early interventions – Trafigura in Ivory Coast, the ‘climategate’ emails, the Icesave documents exposing the Iceland banking scandal – have, in some cases, been obscured by history: many people simply don’t remember that the documents were first circulated by WikiLeaks. Read our lead essay. Editorial team More by Editorial team › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 10 July 202410 July 2024 · Politics You don’t end racism with envoys Jordy Silverstein In segmenting off Jews, and Muslims, these Special Envoys function as a technique of racism, pitting groups against each other. But we can only fight against racism by working together, collectively and in coalitions. This is not just rhetoric, but a material and political reality. 15 May 2024 · Palestine Why conservatives are so afraid of the Palestine solidarity movement Jeff Sparrow The incredible diversity of the Gaza solidarity campaign represents a story entirely missed by most media outlets. I’ve researched and written a lot about radical history in Australia, and I cannot think of a social movement making such a varied array of supporters feel so welcome.