 At the call of the International People's Assembly, on the streets of Brasilia and Acara, Johannesburg and New York City, people's movements and organizations demanded on February 25, that publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange be released immediately. In Brazil, mobilizations calling for freedom for Assange were organized outside the US and UK consulates in six cities. The actions were organized by people's movements and trade unions, such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement, MST, Levante Popular de Joventure, the World March of Women, the Workers' Party, movement against dams and others. In South Africa, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa picketed outside the US consulate in Johannesburg and handed over a memorandum, demanding the immediate release of Assange. Members of the Socialist Movement of Ghana organized a placard parade in Ghana's capital raising slogans such as, It is our right to be informed. Viva Press Freedom. In New York City, a group of progressive organizations including the Progressive International, the International People's Assembly, People's Dispatch and others came together to organize the New York City edition of Belmarsh Tribunal. The Belmarsh Tribunal, which aims to expose the crimes the so-called war on terror, was organized at the People's Forum on 25 February, 20 years after the first prisoners were brought to Guantanamo Bay. Legal experts, U.S. representatives, whistleblowers, journalists from around the world, came together to investigate and expose the crimes of the war on terror, seek justice for its victims, demand the closure of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the release of Julian Assange. Mainstream media, the stenographers of the U.S. state, have historically covered these atrocities and acts of terror by the U.S. and its allies with narratives that serve to justify aggression and war. Julian Assange is being punished for refusing to follow suit and for not becoming an accomplice to these crimes against humanity. He is being punished for doing exactly what journalists are meant to do, investigate and tell the truth. The U.S. government is one of the largest perpetrators of violence, domestically and internationally. We must denounce these crimes against humanity by the U.S. government, but we must not stop there. Denunciation is not enough. We must organize against the crimes of war, the crimes of the United States government that come in different forms. We must organize to shut down Guantanamo. We must organize to free Assange. Guantanamo Bay does not belong into a democracy. Guantanamo Bay is the kind of prison that the dictatorial regime set up to quash political dissent. I am just a regular citizen like you. I don't have planes. I don't have weapons. I don't have any of that. All I have is the law. And when the law fails, we have nothing as a citizen. We have no buffer between us and the violence of the state, the violence of the most powerful country in the world, United States of America. United States of America, instead of propping up dictatorial regime, they should stand up for human rights. American people are good people. They deserve better than Guantanamo Bay. Assange has been imprisoned in Belmarsh prison since 2019, while the United States government has been waging a legal battle to fight for his extradition. US prosecutors indicted the co-founder of WikiLeaks one month after his imprisonment in Belmarsh on 17 charges under the Espionage Act, which together carry a total maximum sentence of 175 years. This is the first time the US has prosecuted a publisher for the act of publishing under the Espionage Act. The International People's Assembly has launched a permanent campaign this month to call for Assange's immediate release and the rejection of his extradition request.