Writer
John Jiggens
Dr John Jiggens is a citizen journalist. He was the founding editor of The Westender and The Cane Toad Times and currently works in the community newsroom at Bay-FM in Byron Bay. His PhD was Marijuana Australiana: Cannabis use, popular culture and the Americanisation of drug policy in Australia. He has published several books on the history of cannabis prohibition.
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Tobacco prohibition by stealth?
Over the past five decades, drug policy in Australia has been contested between two main groups: the prohibitionists, who aim to ban social drugs by criminalising users and consumers, and the Harm-Reductionists, practitioners in the field who take a less censorious line on drug use and aim to educate users on how to minimise the Continue reading »
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Reclaiming the radical spirit of the Eureka Rebellion
At 4am in the morning, Ballarat was dark and dismal. Nonetheless, about forty people, suitable dressed for the cold and the light drizzle, assembled at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the 1854 Eureka rebellion. The sky was clouded, and the Southern Cross was shrouded, but it was present in Continue reading »
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Will Joe Biden pardon Julian Assange?
Julian Assange may no longer be behind bars, but his conviction casts a shadow over press freedom and the safety of journalists everywhere—a wrong Assange and his supporters world-wide are determined to set right by overturning his wrongful conviction via a presidential pardon from Joe Biden. Continue reading »
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The Queensland elections and the youth crime crisis
“The basic facts about youth crime in Australia, including Queensland, is that the number of young people getting into trouble with police has been going down every year.” – Ross Homel, Foundation Professor in Criminology, Griffith University. Continue reading »
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Julian Assange’s fifty-third birthday party
A week after Julian Assange’s release from Belmarsh prison, a boisterous gathering of 200 very happy Assange supporters packed the St Kilda Bowls Club in Melbourne to celebrate Julian Assange’s 53 birthday on July 3. Assange, who was in seclusion still recovering from his ordeal, did not attend. Continue reading »
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The legacy media hate Julian Assange
It is often said that the reason the legacy media hate Julian Assange so much is that they are jealous of Assange’s rock star status. But it is much more than that. Not only did Assange make the MSM look dishonest; by reinventing Fourth Estate journalism with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange challenged the control of the Continue reading »
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UK’s legal process a form of ‘psychological torture’, as Assange battles US
John Shipton has been in London, observing his son Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States. Continue reading »
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World War III and The Grand Chessboard
Imagine being Tony Blinken, and facing the arduous responsibility as US Secretary of State to rule the globe! This seems a daunting task, but fortunately, Blinken doesn’t have to strain his brain too much because he has a manual already written to instruct him. Continue reading »
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David McBride versus Four Corners
On Easter Saturday, a friend and I drove down to Mullumbimby to hear Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride speaking at the Mullumbimby RSL. The previous Monday, I had watched the Four Corners program about David McBride, called Rules of Engagement. My friend hadn’t seen it, so we listened to it on the iPhone as Continue reading »
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Extradition looms for Julian Assange
The UK High Court has delayed the extradition of Julian Assange to the US for a further three weeks, requesting the United States give assurances that Assange will be protected by First Amendment free speech rights, that he won’t be discriminated against as an Australian citizen, and that he will not face the death penalty. Continue reading »
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The persecution of Julian Assange
I see in the persecution of Julian Assange, a parallel with a technique put together by the United States in the destruction of Iraq that they called shock and awe, wherein all of the institutions of state were destroyed and plundered, with the exception of the department concerning itself with the production of oil. Now Continue reading »
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Night Falls in the Evening Lands: The extradition of Julian Assange
As we await the UK High Court decision on Julian Assange’s extradition to the US, the implications of Assange’s persecution and the repercussions for human rights, journalism, peace and justice will be explored at the conference Night Falls in the Evening Lands: the Assange epic, which will be held in Melbourne on March 9. Continue reading »
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USUKA: The hidden history of AUKUS
The Australian Citizens Party (ACP) have written to the National Anti- Corruption Commission (NACC), asking them to investigate former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to join private companies who will profit from the massive defence expenditure resulting from Morrison’s decision to establish AUKUS — a decision the ACP characterised as “extraordinary, unilateral and secretive”. Dr Continue reading »
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Andrew Wilkie: Assange must be allowed to return to Australia
“The majority of the Australian parliament, including the Australian government and the Prime Minister are of the view that regardless of what you think about Julian Assange, the fact is he’s been incarcerated in one way or another for twelve years or so. The matter has gone on long enough that the extradition should be Continue reading »
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Historic vote in Australian parliament on Julian Assange
Wednesday, February 14, turned out to be an unanticipated Happy Valentine’s Day for Julian Assange supporters. The Australian House of Representatives passed a motion introduced by Tasmanian Independent, Andrew Wilkie on behalf of the Parliamentary Friends of Julian Assange, urging the US and the UK to bring their prosecution of Julian Assange to a close, Continue reading »
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The ghost of Julian Assange
Despite being detained, silenced, and hidden from public view in the maximum security Belmarsh prison for the past five years, as the day of his extradition draws near, the spectre of Julian Assange looms ever larger over the politics of the AUKUS lands. Continue reading »
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John Pilger, maverick journalist (1939-2023)
In a speech he made in Sydney in 2011, defending Julian Assange, John Pilger recalled how it was always impressed upon him when he was young that Australia was a brave country: that we stood up to authority, and we stood up for justice. Such national myths were at best half-truths, Pilger said, but in Continue reading »
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Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
In direct contradiction to the 1945 Nuremberg trials, the Crown successfully argued in the prosecution of Afghan Files military whistleblower David McBride for breaching the Defence Forces Act that the sole duty of an Australian soldier is to follow orders. An Australian soldier does not serve Australia, or the Australian people or the public interest. Continue reading »
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Who do you serve? The non-trial of David McBride
“Today I serve my country. And the question I have for you, Anthony Albanese is, ‘Who do you serve?’” – David McBride Continue reading »
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John Mearsheimer and the decline of US hegemony
“It’s very important to understand that what’s happened is that the unipolar moment is in the rearview mirror. It’s gone. We are now in a multipolar world” Continue reading »
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David McBride and the Afghan files trial
Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride is facing a secret trial on November 13 that could result in him serving a life sentence for leaking classified information that formed the basis of ‘The Afghan Files’, a 2017 ABC exposé revealing allegations of misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. Continue reading »
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Assange extradition: “something you might expect from a totalitarian regime”
Julian Assange may be only weeks away from being extradited to the US where he will face prosecution under the US Espionage Act that could see him imprisoned for 175 years, even though he is an Australian citizen, not a US citizen! With extradition so near, the campaign to save Assange has reached its highest Continue reading »
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Opposing US-led wars: can Australia become independent and peaceful?
The narrative about the inevitability of a war with China began to dominate US strategic thinking in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Continue reading »
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Are we on a path to war with China? An interview with David Shoebridge
“One of the most extraordinary moments in politics in the last five years has been watching Anthony Albanese, notionally from the left of Labour, adopt, without any internal democracy within the Labor Party, without any public investigation of it, adopt wholeheartedly Scott Morrison’s AUKUS plans… It’s perhaps one of the most extraordinary betrayals of the Continue reading »
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Bring Julian home
Over the past month, Australian pressure on the Biden administration to drop the charges against Julian Assange has grown significantly. Continue reading »
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A revolution in Journalism: WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
Speech at The Persecution of Truth conference Continue reading »
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The Persecution of Truth
The war on whistleblowers, WikiLeaks and truth will be examined at a conference called The Persecution of Truth at the State Library of Queensland on Sunday April 30th. Continue reading »
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The AUKUS orchestra, Julian Assange and Iraq
On Saturday, March 18, a small rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War gathered in a park outside the Lismore Memorial Baths. Continue reading »
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Championing war with China
In an extraordinary editorial that was labelled as warmongering by former prime minister Paul Keating, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) called for China to be labelled a clear and present threat, argued for the reintroduction of conscription and for long range missiles armed with nuclear weapons, and urged Australia to prepare for war with China Continue reading »
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Freeing Assange?
On New Year’s Day 2023, John Lyons, the Global Affairs Editor of the ABC, made the extraordinary prediction that within the next two months Julian Assange would be released. Continue reading »
