SUMMARY:
Julian’s Birthday is on 3rd of July. I created this Thread, to brainstorm and exchange ideas for supporters that want to do something on or for his birthday. Some of these ideas have been recycled and updated from past brainstormings. Feel free to spread them. Send them to human rights organizations / campaigns and to supporters.

BRAINSTORMING

  1. Get a copy of the book: Nilz Melzer - Trial of Assange and give it to your local library store / university. Many towns have public bookcases. Put Nils Melzers Book in there. (Rogue + Rick)

  2. Going to Belmarsh and sing a seranade for Julian, all together. Would be nice to organize a choir? Proposal? (Rick)

  3. #Flowers4Assange / #Candles4Assange - Wherever you are. Put a candle and / or a flower to the main square in your area, if you can’t make it to Belmarsh and put your flowers at a specific place, including a nice picture with the Hashtag/s and / or a nice quote. Happy Birthday? (Rick)

  4. Spreading Merchandise (from Wikileaks?) and give it to institutions, schools, universities? (Rick)

  5. Giving xxxx postcards (in envelopes) with the highlights of London (incl. belmarsh prison) to tourists around the UK. These postcards could already have decisive addresses on them, or the tourists could send them to friends / relatives. They could write their message on it and just drop it into a post box. BONUS: Combining it with number 6.
    Willkommen in London Julian Assange Postkarten + Umschläge (7 Stück) – WikiLeaks Shop EU
    (Rick)

  6. Asking the embassy cat (Artist: Ans) for making a small cartoon book \ postcards for Julian’s Birthday. “Plz free my human…” - embassy cat BONUS: Combining it with the tourists idea Number 05
    https://twitter.com/EmbassyCatComic/status/1512498233498558467?t=tb2_oSGKh2-L9KXvY1s6dg&s=19
    (Rick)

  7. In my humble opinion Julian deserves a place in the Parliament Square :slight_smile: It would be cool to get his sculpture with two chairs to that square on his birthday, or in this week. One of the chairs is meant for Julian and the second one for somebody that speaks for Julian.
    Download anythingtosay.com - (Rick)

  8. Protest march with a marching band. People are singing a serenade and walk through the streets of London or meet at a big square. (Rick)

  9. Organizing a celeb, playing a live performance at Belmarsh or a big square. (Rick)

  10. Putting at night beamers on the streets of london again. This time, including Happy Birthday and a quote that fits. (Rick)

  11. Mobile billboards, where trucks drive around the city, including Happy Birthday. https://www.mobile-billboards.co.uk/
    (Grace & Rick)

  12. Happy Birthday-Honk-concert \ car protest. Supporters put a banner or so on the car and stream an arranged audio file, honking at the same time. At the end of the tour, they stop at Belmarsh and honk the Rhythm of “Happy Birthday”. I’m sure, that Julian could hear such Birthday wishes pretty well. (Rick)

  13. Aerial advertising- plane banner. https://www.airads.co.uk/ (Grace)

  14. There was an idea of @Matt_O_Branain-A4A, to hug Belmarsh with 1100 people. This won’t be possible I guess, because of the police. What about hugging a different building? Parliament? A Statue? Would this be easier? Screaming FreeAssange? (Matt + Rick)

  15. Laying out flyers at universities, public places and giving people black and white flyers in the streets about what is happening to Julian, why, the big context such as the threat to press freedom. Add a QR code to current petitions and Nils Melzers Book for more information as well. Scanning a QR code is low effort for those you want to reach. Plus, adding freedom of press makes it a personal issue even if you don’t know anything about Julian. I can do a flyer design within 24 - 48 hours, that’s no problem. We’d just need people from different countries to translate it into their mother-tongue. If a flyer is black and white it doesn’t cost much and could even be printed at home, even if the quality of the paper is poor. (Rogue)

  16. Do a “sit in” in front of government buildings near you. Read out chapters from Nils Melzers Book with a megaphone or hold speeches about what has been done to him. Hand out flowers with a little card on them that says: Don’t let press freedom die, don’t extradate Assange, let journalism blossom.
    Bonus points if you have some copies of Nils Melzers book with you to give to people and, ideally, representatives. Send the books to them if they don’t react to your sit in. (Rogue)

  17. Send Julian a letter of love. He needs suppport and positive energy… https://writejulian.com/ (Rick)

  18. Finishing the AssangeDAO-Award-Proposal and announcing the existence of the award on Julian’s Birthday. (Zylo - award) Award - Draft Proposal

Why not? Stella tweeted that it could be very powerful.

Stella hug Belmarsh

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Corrected. Yes, it would be very powerful… I’m afraid that the police around Belmarsh would prevent that from happening though. Not a reason to not try it, but I think sticking with a bulletproof plan could be more fruitful maybe. I also didn’t see any further development of the idea, so I already focused on alternatives. Multiple actions could have more impact, than one single action that fails.

The police around Belmarsh trying to prevent that from happening would itself be a very powerful spectacle. The media would eat it up.

Most likely yes…

Maybe @Matt_O_Branain-A4A can give us an update on his idea?

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Last year I made my own birthday card and posted it on Twitter. If time poor, that’s easy to do.

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Cheers! #HugBelmarsh would be great though there are hurdles. The options:

  1. Prepare a safe management plan, request police assistance and get permission from prison.
  2. Extend the perimeter of the hug to the public space. This would double the area and people required to 2,200. Not as close to the prison. Would this still be as cool?

If anyone wants to further this I’m all ears.

Another idea is to hug parliament.

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Another idea I heard: birthday picnics.

  1. I see. Yeah. I also thought about the parliament… (Refering to list) We probably would need a permission for it too. If we would get one, things are much easier to organize. It’s important to start with it asap though.

  2. Birthday picnics?

Another idea - choose a favourite plush toy - - make up a little sign for it to hold (Free Assange) (Happy Birthday Julian) and take a photo of it and share on social media.