America’s largest Socialist conference, “Socialism 2013” will kick off today in Chicago. According to their website, Glenn Greenwald, the left-wing writer for the Guardian, who has recently come under fire for his role in breaking Eric Snowden’s claims of NSA spying operations against United States citizens, is set to be a featured speaker at the conference.
Greenwald, an ex-patriot living in Brazil, who attended and spoke at Socialism 2011, will be addressing this year’s conference via Skype.
In his 2011 speech Greenwald began by telling the room full of Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries, how inspiring they are.
You know it’s interesting a lot of times if a lot of people gather for the purpose of engaging in systemic critics of political systems and political power and the like this sort of gloominess sets in. I’m sure you’re familiar with it and have encountered it, that’s kind of grounded in this defeatism.
This sense that we spent all this time talking about horrible things are, and these impediments that we face in change, and I now I’m real depressed and feel like nothing can be done, and the exact opposite energy has been really palpable at this conference.
Not just talking about the need for change but this real belief in the possibility for it and it’s really encouraging and inspiring to be around a gathering of so many people of so many age groups and backgrounds who really are committed to that vision.”
Following that introduction, Greenwald went on to speak critically of civil liberties in America under both President Obama and President George W. Bush. Greenwald also defended WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange as well Bradley Manning, a United States Army Private charged with 22 offenses, including communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source and aiding the enemy. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges and his trial began on June 3, 2013.
Greenwald has been under scrutiny from some in the media as of late, as well being dubbed a hero by others, during the ongoing and developing news surrounding Eric Snowden, and his release of national security information.
NBC’s David Gregory asked Greenwald on Meet the Press, “To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?”
Greenwald responded to Gregory, saying it’s “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies.”
It has yet to be determined whether or not Greenwald did in fact, “aid and abet” Eric Snowden. However, Greenwald’s associations with radical Marxist organizations, such as the International Socialist Organization, and his participation in their revolutionary conferences, while at the same time, protecting his source, Eric Snowden, who has been on the run in Communist China and Russia, certainly raises eyebrows about Greenwald’s intentions.
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