Public space versus Market place: A community forum to keep speech free

Use of public space is being restricted by privatisation.Earlier this year, the  managementof Barkly Square shopping centre in Brunswick stopped Green Left Weekly from operating its regular Saturday stalls. Acommunity campaign resulted in Green Left Weekly winning limited access. While Green LeftWeekly is happy to allow other communitycampaigns to distribute materials, access to this social space is restricted. 

Events at Barkly Square are part of a disturbing patternaround the country. Community is being shut out of ever-diminishing publicareas. Social spaces, such as shopping centres, are being taken over by bigbusiness whose only concern is making a profit.

Passing out information, collecting signatures on communitypetitions, distributing election material, holding speakouts or engaging inother activities are essential democratic rights. People increasingly find thatthe spaces where the public congregate are defined as corporate no-go zones.Even where permission is given by the gatekeepers, requirements — such asdemands for huge public liability insurance coverage — rule out many communitygroups.

A panel of community activists and experts will describe howthey see free speech, freedom of assembly and the right to organise beingeroded by this creeping privatisation. They’ll discuss current campaigns andexplore the tools for resistance that community members can use to reclaim ourspaces. Brunswick has a proud history of community activism to defenddemocratic grassroots organising. The meeting will spotlight both historicaland contemporary examples of those who have fought back and won.

Speakers

Brian Walters, civil libertarian, Greens candidate forMelbourne

David Nichols, lecturer in Urban Planning, University ofMelbourne

Debbie Brennan, Melbourne Organiser, Radical Women

Meghan Fitzgerald, solicitor, Fitzroy Legal Service

Sharon Firebrace, Yorta Yorta woman and activist

Trevor Dobbyn, Victorian Branch Secretary, Rail Tram and BusUnion

Wednesday 27 October, 6:45 pm for a prompt 7 pm start

Brunswick Town Hall,

233 Sydney Road, Brunswick 

This event is supported by Australian Sex Party, Campaignfor Women’s Reproductive Rights, Freedom Socialist Party, Green Left Weekly,Indigenous Social Justice Association – Melbourne, Moreland Greens, RadicalWomen and Socialist Alliance.

For more information call 9388-0062 or e-mail freedom.socialist.party@ozemail.com.au