It hasn’t been long since our last Borderlands Newsletter, but it’s been a busy time and there’s lots coming up in the next few weeks. This coming Thursday we are hosting a very important fundraiser, Seeds for a Just Peace. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is severe, the agricultural sector devastated, and food insecurity desperate. Urban family farmers need our support, urgently! We hope you can be part of this.
Seeds for a Just Peace Fundraiser
Thursday November 27, 7pm – 9pm at Borderlands Co-operative, 30A Pickett Street Footscray.
Get your tickets here and more information
A campaign for urgent and sustained action. We are on a critical mission together.
Mass displacement, pervasive socio-economic challenges, and profound psychological trauma is impacting the Palestinian people intensely and severely, restricting the entry of essential supplies and pushing the population toward famine. This is about survival, of individuals, of a people.
Regenerating Communities Conference
Between October 16-18, Borderlands was part of the Regenerating Communities Conference, involving 324 participants – community development workers, academics, policy makers, social impact folk and community activists. The conference launch was hosted at Maribyrnong City Council’s Civic Hub, and the Conference itself at Borderlands in Footscray. A wide range of organisations participated in reflecting, imagining and laying groundwork for action. Borderlands is hopeful that many new initiatives and collaborations will emerge from the Conference in 2026!
In Memory of Lew Zipin
Past member of the Borderlands Board …
Lew Zipin was an intellectual. Taken in the modern spirit this would not be a compliment. But Lew was old school. In all frankness, I often felt like I had to prepare myself for conversations with Lew. When he grabbed onto a problem, he wasn’t satisfied with cursory observations or the ahistorical eclecticism typical of modern day academia. Lew wanted to dig deep, all the time. It could be exhausting. But I figured this was as much a comment about me and the world, as anything else. Lew never adapted, to paraphrase Debord, to the neoliberal “academy of the spectacle”. He wanted to understand the real world in all its complexity and all its truths.
Maribyrnong Council’s new local laws will harm our community
Maribyrnong Council’s new local laws will harm our community. These laws punch down on people experiencing marginalisation and fail to protect dignity, equality and human rights. Councillors paid lip service to Footscray Community Response’s recommendations to distract us from the reality that these laws are socially unjust, discriminatory and dangerous.
The resurgent right in Latin America and the challenge for revolutionaries
Jorge Jorquera, Borderlands Coordinator, was in SANTIAGO Chile, October-November — The challenge for the revolutionary movement continent-wide is to build influence amid the instability of a spent economic model that creates a merry-go-round of governments, dissolving previously long-lasting parties and alliances, creating monsters in an instant, and seemingly scattering political memory in the whirlwind.
From Housing Crisis to Dwelling Justice
You’re warmly invited to From Housing Crisis to Dwelling Justice, a free public event bringing together community members and advocates to reflect on the state of housing justice in Naarm/Melbourne and beyond. The evening will feature the premiere screening of Bay Views for All, a powerful new documentary following the renewal of the Barak Beacon Boulevard estate in Port Melbourne.
Trivia For Palestine Fundraiser
Join Brimbank for Palestine at @theangrydogmelbourne on Sunday 7th of December after the National Palestine Rally for the Solidarity Trivia For Palestine Fundraiser. Test your knowledge on all things Palestine, Music & World Politics. Prizes, stalls, Pizza, Mocktails & Cocktails available on the night. All proceeds of this Fundraiser will be donated to @gazabirdssinging.
Borderlands new Board of Directors
This past Friday, November 21, Borderlands elected a new Board. Be on the look out for some changes and new initiatives coming in the new year.
Footscray Community Garden Christmas Party
Finally, we really hope you can come along to the Footscray Community Garden & Learning Place (at Borderlands), for the Garden Christmas Party, Wednesday December 17, from 7pm. Bring drinks and a plate to share. And bring your loved ones too. Dress fancy.