Why We Stand With Palestine

Why We Stand With Palestine: Militarism, Genocide, And How We Pay For It. Local Eastern Community Forum. "Why We Stand With Palestine: Militarism, Genocide, and How We Pay For It" is a community forum hosted by the Eastern Suburbs Coalition for Palestine. It seeks to bring together community activists and leaders, to discuss how we can collectively combat the increasing normalisation of militarism in our daily lives. Whether it’s science programs in schools; research partnerships between universities and defence; increased surveillance in our everyday life; AI data centres and weapons manufacturers taking over our neighbourhoods, the normalisation of militarism is encroaching on our everyday lives with far-reaching and damaging impacts on our whole society and ecosystems. As the cost of living pressures continue to soar, our government is investing billions in military industry spending, leaving workers, families and communities behind. Our call for a free Palestine and for an end to the genocide in Gaza, is also a call to end the war machine here and to halt the ever increasing erosion of economic justice and democracy that enables and necessitates such atrocities. Who hasn’t been impacted by the casualisation of the workforce, or the continuing privatisation of public assets (transport, energy, housing)? Whose rights to free speech are constantly being limited? Whose money is funnelled into tax-evading corporations, as more workers get laid off to ‘ease inflation’? Which industry is being prioritised while communities get left behind? Our panel of speakers will facilitate a discussion on how to best understand these issues, and what strategies are needed for building the collective power to break the links of militarism in our communities. Speakers TBA