Right to Assembly - Brunswick Free Speech Campaign 1931-33

Events in Brunswick in 1931 led to a significant campaign to protect free speech and the right to assembly. Demonstrations of unemployed workers in Brunswick had been broken up by the police, and the ability to assemble in political protest was under threat.

The Brunswick Free Speech Defence Committee—involving the Labor Party, Brunswick Council, Communist Party and Unemployed Workers Movement—was formed at the end of 1932.

A demonstration in support of the right to assembly was organised in Sydney Road and attended by thousands of people. In May 1933 Artist Noel Counihan had himself locked in a cage suspended above the street and addressed the crowd – in support of free speech - while the police tried to figure out how to get up there to arrest him.

This colourful piece of local history was commemorated by Council in 1994 with a sculpture in front of the Mechanics Institute.

There is a crucial difference between the right to assemble, and tolerance of demonstrations. Most of the time, our governments tolerate political demonstrations, but the legislation that makes it possible to stop demonstrations is still in place.

In 1999, Brunswick MLA Carlo Carli recommended to Parliament the repeal of the Unlawful Assemblies Act and its replacement by an act to protect the right to assemble. The proposal got caught up in complicated changes to the Crimes Act, and was dropped at the time. But we have not given up on the issue yet.


- Carlo Carli
Brunswick Labor History Series
No. 02/2005