BY TONY ILTIS

MELBOURNE — The Democratic Socialist Party's newly established Melbourne West branch is to open a new Resistance Centre in the city's western suburbs.

While there have been members in the west since the party was founded in Melbourne in the early 1970s, the decision to form a separate branch is a response to the party's growth since the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum.

A major focus for the branch will be the campaign against the mandatory detention of refugees.

According to branch secretary Anne O'Casey, “This is an extremely important issue for the western suburbs because of the presence of the Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre. The government's racist rhetoric obscures the fact that right here in our midst is a prison where innocent people are jailed for indefinite periods — their only crime being to flee tyranny. Even small children are kept there behind high concrete walls and razor wire.

“We will be participating at the weekly Sunday vigils at Maribyrnong and doing everything in our power to get the refugees freed,” O'Casey added. She hopes the new Resistance Centre can be a place from which the campaign can be organised.

O'Casey said the new centre will also be an activist space for those organising the May 1 anti-corporate protests and International Women's Day on March 10. The Resistance Centre will also house a branch of the socialist youth group Resistance and Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), and be a distribution centre for Green Left Weekly.

The new Resistance Centre will be publicly launched on February 24, at 7.30pm, Suite 6, 48 Leeds Street, Footscray.

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