The thrill of participatory social justice

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Speaker:- Marlon Drake of Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga,
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

The thrill of participatory social justice

Listen, or download the MP3
Questions from the Q&A session didn’t make it into the audio.
They are on screen in the video, and listed below.

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Marlon Drake © 14 May 2023

Marlon attended Western Springs College and then moved to Wellington where he was a student activist at Victoria University, serving as President of the students association, campaigning against sexual violence and in favour of mental health support for students. He also worked part time as an organiser in the Living Wage Movement during his time as a law student at Victoria. Marlon is now the full-time community organiser for Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga, a broad-based coalition in Auckland working for social justice.

Question & Answer Session

Question:- I believe the Living Wage movement brought a good idea and tried to impose it on the community, rather than let the idea grow out of the community. How are you avoiding that?
If this group were to become part of it, how would we fit in to your structure?
What are some of the big systemic initiatives that you are working on at the moment?
You mentioned housing is one of the areas your organisation is involved in, what are your priorities for social action in relation to housing?
My daughter is involved in refugee work, what sort of work do you do with refugees, resettled people, and asylum seekers?
I’m worried that social housing seems to be at the whim of political parties, the left comes in and builds social housing, the right comes in and sells them. What is your organisation going to do to protect this housing once it’s built?
I’m concerned these issues are not getting a lot of attention in the media, political parties move when there’s strong community support clearly expressed for change. How do we get the kind of media attention that will move through to public support?