The People's Free Space is organized into five projects: the Community Space, the Free School, the People's Free News, Technology Project, Bike Workshop and Youth . Each project is organized by a working group, consisting of a few people who coordinate, and those in the public who wish to attend meetings and volunteer. We have two working groups that develop support and infrastructure for the organization:  funding and outreach. Together these seven working groups make up the People's Free Space. Each month we offer a variety of workshops, discussions and skillshares.   Our community space is open for people to come into and use the resources we have in the space including: the People's Free Kitchen, Computers, Lending Library, Kids Space, Free Room, and Bike Shop.  The People's Free News is published every two months and provides a radical voice in Portland.

The People’s Free Space started in May of 2002, when fifteen people began planning to create a radical autonomous community space and infoshop in Portland.  There was a clear need for a venue for organizing and activism in Portland, and for an empowering space which would help foster a stronger activist community. We soon chose the name “People’s Free Space.”   We later formalized our mission statement: to create autonomous collective spaces for sharing resources and information, building community and fostering sustainable alternatives and creative resistance to social, economic, political and ecological oppression.

The first People’s Free Space events were held in June 2002, with a monthly video showing and discussion series on topics such as the war in Palestine and Iraq, the G8, various indigenous struggles, labor issues, ecological issues, US foreign policy, food, political prisoners, and poverty. We soon added a radical zine distribution, called the Foglight Zine Distro to promote and highlight local radical literature.

In October 2002 the Free School--which serves as a free and open forum for people to share information and skills with one another and provides an empowering learning environment for people of all ages--began holding workshops.  Since that time we have organized and collaborated on over 250 workshops and video showings on do-it-yourself skills, art, health, and social, political and ecological issues.  The Free School has developed a free radical lending library, which now consists of over 2500 books and magazines on a variety of progressive political, social and ecological issues.

 

2003: The Frida Bus arrives and the People’s Free Space grows

In January 2003, we began publishing a bimonthly People’s Free Space newsletter to keep people updated on the organization and on upcoming events and decided we needed to get a physical space.  Finding it difficult to afford rent in Portland we purchased a 35-foot diesel school bus from Greenpeace in February 2003.  Over the following months we started converting the bus into a mobile community space, called Frida Bus. It was powered by Biodiesel, a vegetable oil based fuel and contains a kitchen, book and magazine lending library, free box, seating area, free literature and information.  In an effort to build connections with other people and grassroots organizing efforts, the Frida Bus and People’s Free Space organizers have been to various community fairs, festivals, schools, gatherings, protests and events in Portland and around the state and the region. The Frida Bus became a magnet for people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives; who came together to share resources, information, food and conversation and make connections for organizing and activism.   

In 2003, the Free School offered more workshops each month. The People’s Free Space co-sponsored the 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Burdock Gatherings in Starks, Maine, which brought together several hundred people for a free gathering of discussions, workshops, music, food and swimming.

 

2004: A New Work Space, Free School Expands and Frida Bus travels

In 2004 the People’s Free Space continued to expand and grow, initiating several new programs and expanding current projects; in April 2004, we opened our first non-mobile community space.  This small, 3rd floor office in an art studio building had a small kitchen, computers and a lending library.  We had our meetings, smaller workshops and video showings at this space, but in the fall of 2004 we were evicted by new owners to make way for high-end luxury condos.

The Frida Bus was very busy throughout 2004. In May we traveled to over 15 Maine schools presenting sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels to over 1000 students.  We did a puppet show, slideshow, discussion, activities and a tour of the bus to engage youth in discussions about the problems with fossil fuel dependency and possible solutions for their lives and their communities. In the evening we did community presentations on resisting empire, which consisted of a puppet show, slideshow, discussion and music. This tour allowed us to connect with students, community members and activists throughout the state.

The Frida Bus traveled to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions (DNC and RNC), offering logistical support to local organizations such as Seeds of Peace, Boston Food Not Bombs, and at the Really Really Democratic Bazaar at the DNC, and More Gardens at the RNC.  The Bus and People’s Free Space organizers participated in these protests in various capacities including getting arrested, bike riding, legal support and cooking food. Frida Bus also served as a community space at the Boston Social Forum, where conversations on sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and corporate politics flourished.  

In the fall of 2004, the Frida Bus was used to support two radical gardening projects.  The Victory Gardens Harvest in Athens brought people from all over the country to harvest vegetables to support communities’ struggles to free US political prisoners.  The Frida Bus brought people to the harvest and People’s Free Space organizers helped cook food for the weekend. The Frida Bus also brought people to help harvest vegetables with the Winter Cache Project, a gardening project working on food security issues by growing winter storage vegetables and distributing them for free to community members.

The People’s Free Space continued to undergo many changes in 2005.  In order to guide our work as an organization, we developed our anti-oppression statement (see below) which we now display prominently in our space and on our website.  To build upon our commitment to anti-oppression, in the fall/winter of 2005 we hosted a three month long anti-oppression workshop series which examined different forms of oppression and how they are intertwined and connected and the struggles of oppressed peoples in our community.  Many of these workshops were co-sponsored by other groups that are working specifically on certain issues of oppression.

In June 2005, we rented and renovated our current community space in the East End of Portland.  We now offer a kitchen, kids’ space, lending library, computers, a free room and space for meetings, events, and workshops, and shared office spaces with Portland Tenants Union and GE Free Maine.  Our grand opening in September brought together more than 300 people to celebrate with music, food, children’s activities, a free fair, art show, mosaic making and more.  

Since our Grand Opening, the People’s Free Space has hosted close to a hundred meetings, workshops, events, food distributions, video showings, playgroups, and performances.  We have provided space for and collaborated with other organizations on workshops and meetings.  The space is open at least three days a week, where people come in and read books, use the kitchen, meet other people, and engage in social and political organizing efforts.  

With the opening of our space and our increased technological needs in the space, we formed a technology working group and a new community technology project.  This group and project is working to recycle computers for use by local organizers and low-income people, maintaining our computers in the People’s Free Space for free use, installing and promoting open-source operating systems and working to develop technology education programs.  

When hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast this fall several People’s Free Space organizers traveled to the Gulf Coast to assist in hurricane relief efforts.   Some people went to New Orleans and worked with the Common Ground Collective, while others worked in more rural areas with other grassroots efforts.  In October, one People’s Free Space organizer, Meg Perry, returned to Maine to organize more people to help in the Gulf Coast region.  Meg used the Frida Bus to travel back to the region, and filled the bus with people, supplies, food and equipment to assist in hurricane relief.  For a month the Frida Bus traveled around the Gulf Coast assisting different grassroots groups in New Orleans and in rural areas, bringing supplies and fresh energy to each area they worked in.  The Frida Bus helped to connect several different relief efforts, and demonstrated an example of mutual aid and solidarity between people here in Maine and in the Gulf Coast.  

On December 10th, as the Frida Bus was traveling from the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund Conference in Jackson, Mississippi to a demonstration in New Orleans to protest home evictions, the driver of the Frida Bus lost control and the bus crashed, and Meg was thrown from the vehicle and died.  This has been a major loss for many in our community and for the People’s Free Space, as Meg Perry was a close friend to many of us and a dedicated, committed organizer and bus coordinator.  We have been working with Meg’s family and organizers in New Orleans to turn the Frida Bus into a children’s library in Meg’s honor and we organized a celebration of Meg’s life here in Portland.  

Our focus this year is on further developing our Community Space and on working to make it an inclusive and welcoming space. We are exploring the potential of collaborating with other organizations to buy a larger building that will incorporate other local needs and resources such as more non-profit office space, cooperative housing and a coop grocery store.  We are examining our Free School and restructuring our educational programs so that they both appeal to a wider range of people and continue to provide radical education and information. We are increasing our collaboration and outreach efforts by keeping in close contact with many organizations in the area, increasing our literature distribution, expanding the distribution of our newspaper, maintaining our website, increasing street outreach, and beginning Community Language Workshops and Organizer Trainings.  We will also be continuing to support grassroots hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf Coast region.  

In January 2006, we released our first issue of the People’s Free News, a new radical newspaper for Portland that will continue to publish news of the People’s Free Space as well as highlight local grassroots organizing efforts, local, national and international issues and alternative perspectives.  We are currently on a bi-monthly publishing schedule with a circulation of 1000, but will expand our circulation and frequency more resources become available.  

In its four years of existence, the People’s Free Space has become a convergence point for local organizers and activists by facilitating their ability to network, educate and reach a wider audience of people.  As a result, many grassroots organizing efforts have been revived and initiated in Portland such as; a Food Not Bombs collective uses the People’s Free Kitchen at the People’s Free Space to serve free weekly meals in Portland; the monthly email announcement list, Resist207, informs people about radical events, protests and groups in Portland and the surrounding area; in 2002 and 2003, several anti-war demonstrations were organized in Portland. While these are not People’s Free Space projects, they reflect some of the groups and projects that support and are supported by the People’s Free Space.