Catalyst Social Centre

Catalyst Social Centre is a radical community space in Coburg, on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. The space operates without a single owner or governing collective. Instead, it is sustained and shaped by a Federation of thirteen member collectives, organized horizontally, whose delegates share responsibility for the practical and financial work of keeping it running. The Federation’s shared politics are grounded in anti-capitalist, decolonial, and liberatory struggle. No one collective controls the agenda, and no admission fee is charged to use the space.

The Centre functions as a hub for left organizing in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, offering free meeting and event space to any individual or collective doing solidarity and movement work. Among the groups meeting regularly at Catalyst is Melbourne Food Not Bombs, which has been organizing vegan food distribution in the city since the mid-1990s. FNB Melbourne cooks and shares vegan food on the streets, at protests, and at fundraisers, with a Wednesday-evening shared meal held inside the Catalyst space on Sydney Road. The IRL Infoshop, a zine and radical literature project, also operates out of the building. Other resident collectives include Towards Total Liberation, an anti-speciesist group opposing all forms of domination, and Riff Raff Radical Marching Band, which rehearses fortnightly at the space and plays at protests and campaign events.

Catalyst opened in late 2022 and quickly became a meeting point for a wide range of left, queer, and solidarity projects across Melbourne. By 2026, the Centre was in the process of relocating to a new space in Coburg, with a community fundraiser for the fit-out underway and open general assemblies being held to shape the new space’s culture and direction. The transition reflects the same collective process that has run through the project from the start: decisions made by the people who use the space, not handed down from above.