“What reason is there to believe a festival devoted to say the heritage of the Native American or Moravians or rock-and-roll concerts would be less disruptive to the town square than one celebrating labor history, labor rights and contemporary local labor efforts?” Columbia University law professor, Mark Barenberg, asks on Thursday evening at Lehigh University. Barenberg speaks on October 11, 2012, on a ban on anti-Sands Casino speech and labor organizing at Bethlehem Steel Stacks that violate Constitution and labor laws. He speaks to ignite activist passion present in the audience, “It generally takes social movements and great shifts in public culture and sometimes it takes social aggressiveness.” He argues, ‘The country barely had free speech rights due to Supreme Court suppression; it was the disruptive politics of labor from below that brought about justice free speech, now we have public forums. Citizens have simple rights of communicating with one another in public forums and these core rights are at stake for the people here in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “
It was about 25 years ago when the Supreme Court decided on this new animal called, a limited public forum, which can violate the most basic ideas of free speech by limiting and discriminating the content of speech. Barenberg claims this to be a pretty clear case looking to exploit the concept of a limited public forum for various reasons. “This town square is a full fledged public forum and it cannot be turned into a limited public forum just because the Casino says so.” The deed violates what speech is included and excluded, specifically aiming to exclude speech in connection of labor organization. He says, “This is a clear example of view point discrimination.” The city wants no use of the town square to promote themes offensive to Casino operators. Yet speech, Mark argues, cannot be shut down based on our First Amendment rights. Mark assures public officials not to worry because, what the Sands Casino is asking is unconstitutional, 21st century town squares are public spaces meant for people to congregate in and is something that Steel Stack workers practically earned after having contributed so much to the history and development of the Bethlehem community.
Professor Barenberg challenges the Casino’s attempt, “Even if you limit the stage and some open areas there are intermissions when the audience chat in groups, Even if you create gate keepers for a formal event, you cannot create gate keepers for person to person speech.” Seth Molgen, English Professor and Director of Lehigh’s South Side Iniative organized Barenberg’s two- hour public forum at Lehigh University that drew in more than 50 people; among the students, professors, and community members were union workers. He asks his audience members, “In this nation should we allow the city to monitor our personal conversations and punish us for not sticking to the persisted subject? Is this what we dream of?” Mark speaks of the National Relations Labor Act and how it created rights of worker speech in which now employers cannot fire workers for association in a union. He questions the NRLA, “But how far is this protection? ” Barenberg says holding a labor activity there, at Steel Stacks, could either lead to a lawsuit if the group is rejected or, if allowed, establishing a precedent. This is something the community has to decide on.