Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

works with and lobbies various political
parties as it needs to. While FoE remains
independent of political parties, many key
individuals and some local groups were
involved in the creation of local Green
party branches. In 1986, reflecting a
broader internal debate, FoE Oakleigh in
south eastern Melbourne stated that while
in the short term the “Australian Democrats
are our best pragmatic option, their union
bashing is unacceptable.” The solution
they saw was to advocate for the creation
of a separate Greens party.
The bulk of FoE’s work is undertaken by
local groups, with each responsible for its
own structure, fundraising, campaigns and
style of campaigning. This means there is
considerable diversity between the groups
and the model is based on the idea that
local people will know best how to respond
to local issues and problems. FoE’s
support structure is accessible to smaller
pressure groups, and offers guidelines and
philosophies that help with the running of
such organisations.
FoEA’s work is mostly done on a voluntary
basis, and a large proportion of the active
members of most groups are women.
FoEA has proactive gender policies, and
many of the local groups have similar
policies in their constitutions. FoEA is
committed to addressing gender through
ongoing reviews of gender issues. It also
has a policy of encouraging indigenous
people and people from non English
speaking backgrounds to apply for paid
employment in the organisation. Largely
as a result of lobbying by Linnell Secomb,
FoEM adopted an affirmative action
employment policy in the early 1980s,
setting a ratio of women employees to men
at 60:40.
FoE is perhaps best known for its
long-standing work on uranium. It has
campaigned against all aspects of the
nuclear cycle since its inception, including
the lean years of the late 1980s and early
1990s, when few other green groups
maintained an interest in this issue.
However, FoE in Australia also has a long
tradition of working on ‘smoggy’ or ‘brown’
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issues, including hazardous chemicals,
waste minimisation, high temperature
incinerators, urban transport and energy.
Issues have changed and evolved over
the years, as individuals joined or left the
Federation and external factors influenced
campaign priorities. In the early twentyfirst
century, our key priorities continue to
include civil and military nuclear issues,
climate justice, food and sustainable
agriculture, corporations, population
and climate refugees, forests and
plantations and on-going collaboration and
engagement with a range of local, national,
and international issues.
Anti-Nuclear, rally in Melbourne, mid 1980s.
Many groups have grown out of FoE
over the years and literally thousands
of activists have worked from there
under many names and organisational
structures. Some of these have included
the ‘Ride Against Uranium’ (from
Melbourne to Canberra in the late 1970s),
the Movement Against Uranium Mining
(MAUM), the Antarctica campaign, the
Fund for Animals, Project Jonah, and
various early forms of transport and bike
advocacy groups including the NSW Bike
Institute.
All of these diverse groups were originally
FoE initiatives or based in FoE groups
or offices. FoE was also instrumental
in establishing Shareholders for Social
Responsibility, attending the AGMs of
large resource corporations and producing
alternative reports on companies, outlining
environmental destruction and abuses of
communities and workers rights.
FoE 30 Years 5