Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia
Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia
Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia
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1994. VicRoads was planning to widen<br />
Alexandra Parade as part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir mission<br />
to pave <strong>the</strong> planet, <strong>the</strong> Coalition Against<br />
Freeway Extensions had sprung up to<br />
oppose <strong>the</strong> project and I was 16 - pimply,<br />
awkward and excruciatingly shy. A leaflet<br />
landed in <strong>the</strong> letter box at my parents<br />
house in Clifton Hill, a couple <strong>of</strong> hundred<br />
metres from where <strong>the</strong> Eastern Freeway<br />
ends and Alexandra Parade begins. I<br />
decided to find out more.<br />
I dragged my parents along to <strong>the</strong> meeting<br />
it was advertising - after all, we were going<br />
to have to keep breathing <strong>the</strong> inner city<br />
air. Hundreds <strong>of</strong> us sat in <strong>the</strong> Collingwood<br />
Town Hall, while <strong>the</strong> CAFE representative<br />
explained that <strong>the</strong> road widening would be<br />
socially and environmentally damaging,<br />
would only move <strong>the</strong> bottleneck and create<br />
more traffic. The VicRoads representative<br />
got up and said... well it wasn’t really<br />
memorable. But you didn’t need to<br />
have finished high school to conclude<br />
that, rationally, <strong>the</strong> road widening was<br />
more than socially and environmentally<br />
damaging. It was a dumb idea.<br />
CAFE built a symbolic barricade across<br />
<strong>the</strong> median strip and I wagged a morning<br />
<strong>of</strong> school to help maintain a community<br />
presence at <strong>the</strong> site (I wrote “family” as<br />
<strong>the</strong> reason on my late passes -- it sounds<br />
serious so no-one asks). I didn’t realise it,<br />
but I’d accidentally become an activist.<br />
As <strong>the</strong> campaign picked up momentum,<br />
we leafleted passing cars and did<br />
stalls in front <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> local supermarket,<br />
Piedimontes. We maintained a vigil, calling<br />
<strong>the</strong> FoE <strong>of</strong>fice if we needed back-up on<br />
<strong>the</strong> one very precious mobile phone,<br />
which was a little larger than your average<br />
house brick. Hundreds <strong>of</strong> us rallied down<br />
Brunswick Street, a cardboard train<br />
dancing around at <strong>the</strong> front. We occupied<br />
<strong>the</strong> transport minister’s <strong>of</strong>fice and hung<br />
“more public transport” signs on his Xmas<br />
...................................................................................................................................................................................................<br />
Domenica Settle<br />
tree. CAFE members danced <strong>the</strong> heeland-toe<br />
to block <strong>the</strong> bulldozers and were<br />
nominated at <strong>the</strong> Activist Awards for <strong>the</strong><br />
most creative act <strong>of</strong> desperation. We<br />
started filling in <strong>the</strong> holes <strong>the</strong> bulldozers<br />
had made - long lines <strong>of</strong> people with<br />
shovels and buckets, working in <strong>the</strong> sun.<br />
It would have been a pointless activity, if it<br />
wasn’t so symbolically important and damn<br />
satisfying.<br />
We also started blockading bulldozers. (My<br />
fa<strong>the</strong>r would make me a packed lunch and<br />
tell me to call him if I needed bailing out<br />
<strong>of</strong> jail.) The median strip had turned into<br />
a war zone <strong>of</strong> dust and heat and <strong>the</strong> roar<br />
<strong>of</strong> road-building machinery. Lee Tan -- five<br />
feet tall -- would walk up to <strong>the</strong> towering<br />
machines, smile sweetly and ask <strong>the</strong>m to<br />
please stop work. Before <strong>the</strong>y knew it, <strong>the</strong><br />
bewildered driver would find <strong>the</strong>mselves<br />
surrounded by members <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> community<br />
practising non-violent direct action. The<br />
blockading dance had started:<br />
1. CAFE stops machinery,<br />
police are called<br />
2. Police ask CAFE members<br />
to leave, CAFE discusses<br />
this<br />
3. CAFE members refuse to<br />
leave<br />
4. Police threaten arrest,<br />
CAFE discusses this<br />
5. CAFE members (usually)<br />
leave, police leave<br />
6. Silence<br />
7. CAFE members suddenly<br />
reappear<br />
8. Return to step one and<br />
repeat<br />
FoE 30 <strong>Years</strong> 113