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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

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