Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Christmas exodus to their favourite holiday hideouts, a bunch of us die-hard earthlings gathered at the FoE Food Co-op to prepare for our catering fundraising expedition to the Down to Earth Confest alternative lifestyle festival to pay off the building debt. That was the ultimate fund raising experience for me. I’m sure no one will dare contest if Ila Marks is awarded the Confest Fundraising Queen. She got us all organised – food supply, equipment, tents, menu and all, even dogs I think. And as we set out in our pooled cars toward the Murray River at the Victoria-New South Wales border, we also schemed on how to dodge the ticket collector at the gate (nonviolently, of course, to keep pace with the spirit of this festival). This last plot is not part of Ila’s plan but some of us reckoned if we are to work towards a post-capitalist society, then we might as well test it out at the Confest. The rest of the story I’ll leave it with readers who’ve been to Confest to tell. FoE is way ahead of time in terms of its vision. Whilst FoE struggles to get resources in an economy dominated by neo-liberals, it also dares to challenge the norm and works against many odds. I hope FoE’s courage and uniqueness will be better understood and supported by the general public. An organisation like FoE is fundamental for a healthy democracy. Lee Tan, long time FoE campaigner for Indigenous and Asian Forest campaigns and local indigenous issues. Down to Earth Confest alternative lifestyle festival 1990-1991 Various groups have existed in Perth at different times. While FoE was prominent in WA in the 1970s and ‘80s, it has not had a strong presence in the capital for well over a decade. In the 1970s, FoE Perth was active in the campaign opposing commercial killing of whales in Australian waters. In 1976, FoE activists, including Peter “Bro” Brotherton, organised an 800 km bike ride from Perth to Albany, home of Australia’s last whaling fleet. FoE established its whale campaign under the name Project Jonah, which was intended as a single issue group within the broader FoE campaigns. Tactics included pickets, international lobbying, community education and applying pressure to the Australian government. The whaling campaign was one early point of international campaign activity and the FoEI Federation played a significant role in negotiations in the International Whaling Commission. At the domestic level, FoE played a key role in the Inquiry into Whales and Whaling. This Inquiry subsequently recommended a ban on whaling, with Australia ultimately banning whaling in 1979. In the early 1980s Perth and Melbourne were the two largest FoE groups in the country. FoE 30 Years 116
Friends of the Earth in Sydney (FoES) began on Sydney University campus in 1974. More than any of the long-established FoE groups, FoES always worked on nature conservation and biodiversity issues as well as more ‘traditional’ FoE issues such as uranium, hazardous waste, waste minimisation and recycling. Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, FoES campaigned in defence of native forests, especially in the south east of the state. In the late 1980s, with the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to the environment at the Waite Institute in South Australia, FoES initiated a campaign on the implications of GMOs. A number of campaigners from FoES were highly significant in the national waste minimisation and recycling campaigns. Apart from advocating for waste minimisation legislation, David Vincent highlighted the PR tactics of the packaging industry in Australia and the role of industry associations in keeping Container Deposit Legislation (CDL), levies and other forms of regulation at bay. Unfortunately, CDL was defeated in NSW because of the influence of industry. FoES worked within the Waste Crisis Network, a coalition of environmental groups, to lobby the Government to decrease the amount of garbage being produced across the state and played a key role in the creation of state-based legislation on waste minimisation. It developed a comprehensive waste minimisation strategy that proposed a cradle to grave approach to products that would make industry responsible for the whole life cycle of the products it made. Through the efforts of Dietrich Willing and others, FoES engaged on a range of greenhouse issues, including the National ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Energy Grid proposal and energy efficient building codes for local councils. In the early 1990s, FoES was also involved in the Federal Government’s Ecologically Sustainable Development process. FoES campaigned extensively on inland river systems, including the need for environmental flows, restoring biodiversity in rivers, restoring natural characteristics of stream channels and maintaining the natural flow regimes in un-regulated rivers. In 1994, FoES embarked on a project funded by the Sydney Water Board to develop community perspectives on water management in Sydney. A recent campaign victory has been the re-creation of wetlands and restoration of indigenous vegetation along White’s Creek in inner Sydney. Ted Floyd and others worked for several years to gain State Government and local council acceptance and funding to allow the first dechannelisation of an inner urban stream. FoE Willunga was set up in the coastal town south of Adelaide in 1984 and admitted to the FoE network in early 1985. The group worked on a range of local environmental issues. It helped ensure protection of the Aldinga Reef (from runoff from adjacent farmland and roads) and Aldinga Scrub, a significant pocket of remnant bush in an area with very limited original vegetation. It also helped with the re-creation of the Washpool, a highly significant coastal wetland. Apart from raising awareness about renewable technology for many years, the group was also instrumental in the development of some of the earliest large scale treatment and re-use of sewage for agriculture instead of traditional disposal of wastes through ocean outfalls. FoE 30 Years 117
Page 2 and 3:
Up to a few decades ago, many peopl
Page 4 and 5:
It seemed like a simple idea: to pr
Page 6 and 7:
The optimism, courage and creativit
Page 8 and 9:
Over thirty years, FoE has develope
Page 10 and 11:
decades. In Australia, FoE is commi
Page 12:
This group acted as an inspiration
Page 15 and 16:
In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
Page 17 and 18:
Apart from working on the direct im
Page 19 and 20:
In the mid ‘70s I was studying en
Page 21 and 22:
In 1976, there was a strong campaig
Page 23 and 24:
egan to jostle for access to Antarc
Page 25 and 26:
Keith Suter The future is never as
Page 28 and 29:
I first became aware of FoE via Pet
Page 30 and 31:
I remember the attempts of the nucl
Page 33 and 34:
I grew up with the threat of global
Page 35 and 36:
...................................
Page 37 and 38:
In late 1980 a couple of people who
Page 39 and 40:
In the 1980s, there was a shift to
Page 41 and 42:
The Australian Mining Journal noted
Page 43 and 44:
sense that these issues formed a pa
Page 45 and 46:
was (and remains to this day) the o
Page 47 and 48:
Ila Marks Dave Sweeney talking at t
Page 49 and 50:
from a community radio background,
Page 51 and 52:
FoE 30 Years 45
Page 53 and 54:
In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
Page 55:
With the Gulf War and the Dili mass
Page 58 and 59:
What makes these comments sadder in
Page 60 and 61:
FoE 30 Years 54 ...................
Page 62 and 63:
Action outside the state government
Page 64 and 65:
a month. Perhaps the seminal moment
Page 66 and 67:
FoE 30 Years 60 ...................
Page 68 and 69:
The first meeting of the Dharnya Al
Page 70 and 71:
FoE 30 Years 64 ...................
Page 72 and 73: From 1985 until 1992, undercover of
Page 74 and 75: Kathleen McCann In 1996 I was in Ja
Page 76 and 77: FoE 30 Years 70
Page 78 and 79: Dave Sweeney From its earliest days
Page 80 and 81: March at the Jabiluka mine site, NT
Page 82 and 83: The camp’s office was located wit
Page 84 and 85: FoE 30 Years 78 ...................
Page 86 and 87: ...................................
Page 90 and 91: Gillian Walker ....................
Page 92 and 93: When it was announced that Melbourn
Page 96 and 97: Greens Senator, Bob Brown, 2004 ...
Page 98 and 99: Steph Long, Kim Stewart Friends of
Page 100 and 101: Australia has been largely obliviou
Page 102: Fossil fuels have not bought wealth
Page 105 and 106: Roman Orzanski Possibly the first F
Page 107 and 108: Everyone helped make the procession
Page 109 and 110: In 1996, Consolidated Rutile Ltd ga
Page 111 and 112: Melia Bugeja, FoE Melbourne Food Co
Page 113 and 114: genetic engineering and techno-indu
Page 115 and 116: East Gippsland (CROEG) to launch th
Page 117 and 118: ...................................
Page 119 and 120: 1994. VicRoads was planning to wide
Page 121: Lee Tan “Let’s chuck in some co
Page 125 and 126: Herald Sun Columnist, Andrew Bolt P
Page 127 and 128: change. Mark Carter, co-founder of
Page 129 and 130: Australia given Indigenous manageme
Page 131 and 132: Their final edition, in the year th
Page 134 and 135: FoEA is a federation rather than an
Page 136 and 137: input to national decision making f
Page 138: are independent. A secretariat base
Page 141 and 142: lead to some form of wisdom: a know
Page 149 and 150: Anon (1987); Know your FoE; the Coe
Page 151 and 152: Page 5 • ‘U Mines’ - Through
Page 153 and 154: 1990s Page 46 • Image from Chain
Page 155 and 156: • The march that followed the ‘
Page 158: Page 116 • FoE ran a food stall a
show all

Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?