Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

The FoEA magazine Chain
Reaction (or CR) began as the
‘Greenpeace Pacific Bulletin’
in 1974 as a combined effort
of the developing FoE groups
and Greenpeace who were
collectively opposing nuclear
tests in the Pacific.
It changed its name to Chain Reaction
in 1975 and began its life as a foolscap,
fordigraphed newsletter. Peter Hayes,
Barbara Hutton and Neil Barrett were
among the founding editors.
In later years, Neil recalled that ‘in the
heady days of May 1975, not one of the
intense, hairy activists present would have
imagined that it would still be going 25
years later … The main energy came from
Peter Hayes, one of those rare beings who
could still think clearly enough to write a
succinct report on an outrageous demo
in some mining company office after two
days without sleep’.
In its early editions, CR often had an
emphasis on practical issues such as how
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to build a wind generator, along with more
theoretical and philosophical discussions
and reports on campaigns.
After a few editions, it was decided to
expand CR’s anti-nuclear focus in order
to become a national ‘activist-orientated’
environmental journal.
It described itself in 1977 as ‘publishing
feature articles and news on national and
international issues and searching for
the way towards a sustainable, convivial
society which lives in harmony with its
environment.’
That same edition reflected its activist
base and orientation by publishing an
apology for its lateness: ‘absenteeism
reached 100% during the Swanston
Dock actions’ where mounted police led
a charge over the top of protesters sitting
on a wharf beside a ship loaded with
Australian uranium.
Commenting on the police’s heavyhanded
tactics at the protest, Chief
Police Commissioner Miller said ‘I’d use
elephants if I had them’. These and other
protests led to a partial victory when the
shipping of uranium through Melbourne
was halted.
CR continued to define its political position,
which varied and evolved considerably
as time went by and as different people
worked on the magazine.
In 1978, the editors defended themselves
from accusations that CR was a socialist
rag: ‘We do not follow any political party
line. We consider people’s welfare
to be more important than economic
development for its own sake – if that
is socialism, then what is wrong with
socialism’
While some in CR and FoE have
advocated for various forms of ecosocialism,
the political culture of FoE has
always ensured a deep scepticism of
actual political parties and parliamentary
processes.
The early 1980s seemed to be a time
where the editors of the day had a very
clear sense of the magazine, and both its
and FoE’s role in creating long term social
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