Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

In 1981, a faction of the editorial collective
had moved office in the middle of the night
to ‘save’ the magazine from those they
regarded as not having the ‘responsibilities
we had to the wider national FoE and
environmentalist constituency’.
This may have been due, at least partly,
to the sheer size of the editorial collective:
the winter 1981 edition of the magazine
credited 45 people as being involved with
editorial decisions.
These included a remarkable list of people
who went on to become Senators, local
councillors, authors and an adviser to
Paul Keating. The treasurer of CR was
to become the first energy minister in the
Bracks’ Government in Victoria.
Mark Carter later recalled that the decision
to make the midnight move from the
existing office in FoE to a separate location
in Melbourne came about largely at his
instigation.
He and Leigh Holloway were ‘exasperated
at [their] improvements in the magazine
being frustrated and placed in jeopardy
by the constraints and structures’ of the
larger collective that was producing the
magazine.
After Mark and Leigh left, the CR editorial
team continued to grow, with some long
term members joining about this time.
These included Eileen Goodfield who
dedicated more than six years of greatly
Eileen Goodfield, long term Chain reaction
collective member, 1986.
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valued service and insight to the magazine
and to FoE.
CR’s commitment to ensuring equal
involvement by women and men in the
collective included providing free child care
to people working on the magazine. After
the ‘midnight move’ from FoE Collingwood
to a new office in Melbourne’s CBD, a
collective was also formed in Sydney, with
joint administration between the two cities.
In 1983, it was agreed that the Melbourne
collective would take on all decisions on
editorial content and policy.
In the 1980s, CR published a series
of inserts on topical issues, from seed
patenting to the Chernobyl disaster.
Reflecting its immersion in the broader
environment and social justice
movements, it also regularly published
‘activist contact’ updates.
In 1986, Johnathan Goodfield resigned
as one of the main editors after four years
in the job, and a new collective, which
included people who had already been
involved in the group for some time, was
established.
This team included people who then
contributed several years of effort to
the magazine, including Ian Foletta,
Eileen Goodfield, Fran Callaghan, Clare
Henderson and Larry O’Loughlan.
As the relations and communication
improved, the collective moved from its
Melbourne CBD location back into the FoE
offices in Collingwood.
CR continues today as the official
magazine of FoEA, while also providing
an alternative media source for other
social and environmental groups as well
as the broader progressive and academic
community.
Throughout its history, Chain Reaction
has had a reputation for addressing
issues before they become the subject
of common debate in the environment
movement or broader society.
One example of this is the debate over
the use of the ‘wilderness’ concept in
environmental campaigning; that is,
whether wilderness actually exists in
FoE 30 Years 122