Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

Australia given Indigenous management
of Australian landscapes for thousands of
human generations.
It also helped raise awareness in the
environment movement about counter
tactics used by industry, including
front organisations, PR and ‘dirty trick’
campaigns. Bob Burton contributed much
of this ground -breaking work.
It gained notoriety in the 1970s and ‘80s
for its ‘leak bureau’. Documents detailing
irregular, illegal or dishonest government
or corporate practices were supplied to
Chain Reaction by people working within
these organisations and the magazine
was a vocal advocate for the protection of
“whistle-blowers”.
In 1976, CR released secret files from
Mary Kathleen Uranium Ltd, which
revealed a price fixing club and the fact
that even mining companies were worried
about terrorists obtaining radioactive
materials for bombs.
A notable feature of Chain Reaction has
been the fact that debate about ‘internal’
matters concerning the environmental
movement debate has been published,
and in many instances actively
encouraged.
In the early 1980s, this included debates
over feminism and socialism, and in the
late 1980s, there was a brief but intense
exchange over NVA or non violent action.
In recent years this has included issues of
political positioning within the movement
and corporate engagement. This
encouragement of debate has not been
without controversy: discussion about
the role of direct action and tactics by
some groups created heated responses
in the early ‘80s, and in 1991 an issue
of the magazine on ‘corruption in the
environment movement’ generated a huge
amount of angst and anger amongst a
number of individuals and environmental
groups.
In the late 1980s, CR secured a
distribution agreement through
newsagents with Gordon and Gotch, which
saw circulation increase from 3-5,000 to
15,000.
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Image from Chain Reaction
Apart from a brief period when a Victorian
government grant allowed CR to employ
three full-time staff for eight months,
finances have always been tight.
In fact, a casual reading of the magazine
suggests it has always been on the verge
of imminent financial collapse, sustained
only by its subscribers and the passion of
the editorial team of the day.
The various pleas for help and subscriber
ads are amongst some of the most
creative design work that has appeared in
the magazine.
Clare Henderson and Larry O’Loughlan
were the longest serving editors and were
involved in producing the magazine from
1986 to 1996.
When they moved from Melbourne to
Adelaide in early 1989, the existing
Melbourne-based collective disbanded.
In the following years, Clare and Larry
produced CR almost entirely through their
own efforts although a number of people
did work with them from time to time.
FoE 30 Years 123