Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

I take it as a great compliment to be asked
to contribute to this edition celebrating
a generation of Friends of the Earth in
Australia – though it does make me
feel a little older. Iʼve been a member of
lots of environmental and human rights
organisations; involved in campaigns from
Antarctica to the Wet Tropics; from antinuclear
issues to those of environmental
justice and security in the developing world.
Wherever I travel, the experience of FoE
is remarkably diverse; but there are certain
constant values which make profound
sense to me. But before I talk about these
constants, let me take you back thirty years
to one of the first national meetings of FoEA
on French Island in Victoria. The following
quotation is taken out of the Summer 1975
edition of Chain Reaction:
The values of FoEA are already here, thirty
years ago – and the resilience of these
values, these constants, persist. First, FoE
was never just a wilderness organisation. To
FoE, nature was not ever a place which was
separate from humanity; rather, our lives
were an integral part of nature.
Second, nuclear issues were a shaping
influence in the beginning, and they remain
equally seminal now. With limited funds
– after the current conservative government
took away much of the money – FoEA
still runs the best anti-nuke campaign in
Australia. Jim Green, in Adelaide, and many
others around the country do an outstanding
job. At the moment, the threat to build a
national nuclear waste repository in South
Australia is immense. If future generations
have any say in the years to come, this
waste repository will go down in the annals
of environmental infamy.
Third, at French Island, mention was
made about class politics. The rhetoric
has changed a little. Itʼs not so fashionable
today to admit to class-based analysis or
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Tim Doyle
change in Australia. Leading media outlets
tell us capitalism has won, so forget about
socialist, feminist, or other models of
alternative societies. But the real struggles
between the haves and the have-nots have
never been more important. With advanced
and post-industrialism now globalising, its
power has never been greater. And even
conservative international institutions like
the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) are willing to accept that the gap
between those with secure access to
resources, and those without, is growing at
a startling pace.
Fourth, long before community became
a buzzword, FoEA were actually doing it.
When other green groups were playing
appeal-to-elites politics, lobbying politicians
when our parliaments still had lobbies
(now there are back entrances), FoE
was involved in mass mobilisation of the
community: creating an environmental
awareness for the first time; not just among
the middle class, but amongst the trade
unions, indigenous peoples and the less
affluent.
The fifth thing I want to say about FoE is
that they have never been bought. Yes,
of course they have had to adapt their
strategies in these neo-liberal times.
But they have never been afraid to tell
the powerful: ʻbut the Emperor has no
clothesʼ. For that, they have made enemies,
forceful enemies. They do not have a large
subscriber base, but their activists are
active and committed to their campaigns.
Sixth, FoE was never a hierarchic
organisation. From the beginning its
decision-making structures were inclusive.
It was built on the premise that democracy
– true democracy – does take time.
Sometimes it does end up in a pillow fight.
But the pillow fight is worth it. The bringing
together of different interests actually does
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