Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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In 1975, anti-uranium activists visited the Ranger Uranium mine site at Jabiru. Organised by the Environment Council of the Northern Territory, FoE activists made up the bulk of the team that toured the area, debated with the mining company and met with traditional owners. Paul Marshall of FoE in Queensland later commented of a meeting with representatives from Oenpelli, ‘the Oenpelli people present at the meeting were as pleased to hear of our efforts to stop uranium mining as we were to hear of their opposition to uranium mining on their land.’ The alliances and information sharing between greens and Indigenous communities now often taken for granted had their basis in these types of visits. French nuclear tests in the Pacific in the mid ‘70s provoked strong community resistance in Australia and FoE was involved in an array of direct mobilisations and protests against the tests. Rolf Heimann took his yacht to join the protest flotilla at Muraroa Atoll. His book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, was published by FoE and gives an insightful ‘activist travelogue’ of opposition to the testing ................................................................................................................................................................................................... and deeper issues of cultural and political independence in the Pacific. From 1977 until 1984 nuclear campaigner John Hallam worked from the FoE office in Melbourne, providing consistent input to all relevant inquiries relating to uranium. This included detailed critiques of the Jabiluka Environmental Impacts Statement (EIS) of 1978, the Koongarra project (1979), the Yeelirrie proposal put forward by Western Mining Corporation in WA and the Roxby Downs project in SA. In each of these, the reputation for detail established by FoE in the Ranger Inquiry was reinforced. These mining projects continue to be a focus of attention for contemporary antinuclear activists and the collective efforts are making a real difference – recent times have seen mining plans for both Yeelerrie and Jabiluka halted. While much attention was placed on official inquiries and processes, there was also a great deal of community mobilisation and direct action. The Fraser Government cancelled FoE’s federal funding because it was involved in antiuranium protests at the Glebe Island shipping terminal. FoE 30 Years 10
Apart from working on the direct impacts of the nuclear industry on Indigenous communities, FoE also developed links and found common ground with various communities across the country. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act of 1976 was an important step forward in securing rights for Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. FoE put submissions to various claims such as the Warlpiri and Kartangarurra-Kurintji claim, which was heard in Alice Springs in 1978. FoE argued in favour of the Tanami sanctuary being ceded to the traditional owners without any restrictions, stating that this would ensure good ecological management and recognition of Indigenous rights. From its beginning, FoE identified overconsumption as a key driver of the ecological crisis. It was an early advocate of what came to be called the conserver society, a system that would prioritise ‘being’ over ‘having’ or consuming. This proposal is essentially based on the concept of the ‘steady state’ economy – an economic system that would find other indicators of health than just economic activity. These views formed the basis for many of the later, although greatly de-politicised, concepts of sustainability. In an editorial in 1976, Chain Reaction magazine explained that “underlying the nuclear debate … there is the more fundamental question concerning the desirability or otherwise of continued economic growth, with its associated industrial expansion and rising levels of energy production. We argue that this growth ethic is one of the root causes of the environmental crisis”. This understanding meant that FoE worked not only on immediate political campaigns but also used an approach that attempted to foster systemic and profound social change. The international energy crisis, triggered by the OPEC countries increasing the price of oil in 1973, created space for serious discussion around renewable ................................................................................................................................................................................................... sources of energy. FoE and Chain Reaction magazine in particular played a significant role in advocating for energy conservation, alternative energy sources and ways to restructure cities to make them less energy consuming. In 1975, FoE campaigned against massive high rise developments in inner Sydney, in support of the famous Green Bans. FoE highlighted the fact that Sydney City Council supported the developments even though their own environmental impact assessments opposed them. Robert Tickner, convenor of the FoE urban campaign and later the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, announced a campaign to “expose who was backing the council. The aim of this campaign [was] to obtain open government and responsible town planning in NSW”. The Green Bans marked a highly successful and significant stage in the development of environmentalism, trade unions and broader social movements in Australia, and were responsible for saving large areas of Sydney from inappropriate development. Protests against the supersonic and incredibly expensive airliner, Concorde, flared briefly. In 1975, FoE staged a ‘sit-in’ in the toilets at Melbourne airport during a visit by Concorde after the Coalition government breached federal environmental legislation by announcing a decision to allow Concorde flights into Australia before a final Environment Impact Statement had been prduced. This simple action was met with a hysterical reaction – from the three families that control commercial media in Australia. The Age newspaper ran an editorial urging FoE to “step out of the toilets” and the Federal Minister for Transport threatened to sue FoE for $1 million over its leaflet ‘British Airways is taking Australia for a ride’. The Concorde flights were never economically viable and the phenomenon of ‘super sonic’ travel was short lived. FoE 30 Years 11
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: In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
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
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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,
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Page 53 and 54: In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
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Page 58 and 59: What makes these comments sadder in
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Page 62 and 63: Action outside the state government
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The first meeting of the Dharnya Al
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From 1985 until 1992, undercover of
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Kathleen McCann In 1996 I was in Ja
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FoE 30 Years 70
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Dave Sweeney From its earliest days
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March at the Jabiluka mine site, NT
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The camp’s office was located wit
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Gillian Walker ....................
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When it was announced that Melbourn
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Greens Senator, Bob Brown, 2004 ...
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Steph Long, Kim Stewart Friends of
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Australia has been largely obliviou
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Fossil fuels have not bought wealth
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Roman Orzanski Possibly the first F
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Everyone helped make the procession
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In 1996, Consolidated Rutile Ltd ga
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Melia Bugeja, FoE Melbourne Food Co
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genetic engineering and techno-indu
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East Gippsland (CROEG) to launch th
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1994. VicRoads was planning to wide
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Lee Tan “Let’s chuck in some co
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Friends of the Earth in Sydney (FoE
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Herald Sun Columnist, Andrew Bolt P
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change. Mark Carter, co-founder of
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Australia given Indigenous manageme
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Their final edition, in the year th
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FoEA is a federation rather than an
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input to national decision making f
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are independent. A secretariat base
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lead to some form of wisdom: a know
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Anon (1987); Know your FoE; the Coe
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Page 5 • ‘U Mines’ - Through
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1990s Page 46 • Image from Chain
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• The march that followed the ‘
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Page 116 • FoE ran a food stall a
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Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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