Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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‘At the Barricades’ - F19 (Eastern Freeway) campaign established, to better co-ordinate the activities of the many local groups across that state. An executive committee (ECOM) was set up to help co-ordinate activities, maintain links with the rest of the Australian FoE groups, and support new groups (general meetings of the combined local groups had ultimate decision-making power). Peter Veljens, Max Smart, John Andrews, Mark Carter and Linnell Secomb were appointed to the first ECOM. Neil Barrett, Alison Parks and Emma Young were also key people in the organisation at this time and contributed strongly in terms of organisational development during the first few years of FoE’s operations in Victoria. FoE was also growing beyond inner urban areas with groups forming across the country. As a blue collar mining town, Port Pirie hardly fits the bill as a traditional enclave of environmental activism. Yet a group of concerned people in the area got together to campaign on the radiation risks from the tailings dams and set up a FoE group in 1977. There had been very limited remediation of radioactive sites by the State Government and FoE felt that community pressure was required to force ................................................................................................................................................................................................... the government to take responsible action. Among those who established the group were Ian Hall, Ally Fricker, Judith Sherry, Harm Folkers and Tinky Folkers and the respected FoE veteran Bert King. In 1981, exceptionally high tides breached the wall of the tailings dam and some materials were flushed out to sea. As a result of FoE’s lobbying of the Minister of Mines and Energy, the dams were eventually stabilised in 1982 by being covered with a metre of slag from nearby mines. FoE then turned its attention to lead, as the smelter was too close to the town and posed a considerable health risk. According to long term FoE activist Bert King, “much controversy led to tighter controls over lead burning materials passing from the smelter into the town environs”, which had been leading to “lead absorption and especially, possible harmful effects on children”. Bert summed up the approach of the group, which reflects a broader FoE perspective on campaigning by noting that ‘the lessons were that citizens must join together at grassroots level on local issues [and] put pressure on politicians. FoE proved to be the medium for this. During this period, mining companies Long term FoE activist Bert King FoE 30 Years 16
egan to jostle for access to Antarctica - the ‘last great wilderness’. International campaign activity focussed on gaining a treaty or convention that would stop any commercial operations on the continent. FoE published Antarctica: World Law and the Last Wilderness, by Keith Suter, and together with the ACF and other groups, formed ASOC – the Antarctica and Southern Oceans Coalition to co-ordinate international action to protect Antarctica. Antarctica is controlled by the Antarctica Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCP), a selfgoverning group that includes Australia. There is a key treaty that governs activities in Antarctica, which deals with the treatment of animals. The ATCP attempted to establish a treaty to manage nonliving resources: the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctica Mineral Resource Activities. FoE and other NGOs opposed this proposal from the start, fearing that it would allow a foothold for mining on the continent. The campaign, waged in the public realm in Australia and through international meetings where negotiations occurred over the treaty, was a success. The Madrid Protocol that followed banned mining for at least 50 years. A more narrowly defined treaty on mining was also ................................................................................................................................................................................................... defeated in the late 1980s. The campaign against commercial whaling in Australian waters was as successful as the one to protect Antarctica. FoE was one of the few official parties to the Inquiry into Whales and Whaling in 1978. Following the announcement that the last whaling station at Albany (WA) was going to close down, FoE campaigned for a whale sanctuary in Australian territorial waters, a ban on the import of whale products and for Australia to take a proactive role in international forums to secure global protection for all species of whale from commercial operations. The anti whaling, campaign by FoE and other groups led to the end of whaling in Australia, 1970s. FoE 30 Years 17
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 and 16: In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
Page 17 and 18: Apart from working on the direct im
Page 19 and 20: In the mid ‘70s I was studying en
Page 21: In 1976, there was a strong campaig
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
Page 35 and 36: ...................................
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,
Page 51 and 52: FoE 30 Years 45
Page 53 and 54: In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
Page 55: With the Gulf War and the Dili mass
Page 58 and 59: What makes these comments sadder in
Page 60 and 61: FoE 30 Years 54 ...................
Page 62 and 63: Action outside the state government
Page 64 and 65: a month. Perhaps the seminal moment
Page 68 and 69: 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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FoE 30 Years 78 ...................
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FoE 30 Years 82 ...................
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Gillian Walker ....................
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When it was announced that Melbourn
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FoE 30 Years 88 ...................
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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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FoE 30 Years 137
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FoE 30 Years 139
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FoE 30 Years 141
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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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