Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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When it was announced that Melbourne’s Crown Casino would host a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in September 2000, FoEM played a significant role in organising community opposition to the event. The WEF acts as an important forum for business leaders to discuss and advance plans for corporate globalisation and was considered by FoEM as being an appropriate target for non-violent action. Around 20,000 people joined the three day blockade of the WEF, and FoEM worked through both of the key organising groups, the S11 Alliance and AWOL (Autonomous Web of Liberation) in planning and staging the community protests. It played an important role in bridging between different groups of activists, carried out police liaison, created and maintained the ‘green bloc’ and provided a prominent media presence during the actions. The first few years of the twentyfirst century saw growing activity for FoE, even though the number of local grouped remains small. FoE Brisbane became an established member of the environmental community in that city and took on managing the national climate justice campaign. There was strong work on nuclear issues in marginal seats in Adelaide during the federal election of 2001, blockades of a gas fired power generator that impacted on endangered grasslands on the northern fringes of Melbourne, and the launch of a campaign to find non-native forest sources of firewood. Dimity Hawkins, Lisa Robbins and Kathleen McCann completed the innovative ‘Forever Country’ project for the Alliance Against Uranium Mining, with the production of a series of posters aimed at highlighting the impacts of the nuclear industry on Indigenous land and culture. David Brower, the founder of FoE, died in late 2000, aged 88. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said “David was the greatest environmentalist of the 20th century. ................................................................................................................................................................................................... He was an indefatigable champion of every worthwhile cause in the last seven decades. His death is a tremendous loss.” With the Green Institute and Heinrich- Boll Foundation, FoE organised an international conference in Canberra to assess how far global environmental co-operation had developed since the first ‘Earth Summit’ was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Speakers included Wangari Maathai, an inspirational activist from the Green Belt movement in Kenya, and Bobby Peek of the South African environmental justice organisation, Groundwork. The general assessment of the delegates, who represented almost 60 countries, was that the situation was going backwards and that strong civil society responses were needed to overcome the negative influence of nations like the USA. The 2001 federal election was characterised by the shameless promotion of racism and fear by the Coalition following the Tampa ‘crisis’ and saw the reelection of the Howard government. FoE joined with various community alliances, including Australians for Just Refugee Programs, to oppose these developments and to contribute to the thinking around the real issues behind global movement of people. FoE’s Environment and Population project sought to broaden this debate beyond a fixation on numbers of people by offering an anti-racist, internationalist perspective on ecology. This project created a considerable and disappointing backlash from some within the environment movement, further highlighting the difference between single issue and more socially inclusive environmentalism. 2002 saw the foundation of the Dharnya Alliance, a collaboration between the Yorta Yorta Nation and green and social justice organisations. FoE organised the first ‘Barmah summit’ and acted as secretariat for the Alliance, although differences of opinion between some of the green groups on social justice issues made it difficult to move forward on joint action. FoE 30 Years 86
Responding to the threat of a second Gulf war, FoE became a founding member of the Victorian Peace Network and was involved in anti-war rallies and organising throughout the subsequent invasion of Iraq. FoE joined with traditional owners to oppose a large open cut gold mine from devastating the area around Lake Cowal in mid west NSW. The publication of Population, Immigration and Environment in early 2003 generated considerable feedback, both positive and negative, especially from other green organisations. 2003 witnessed the culmination of many years community-focussed campaigning with the closure and rehabilitation of the Jabiluka uranium mine. FoE’s work along the proposed route of radioactive waste between the Lucas Heights reactor and the planned dump site in South Australia also saw positive outcomes. FoE was active, especially west of the Blue Mountains during the NSW state election, using the networks it had developed over the five years of the Nuclear Freeways project to ensure nuclear issues were firmly on the agenda of the Carr government. ................................................................................................................................................................................................... The Kulini Kulini (‘are you listening’) camp at 10 Mile Creek near Coober Pedy saw more than 200 activists joining the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta for stories, strategy and ceremony. There were regular visits by FoE people to communities and lands affected by the nuclear industry, and a ‘back to basics’ approach to slowly raising the profile of nuclear issues in communities in Melbourne and Adelaide and thus building a grassroots response to these issues. FoE, with Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) and other local groups, launched the ‘talking up Country’ project that seeks to generate support for Yorta Yorta ownership of their traditional lands in northern Victoria. That year also saw most campaign orientated groups, including TWS and FoE, were cut off from receiving administrative support through the Federal Environment Department as the Coalition escalated its attempts to de-legitimise and silence environmental critics. Eileen Kampakuta Brown teaching Inma to the visiting women. Irati Wanti campaign. FoE 30 Years 87
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Up to a few decades ago, many peopl
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It seemed like a simple idea: to pr
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The optimism, courage and creativit
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Over thirty years, FoE has develope
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decades. In Australia, FoE is commi
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This group acted as an inspiration
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In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
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Apart from working on the direct im
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In the mid ‘70s I was studying en
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In 1976, there was a strong campaig
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egan to jostle for access to Antarc
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Keith Suter The future is never as
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I first became aware of FoE via Pet
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I remember the attempts of the nucl
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I grew up with the threat of global
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In late 1980 a couple of people who
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In the 1980s, there was a shift to
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Page 47 and 48: Ila Marks Dave Sweeney talking at t
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Page 53 and 54: In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
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Page 78 and 79: Dave Sweeney From its earliest days
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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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