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- Preserving our sanity amidst the consuming madness of the times
- Removing the mask of the insecure babyman
- The internet: from digital democracy to digital dementia
- Doubt as an asset, certainty as an affliction
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- Navigating disinformation, uncertainty, individualism and the poison apple of conspiracy
- If nothing changes nothing will change: the Voice referendum
- What can we learn from disaster communities?
- New year, a time to embrace the uncertainty of it all
- We could be non-binary
- Adaptive resilience vs safety paternalism
- Left wing, right wing? What just happened to politics?
- Covid, class and the addiction to certainty
- Neoliberalism, the Life World and the Psychopathic Corporation
- Democracy is about our bodies, not just our minds
- What’s your motivation: is it yourself or the change you’re making?
- Mind over matter: The world of abstraction is driving us to destruction
- The real threats to our liberty and survival
- Avoiding the abyss of conspiracy theories
- The difference between a legal system and a fantasy novel
- What’s a conspiracy and what’s just common garden variety corruption?
- Unpredictability, humility and an emerging anthropandemic
- The trilemma – climate change, economic collapse, and rising fascism
- Happy New Normal for the decade ahead
- The race to the bottom in australian politics
- Fires, liars and climate deniers
- Talking about lock-on devices – an article in ‘The Conversation’
- The Ponzi scheme is teetering
- Regenerative culture a key part of the blockade experience
- Staying sane in the late Anthropocene
- Extinction Rebellion
- Major parties have failed on climate, it’s time to rebel.
- Elections In The Late Anthropocene
- It is the Greens that are defeating the Nats and it’s all about your preferences
- Australia’s powerhouse of democracy and innovation is in the Northern Rivers
- Is identity politics a problem for the left?
- The climate emergency and the awful state of Australian politics
- Democracy and rights under threat in corporate police state
- Liberty, freedom and civil rights? Do any of us understand these things anymore.
- The forest wars are back, time to mobilise
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- A Flood of Emotions – Sydney Ideas Event
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- Activism educator Aidan Ricketts explains how and why protests can be peaceful
- Bob Brown Is Taking “Shocking” Anti-Protest Laws To The High Court
- Anti protest laws could arrest nannas, seize tractors
- “They blinked first”
- Colin Barnett quick to protest against ‘activism degrees’ – The Australian, 16/10/2014
- ‘Degrees in activism’ put brake on growth – The Australian, 15/10/2014
- Magistrate throws out vexatious police case against CSG protesters
- Outrage over school PR ‘by stealth’- The Northern Star
- CSG clash a certainty
- Communities use new tactics
- Gas group attacks lecturer
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Community Organisations
- Code Green Tasmania
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- North East Forest Alliance
- Plan to Win
- Rainforest Information Centre
- Save our Foreshore
- Still Wild Still Threatened
- The Change Agency
- The Wilderness Society
People power not pollies kept us gasfield free
We are and always will be the gasfield free Northern Rivers. Just four years ago this outcome looked almost impossible to achieve. Never let political passivity and cynicism get in the way of your resolve to work for a better world. Seriously, whilst we are on this planet, the single most useful thing we can each do from day to day is apply ourselves however we can in big and small ways to bringing about a better future. The take home message for everyone is about the enormous power of social movements. Behind every grand political solution stands a great social movement.
Image courtesy Anna Kia
This particular victory is of great historic significance. The accumulated global power of the fossil fuel industry is immense, and the industry has maintained a 60 year stranglehold over Australian political parties and our parliaments. We in the Northern Rivers are part of a nested global movement fighting this great and destructive behemoth. Naomi Kelin in ther latest book ‘This Changes Everything’ described “Blockadia” as a place with no geographical boundaries, popping up around the world wherever the humans of the world gather to fight for their collective survival against the lies and denial of the fossil fuel industry. Bentley was one of the largest and most mainstream examples of Blockadia to have ever occurred in Australia and significant even on a global scale. The example our region sets is watched and appreciated around the world.
It is always the case that when politicians are dragged kicking and screaming to surrender to a social movement they try to claim the credit. Was it really Bob Carr and not the North East Forest Alliance who brought about the protection of most of our remaining old growth forests? Of course not, politicians come in at the end when the movement has already changed the game. That’s not to say we don’t’ appreciate it when they do, it’s certainly a relief, but let’s learn the right lessons here and never again allow anyone to say “what’s the point in protesting it never achieves anything?” It’s possibly the only thing that ever does.
Image courtesy CSG Free Northern Rivers
We have more to celebrate than the end of Metgasco in our region. We can celebrate the unity this campaign has brought to our region. The inclusive relationships between farmers, environmentalists and the indigenous people of our region showed that ultimately, we all care for this country. These are the enduring things, that we need to carry forward. Our unity, our regional empowerment and our new social networks . Gasfields was only the most obvious existential threat to our region and our planet, theres many lifetimes of work left to be done.
Congratulations to you all and thankyou.
This article was first published in the November 2015 edition of the Nimbin Good Times.