Acting Up!

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - International focus. FoE started in the US then went to Europe, and started as a "global north" middle class environment group. FoE International has a democratic model where 1 country has 1 vote. The org then expanded to Malaysia and Africa, and takes the approach of wanting to go to places other groups ignore. After the breakup of USSR, FoE was acti...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Radioactive Tours. Nuclear power has marginalised Traditional Owners back to nukes testing. The environment movement was very focused on coastal city issues, RAD Tours take people out onto country and to the problems, share the stories and knowledge of Traditional Owners and broaden the scope of environmentalism away from the east coast. Presenter: Em...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Anti-capitalist & Trade Union solidarity. FoE is overtly on the left and critiques capitalism and growth based economics. Today's program looks at how FoE's anticapitalist principles have worked to build alliances with the union movement. Presenters: Megan Williams and Em Gayfer. Guests: Dave Kerin (BLF) discusses Green Bans and neoliberalism's attack...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Queer & Feminist History. Talking about feminist and LGBTQ histories at Friends of the Earth and how they've intersected with campaign work over the years. The genesis of FoE was in the 60s "new social movements" around anti-war, sexuality and land rights. These developed into streams in the 70s - FoE sought to be active in all movements and not let t...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Going Back to Where it All Began - The Early Days of FoE. Friends of the Earth Australia was founded in 1974 around issues including anti-uranium, whaling and lead in petrol - issues that might make people shake their heads now to believe that happened! We are joined by guests who were involved from the early days of the organisation and look at the fi...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Transform Waste. Waste has always been an issue - and nothing is ever new! Campaign started around deposit legislation and Coca-cola - was successful in some states. Shows victory is never permanent as we are still campaigning on that now. Campaigned around E-Waste to packaging to food waste. Plastics in the ocean is current now, but we've been talkin...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Wrong Way go back! Roads has been a defining early issue from the 70s that continues to today. It started with anti Eastern Freeway campaigns from F19,CAF, CAFE to East West link campaigns and sustainable cities today. FoE always sought to support public transport over privately owned highways and gas guzzling cars. Presenters: Em Gayfer & Megan Willia...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Walking tall amongst giants - FoE's work in forests. Friends of the Earth came to forests later in the game and was strong from the 1990s via old growth forests campaigns. We worked to critique plantations, break down the greenies vs loggers dynamic by working with unions (Earthworker experiment), and bringing in Indigenous voices. FoE helped to set up...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Talking Tactics: From Lobbying to Locking on. FoE was born from Direct Action. In our original set up, whaling campaigns and anti-nuclear campaigns had Direct Action at their core. It's still in our DNA and whilst we use a range of creative tactics, it's a defining thread in our work. We have also supported a lot of communities wanting to undertake DA...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Taking a look at FoE Local Groups: FoE Brisbane. Friends of the Earth has a long and rich history outside of Melbourne. We talk about the structure of Friends of the Earth Australia and look at one local group - FoE Brisbane and the work they've done over the years: from anti-nuclear to peace activism, climate justice and beyond! Presenter: Em Gayfer....

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Pesticides, Permaculture, Organics & Food Coop. We look at FoE's food activism. There's a human rights connection - in the 70s/80s some campaigns focused on pollution from agriculture and the impacts on the Global South as well as gender issues. We've remained in the food space, considered a "less sexy issue", and this has led to us working with organ...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Indigenous Solidarity Gatherings 1997 & 1998. Indigenous Sovereignty is at the core of our work. In the early 70s FoE was part of meetings with Traditional Owners in Kakadu. We've tried to keep this as part of all our campaigning work - to various degrees of success. In this episode we talk about the Indigenous Solidarity Gatherings FoE organised in 1...

Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - The Fun Begins (Anti Nuclear). We look at our longest running campaign. FoE has always worked in the Anti-Nukes space with very few resources. It has defined our work and the holistic approach we take. Presenter: Em Gayfer. Guests: Ila & Linda Marks, Dave Sweeney.