By Grant Coleman and Marce Cameron
PERTH — World Environment Day came alive in the market atmosphere of Fremantle on June 5. About 100 people joined Resistance members in a rally and march to save the eucalypt forests in WA. Much of these spectacular old-growth forests has been condemned to the woodchip pile by the WA Liberal government.
Resistance activist Alex Hardison spoke to the rally about the need to build a mass protest movement to save the forests and prevent a rash of new uranium mines. Sarah Stephen, a member of the Democratic Socialist Party, related the experience of the campaign to stop the damming of the Franklin River wilderness in Tasmania in the early 1980s.
After a noisy and enthusiastic march to the Town Hall, many people shared their ideas and concerns on the open microphone. One young woman was keen to organise a walkout of students at her school to protest old-growth logging.