By Stephen Robson
PERTH — The majestic old growth forests in WA's south-west, with their 800-year-old karri, marri and jarrah trees, are under threat. These beautiful forests are being systematically logged for export as woodchips.
Many who have visited these areas are justifiably outraged that such beauty is being sold, in some cases for as little as $29/tonne.
The forest blockade held throughout July at a camp between the towns of Manjimup and Pemberton, around 400 km south-west of Perth, has been the catalyst for a strong campaign to end this logging. With export licence renewals due in November, many hope that the federal government will respond by limiting woodchip exports.
It is now estimated that more than 1200 people have participated in the blockade and the work organised through the weekly campaign meetings here.
Where did the campaign originate? Jacquie Svenson told Green Left Weekly that following an "adopt a block" campaign at the end of 1993, a meeting in March of the WA Forest Alliance (WAFA) reviewed the campaign.
Svenson is the forest campaign coordinator for the Wilderness Society in WA. She had participated in the campaign in the East Gippsland forest in 1993 and returned enthusiastic to mount a similar campaign.
Hawke and Giblett blocks were due to be logged in the winter of 1994. Since environmentalists had not succeeded in stopping this logging, they began to look for a more effective approach.
Blockade
The March meeting decided to mount a blockade in July. Weekly planning meetings began to turn this into a reality.
At the time of the festival that marked the beginning of the blockade, an air of confrontation hung over the campaign. The day before the blockade, a pro-logging rally was attended by 1500 people.
Hostility to the protesters was promoted by the pro-logging Forest Protection Society and their backers in the big timber companies. Bunnings, the largest of these companies, in recent years has taken over the rural conglomerate Wesfarmers.
Lots of misinformation was around, Svenson told Green Left Weekly. People in the south-west were told that "we were into monkey wrenching, that we would be violent and just looking for confrontation".
Sabotaging machinery, hammering nails into trees and similar actions were totally opposed by the campaign, Svenson explained. Such actions are very dangerous to the timber workers. Notable in this campaign have been the steps taken to break down barriers with timber workers.
Many of those involved had embraced philosophical outlooks that pointed in a totally different direction from the violent stereotypes.
Sonja Parker explained that for people coming from a non-violence philosophy it was important to "acknowledge that there is more than one truth". For many in the timber industry, giving up their job and company-provided house is a big ask when no alternative is provided.
Parker pointed out that for many people living in the south-west, an action such as the blockade brings with it feelings of encroachment by city folk and assumptions that they don't have real sympathy for the problems faced by those living in the country.
"In the first week there was an enormous amount of fear and paranoia which affected all of us. There were Bunnings cars, Forest Protection Society cars parked on every single corner, and you couldn't move anywhere without people following you."
Not everyone was pro-logging, as Greens (WA) Senator Christabel Chamarette explained to the August 9 rally in Perth: "I was very moved to meet with local people from Pemberton and Manjimup who had to be extremely brave and courageous to make a stand in an environment where people were frightened and ... afraid to lose their jobs".
Parker believes the campaign was "enriched by hearing other people's views", including those who currently support logging.
Alliances
A few days into the blockade, "listening posts" were established in local towns to listen to the concerns of the local communities. The aim was to help overcome some of the misconceptions circulating.
"This was different from an information post in that we weren't there to explain our argument to them, we just wanted to hear what they had to say", Svenson said.
"We had constructive listening training and co-counselling workshops beforehand." People were then prepared for "someone to bombard you with information you knew wasn't true".
Sonja Parker, involved in organising the listening posts, said that initially "three to five people came up in a two hour period", mostly people who were either supportive of the blockade or ambivalent, to "just have a chat and make contact. As the listening posts continued to return, some who strongly opposed the blockade came up to express their views."
Adrian Stevens, a non-violence trainer who has also been involved in a number of union campaigns, thought the listening posts important in the long term. "We have to hear what the concerns of the people in the region are, and after we have listened well, then we will be at a point where we can more easily talk to them about sustainable jobs".
Stevens commented that the first steps should be to stay in touch with the unions and let them know what was happening. "The message we have to get across is sustainable jobs. The industry is very lowly unionised and dominated by contractors.
"You can't go to a trade union a week or two before the blockade and then talk about sustainable jobs. We have to look at this as a longer-term project.
"The emphasis has to be on job creation in sustainable areas so that communities can support themselves", Stevens explained. "We have to recognise the importance of maintaining rural towns and rural economies. We do that firstly through our contact with the unions but also through our contact with the community."
Paula Gallagher indicated that in her experience a lot of people working in the industry were quite open to the idea of working in plantation forests.
We have to be more specific in terms of alternative jobs. Workers "don't see tourism as a viable option for themselves because they see it employing only women and younger people".
Police
Due to some well thought out approaches, problems with the police were minimised. When the blockade began there were 17 police present, many bused in from Perth. Within a week only a small number of police remained in Pemberton.
Sonja Parker was involved in liaising with the police. She explained that a number of agreements were reached. " Our intention was to communicate with the police as well as possible." For example, police would be usually notified 24 hours before an action.
There were still some problems, though. "Because of our decision-making process, sometimes we would make changes to our plans relatively quickly. The police would be immediately informed of these changes."
This cooperation opened up a better situation to influence bail conditions for those arrested.
It was a prerequisite for those involved in the blockade to be trained in non-violent action. Workshops were organised in the weekends prior to the blockade. About 80 people participated then, and another 150 were trained during the blockade. Not everyone was happy with this compulsory approach.
Achievements
Christabel Chamarette told a 1500-strong crowd on August 9 that she saw three important aspects to the blockade:
"A very important message being sent to the community that unless everybody is prepared to do things, we will not be able to save our precious forests.
"A rallying point for people in the south-west who, for a while, have been deeply disturbed by what is happening [to the old growth forests] but have not known what to do or how to stand up for what they believe and what they are concerned about.
"A strong statement of support of our forests to both the state and federal governments and a signal to them that they have failed the people."
Paula Gallagher felt that some involved in the blockade were excited by the element of surprise, "more confrontational than had been advocated by WAFA at the beginning.
"There was also a problem in the organisation of the blockade in that everybody wanted to go out and do direct actions." This meant that the long-term aims of the campaign were sometimes forgotten.
Did the establishment media influence the direction of the campaign? Anne Pavy feels that times for rallies and events were influenced by potential media coverage rather than maximising participation.
Pavy has been involved in Perth actions in support of the forest campaign and is also active in Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party.
Sometimes the media had given very poor coverage to the campaign. For example, the action in Perth on August 9 didn't even get mentioned in the West Australian, Perth's only daily newspaper.
The important thing, in Pavy's view, is to "reach out to the different communities and do the networking". Crucial would be activities that maximise participation in the campaign.
She felt that "victory on the issue will take more than a couple of months, and it has been an excellent beginning so far".