Terania Creek Blockade (1979) – every week ‘John’ would ride his bike from our share house in Spring Street, West End, to Terania Creek protest to stop the logging of the old growth forest with others. Thanks comrade, its still there. [Photo: David Kemp].
Terania Creek Blockade 1979. Photo: David Kemp
It was July 1979 that a group of activists began the first forest blockade in Australian history. That was at Terania Creek in northern NSW. It predated the more famous Franklin River blockade and forced the Wran Labor government to ban logging in Terania Creek and have it declared a National Park. To celebrate these 40 years of activism here are great local protest songs reviewed by Andy Paine (Paradigm Shift, 4ZZZ fm 102.1 Fridays at Noon) …
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Terania Creek forest blockade – the birth of frontline forest activism in this country. The best way to celebrate is by locking on to a machine that’s destroying the planet for profits. But the second best way is by playing some great songs from Australia’s blockading history.
3CR recently put together a radio show celebrating the songs of the Terania blockade, and some of those same tracks were included on a rad historical compilation called Lock On! But like Australia’s frontline environmental protest history, our tradition of blockading songs is rich and varied. Here is a bit of a sample.
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Terania Creek had plenty of songs sung around the campfire and on the picketlines. A more detailed collection can be found in the links above, but one of the most memorable is The Bulldozer Allstars’ Tonka…
WBT addresses the following questions:
1. Industrial question: The Master/servant relationship. The struggle for Worker Control.
2. Ownership question: Who owns the land or does the land own us? Rights to the city, right to country. The struggle of indigenous people for land rights and social justice in Australia.
3. Political question: This is the class struggle. Who owns the means of production? Who governs? How are democratic rights won and shared.
Rob Pyne - a far northern life — sharing stories of Rob's struggle inside the ALP and his move to independence. Contains some excellent chapters about his stint in parliament.
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