How can we stop the logging?
[The following is abridged from a statement being circulated in Western Australia by Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party.]
More than 80% of Western Australians want an end to the clear-felling of old-growth forest. The divisions within the Coalition and Labor parties over forest policy reflect the magnitude and breadth of public indignation at the intention of the Court government to hand over our remaining ancient forest to the woodchipping companies.
The government is already on the back foot. A sustained campaign of mass protest rallies, street marches and other actions which aim to involve all those who oppose old-growth logging is the only way to make it politically impossible for any government to allow old-growth logging to continue. The campaign must urgently adopt a strategy of mobilising mass public opposition to bring the maximum pressure to bear. With the government weak and divided, now is the time.
So far the main focus has been lobbying parliamentarians, blockading forest operations and trying to show how "respectable" the campaign is. We should not try to restrict the campaign to what is "acceptable" to the conservative government.
As long as this government is allowed to dictate the outcome, we will be forced to settle for a rotten compromise. We should settle for nothing less than an immediate end to all logging in old-growth forest.
If the government gives in, it will send shock waves through the resource industries (mining, pastoralism). These industries are based on destroying the environment for short-term profit. The Liberal Party relies on the support of the resource industries because they control the economy of this state.
The biggest destroyer of old growth forest in WA, Wesfarmers/Bunnings, contributes generously to the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. The Labor Party too must rely on the financial and political support of big business. Labor has refused to commit to the complete phasing out of old-growth logging, which is hardly surprising given that former environment minister and prominent Labor figure Bob Pearce is now the executive director of the Forest Industries Federation.
Jobs versus forests?
The conservative Australian Workers' Union, which covers the majority of workers in the forest industry and exerts a powerful influence within the Labor Party, is staunchly opposed to any reduction in the annual sawlog quota. The AWU has fallen for the timber bosses' argument that logging protects jobs.
The number of jobs in the timber industry has been declining for decades due to increased mechanisation and the fact that the industry is based on woodchipping. Turning old-growth forest into woodchips is criminally wasteful, destroying the environment and jobs.
The campaign should seek the support of trade unions, churches, community organisations, professional associations and other groups. In the 1980s, the Maritime Union of Australia banned ships carrying uranium. Imagine if maritime workers refused to load export woodchips, or if transport workers refused to carry jarrah logs!
It is particularly important to forge an alliance with timber workers and other rural workers. Our real enemy is the rapacious and parasitic woodchipping corporations, and the Department of Conservation and Land Management, which derives 70% of its revenue from timber sales and royalties.
Wesfarmers/Bunnings has just announced a record $81 million profit for the six months to the end of 1998. It is more profitable for these corporations to cut down old-growth forest with taxpayer subsidies than to invest in plantations on cleared land.
Therefore, we should demand that the woodchipping corporations be nationalised and placed under democratic workers' and community control, so that these profits can be used to make a rapid transition to a more sustainable, plantation-based timber industry. The government should provide full financial compensation and retraining to all workers affected by this necessary restructuring.
Democratic mass movement
Blockades, lobbying politicians and placing advertisements in the newspaper can involve only a small minority of those opposed to logging. These are useful tactics, but only as long as they serve to bring out onto the streets and directly involve and empower the vast majority of ordinary people who are opposed to logging.
The blockades have exposed the devastating impact of clear-felling. But, in the absence of any serious attempt to involve large numbers of people in the cities, the blockades will only delay some logging operations.
Since most people who support the campaign are unable to participate in the blockades, visit politicians or pay for full-page newspaper ads, their support has remained largely passive. We need to transform this passive support into an active movement. It was precisely such a combination of blockade and sustained mass protest actions in the cities, that prevented the flooding of the Franklin River by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission in 1983.
Mass action does not mean simply one rally after another. The real strength of such a campaign rests on unleashing the energy and creativity of people through their direct participation in organising and democratically deciding the direction of the campaign. This can happen only through a broad-based, democratic campaign committee which welcomes the participation of all organisations and individuals who agree with the aims of the campaign.
This committee must meet regularly at a time which makes it possible for workers and high schools students to attend. Experiences such as the movement to stop the Vietnam War and the Franklin River dam illustrate the importance of "people power".