A view on the Climate Emergency Rally

Sue Jackson wrote an article in Aduki online magazine about the July 5 Climate Emergency Rally which is also available as a PDF document at the Climate Emergency Network - click here to read.

An excerpt:
"Nowadays, we are becoming more and more aware of the efficacy of the the internet in spearheading social change. The internet is one powerful marginal venue while rallies, where people assemble to share and voice their concerns, are another. In fact the themes at protests often indicate the directions in which a society is moving long before those concerns become mainstream.

By the time we had a prime minister willing to say ‘Sorry’ to Indigenous Australians in Parliament, millions of ordinary Australians had been meeting and marching for years to demand an apology."

The events also inspired this account in Green Left Weekly from rally organiser Ben Courtice.
"The new Climate Emergencyh Network in Melbourne links together many local climate action groups, including some that helped swing marginal electorates in the 2007 federal election. In Melbourne, the 4000-strong Climate Emergency Rally did not just spell out the letters “climate emergency” on the ground; it united activists from new climate action groups, campaigns against desalination and bay dredging, and more established groups like Friends of the Earth and Environment Victoria. A week later, a mass direct-action protest halted coal trains at Newcastle.

(... )

"There is no shortage of enthusiasm. In Melbourne, outer suburban public meetings with David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red, have shown this: more than 30 turned out in Strathmore for the first meeting of a new climate action group and a meeting of 80 in Frankston decided to set up a climate action group on the spot."