Camp for Climate Action 2010

‘Sustainable community living and peaceful direct action targeting Australia’s largest source of domestic emissions – Bayswater Power Station”

Dec 1st – 5th 2010, Lake Liddell Recreation Area, The Hunter Valley, NSW

The climate science is in, now its time to act.
Climate change is the biggest threat to our future, and coal is the biggest cause of climate change, yet right now across the country there are plans for 12 new coal or gas fired power stations.

If built this ‘dirty dozen’ will increase Australia’s total emissions by 7% and NSW’s emissions by up to 15%. At a time when we must rapidly reduce emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, this is simply unacceptable.

Bayswater power station in the Hunter Valley, NSW, is already the equal largest source of emissions in Australia and is the site of one of the planned power stations. The planned expansion will double Bayswater’s current emissions.

Renewable energy technologies are viable now. By continuing to invest in coal, Australia is losing an important opportunity to become a world leader in clean energy industries like wind and solar thermal, and creating thousands of new jobs in the process.

As a community we need to show the government that we won’t cop more dirty coal when there are better, cleaner alternatives. We want a just transition to renewable energy now – not more broken promises.

Join people from all over Australia for 5 days of workshops and forums on climate change issues and solutions, non-violent direct action and organising, music and entertainment. Climate Camp is fun and family-friendly with a sustainable village atmosphere and will coincide with the next round of global climate talks in Mexico. The camp’s finale will be a creative and bold peaceful mass action at Bayswater.

While our politicians fail us, Climate Camp will be creating a vision of real sustainability, real democracy.

www.climatecamp.org.au

ASEN Newsletter #2 2010

Check out all the ASEN happenings from around the country in May-July 2010.

Download the PDF [1.1 MB].

Speaking out against a nuclear waste dump

Earlier this year federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson introduced legislation to target Muckaty (120km north of Tennant Creek in the NT) for a federal radioactive waste dump site. This comes after years of uncertainty and divide and rule tactics imposed on Aboriginal communities by the racist policies of both the Rudd (now Gillard) and former Howard governments.

There is strong opposition to the dump from Ngapa and other Traditional Owners, whose land, culture, and sacred sites are threatened by this toxic legacy of a technology long-since proven dangerous and inadequate.

To see the full video ‘Muckaty Voices’ check out:
beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com/video

Some quotes from Muckaty Traditional Owners featured in the film are below…

Marlene Bennett Nungarrayi: Once they put that thing there in the ground and they bury that, it stays there for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.  It get into the water systems, it starts poisoning country.  And that’s breaking down land, law, culture, your spirit, your songs, your dreaming.   It’d be wiped out.  It’d be nothing.

Kirsten Brown: We want to respect this land.  Please we need to fight this as one.

Mark Lane Jangala: Aboriginal people we got that land, that country in our hearts, in our minds and in our soul.  And the knowledge of it inside us, Aboriginal people have it up here all the time.

Michael Williams Jungarrayi: My name is Michael Williams Jungarrayi. We are the Milwayi group.  That’s my dreaming.  This is where the snake was travelling, Milwayi, and we don’t want that thing to be put there because it might ruin our sacred sites.  Too dangerous.  So we just say ‘no’ to that so we gonna keep it clean, you know, because my old grandfathers, they law keepers, you know.  They had strong culture, which today we still use.

Dianne Stokes Nampin: I’m not gonna stop, I’m gonna push to stop the waste dump along with my traditional elders. The land is very strong and it’s very important for my people.  I’ve got some Elders who know the country and every time I’ve said that, NLC always said that no other Traditional Owners to talk about the land, only Ngapa people. But we are the traditional owners of the land trust.

Mark Lane Jangala: And the stories behind it, you know.  There’s a story behind every sacred site. They can look at it now.  It’s a barren country, you know.  They look at there’s no people living there but they got to think about the outstations people living there and there’s sacred sites all along this boundary line.
There are some things in there that the white fellers don’t know about.  Like we say now, we’ve got our spiritual people here walking round, looking after land, but some white people don’t believe in that.

Review: The Revolution Will Not Be Funded

“The nonprofit system has tamed a generation of activists. They’ve traded in grand visions of social change for salaries and stationery; given up recruiting people to the cause in favor of writing grant proposals and wooing foundations; and ceded control of their movements to business executives in boardrooms.”

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded is a collection of cutting essays published by INCITE! about the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. It outlines some of the ways in which governments and foundations co-opt and compromise groups working for social change. The essays are solidly based in grassroots experience and provide examples from ongoing struggles  to end violence against women, Latin American solidarity, Palestinian liberation and US indigenous peoples’ struggles, which brings a much needed tangible and emotional aspect to the intellectual and political arguments presented. Other themes deal with the ‘professionalisation of activism’, solidarity and the states’ role in violence and oppression.

Refreshingly, the views presented do not have a ‘more radical than thou’ tone, but keep strategic aims at the centre of analysis. The authors don’t propose that we do away with non-profits altogether, but that we keep in mind what they are good for and use them to compliment grassroots movement building, not replace it.

I think this collection is essential reading for activists working in or with non-profit organisations like ASEN.

So how do foundations work anyway?

Foundations are the non-profit organisations of the rich. Rich people and corporations ‘donate’ tax-free money to foundations, which manage and reinvest it. These foundations are obliged to donate 5% of their capital per year (minus administrative expenses) to non-profit organisations and charities (like ASEN), usually through grant programs. So it’s a great choice for rich individuals and corporations — for minimum cost they can avoid tax, continue to invest in their fortunes and gain a green image while doing so.

The other half of the story is that foundation money is controlled by the rich individuals and corporations that own them. Their funding priorities all too often reflect ideologies of professionalism, collaborating with the state and businesses, charity, and favor short term results. This comes at the expense of grass roots  movement building, long term community projects and social change work.Both of these insights point to the troubled waters social change agents will encounter if they rely too heavily on foundations for their income. Perhaps the most troubling aspect is how subtly and slowly the changes occur as we learn to tailor projects to what funding is available. INCITE! argues it is essential that change agents learn how to make change with little or no cash and develop funding sources that reflect and support the kind of changes we want to see in society.

One of the scariest manifestations of current day Capitalism is the system’s ability to coopt experiences, practices and even culture, and to then recreate and repackage them within a careerist, profit-driven (even in “non-profits”) and competitive logic. The non-profit system, as other essays in this volume demonstrate, supports the professionalization of activism rather than a model of everyday activism.” – Paula X. Rojas in ‘Are the Cops in Our Heads and Hearts?’

Will ASEN be funded?

So how does ASEN  stack up against the yardsticks of corporate funding? How much danger are we in of ceding control of our movement to businessmen  in boardrooms? (gendered language intentional)
Well, currently and in the past ASEN has received grants from some dodgy sources. The Myer Foundation, Fosters, state and federal governments and the Foundation of Young Australians have given us some of our bigger grants. Two of those foundations’ doners are directly involved in things we are campaigning against – Myer with the NT Intervention, and Fosters with the Packaging Stewardship Foundation which opposes container deposit recycling systems. And obviously, governments are involved in many atrocities across this continent. Perhaps ASEN needs a more rigorous internal approval process. When applying for grants, we should analyse how our participation in these programs legitimises our opponents. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves: What changes are we making to ourselves and to our organising because of these funding sources?

Just how reliant on foundation funding is ASEN? Well, about one quarter of our income comes from fundraising, membership and events like SoS. Another quarter comes from donations and Friends of ASEN. And around half of our income comes from grants.

A lot of emphasis is being put on Friends of ASEN, for many reasons, which until now haven’t included the explicit political arguments like those presented by INCITE!. Friends of ASEN is a much more grass-roots and ongoing source of money, both in terms of who is donating and how accessible it is for members of ASEN to get involved in. (get involved in Friends of ASEN by emailing your nearest convener or Grace – grace@asen.org.au)

When fund raising in ASEN we seriously need to ask ourselves these questions:
Could we run the project without this funding?
What will the consequences be if we rely on this money and it is pulled?
Who is benefiting from giving us money?
What conditions are placed on this money?
Are we compromising our values or beliefs to receive this money?
Can this source of funding sustain long term social change or is it for a short term project?

INCITE! is a national (US) activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and our communities through direct action, critical dialogue, and grassroots organizing.

Find more insightful material on one of the best web resources around: www.incite-national.org