What we can learn from the LGBTQ movement’s 50 years of achievement
Despite pain, loss, disruption and grave threats, the LGBTQ movement — decade after decade — launched new campaigns for more advanced goals and won.
Tag
History
How to Make Trouble and Influence People – About and Book Reviews
Information about How to Make Trouble and Influence People, including reviews of the two editions. The book offers an alternative history of Australia, chronicling how it “has progressed by a series of little rebellions”.
BUGA-UP – Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions
Formed in 1979, Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA-UP) made its mark on hoardings around the nation. By revising advertising slogans and disrupting tobacco-sponsored events, the group revealed the true cost of tobacco and alcohol company deception.
Interview with Kevin Buzzacott
Kevin Buzzacott is a key figure in the opposition to the South Australian Olympic Dam mine and the nuclear industry in general. In this interview he outlines a number of the creative actions he has taken part in as part of a series of campaigns addressing the issues of dispossession and Aboriginal sovereignty.
Always look on the bright side of life: The AIDEX ’91 story
In 1991 over 1000 protesters blockaded the National Exhibition Centre in Canberra with the goal of shutting down the Australia International Defence Exhibition. This book includes a detailed account of the blockade, the context of the growth of the Australian arms industry, and the words of the protesters themselves.
ChangeMakers Podcast Series 2
The ChangeMakers podcast is short series podcast that tells stories about people who are striving for social change across the world.
Green Bans
In the 1970s Sydney builders labourers refused to work on projects that were environmentally or socially undesirable. This green bans movement, as it became known, was the first of its type in the world.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established in 1972 when the Coalition Government failed to recognise the land rights of Indigenous people. From its inception, the Embassy has been interwoven into Canberra’s physical and political landscape, blending black politics, symbolism and theatre that opponents have found difficult to counter.
The Vietnam War
Case study of the Australian campaign against involvement in the Vietnam War. The emergence of popular protest in Australia during the 1960s presented a fundamental challenge to government decisions and the way those decisions are made. By taking to the streets people challenged the policy positions of government and, in some cases, the very legitimacy and authority of the state itself.
The Freedom Ride
The Freedom Ride through western New South Wales towns in February 1965 drew attention to the racism in these towns. Aboriginal student Charles Perkins was, by the end of the journey, a national figure in the fight for Aboriginal rights.
The Mau Movement for Samoan Independence
Case study of the long struggle for Samaon independence which was ultimately successful in 1962. The Mau movement had its origins, in 1908, in a dispute between the German colonial administration and the Maloa o Samoa, or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a copra business owned and controlled by native Samoans.
Victorian Red Gum Forests: A Historic Victory
A comprehensive case study of the successful campaign to protect Victorian Red Gum Forests. Includes the history of the Barmah-Millewa Campaign, its goals and results. Given the historic outcomes of the campaign it is worth examining how such an effective green-black alliance emerged in south-eastern Australia.
Occupy Reflects
A collection of reflections on Occupy Melbourne. The global Occupy movement was one of the most important political events of recent history. Beginning with Occupy Wall Street in New York, the movement triggered an unprecedented wave of uprisings. Melbourne became the largest occupation in the southern hemisphere.
Jabiluka Fight for Country
In 2005 the Mirarr succeeded in halting the development of the proposed Jabiluka mine. It was the culmination of an extraordinary decade-long campaign which saw people across Australia and the world stand up and support Mirarr in their opposition to uranium mining on their land.
Stop Jabiluka Mine Handbook
Stop Jabiluka Mine handbook gives a fascinating insight into an important part of Australian social movement history as well as an overview of the kinds of issues to consider when organising a large scale direct action convergence. Over 500 people were arrested in the course of an eight-month blockade at Jabiluka in 1998.
Walking Tours of Unemployed Resistance in Brunswick, 1929-35
A Walking Tour of Unemployed Resistance in Brunswick, 1929-35. This walking tour visits the sites of some of Melbourne’s fiercest unemployed battles in the northern suburb of Brunswick, including pickets, occupations and protests.
Lock Out The Landlords: Australian Anti-Eviction Resistance 1929-1936
The economic depression of the 1930s saw thousands of Australians thrown out of their homes and into the streets. These actions however did not go unopposed. Across Australia pickets, occupations and protests were organised to disrupt and prevent evictions and auctions.
Victoria Street Squats: Anti development struggles in Sydney in the 1970s
Iain McIntyre talks with Ian Milliss about his involvement with Sydney’s Victoria St squats. During the early 1970s this street in Kings Cross became the focus of a long running anti-development struggle that brought together long term residents, unionists and squatters in a campaign which reignited squatting across the city.
Gurindji Land Rights Struggle: Case study and Training Guide
In August 1966, Aboriginal pastoral workers walked off the job on the vast Vesteys cattle station at Wave Hill in the Northern Territory, sparking the Aboriginal land rights movement. A summary of the campaign case study is included along with a process for use in training workshops.
Community Resistance Timeline: A training guide
This is a training process guide to introduce participants to each other, connect their own history to a larger history of social change, identify local tactics, and to rethink what success looks like. It is an excerpt from Building Power: A Guide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Who Want to Change the World.