Vibes aren’t going to cut it: What we (well, I) learn from the Possum rally
Last night I was at the rally on the steps of South Australian parliament protesting the cutting down of 585 mature trees in the North Parklands.
I should write something longer, coherent, but I don’t have time, energy (and perhaps talent). So instead, just a list of random observations. After that, the speech I would have liked to have given.
- From an emotional perspective, the whole thing was a success. Those attending got their emotional needs met. Three obvious candidates here –
- The cop who tried to push me onto the pavement instead of simply asking (did he get the uniform so he could literally push people around, or did he get the desire once he had the uniform? Chicken, meet Egg)
- Some (#NotAllSpeakers) of the speakers, who were loving the attention (they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t). Special shout out to the person who read out a speech that had been written for a council meeting last night and almost lost the crowd (‘read the (lack of a) room’). You could have quickly pointed us to the video of that speech and said something else?
- Those attending, who got to feel less lonely (that’s good) and more sane (it’s a crazy-making world). The repeated chants of ‘stop the chop’ are the progressive ‘left’s versions of the muscular bonding and chanting at sports events that hoi polloi get every weekend.
- Those attending (2000, according to the ABC, but we will come back to that) got some information they already knew, or could easily have found out. In terms of what to DO they got requests that amounted to (and did not go beyond)
- write to your MP
- sign the petition
- get some stickers
- come to another rally on Sunday.
They were assured that the Federal Minister for the Environment had been written to. Well, that’ll show everyone. There were no calls on individuals who had turned up and were keen to know how they could contribute to
- Use and expand their skills
- Use and expand their knowledge
- Use and expand their relationships
Just people as an undifferentiated mass, a pulse of emotional energy, that will be gone like a fist when you open your palm.
We were told to ‘maintain our rage’, a cute line from someone who was not around when Whitlam said it.
- Besides who WAS there (Kaurna spokespeople, Adelaide Parklands Association people, Adelaide City Council folks) there was one very very telling absence.
The Conservation Council of South Australia, the peak body for various green groups (the clue is in the name). Did they have any representation at the rally? Not that I saw. Certainly none of the speakers and their blog is entirely silent.
This is not surprising. The CCSA is dependent, financially, on the State Government, and knows it would not be forgiven for biting the hand that feeds it. At this point it is simply a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Labor government. This is a tragedy, but there you have it.
4. The media coverage was hilarious and instructive.
The 7pm ABC TV news of South Australia framed it as ‘no violence happened though police were present’ (yes, and if it meets the needs of the state for there to be violence, doubtless the police – in uniform or plain clothes – will be happy to provide it). There were two vox pops that focussed on the animal livelihoods aspect, not on the far more sinister State government powergrab aspect. Meanwhile, the ‘Advertiser’ (Murdoch toilet paper, the only print paper in town) … pretended it had not happened. Not a single word, because their pet Malinauskus is doing what they like, generally. They had an ‘exclusive’ from him (presumably planned as a spoiler?) about overturning a fracking ban. At this point the Advertiser should just rename as the Santos Sturmer.
Don’t get me wrong. Rallies matter. Good signs are good signs.
But it is not enough. We have been here so many times. So so so many times. If we don’t use rallies for MORE than feeling good in the moment, for supplying ego-fodder and being ego-fodder, then more losses will pile up, while the pile of debris that gets called progress grows skyward.
Maybe this campaign will win – it’s the future, so I don’t know. But IF it wins, it hasn’t laid any ground work for future bigger campaigning sinews, relationships, skills, knowledge, expectations. And if it loses, then people will just have more grounds for despair.
Below is the three minute (ish) speech that could have been given.
Hypothetical speech to Rally.
Thank you for coming. That you are here matters. But it doesn’t matter ENOUGH.
I want us to reflect on who we are, what are we even doing here, and what we must do in the coming days, weeks and months.
Who are we?
Some of us here have ancestors who were here, on this land, thousands and thousands of years ago. (hopefully applause).
Some of us maybe trace our history with this land to 1836 or thereabouts, when South Australia was ‘settled’. (pause) . South Australia was not settled. South Australia was invaded. And sovereignty was never ceded.
Some of us maybe trace our history to the last 50 or 20 years.
But this is home. All of us here tonight, we know this land, this air, this water, these other creatures we share with, is precious. We know it is fragile, and that it must be protected from those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We know it must be protected from people who have no respect for nature, or for democracy, for anything than their wretched careers and bank accounts.
Do we know this?
(Hopefully everyone yells “yes”)
Do you – you, me, everyone – want to protect this land, this air, the possums, the birds, the humans, the future generations?
(Hopefully everyone yells yes).
Okay. That was the easy part.
What are we even doing here?
I have bad news. Besides the trees being cut down, besides the naked powergrab by the State Government. The bad news is that while you being here now, today, is great – and thank you for coming – it is not enough.
Is it enough?
(Hopefully people shout ‘no’).
Can we do more?
Can we do more?
(Hopefully people yell ‘Yes’)
Will we do more? Do you, as an individual, commit to doing more?
(Hopefully people yell ‘Yes’)
Okay, so this is where it gets interesting. I do NOT have a short list you can tick off. – “sign here, donate there. Tick that, next campaign.” Sorry.
But I do have some pledges for you, me, all of us to make. They want to destroy 585 trees, homes to birds, animals. 585. So I am going to close out with three pledges.
Does each of you pledge to talk, in the coming days, with five people who don’t know about what is happening? To listen to them, to inform them, to help them take a stand. Five people. Do you pledge this?
(Hopefully ‘yes’)
We need Peter Malinauskus and the Labor Party more generally to know that they have made a mistake, but that it is not yet too late for them to do the right thing.
Eight sentences. Do you pledge to write an eight sentence letter to Malinauskus, and send a copy to your MP -about this. Not War and Peace; Just eight sentences, which maybe you show to those five people, to your local councillors and that you post online?
Do you pledge this?
(Hopefully ‘yes’)
This is great. Thank you. But this is not enough. We need more. So a final pledge is coming up..
We need artists, poets, songs. We need tiktok videos, we need memes, slogans. We need blogs. We need letters to the Advertiser. Sorry- I was just playing with you. We need to bypass the Murdoch media. We need lawyers, we need conversations, we need networks. We need people standing outside football matches with placards and information about what is being done by this government, and in whose benefits. We need – well, we need more ideas than I have, we need all the ideas, skills and energy that YOU have.
Does each of you pledge to go home from here and – alone or with your friends – come up with a list of five things you all can do, with your knowledge, your skills, your networks, your time? Then DO those things, get better at those actions. Share those actions? Do you?
(Hopefully ‘yes’)
- Talk to five people
- Write an eight sentence letter to the Premier and your MP
- Come up with a list of five things to do.
If you pledge it, then on three, 585!
(hopefully people chant 585)