Marching to save the WA forests
by Joan Williams Over 6,000 people, old and young, marched peacefully through Fremantle on Sunday, September 4, in a demonstration with banners, decorative placards, bands and dancers to protect Western Australia's remaining old growth forests. Representing a wide swathe of politics, from radical Left to concerned Liberals, the peaceful character of the march contrasted with the armed and masked logging supporters storming and firing at a South-West protest camp on August 21. Described as "timber thugs" by the Sunday Times, they led away the newspaper's photographer and destroyed his film. Last Sunday an attack was made on a conservationist gift shop at Manjimup which was doused with petrol. The terrorising of conservationist supporters included the overturning of a caravan and trashing of the camp at Wattle Block near Manjimup, among the ancient trees threatened by profit-greedy wood-chipping companies and contractors. The Sunday march against woodchipping of our dwindling old growth forests packed the "Cappucino Strip" in the heart of Fremantle to hear speakers from environmental groups — including couture designer Liz Davenport and Liberal rebel Dame Rachel Cleland — and listen to popular bands. Marchers were asked not to respond to anger or aggression and to counter disruption by sitting quietly on the ground. Local governments, Aboriginal organisations, tourism associations, farmers, bee-keepers, churches and heritage organisations have criticised the WA Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) and the lack of consultation. Mass pressure has forced the WA Liberal Government into a confused policy, including changes to the RFA, which have not satisfied the environmental movement but angered the companies profiting from logging and woodchipping that it has generously sustained. The mass turnout on Sunday shows that its band-aid concessions are not adequate and that the protests will be maintained. Timber workers and their union in WA have taken a mistaken approach by blaming environmentalists for job losses in the timber industry. It is the employers who have been responsible for cutting timber workers' jobs even when timber production increased. Workers fighting with environmentalists serves only to protect the profits of the employers and does not guarantee jobs. Old growth forests are not an endless resource and jobs will be threatened because of the totally inadequate investment in plantation forestry. A source of quick and easy profit is the sole reason that Australia's old growth forests are threatened by the bulldozer to end up as woodchip being shipped to Japan.