During the first half of the 1980s, there was escalation in the arms race with many countries boosting expenditure on armaments. With the then US President, Ronald Reagan, threatening to bomb Moscow, and more countries gaining a 'nuclear capability', the Cold War entered a new and dangerous phase. Millions of people around the world became involved, in one way or another, in the peace movement. In Newcastle thousands of people participated in the annual Palm Sunday and Hiroshima Day marches, as well as many other activities.
In the later half of the 1980s, the Americans and Russians signed an agreement to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, and the threat of nuclear annihilation receded. A new threat to the survival of mankind, however, had emerged. This was the threat of environmental catastrophe caused by the increasing degradation of our land, air and water. In Newcastle some of the people who had been involved in the Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) and other peace groups began to focus on this newly perceived threat. Various groups with an environmental agenda were established in Newcastle during the mid to late 1980s. These included the Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth, and the Newcastle Green Movement.
During 1990 a majority of activists in the later group decided to form a branch of the NSW Green Party in Newcastle. It was formally launched in 1991 and ran candidates in the Newcastle City Council (NCC) elections in September of that year. They met with an early success when their lead candidate, John Sutton, was elected to council. Mr Sutton served two terms on council, retiring in 1999. During this time he, with the support of other Green Councillors, was able to initiate various measures designed to make Newcastle a 'Clean and Green' city.
There were other people, such as Neville Cunningham and Danny Leen, who were opposed to setting up another political party. They argued that the money, time and effort expended on political campaigns would be better spent focusing directly on green issues. They also felt that establishing a new political party was a divisive move because they wanted to include people from any of the existing political parties if they had an interest in environmental issues.
Having had many years experience in political parties, Mr Cunningham and Mr Leen were also suspicious about claims of grassroots democracy in the newly formed Greens. It was, they said, in the nature of political parties to become bureaucratic and hierarchical, especially if they were successful in getting someone elected.
In response, the Greens argued that the old political parties had done very little to address environmental problems. Having Greens elected at the local, state and federal levels would give them a platform from which they could raise issues and address problems that had been ignored for too long.
Neville Cunningham and his supporters called themselves the Newcastle Green Movement, and involved themselves in a range of issues. One of their main activities was the compiling and production of a monthly newsletter, which had over 200 subscribers. In line with its policy of including everyone of 'goodwill', it printed invitations to functions organised by a wide range of organisations, such as Trees In Newcastle (TIN), the Newcastle Folk Club, the Hunter Labour History Society, the International Women's Day Committee, and the Peace Forum. Various matters were debated in the pages of the newsletter, which began in 1988 and continued until 1995. Neville had four or five people who would help with the production of the newsletter. It was printed on a Gestetner (these were used for small printing jobs before photocopying machines) and then collated, folded and mailed out.
In an interview in 2001, Mr Cunningham said he thought the main achievement of the Newcastle Green Movement had been to bring people together to communicate. This was done in a variety of ways: through music and dance, workshops, meetings, protests and so on. Along the way they had a lot of fun. Saving the planet doesn't mean being serious all the time even though it's a serious issue. The peace movement cannot be separated from the environmental movement. It's no good trying to save the trees if someone's dropping bombs or shooting at you.
Neville Cunningham and Danny Leen, producers of the
Green Movement Newsletter.
Pictured with Ross Edmonds (on the left) at Customs
House, November 1993.
| << Previous |