Friends of the Earth Melbourne

See you tomorrow! All we want for Christmas is for the Australian government to STOP arming Israel and for a permanent, unconditional ceasefire 🍉

Get inspired by climate adaptation stories from around Australia and internationally in our latest blog post. These demonstrate what a permanent Victorian Community Climate Adaptation Fund (VCCAF) could allow communities to achieve.

The best climate adaptation outcomes will be attained if communities are directly supported via ongoing funding from the Victorian government. Add your name to our call for a permanent VCCAF!

👉 Head here now: https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/what_community_climate_adaptation_fund_achieve

Solidarity forever ✊🏽🇵🇸

FoE Asia Pacific stands firmly in solidarity with our colleagues at PENGON/Friends of the Earth Palestine as they face a catastrophic environmental and humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

We urge every Government to step up and demand for an immediate ceasefire and that all borders are opened up to allow for humanitarian support to flow to the people of Gaza on an urgent basis.

📢 POST & AMPLIFY THIS GRAPHIC 📢

Reposted via Fight Together for Justice and (instagram)

➡️ bit.ly/action-palestine-aus

This document is an effort to collectivise calls to action from Palestinian activists and cross-solidarity movements within so-called australia, as well as grassroots knowledge around safety, accessibility and community care. It features actions you can take from home and in the streets, information on protest rights, privacy and safety strategies, holding institutions accountable, mutual aid initiatives, Palestinian history, culture and arts, and more. The toolkit is constantly evolving, and we welcome your feedback.

Though it is aimed at an “australian” context, please share the toolkit widely wherever you are in the world, and tag DEiFY when you do! Action is most effective when sustained as long-term mobilisations that can proliferate across the violence of borders. See link in bio for everything you need to repost.

Our efforts are an invitation for you to push, from whatever angle you can reach, to obstruct the genocidal zionist machine. Write down your skills. Honour your body-mind’s capacity. Map your networks. Connect with a local group. Start your own group with friends. Every action matters and there is always more you can do. Use the toolkit actions as seeds to invent your own possibilities for resistance. To imagine projects and strategies that we have not attempted yet. To bring them to fruition.

Settler-colonial states manufacture and rely on our despair, paralysis, and compliance to perpetuate themselves. Their death-making power may seem overwhelmingly vast, but it is a power that feeds off our silence. In the face of these systems that deem certain bodies ungrievable and expendable, we must remember that our potential to sustain life multiplies exponentially when we fight together.

This toolkit itself sprang from the collective strength of a small group of differently identifying Asian settler, Q***r, Disabled and Mad friends who shared a limited capacity for in-person action and a desire to collate as many different forms of action towards a Free Palestine as possible.

Everyone is needed and has a part to play in this resistance.

Write a submission on the future of the gas pipeline system!
Big changes are proposed to make the Victorian gas pipeline system harder to connect to, easier to disconnect from and make distribution companies more accountable. MAKE AN EASY SUBMISSION BEFORE 5PM THURSDAY 21 DECEMBER! https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/write_a_submission_on_the_future_of_the_gas_pipeline_system

✨️✨️It's the season of giving. ✨️✨️ Please support these initiatives again and again and again. Dig deep to support Palestinians landing in Australia and grassroots orgs supporting them. Support Palestinian storytelling and advocacy. Support humanitarian aid in Gaza 🙏

Instagram handles for further info:


waca

peoplesmovement


, , , and more on last slide.

Hundreds of people turned out tonight for the rally at Patrick’s terminal, West Melbourne.

Isr4el! ZIM ship got redirected last night to Port Kembla, costing them thousands. This is a great win and shows that our organising efforts work.

At this community rally we heard from Uncle Ihab from the , Senator Lidia Thorpe, Senator Janet Rice and a number of other speakers from , , , and more.

We are making our message loud and clear! No ZIM ships in Melbourne docks!

Seven councils and counting! 🍉

Breaking news: Hume City Council has just passed a pro-Palestine motion, becoming the fifth council in Victoria to do so!

Well done 🍉

This week’s confirmed actions and events in Naarm 🍉

🤍 Block The Boat community picket happening tomorrow with car shuttles to help folks make it there.

💚 Two more councils are voting this week for pro-P4l3stine motions. Let’s hope Darebin and Wyndham join Merri-bek, Maribyrnong, Dandenong and Yarra in passing them!

‼️Note: the weekly Sunday rally was temporarily shifted to Saturday but has since been confirmed as happening at its regular Sunday time for this week.

♥️🖤 Follow for further info regarding updates to events and announcements for last minute actions.

"It is imperative to recognize that addressing environmental issues cannot be separated from acknowledging people’s right to national sovereignty in their own land. Our liberation struggle is interconnected with global movements advocating for Indigenous rights, land rights, the fight against the fossil fuel industry and climate colonialism. This is part and parcel of the collective struggle for a world where everyone has the right to live with dignity, free from oppression."

🍉 🍉 A must read interview featuring Rasha Abu Dayyeh and Abeer Butmeh, two members of Pengon-foe Palestine. They recently spoke to Friends of the Earth International to share what the reality is today in Palestine.

🔗 Read the full interview via the link in the comments below.

🚨 Hurry! 🚨 We have until Monday to make as many submissions as possible to stop gas drilling from happening off the coast of Victoria and Tasmania.

Oil and gas corporation ConocoPhillips has announced plans to start test drilling for gas deep beneath the seafloor in the Otway Basin between Victoria and Tasmania.

Modelling from ConocoPhillips’ own plans shows spills could reach the coastlines of Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

✍️ Take action now. It takes less than two minutes to make an email submission: https://www.marineconservation.org.au/actions/conocophillips-test-drilling/

Thanks to Australian Marine Conservation Society for creating this handy tool 🙌

See you again tomorrow for Week 10 in a row. We won't stop standing up and raising our voices in solidarity with the people of P4lestin3! 🍉

🌱 Friends of the Earth members are invited to celebrate 50 years of community action for environmental and social justice!

To celebrate this rich history of community led campaigns, for this special 50 Years of FoE Annual General Meeting we'll be bringing back some old friends to reflect on some of the key roles Friends of the Earth has played in shaping movements across Victoria and beyond.

👀 This will be an online event not to be missed!

If you're not already a member of Friends of the Earth, join today for as little as $10 a month and directly support our grassroots campaigning for environmental and social justice.

🗓️ Tuesday 19 December, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
📍Online via Zoom.

🔗 RSVP via the link in our comments and sign up as a member there too!

🚌 The west needs better buses now! And the Allan Labor Government need to start by changing bus routes to get people where they need to go fast.

Last week's Infrastructure Victoria report, ‘Fast, frequent, fair: how buses can better connect Melbourne’, echoed Friends of the Earth's long-term calls for a faster, more frequent, and more direct bus network in the west.

“Many households in Melbourne’s west have to spend thousands on multiple cars or taxis and Ubers, or otherwise just get stuck at home.

Friends of the Earth are once again calling for a pilot bus reform to be introduced in the west by reforming the routes under the bus operator CDC’s contract that covers much of the west.”

✅ Maribyrnong mayor Cuc Lam said the council supports the Better Buses campaign.

🔗 Sign our petition now: www.melbournefoe.org.au/better_buses_new_petition

Great news ✨ Lily D'Ambrosio MP has announced auctions for 2 Gigawatts of offshore wind, enough to power 1.5 million homes!

“Offshore wind will play a critical role in acting on climate change, powering 1.5 million homes, and creating a real transition pathway for regions like Gippsland with thousands of new jobs” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.

👇 Read our full media release via the link in the comments.

How can firefighting in Victoria be modernised to tackle the climate-fuelled bushfires of the 21st century?

Join us this Thursday night from 7pm to hear from this line-up of experienced speakers on how firefighting can be enhanced to protect communities, cultural heritage, and biodiversity-rich ecosystems.

🔗 RSVP through link in our comments.

American oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips plans to drill new gas exploration wells off Tassie and Victorian coastlines 😤

❗❗Their environment plan is currently out and we have until 18 December to make as many submissions as possible.

👉 Send an email now via our friends at the Australian Marine Conservation Society: https://www.marineconservation.org.au/actions/conocophillips-test-drilling/

🍉 Win! Tonight, Yarra City Council passed a pro-Palestine motion, 8 votes to 1!

They’re now the fourth council in Victoria to pass a Pro-Palestine motion, joining Merri-bek, Dandenong and Maribyrnong.

Community pressure is working! Let’s keep raising our voices and protesting in support of a Free Palestine!

A must-read from Overland Magazine on the need for the climate movement to stand with Palestine:

"This essay is not intended as a call out, but a call in. It’s an appeal to those in positions of leadership in the climate movement to show up.

Let this be a line in the sand. Let us learn our history. Let us listen to liberation movements around the world. Let us draw connections between climate justice and self-determination on this continent and a Free Palestine, an end to the invasion of Ukraine and an end to all other assaults on human rights around the world. Conflicts for land and water will shape the decades to come. Showing up for each other and building power to demand justice is our only hope for a humane future."

👀 Read now via the link in our comments.

🙌 We love to see international coverage of our events!

Our Yes2Renewables collective were featured in this great story from Bloomberg about their recent Transform Expo held in the Latrobe Valley, showing how coal communities are building a new energy future in renewables.

The inaugural Transform Expo was organised in partnership with us, Voices of the Valley News and Healthy Futures.

🔗 Check out the full story in the comments below.

This week's confirmed rallies and events 💚🤍❤️🖤

As always, check Free Palestine Melb and APAN - Australia Palestine Advocacy Network for more info on actions that get announced last minute.

Don't forget to slip, slop and slap on our nuclear free caps this Summer!

💛 Support our Nuclear-Free Collective by purchasing one of these limited edition retro 'Turn Da Tables For A Nukes Free Future' caps.

👏 Hurry! Get your orders in before tomorrow to get these delivered in time for Christmas.

Click on tag to be taken directly to our online shop.

Join us this Thursday for an urgent online forum discussing the future of firefighting in Victoria.

Climate change is supercharging our bushfire seasons. Longer, more intense bushfire seasons are placing heavy burdens on Victoria’s firefighters. How can firefighting in Victoria be modernised to tackle the climate-fuelled bushfires of the 21st century?

You'll hear from a panel of speakers with intimate knowledge of firefighting who will share their ideas for strengthening our responses to bushfire.

Speakers include:
🔥 Sarah Harris, Manager Research and Development, Fire Risk, Research and Community Preparedness (CFA)
🔥 Benjamin Mallinson, Program Manager – Djandak Wi (Country fire), Djaara
🔥 Dr. Philip Zylstra, fire behaviour scientist and Adjunct Associate Professor at Curtin University
🔥 Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth campaign coordinator and CFA volunteer
🔥 Jordan Crook, Park Protection and Nature Campaigner, Victorian National Parks Association

🔗 Read more detailed information about this event and RSVP via the link in our comments.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Action for Palestine, on the International Day of Human Rights. Palestine solidarity groups across the continent have planned events to protest the ongoing onslaught on Gaza that has resulted in more than 15,000 Palestinians including 6600 children being murdered with another 7,500 buried under the rubble of what is left of Gaza’s infrastructure and neighbourhoods.

🍉 🍉 For the ninth week in a row we will be marching alongside thousands of others across the country demanding a permanent ceasefire now and an end to the occupation. We won't stop raising our voices, protesting and taking action until this devastating genocide stops.

🙌 Our Act on Climate collective campaigner Vicky had her letter featured in The Age! If you would like to get involved in our newly formed Frontline Climate Alliance Vic to help tackle these issues and pressure the government to act on climate adaptation, then come along to the next Act on Climate meeting in the new year!

👉 Sign up today here: www.melbournefoe.org.au/frontline_climate_alliance

Stand with The Save Public Housing Collective tomorrow to protest the demolition of the 44 public housing flats across Naarm. FIVE are marked for demolition in the next year.

🗣️ Speakers will include residents sharing their lived experience, Community Legal Lawyers, RAHU - Renters And Housing Union representatives and State MPS and Local government councillors from across party lines.

We need to defend and extend public housing. Stand with residents and community members to demand justice.

✨ Join us next week for this special event with Chaja Merk from Friends of the Earth Netherlands who will be in Naarm to share their experiences of documenting resistance to Shell.

✊ In 2021, for the first time in history, a judge held a corporation liable for causing dangerous climate change. As a result of legal action brought by Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie) together with 17,000 co-plaintiffs and six other organisations the court in The Hague ruled that Shell must reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% within 10 years. This historic verdict has enormous consequences for Shell and other big polluters globally.

🔥 Since then, Chaja Merk has been working on an international storytelling project to highlight campaigns against Shell. ❌ Shell is currently planning 750 new fossil fuel projects all around the world, despite the verdict of 2021, and while we are living in the middle of the climate crisis.

🗓️ Tuesday 12 December, 6:00 to 7:00pm
📍Friends of the Earth headquarters or online

🔗 Link in comments to RSVP.

🍉 COMMUNITY WIN FOR PALESTINE! 🍉

Text via Victorians Socialists Councillor Jorge Jorquera - Councillor for Maribyrnong

The motion to rescind Maribyrnong Council’s resolution Supporting Peace in Gaza & Palestine, has been withdrawn!

Overwhelming numbers of people in our community have written to Council expressing their heartfelt support for the peace motion passed November 21. Likewise, so many organisations have urged our Council to stand firm and take the side of peace and justice.

It is you, all of you in the community who have stood up, that have made the difference! I am so proud that our community is standing with the millions and millions around the world who are calling out the governments who have continued to back the genocidal actions of the Israeli state in Gaza.

It’s what we have to keep on doing, marching on for the people of Gaza!

Want to send cards for the holiday season and support a good cause at the same time? These cards show some of the amazing artworks that were part of the Friends of the Earth's Nuclear Free Collective's art auction earlier this year. Featuring artworks by Lyn Hovey, Kudra, Aylsa McHugh, Diana Scambler, Yael Leah and Peter Morgan.

🙌 We thank the artists for their generosity for us to use these images. All proceeds will go to our work for a nuclear free future.

👉 Click on the image to be taken directly to the online shop.

Rug up or show off some skin with our anti nuke hoodies and tees! 🔥

Featuring the iconic logo designed to support the historic Jabiluka campaign, every purchase directly supports our Nuclear-Free Collective 🙌

✉️ Looking to buy these as a present for someone special this holiday season? Be sure to get your orders in before 12 December in order for them to be mailed out in time.

🛒 All you gotta do is click on the tag in the photo to be taken directly to our merch store!

For 50 years we've been fighting for environmental and social justice but the work is not over. As we look to the next 50 years, we’re planning to do what we’ve always done best - bringing together local communities to fight for real solutions to the environmental and social issues of our times. Led by our grassroots campaign collectives, this is our vision.

💚 By becoming a member of Friends of the Earth you will be supporting the activists working to make this future a reality.

🔗 Sign up today by heading to www.melbournefoe.org.au/membership

Confirmed events, rallies and actions happening between Thursday 7 December and Tuesday 12 December.

🍉 🍉 As always, follow Free Palestine Melbourne and APAN - Australia Palestine Advocacy Network for updates.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna Elder and nuclear-free super hero, who passed away on the morning of November 29. He tirelessly fought to protect beautiful Kati Thanda/Lake Eyre and the land beyond from the toxic nuclear industry and to keep it safe for future generations. We won't ever forget his staunch activism and his broader solidarity work with other groups fighting oppression.

"This is not their land to destroy. This land belongs to the future, to the little ones. And it's up to us, old fellas, to look after it".
Those of us that were lucky to walk with him at some point have been changed and inspired forever. Rest in Power

☢️ Tomorrow! ☢️ Join Wage Peace - Disrupt War and our Nuclear-Free Collective for a night of music, great company and delicious toasties at Cafe Gummo.

🗓️ Wednesday 6 December, 7:00pm
📍 Cafe Gummo, 711 High st, Thornbury VIC

✌️ FREE entry for all war disrupters and anti-nuke activists!

Forever obsessed with these two beautiful tote bags designed by the cartoonist and activist Sam Wallman! 🤩

Available to purchase in our online shop, you better be quick because we are almost out of stock. ⏳⏳

⭐ Every purchase in our merch store directly supports our campaigning for environmental and social justice.

👉 Just click on the tag on the photo to be taken to our shop

What a great weekend out on Bidewell, Monero, and Gunnai Kurnai Country celebrating 30 years of our member group Goongerah Environment Centre GECO and the end of native forest logging in Victoria!

🌿 Fiona York, one of GECO's longest serving members, has created a podcast series with 3CR Community Radio celebrating all the generations of people who've been part of GECO throughout the decades. Throughout the series you’ll hear conversations with campaigners, as well as sounds from the protests and actions on the ground.

🎧 🎧 Listen now via the link in our comments 🎧 🎧

🌿 The first episode is now up and features Fiona, who first got involved in forest campaigning in 1993 when she was 20 years old. In this episode we'll hear conversations between Fiona and the early crew from 1993-1994, about how GECO first started in a paddock in Goongerah, the early forest blockades, the city campaigns and how and why they first got involved

📸 Alstregrens Road blockade which was part the ‘Celebrate and Defend East Gippsland Forest Festival’ put on by The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth, and Concerned Residents of East Gippsland. This festival accelerated GECO to be built in November 1993.

Friends of the Earth campaigners and collective members joined thousands of people last week at Rising Tide’s People’s Blockade of the world’s largest coal port.

Vicky, Act on Climate collective community organiser (bottom right) reflected that “it was an incredibly powerful, inspiring, and impactful action, with representation from unions, First Nations, numerous climate justice groups, and even coal workers, both young and old, and seasoned and new activists.

“The comradery among those there was palpable, as was the joy in taking part and taking meaningful direct action against coal.”

Jamie, Act on Climate collective member (bottom left in the boat pic) said "the people have power, and if we band together, we can defeat the fossil fuel industry and take steps towards a future that is safer for everybody.”

Solidarity to all of those who were there taking part in this astounding action.

ICYMI: SOPEC - Southern Ocean Protection Embassy Collective founder Yaraan Couzens Bundle was featured in Missing Perspectives talking about her environmental activism and the importance of culture and connection in advocating for ocean protection.

👏 👏 And huge congratulations to SOPEC whose activism was recently recognised with an award by Environment Victoria for their staunch resistance to seismic blasting of Sea Country and the destruction of whale songlines.

🔗 Read the Missing Perspectives article via the link in our comments.

The incredible folks at Wildlife of the Central Highlands - WOTCH have commissioned an AI-based analysis of 20 years of VicForests’ logging. The research shows the astonishing scale of failed regeneration in Victoria’s state forests.

“The logging industry is basically walking away and handing this forest back in a disgraceful manner,” said Trent Patten from WOTCH.

Legally, VicForests is required to regrow forests like-for-like. In its marketing material, VicForests says it regrows every tree, and those regrowing trees are “closely monitored to ensure future enjoyment of the forest”.

This is another example of VicForests grotesque mismanagement of the state's forests.

With nearly 13,000 ha of forest found to not have grown back, it's estimated at least 4 million tonnes of stored CO2 would be lost over 20 years — or 200,000 tonnes per year. That is roughly the equivalent of putting about 100,000 extra cars on the road.

We need the government to urgently address the failed regen crisis in this state and rehabilitate a globally significant carbon sink.

Read the full story here 👉 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/ai-analysis-finds-failed-forest-regrowth-after-logging-/103153614