Go Greener, Australia

Yesterday we went to the Perth Walk Against Warming protest march, which was held in Fremantle. We took advantage of the free public transport to get there from the city.We got there a bit early, and picked up a sign to carry. They had 4 or 5 different climate change signs for the people who hadn’t brought their own. We wandered around the Esplanade park doing some people-watching. There were also stalls for various causes and products; I signed a petition to stop mining in the Burrup region, and Dave bought me some organic sunscreen. Some poor guy was in a panda suit for the WWF - he must have been baking alive in there, but he was still performing for the kids.

Who was there?

There were all sorts of people there - from kids in prams to nanas with parasols; some people brought their dogs or their bongo drums; some had homemade signs, some had professionally-made ones. As for politicians, the Greens members had flags and matching Green shirts, which looked impressive when they stood in a group. There were Democrats as well, and a large bunch of people in Kevin07 t-shirts. I didn’t see any other minor parties, or any Liberal party representatives either.

There were quite a few people there promoting other causes. I think it’s better to keep the protest focused: promoting every issue under the sun makes you look like you’re just there to complain, while having a short list of specific actions you want lets people know exactly what you want from them, and what you’re trying to achieve. It’s a fine line though, because you also want to show that many different types of people support your cause, and having identifiable groups helps that. I think the organisers did well in this regard, because as an entire group I thought we looked pretty much on-topic.

The walk

The day started with a welcome to the land by an elder Aboriginal, then the Fremantle mayor spoke, and a few conservationists, then off we went!

The walk itself was shorter than I was expecting. This was a good thing, as it was really hot, about 36 degrees. We did a loop out to the main cappuccino strip in Freo, ending back at the park. There were a lot of spectators, pausing their shopping to watch us go by. Most seemed happy just to watch, a lot gave us the thumbs up, and a few laughed or swore at us. Our group was over 5000 strong, according to The West Australian, but Dave thinks it was closer to 8000. We were led by the Chameleon Brass band, who played some jazz and funk tunes, with about 20 people holding up windmills that look like the ones you get on wind-farms. It was quite a nice effect to see them turning in the breeze. There were also some giant puppets (not sure what they were to represent, except for the anti-nuke one); a few drumming bands; a group of cheerleaders called the Greenies; and everyone else of all shapes and sizes milling around in-between.

Afterwards they had speeches by the invited political representatives, with each one highlighting that the Liberals were a no-show. Another man spoke about what the consequences of climate change are for Australia, and what action we need to stop it - less of the “change a lightbulb” and more of the “no new coal power plants” variety. Then a few bands started to play, and we took a last look around before heading to the pub for a refreshing beer.

Other marches were held around WA and Australia - ours wasn’t the largest, but I think Perth was well-represented. I hope the number of people marching around the nation gives our politicians a clue about how seriously voters take this issue, and that we want serious action on climate change.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under activism, climate change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.