Getting yourself heard in amongst the carbon tax furore that’s engulfing Canberra is a tricky business. While every man and his dog has an opinion on what the tax will and won’t do, it’s often those who can construct a good story for their message that will make it onto TV screens and broadsheets across the country. In order to compete with often louder and richer opponents, it is interesting to ask the question: to what lengths are Australia’s environmental advocacy groups willing to go to get themselves a voice?
The non-government sector in Australia is traditionally the strongest to condemn the operation of political media. While politicians blame journalists for forcing them into ‘sound bite politics’ and the media in turn blames politicians for spouting endless broken record rhetoric, it is advocacy groups such as GetUp! that stand on the sidelines, pointing out how this frustrated relationship erodes the democratic principals of our political system.
What’s interesting is that the non-government sector can also teeter dangerously close to the edge. Whether they like it or not, GetUp! and co also frequently embrace the sound bite and the evidence is there to be seen in that very visible political manifestation: the rally.
On Sunday 5th June I was one of 10,000 people in Sydney and 45,000 in Australia who voiced their support for strong action on climate change in parks and town squares around the country. The mood at the Sydney rally was sunny and spirited. Along with all the usual suspects – including every leftie group on the map looking to capitalise from a crowd of potential signature givers – Alfred Park was full of families, dogs and picnic rugs.
Usually the deal at these kind of things is that you show up for the start time, there is a series of speeches given by various organisers/relevant politicians/sincere over-rehearsed children bound for the high school debating team and then you march somewhere. What was unexpected on that Sunday was that it was over so very quickly. Within 30 minutes most of the action was over and just 45 minutes after it began, my neighbour turned up late to find an (admittedly very good) band playing on a stage and a park ¾ empty.
The Say Yes Australia partnership which organised the day ran a tight ship, and coming from someone who simply showed up on the day, it was a finely planned demonstration. It was just that one couldn’t help shake the feeling that to some extent the rally simply existed so that a photo could be taken, heads to be counted and GetUp! Director Simon Sheik could be quoted in news outlets the next day having addressed the crowd. After that, everyone was out of there.
Thinking back on every other demonstration I’ve been able to attend, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why this felt like a lost opportunity. What is a demonstration if not a chance to briefly congregate with sympathetic others and send a message to those in power. The bigger the better because in rallies, it’s numbers that count. Right?
Well not exactly. I’m not nearly old enough to be nostalgic about what demonstrations used to be like back in the days of ‘Nam. But I’ve been to enough to know that attending climate rallies is not valuable simply because they make it onto the news streams delivered to every Canberran politician the next morning. Their value exists also in their capacity to breed a sense of community surrounding an issue and function as a very physical reminder that an issue belongs to individuals, not simply a small and seemingly untouchable group of decision makers.
Climate advocates invest hours and hours of their time, both paid and unpaid, into figuring out how best to empower people with a sense of their own place and role within the movement. Having a personal tie with a cause – a friend or group of people with whom to share the victories and frustrations of those convictions – can be the strongest way of building such a movement. Social networks are invaluable and on the whole, it seems to be something that the green movement does well. I’ve had countless conversations with friends who say it’s the people they work alongside with that keep them motivated in the face of the political short-sightedness we’ve witnessed recently.
For this reason it seems like a missed opportunity that events such the Say Yes rally don’t do more to capitalise on the sheer number of people in attendance. Saturday was a great day and it certainly was a strong statement of public support for climate action. But a demonstration consisting of just 30 minutes of speeches probably isn’t going to make sure that a first time rally attendee will show up the next time. If the movement is keen to criticise politicians for pandering to the media, it must be careful that it doesn’t use public rallies simply for that same purpose. There is far more potential value in a rally than simply what gets reported.
It is important that organisers ensure public demonstrations make the news. However it would be disappointing to see an end to the congenial and animated culture of demonstrations simply because of the need to interact with a competitive news cycle. The movement has to think creatively about how it can involve supportive individuals who haven’t before stood up for their convictions on cutting carbon usage in Australia. Perhaps that creativity might start with rethinking the way that larger scale public actions can contribute towards this movement.