Fwd [GLW}: Student environmentalists back collective action

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following article is from the current issue of Green Left Weekly
(http://www.greenleft.org.au).

Student environmentalists back collective action
BY JUSTIN RANDELL & CHRIS ATKINSON

BRISBANE -- Student environmentalists are set to combine their campaigns
with those that are part of the growing international sentiment against
corporate greed, after intensive discussions by 400 activists at the
Students and Sustainability conference at Griffith University here from
July 3-7.

The emphasis in the conference theme, "Solutions through community action",
was on the need for collective organising and alliance-building to address
the global environmental crisis. This focus ran through many of the
discussions and debates which took place over the five days.

Daniel Ooi, the international solidarity officer at the University of
Sydney and a Resistance activist, believes the conference was a big success
as it "reaffirmed the need for environmental activists to work together to
rebuild a strong movement".

He told Green Left Weekly that, for him, the plenary on "Fighting corporate
tyranny" was a highlight because it discussed the links between destruction
of the ecosphere and the deliberate actions of major corporations and
governments. The discussion "pointed out the importance of international
solidarity and an anti-system view to rebuilding the environment movement",
he said.

The plenary featured Rainer, an activist from the National Student League
for Democracy (LMND), who spoke of the struggle against the International
Monetary Fund in Indonesia, and Doyle Canning, a participant at the Seattle
anti-World Trade Organisation protests in November, who passed on some of
the lessons from that event.

However, another plenary, "Overpopulation -- debunking the myths", was by
far the most contentious.

A minority argued that overpopulation was a major cause of environmental
destruction and that Australia was therefore unable to accept any more
immigrants without harming the environment. But most activists at the
conference countered this view, arguing that the real causes of
environmental destruction lay in the actions of companies and the structure
of an economy which rewards polluters. Advocates of overpopulation are
diverting attention away from these causes towards scapegoats such as
immigrants, they argued.

Amongst those who opposed the overpopulation perspective, there was debate
about how to counter it. Some went so far as to say that, because the
conclusions drawn by the overpopulationists are necessarily racist and
sexist, the overpopulationist view should be given no airing at the
conference.

Meggan White-Fox, a Resistance member and the joint environment officer at
Southern Cross University disagreed. "Reducing population will not halt the
rate of environmental devastation", she told Green Left Weekly. "However,
countering the overpopulationists' views requires more than just brushing
them under the rug. Allowing open debate is an important part of rebuilding
a strong environment movement."

Three protest rallies took place during the conference, a sign of
activists' commitment to linking consciousness-raising to grassroots
organising. One protested against insurance giant AMP's involvement in
land-clearing, the second targeted the Narangba Nuclear Irradiation Plant,
and the final action took place outside the Australasian Biotechnology
Association's annual convention, in opposition to genetically modified
food.

A final resolution session made a number of decisions, the most significant
of which were that the conference as a whole is unable to overturn
decisions made by "autonomous" caucuses and that the 2001 conference be
held at Newcastle University.