Green ban

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A green ban is a form of

labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. They were mainly done in Australia in the 1970s, led by the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) and used to protect parkland, low-income housing and buildings with historical significance.[1][2] At times, industrial action was used in relation to other issues, such as when a 'pink ban' was placed on Macquarie University due to the expulsion of Jeremy Fisher, a gay man, from student housing.[3]

History

Green bans were first conducted in

Royal Botanic Gardens from being turned into a carpark for the Sydney Opera House.[6] The BLF stopped conducting green bans in 1974 after the federal leadership under Norm Gallagher dismissed the leaders of the New South Wales
branch.

Although green bans have been implemented on a number of occasions since the 1970s, they have not been so prevalent, nor so comprehensive in their effect. One estimate of the effect of the BLF's green bans puts the amount of development prevented at

A$3 billion between 1971 and 1974 (approximately A$25 billion in 2018 money). [1]

Victoria Street

One of the last bans to be removed was to prevent development of Victoria Street in the suburb of

New South Wales Police collaborated with Theeman and his employees during the ban and eventually carried out a forced mass eviction of squatters and residents, which saw squatters barricade themselves in a siege for two days.[8][11] In 1973 mysterious arson attacks happened across Victoria Street, which killed 23 year old Esther George.[12] The green ban was broken in 1974 when the conservative federal leadership of the BLF, under pressure from New South Wales politicians, dismissed the leaders of the New South Wales branch, and replaced them with more conservative people who did not support the ban.[13] Activists, led by activist, resident, and journalist Juanita Nielsen, then convinced another union, the Water Board Employees Union, to impose a ban which was continued for some time.[14] Nielsen was then kidnapped and murdered in 1975.[8][14] The struggle ended with a stand-off in 1977. The developer had been forced to alter his plans, but the residents had been forced out.[13][15]

Outcomes and impacts

In February 1973, Jack Mundey coined the term "green ban" to distinguish them from the traditional union "black bans". Mundey argued that the term "green ban" was more appropriate as they were in defence of the environment.[8] Green bans saved many vital urban spaces and over 100 buildings were considered by the National Trust to be worthy of preservation.

Another example of a green ban in Sydney was the proposed North-Western Expressway that was planned by the Department of Main Roads in the early 1970s. The expressway would have cut through the working class residential areas of Ultimo, Glebe, Annandale, Rozelle and Leichhardt. In July 1972, the Save Lyndhurst Committee requested a green ban from the Builders Labourers' Federation to prevent the destruction of historic Lyndhurst (built 1833-1835) in Darghan Street, Glebe. Many battles with police took place, including a confrontation between police and squatters on 18 August 1972. The Federal Labor Whitlam government purchased the Glebe estate in 1973 from the Anglican Diocese of Glebe to preserve the area. In 1978, the Wran-Labor Government decided to abandon much of the inner-urban expressway link and the 19th century character of Glebe remains intact.[16]

Local legacies: New South Wales

Green bans influenced local NSW planning structures as well as national planning systems. "The Green ban movement in Sydney and Melbourne of the early 1970s, led by the Builder Labourers Federation, was the most profound external indication of the need for planning reform."[17] In 1977 an editorial from the Australian quoted "bans were an inevitable result of official attitudes which regarded people as irrelevant factors to development". He also indicated that the decision making process then was devoid of appropriate involvement by relevant communities and individuals.[18]

During the movement infamous redevelopment projects were discarded or scale down, and the planning reform finally began. The previously confined approach to land use planning, due to a "paradigm meltdown", started to incorporate concerns from community.[19] On one hand, new historical buildings legislations were founded in the 1970s across several states, and on the other the ground legislation of the current planning system

National reforms: Australia

The green bans in the 1970s initiated a democratic National and State planning systems in which heritage as well as environmentally significant sites became a part of a development proposal.[20] 'In 1997 the Director of the Urban Research Unit of the Australian National University, stated that the green bans of the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation (NSW BLF) had a "subtle influence" in transforming the culture of urban planning in ways that now evince greater sensitivity to environmental concerns, better appreciation of heritage, the need to publicise proposed developments well in advance and to seek approval from the people affected'.[21] Similar union bans were started in other cities in Australia including Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart however to a lesser level than Sydney. The green ban movement became a powerful tool of influencing city developments by involving the wider community to sign petitions in order to prevent destruction of a heritage or environmentally significant sites.[22] Ultimately, the green bans led to the Wran government introducing two acts, firstly the Heritage legislation- The Heritage Act 1977, and secondly the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A) 1979.[20]

International influences

Although green bans were conducted for only three to four years in Australia, they influenced international politics significantly because this movement is considered to have contributed to the integration of the word "green" into the world's political idioms.[23]

The German politician Petra Kelly came to Australia around the middle of the 1970s and witnessed green bans opposing undesirable development in Sydney by the cooperation between the BLF and local citizens.[8] She was very impressed with this movement, the connection accomplished between environmentalists and the BLF, and the success they made in many campaigns.[24] It is also known that she often stated that green bans had a great impact on both herself and her philosophy. Subsequently, she brought back the idea of green bans as well as the terminology "green" to Germany, and established the German Green Party in 1979.[25] This is regarded as the point at which the word "green" was first applied to politics in Europe.[26] Petra Kelly acknowledged that Australian green bans broadened the possibilities of the environmental movement as well as gave it a new dimension, and they made it possible to involve a much broader range of the population in environmental groups and ecological actions. Therefore, green bans in Australia were significant events not only locally and nationally but also internationally.

Notable green bans

Adelaide

Brisbane

Canberra

Melbourne

Newcastle

Perth

Sydney

Wollongong

Other cities

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "A perspective on Sydney's Green ban Campaign, 1970-74". Teaching Heritage. Archived from the original on 18 June 2005. Retrieved 2 September 2005.

References

  1. ^ a b Burgmann, Verity and Meredith (2011). "Green Bans movement".
  2. ^ Pt'chang (2022). "Green Bans". Commons Social Change Library.
  3. ^ Ross, Liz (2023-04-03). "Revolution Is For Us: Gay Liberation, Unions and the Left in the 1970s". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  4. ^ "Green Bans". The Commons Social Change Library. 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "List of green bans, 1971-1974". libcom.org. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  6. ^ Green Bans Art Walks Project (2023-06-23). "Green Bans Timeline: 1971-74". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  7. ^ McIntyre, Iain (2020-08-31). "Resources About Australian Housing Justice and Unwaged Rights Campaigns". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Burgmann, M & Burgmann, V 1998, Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation, University of New South Wales Press, NSW. https://books.google.com/books?id=J4vx-NjjQxsC
  9. ^ Milliss, I (2011), The Barricades http://milliss.com/?p=44
  10. ^ Australian Broadcasting Corporation (16 February 2004), The Juanita Nielsen mystery, http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1046350.htm
  11. ^ Milliss, I (January 1974), The Barricades, The City Squatter http://milliss.com/?p=44
  12. ^ "The victim had a white mark on her forehead when she died. Fifty years later, Kaye can't get it out of her mind". ABC News. 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  13. ^ a b Burgmann, M & Burgmann, V (2011), Dictionary of Sydney: Green Bans movement, http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/green_bans_movement
  14. ^
    Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1983 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19831107&id=vm0pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oegDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6852,2840205
  15. ^ Hampton, P (2010), Green Bans in Australia, http://www.workersliberty.org/blogs/paulhampton/2010/08/05/green-bans-australia
  16. ^ Australian environmental activism Timeline. Teaching Heritage. Archived on 23 Feb 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2011. http://www.teachingheritage.nsw.edu.au/section03/timeenviron.php
  17. ^ Thompson, S. (2007). Planning Australia : an overview of urban and regional planning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  18. ^ Haskell, M. A. (1977). Green Bans: Worker Control and the Urban Environment. [Article]. Industrial Relations, 16(2), 205-214.
  19. ^ Yiftachel, O.(1989) Towards a new typology of urban planning theories. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 16(1), 23-39
  20. ^ a b Freestone, R. (1995), From icons to institutions: Heritage conservation in Sydney, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 1 (2): 79-90.
  21. ^ Mallory, G. (1999), Review: GREEN BANS, RED UNION: Environmentalism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation, The Australian Journal of Politics and History,45.
  22. ^ Wood, J. (1980), Green Banners, Royal Australian Institute Journal, 18, (4): 137-138
  23. ^ Burgmann, V (2003), Power, Profit and Protest: Australian Social Movements and Globalisation, Allen & Unwin
  24. ^ Mundey, J n.d., Green Bans Movement Vindicated, http://www.cfmeu.net.au/multiversions/2246/FileName/GreenBanp1.pdf
  25. ^ Bevan, RA (2001), Petra Kelly: The Other Green, New Political Science, vol. 23, no. 2, November,pp. 181-202.
  26. ^ Pike, D & Cary, M (2008), Organizers Inspired by Australian Green Ban Movement, http://organizersforum.org/2011/04/14/australia-dialogue/ Archived 1 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ "61 Spring Street and Tasma Terrace". National Trust. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  28. ^ a b c d "Green sites saved by a red union". CBD News. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2019.

Further reading

  • Irving, Terry and Rowan Cahill, Radical Sydney: Places, Portraits, and Unruly Episodes, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2010, pp. 305–313.

External links

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