People standing up to big coal

On Saturday, the worlds largest coal export port didn’t have a single coal ship coming or going between 9am and 5pm. And it wasn’t for lack of demand. The mouth of Newcastle harbour was off limits to coal ships for the day as hundreds of people took to the water in open display of people power against the coal industry.

It was a beautiful sunny Newcastle day as people pulled out their canoes, donned floaties and boarded all manner of ridiculous water craft (including an iceberg and a very sorry looking pirate ship) in the annual ‘People’s flotilla’, organised by activist group ‘Rising Tide‘.

It was the fourth time the event had been held but the thing that was different to previous is that the coal industry were forced to back down. As the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald declared, the protestors forced ‘port closure’. They didn’t even try to bring a ship into or out of the harbour, despite 7 shipments being scheduled for the day. There are two explanations why. The first is that the PR advisors to Port Waratah Coal Services decided that confrontation between massive coal ships and families, in colourful floaties protesting against climate change is not a particularly good look. The other is that the police refused the coal ships through because they recognised their responsibility to protect the safety of the community members taking part in the protest.

When a small, volunteer community group like Rising Tide can put in a notice of public assembly for a whole day for the entry channel to the worlds biggest coal export port, and there is nothing the police or the coal industry can do about it, it is a sign that change is afoot.

In February, over 2000 people formed a human chain around Parliament House to protest Rudd’s pathetic climate change policies. The police had told them they weren’t allowed to do it – but they did it anyway – and the police just stood aside. In July last year, over a thousand people marched to the coal rail line at the Port of Newcastle with an openly declared intent to stop coal trains for the day. The Police ensured that coal trains were cancelled for the day as the crowds converged on the rail line.

People power is the only effective counter to the vested interests of the coal industry and the other big polluters that are destroying our future. The employees of the coal companies know that they are on the wrong side of history and that the transition to a low carbon future is underway. The police know that the people who are protesting have a moral imperative and a social mandate to engage in civil disobedience to force action on climate change. Politicians are slow to adapt, but adapt they must. For the times they are a changing…