XR Double Bill Parliament: Forest Vigil & Hunger Strike
Today is the final sitting day for Victorian Parliamentarians. And the last opportunity this year to bring the shocking plight of the planet to their attention.
That is why XR Darebin Group decided to challenge every single MP to protect our forests, to become climate champions. This was their rationale:
Trees are our best defense against a warming world as we campaign to stop the fossil fuel industry from its ongoing damage. They are essential to meeting our second demand of net zero carbon emissions by 2025. Countries are planting hundreds of millions of trees, but we must protect the established forests to avoid climate and ecological breakdown.
XR Darebin decided to target MPs individually by providing a potted native sapling as a gift for every MP, with their name and photograph attached - regardless of their stance on Climate Change.
The MPs were invited to come and collect the saplings on the steps of Parliament, where XR members held a vigil with the trees for 30 hours from 8am yesterday until 12 noon today. When I visited in the early afternoon yesterday about fifteen of the pollies had already received their presents, although not all had collected them in person, which, sadly, meant the opportunity for face-to-face contact was reduced.
This Forest Vigil was the inaugural XR action for Bec, who you can see (above) overseeing the saplings. The young bungee jumper, who only learned about XR on Tuesday, decided to jump right in!
This was not the case for Dan Bleakley. A veteran XR member, Dan had pondered deeply before embarking on a hunger strike 9 days ago in company with 500 other XR members world-wide.
Yesterday, looking thin, Dan was seated on Parliament steps for the ninth day in a row. He said he is no longer hungry, and that the 3% of his body fat he has lost is not a dangerous amount. He knows this because he checks it every day. Like his mother, who was initially concerned about his decision, I was also relieved to hear that he was monitoring himself carefully. In the image (below) the empty crockery indicates how many meals Dan has missed during his fast!
Dan is taking this extreme action because, as he said when interviewed on Triple J: 'I'm really deeply worried about the climate emergency that's happening right now.' He hopes that by sitting on their doorsteps he will get to speak directly with the MPs about XR's 3 main aims: 1. Tell the Truth, 2. Act Now and 3. Beyond Politics.
Dan also hoped that his action would spark a lot of media attention. And that has certainly been the case. He has had wide newspaper coverage. And even yesterday in his weakened state and despite finding interviews exhausting, he was off to speak yet again on 3AW Drive.
In response to my question about what he was most likely to remember about the hunger strike, Dan told me a story: Early in the week a man came up to him, thanked him for what he was doing and shook his hand. He then walked off, but not before handing over an envelope. Inside was a beautiful hand-written letter, in which his admirer explained that each night he and his daughter talk about the best thing that has happened to them that day. Shaking Dan's hand was the moment he was going to share with his daughter that night. Dan said that he - and his mother - cried when they read this.
There was another hunger striker on those hot steps. Dave McKay, who is 75, drove in convoy all the way from Sale to hunger strike in solidarity with the XR strikers.
Originally from New York, Dave now lives in Sale as part of a Christian Freegan group. Group members are so worried about the climate crisis that when they heard recently of the proposed hunger strike in Melbourne, they took to the road. Thirteen people fasted for a full week outside Flinders Street Station before returning home. Dave, whom I was glad to hear has a medical check up daily, decided to continue and is in no doubt that he will complete the hunger strike.
It was great to talk with Dan and Dave. I admire their determination and their capacity for self sacrifice. And I totally understand the desperation they feel that precipitated their decision to stop eating. As Greta Thunberg says it is important that we panic - as long as that panic propels us into action.
But I must confess I still have some disquiet about hunger strikes. This goes a long way back.
Decades ago I wrote my history thesis on the public reaction to the British suffragettes from 1912 to 1914. I admired the suffragettes then, and I admire them now, and they are an inspiration for many others, including Dan. Many of their strategies, like locking on, were brilliant and have been adopted by activists including XR ever since.
But I have always had reservations about their hunger strikes - because of the personal damage they can cause, and the fact that they can backfire. This is doubtless because I read horrific stories of hunger striking suffragettes manhandled and traumatised by force-feeding in prison. And because except for the action of the suffragette, Emily Davidson, who threw herself under a horse at the Derby races, no suffragette action alienated the public quite so effectively as hunger strikes.
But maybe this comparison is no longer relevant. As the Guardian attested earlier this week: 'More voters think Australia is not doing enough on climate.' In fact their poll found that within a mere eight months the number of Australians wanting to see more action on the climate has risen from 51% - to 60%. Obviously the general public is steadily shifting position. And the media interest, particularly in Dan's hunger strike, was intense and almost entirely positive. Yet while there is no doubt we are in desperate times, I still hope the desperate measure of hunger striking will remain a rarity.
Speaking of hopes - I hope those on the Forest Vigil and the hunger strikers managed to express their concerns to more MPs before Parliament shut up shop for 2019.
That is why XR Darebin Group decided to challenge every single MP to protect our forests, to become climate champions. This was their rationale:
Trees are our best defense against a warming world as we campaign to stop the fossil fuel industry from its ongoing damage. They are essential to meeting our second demand of net zero carbon emissions by 2025. Countries are planting hundreds of millions of trees, but we must protect the established forests to avoid climate and ecological breakdown.
XR Darebin decided to target MPs individually by providing a potted native sapling as a gift for every MP, with their name and photograph attached - regardless of their stance on Climate Change.
 |
| Click image for greater clarity |
The MPs were invited to come and collect the saplings on the steps of Parliament, where XR members held a vigil with the trees for 30 hours from 8am yesterday until 12 noon today. When I visited in the early afternoon yesterday about fifteen of the pollies had already received their presents, although not all had collected them in person, which, sadly, meant the opportunity for face-to-face contact was reduced.
This Forest Vigil was the inaugural XR action for Bec, who you can see (above) overseeing the saplings. The young bungee jumper, who only learned about XR on Tuesday, decided to jump right in!
This was not the case for Dan Bleakley. A veteran XR member, Dan had pondered deeply before embarking on a hunger strike 9 days ago in company with 500 other XR members world-wide.
 |
| Click image for greater clarity |
Yesterday, looking thin, Dan was seated on Parliament steps for the ninth day in a row. He said he is no longer hungry, and that the 3% of his body fat he has lost is not a dangerous amount. He knows this because he checks it every day. Like his mother, who was initially concerned about his decision, I was also relieved to hear that he was monitoring himself carefully. In the image (below) the empty crockery indicates how many meals Dan has missed during his fast!
 |
| Click image for greater clarity |
Dan is taking this extreme action because, as he said when interviewed on Triple J: 'I'm really deeply worried about the climate emergency that's happening right now.' He hopes that by sitting on their doorsteps he will get to speak directly with the MPs about XR's 3 main aims: 1. Tell the Truth, 2. Act Now and 3. Beyond Politics.
Dan also hoped that his action would spark a lot of media attention. And that has certainly been the case. He has had wide newspaper coverage. And even yesterday in his weakened state and despite finding interviews exhausting, he was off to speak yet again on 3AW Drive.
In response to my question about what he was most likely to remember about the hunger strike, Dan told me a story: Early in the week a man came up to him, thanked him for what he was doing and shook his hand. He then walked off, but not before handing over an envelope. Inside was a beautiful hand-written letter, in which his admirer explained that each night he and his daughter talk about the best thing that has happened to them that day. Shaking Dan's hand was the moment he was going to share with his daughter that night. Dan said that he - and his mother - cried when they read this.
There was another hunger striker on those hot steps. Dave McKay, who is 75, drove in convoy all the way from Sale to hunger strike in solidarity with the XR strikers.
 |
| Click image for greater clarity |
Originally from New York, Dave now lives in Sale as part of a Christian Freegan group. Group members are so worried about the climate crisis that when they heard recently of the proposed hunger strike in Melbourne, they took to the road. Thirteen people fasted for a full week outside Flinders Street Station before returning home. Dave, whom I was glad to hear has a medical check up daily, decided to continue and is in no doubt that he will complete the hunger strike.
It was great to talk with Dan and Dave. I admire their determination and their capacity for self sacrifice. And I totally understand the desperation they feel that precipitated their decision to stop eating. As Greta Thunberg says it is important that we panic - as long as that panic propels us into action.
But I must confess I still have some disquiet about hunger strikes. This goes a long way back.
Decades ago I wrote my history thesis on the public reaction to the British suffragettes from 1912 to 1914. I admired the suffragettes then, and I admire them now, and they are an inspiration for many others, including Dan. Many of their strategies, like locking on, were brilliant and have been adopted by activists including XR ever since.
But I have always had reservations about their hunger strikes - because of the personal damage they can cause, and the fact that they can backfire. This is doubtless because I read horrific stories of hunger striking suffragettes manhandled and traumatised by force-feeding in prison. And because except for the action of the suffragette, Emily Davidson, who threw herself under a horse at the Derby races, no suffragette action alienated the public quite so effectively as hunger strikes.
But maybe this comparison is no longer relevant. As the Guardian attested earlier this week: 'More voters think Australia is not doing enough on climate.' In fact their poll found that within a mere eight months the number of Australians wanting to see more action on the climate has risen from 51% - to 60%. Obviously the general public is steadily shifting position. And the media interest, particularly in Dan's hunger strike, was intense and almost entirely positive. Yet while there is no doubt we are in desperate times, I still hope the desperate measure of hunger striking will remain a rarity.
Speaking of hopes - I hope those on the Forest Vigil and the hunger strikers managed to express their concerns to more MPs before Parliament shut up shop for 2019.
posted by Sue Jackson | 1:35 AM
4 Comments:
Excellent article. Very thought provoking!
Thanks very much for the feedback Luke. Hunger strikes are still a challenging concept for me.
Thank you, Sue, for a terrific article.
I can appreciate your own distaste for hunger strikes in general. Many would share your opinion.
I think Dan would strongly agree with me that, as a rule, fasting is more healthy than hurtful. On the other hand, it has a psychological impact on others partly BECAUSE they perceive it as hurtful (and that can definitely be the case in a prolonged fast).
There are many ways of looking at what a hunger-strike hopes to achieve, but at least one is that it catches someone's attention, and causes them to take more notice of what is being said, in much the same way that shouting or shedding a tear does when someone is talking. It's saying, "I feel very passionate about this," and that does cause people, in general, to listen more closely.
I would agree that hunger strikes are not popular, but I feel it is much the same way that shouting or shedding tears is not popular. Look at all the anger Greta Thunberg has stirred up. But I think that is all a part of the whole growing process for those we hope to change.
Anyway, thanks so much for such positive reporting despite your honest reservations.
In peace,
Dave
Hi Dave,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share such a thought-provoking message. Especially when you have just emerged from ten days of fasting! You have certainly left me with heaps to thing about, and I'm sure your comment will also have an impact on others reading this post.
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