BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Glenn Shields, a campaigner against the Southwood woodchip mill, has been pre-selected as one of the two Socialist Alliance candidates for the seat of Franklin in the upcoming Tasmanian election. Previously an ALP member, Shields says the Socialist Alliance is a chance to promote the rights of individuals in the face of "corporate manipulation of society".
Shields has long been aware of social injustice and the need for a major shift in society. "I used to wag school to help out the Unemployed Workers Union in the early 1970s and I took every opportunity to read as much as I could of the social and political literature they had available."
In the final stages of the mass campaign to save the Franklin River, Shields was working for the Hydro Electric Commission, which was trying to build a dam on the Gordon River. "Having grown up here, I believed that Tasmania's environment deserved greater respect than was being given to it by both major parties at the time.
"I was a passive supporter of the campaign until someone told me there was a job going for the Hydro. I ended up as a camp cook at Sir John Falls [on the Gordon River]. All the engineers' meetings took place in the mess hall so it was very easy for someone within ear shot to take down notes from their meetings and pass these on to the campaign activists."
Shields thinks "that campaign has to be one of the most successful campaigns I've ever seen. Federal intervention after the election of the Hawke Labor government saved the river and its environment largely because the campaign galvanised the attention of the population, and even the world. It helped bring the Labor Party to government."
In the late 1980s Shields was involved "in a small way" with the Farmhouse Creek blockade. "They were trying to build a logging road beyond Farmhouse Creek from the Picton River area into world heritage area. I kept night watches on the highway to give advance warning of when the police were about to swoop."
Shields told Green Left Weekly: "Approximately two years ago, when the Southwood proposal for a wood-fired power station and woodchip mill in Huon Valley was brought into the open by [Tasmanian Greens MP] Peg Putt, I started campaigning against it. Since then I've been involved in organising rallies and protests against Southwood."
Shields resigned from the ALP, in which he was Huon branch vice-president for several years, after the federal Coalition government released the cabinet documents from the Gough Whitlam era. "I was disgusted to learn that Whitlam had known in advance about Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. I felt that I'd been lied to all these years over one of the most important foreign affairs issues in my life time in this region."
Shields said, "I never thought I would join another political party again. I joined the Socialist Alliance because this is the party that stands for the issues that come closest to my own beliefs. I have seen the role played by Alliance members in supporting campaigns such as against Southwood, as well as taking a stand for workers, indigenous people and refugees."
He added: "The current government and the opposition are denigrating workers and workers' rights. You can see that by the constant battles to win entitlements and the attacks on the public sector. Socialist Alliance offers an alternative to such policies, but most importantly an alternative based on ordinary people.
"My experience is that the Socialist Alliance listens and takes note of what the membership think, and is receptive to new ideas — nothing like what I saw in the Labor Party."
From Green Left Weekly, June 26, 2002.
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