Artists, gardeners and knitters have created a "guerrilla gallery" on Parramatta's historic St Georgeβs Terrace to protestΒ plans to demolishΒ two of the cityβs most significant heritage-listed buildings, reports Susan Price.
Green bans and the green ban movement
The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union has placed Β Green Ban as part of the campaign to stop the sell-off of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo,Β reports Jim McIlroy.
Jack Mundey, a path breaker in militant unionism and a pioneer of the Green Bans movement in Australia, leaves a lasting legacy and a set of challenges for ecologists and socialists, writes Jim McIlroy.
Key sites of radical struggle in Sydneyβs history were included in a βRadical Sydney Walking Tourβ conducted by historians Rowan Cahill and Terry Irving, and sponsored by ΒιΆΉΣ³» Weekly, on April 13.
In the early 1970s, an unlikely alliance of builders labourers, environmentalists, residents and LGBTIQ activists united to support the Green (and Pink) bans which helped save huge swathes of Sydney, and other parts of New South Wales, from the wrecking ball.
Any book on the modern urban heritage movement would at least make mention of Jack Mundey and the 1960s Green Bans, but for Sydney-based architect James Colman, Mundeyβs figure continues to loom large over his city.
Architects, artists and community activists have condemned the NSW state government's plan to demolish the iconic Sirius apartment building in the historic Rocks area of inner Sydney, with one artist, Del Kathryn Barton, calling the move a "cultural tragedy".
Action for Public Housing (APH) was launched at the Redfern Community Centre on June 24. The launch was addressed by Green Bans movement activists Jack and Judy Mundey, Aboriginal elder Jenny Munro and Associate Professor Michael Darcy. The meeting also watched short videos highlighting the history of community resistance to the destruction of public housing in the city.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) has placed a "green ban" on redevelopment of the famous Bondi Pavilion, in support of community groups outraged by Waverley Council plans to effectively hand the building to private companies. Union and political leaders joined with local residents at Bondi Beach on May 29 to announce the union ban on work on the project.
Fifty years ago building worker activists took back control of their union, the NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), from a leadership clique that ignored the members. Under the new leadership of , the re-energised BLF created high standards for workplace safety, decent pay, union democracy, accountable leadership, community engagement and, most famously, Green Bans.
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