BY ALEX BAINBRIDGEBY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART - Anti-Southwood activist, Glenn Shields has been preselected as one of the two Socialist Alliance candidates for the seat of Franklin in the upcoming Tasmanian election. Previously a member of the ALP, Shields believes that the Socialist Alliance represents a chance to promote the rights of individuals in the face of “corporate manipulation of society”.
Shields has long had an awareness of social injustice and the need for a basic shift in society. “I used to wag school to help out the Unemployed Workers Union in the early 1970s. When I was helping I used to take every opportunity to read as much as I could of the social and political literature they had available.”
In the final stages of the Gordon below Franklin campaign, Shields was working for the Hydro Electric Commission - the government authority that was trying to build a dam on the Gordon River. “I was a passive supporter of the campaign up until someone told me there was a job going for the Hydro. I ended up as a camp cook at Crotty and then Sir John Falls [on Gordon River]. I thought this might be a useful way to help the campaign.
“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.
“Having grown up here I believed that Tasmania's environment deserved greater respect than what was being given to it by both major parties at the time.
“That campaign has to have been one of the most successful campaigns I've ever seen. ederal intervention after the election of the Hawke government saved the river and its environment largely because the campaign had managed to galvanise the attention of the greater population and even the world. This decision was electorally popular and helped bring the Labor Party to government.
“In the late 80s, I 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 as an advance warning of when the police were about to swoop.
“Approximately two years ago when the Southwood proposal was leaked and the matter was brought into the open by [Greens parliamentarian] Peg Putt I started actively campaigning against the proposal for a wood fired power station and woodchip mill in Huon Valley. Since then I've been involved in organising rallies and protests against Southwood.”
Shields resigned from the ALP - in which he had been Huon branch vice president for several years - after the Howard government released the Cabinet documents from the Whitlam era. “I was disgusted to learn that Whitlam had known in advance about the Indonesian 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.
“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 from my own experience the role played by Alliance members in supporting campaigns such as the campaign against Southwood as well as taking a stand for workers, indigenous people and refugees.
“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 - certainly nothing like what I saw in the Labor party.”