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Campaigning Wiki

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Summary

This is a curated resource page from the Commons Social Change Library, providing a wide range of case studies, chronologies, interviews, and stories about the history of First Nations, social, and labour movements in Australia and beyond. It covers topics such as First Nations activism, environmental campaigns, refugee activism, student activism, peace activism, union campaigns, disability campaigns, creative activism, anti-globalisation, Occupy, LGBTIQA+ activism, housing justice, and feminism. The page serves as a starting point for learning about past campaigns and their lessons for today’s activists.

Background

The Commons Social Change Library has gathered a wide range of resources about the history of First Nations, social, and labour movements in Australia and beyond. These case studies, chronologies, interviews, and stories provide inspiration and lessons from the past and help understand the roots of today’s campaigns and forms of activism [source: nv-database].

What happened

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in January 1972 after the Coalition Government under William McMahon failed to recognise Indigenous land rights, and it has remained a continuous site of First Nations sovereignty protest since [source: nv-database]. The 1965 Freedom Ride, organised by Charles Perkins and students from the University of Sydney, rode buses through western New South Wales towns and drew national media attention to racial segregation in country towns [source: nv-database]. The Jabiluka blockade ran for eight months in 1998 at the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory, during which over 500 people were arrested in protest against mining inside Kakadu National Park [source: nv-database]. The campaign to stop the gas plant and port at James Price Point (Walmadan) in the Kimberley region of Western Australia culminated in 2013 when Woodside withdrew the proposal, a result described by activists as a “huge win” [source: nv-database]. Anti-apartheid protesters in 1971 blocked a cricket tour and disrupted a rugby tour by South African teams in Australia, contributing to international sporting isolation of the apartheid regime [source: nv-database]. The Nestle boycott ran from 1977 to 1984 and targeted indiscriminate advertising of infant formula in developing countries, pressuring the company to change its marketing practices [source: nv-database]. The Franklin River campaign from 1981 to 1983 blocked construction of the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam in Tasmania and was one of the largest nonviolent direct action environmental protests in Australian history, ending with the High Court blocking the dam in 1983 [source: nv-database]. Brisbane workers held a general strike in 1912 that secured recognition of union rights in the Queensland construction industry [source: nv-database]. Workers occupied the under-construction Sydney Opera House in 1972 in a work-in that preserved their employment and completed the project [source: nv-database]. Students occupied the University of Western Sydney campus in 1999 to protest cuts to education funding [source: nv-database]. The S11 protests in Melbourne in September 2000 disrupted the World Economic Forum meeting and mobilised tens of thousands against corporate globalisation [source: nv-database].

Key people & organizations

  • Iain McIntyre
  • Oodgeroo Noonucal
  • Gary Foley
  • Kevin Buzzacott
  • Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation
  • Friends of the Earth
  • Greenpeace
  • Sea Shepherd
  • Australian Rainforest Action Groups
  • Save Our Sons
  • People for Nuclear Disarmament (WA)
  • Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
  • NSW Builders Labourers Federation
  • Transport for All
  • Disability Resource Centre
  • Judith Heumann
  • BUGA UP
  • Grevillea
  • S11 Alliance
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • Occupy Melbourne
  • Unemployed Workers Movement
  • Vida Goldstein
  • Jaye Mount-Winter

Tactics used

The page presents a wide variety of tactics used across different campaigns, including boycotts, strikes, blockades, nonviolent direct action, civil disobedience, creative activism, and coalition-building. These tactics are shown as adaptable tools that movements have used to challenge power and achieve social change. [source: nv-database]

Outcome

Verdict: unknown.

The page does not describe a single outcome but rather presents a collection of campaigns with varying results. Some campaigns, like the James Price Point campaign, are described as a ‘huge win’ [source: nv-database], while others, like the campaign against the Iraq War, are evaluated for their effectiveness [source: nv-database]. The page serves as a resource for learning from both successes and failures.

Lessons

  • The Aboriginal Tent Embassy (1972) showed that a continuous, physically anchored site of protest can outlast the government that refused to recognise the underlying rights claim [source: nv-database].
  • The Franklin River campaign (1981-1983) showed that sustained nonviolent direct action combined with strategic litigation can defeat a major infrastructure project [source: nv-database].
  • The S11 protests in Melbourne (2000) showed that mobilising tens of thousands around a single counter-summit target can disrupt elite gatherings and seed broader anti-globalisation networks [source: nv-database].

Sources

Disclaimer: Included as a teaching example of campaign craft, not as endorsement.

Sources & verification

  • nv-database — grounding: secondary — license: link-only
  • Rewritten: 2026-06-26 via terminal-b-grounding

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