Zack Schofield on the upcoming people’s blockade of the Newcastle port

Australia’s climate future is horrifyingly bleak. Already the continent has warmed by around 1.6 degrees, increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, floods and bushfires. The recently released National Climate Risk Assessment estimates that, at 3 degrees of warming, 1.5 million people will be at risk of coastal flooding.

As we barrel towards catastrophe, the federal Labor government has its foot firmly on the accelerator. Since taking office in 2022, it has approved 31 new fossil fuel projects. According to a report commissioned by the Australia Institute, in the past year, state and federal governments provided the fossil fuel industry with $14.9 billion in subsidies—equivalent to $28,381 per minute.

From 27 November to 2 December, thousands of people from across Australia will join The People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port at the port of Newcastle. Rising Tide, the event organiser, argues that we need to step up our defence of the climate by taking mass direct action to stop the coal ships. At last year’s blockade, people power prevailed over repeated government attempts to shut down the protest. Seven thousand people mobilised over ten days; 173 people were arrested while obstructing the shipping channel.

Zack Schofield, an organiser with Rising Tide and recently awarded Young Environmentalist of the Year by the Bob Brown Foundation, spoke to Red Flag about the upcoming action.

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What led you to get involved in Rising Tide?

Climate activism has always been part of my political background. It has an outsized presence in Newcastle, where I grew up. The city is home to the world’s largest coal port, which alone is responsible for about 1 percent of total global carbon emissions, which is pretty extraordinary. Rising Tide and the people’s blockade also have a history in the town: the original iteration was active in Newcastle from 2005 until 2012.

After the pandemic, one of the Rising Tide core organisers pitched their idea to me: restart the organisation with a long-term strategy, principles and a desire to grow beyond a small clique of radical environmentalists. I found this compelling and decided to throw my lot in. In the last three years, it’s grown into something that I think fills a serious gap in the Australian climate movement. And I’m really proud that it’s based in my hometown.

Rising Tide seems to revolve around the annual blockade of the coal port. What’s so special about the blockade as a form of protest?

The blockade of the port of Newcastle is a phenomenal tactic. A tactic doesn’t make a movement or a strategy, but it can underpin it in some important ways. For one, mobilising a significant number of people is relatively easy. Newcastle has a progressive population, and it’s pretty accessible for folks in the metropole. The city is also, conveniently, right next to the source of the problem: the coal port. You can see it with your eyes, it’s easy to access, and there are several infrastructural choke points. Lastly, being on the water adds a certain X-factor in terms of participant experience. The photos that come out of these actions are broadcast around the world—it just looks a bit more interesting and joyful than other actions.

At the moment, the blockade is a form of civil disobedience, or storytelling with a material target. We’re putting ourselves in the way of the problem to tell a story about why there’s a problem and why people should do something about it. We impact the company’s bottom line a bit, but not enough for it to really matter. The objective is to build that mass of organised people to the level of civil resistance, where we become a force to be negotiated with, rather than policed away. By growing our numbers, we can make a material impact and actually stop business as usual.

What are your thoughts on the Labor Party in power?

I have dropped to new levels of cynicism that I didn’t think were achievable. They’re either utter cowards or the most nihilistic bastards imaginable. But even an ALP true believer would have to acknowledge at this point that external pressure is the only way to secure better climate policy in this country. So, whatever your take on the Labor Party, Rising Tide welcomes you to come along and take action with us.

You’ve been active in the Palestine movement in Sydney and were arrested recently alongside former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas outside SEC Plating. Do you think the issues of climate justice and Palestinian liberation are linked?

Absolutely, they are linked by two problems: colonialism and profit seeking. The colonisation of the global South created the extractive industries we see in Australia, which is why First Nations people have always been at the forefront of the fight against fossil capital. And we know there are massive, untapped gas reserves just off the coast of Gaza. It’s one reason why Gaza is an attractive bit of land to claim for the apartheid Israeli state.

Capitalist profit seeking is destroying the planet, but it’s also the engine room of fascism and war. Israel is very good at both of those things. And Australia, similarly, is not only a major exporter of fossil fuels, but it also has serious ties to that profit-making machinery of war. That’s why we were outside SEC Plating, it’s a company that contributes to the F-35 program, producing jets used to bomb children in Gaza.

You really do just have to follow the money to understand the politics of power in this world. It’s why the fossil fuel industry wields influence over our government, it’s why Israel is so influential in the Middle East, and it’s why they have committed genocide against the Palestinian people.

Last year, the Minns government tried to stop the blockade. Do you know what the government will throw at Rising Tide this year?

I don’t want to speculate because I expect they’ll come up with something we’ve never heard of before. But the fact of the matter is, this is a fight. I’m really happy that Rising Tide is prepared to run at fights, because frankly, that’s what it takes to make change—and it is in the fighting that people get inspired to join us. And the more people join us, the easier those fights are to win.

Last year, 173 people were arrested. Some were dragged from their kayaks, others had their paddles stolen by police, and some were assaulted. But everyone who was arrested knew exactly what they were getting into; they knew it had to be done, and it can be an empowering experience to break bad laws. I think it’s time for activists of all kinds to stop justifying themselves and become the immovable object—the thing that’s going to happen, one way or another—and dare our opponents to live with the consequences of their climate vandalism.

What do you think socialist politics has to offer in the fight for climate justice?

I think materialist politics are critical to understanding how the world works and how change happens. Socialism also has a tradition of organised mass action, which is what’s required to make change. Socialists understand that change doesn’t come from ideas alone or radicalism alone; it comes from actually becoming powerful enough and accessible enough to as many people as possible to shape the dominant politics of the day.

Rising Tide is also a part of reviving these traditions. And I think this commitment to mass politics is one of the things that has stood us in good stead. We live in unprecedented times. I think people involved in politics today need to be open to experimenting with the traditions of the past and taking what works from them to meet the moment that we face.