A-Infos (en) Australia, ACF Picket Line: Building power in the bush (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

ACF members started organising in bush regeneration last year; the 
industry is ripe for change. ---- I started working in bush regeneration 
five years ago. I needed a casual job and it seemed to me that, facing a 
climate crisis in one of the world's leading extinction capitals, it 
might be the most ethical job imaginable. ---- What I found was an 
industry full of contradictions. Most of the workers are deeply 
passionate about the environment and many have advanced degrees in the 
field. But this passion and knowledge is heavily exploited, with pay 
only marginally above minimum wage. The conditions are bare minimum, and 
often genuinely unsafe. I can recall more than a few arguments I've had 
with management while working on isolated sites, in 35°C heat, about 
their unwillingness to provide us with water or access to toilets.

I also found an industry at odds with a system that prioritises economic 
growth above all else.

Bushland management and conservation occupies a niche position in the 
economy. The industry is reliant on inconsistent funding, with grants 
coming from various government and council departments, as well as NGOs. 
Workers in the industry provide an essential environmental service, but 
it's rarely acknowledged as such.

The results are predictable. Passionate workers develop their skills, 
they get burnt out, and then they leave the industry. In a way, the low 
pay acts as a kind of natural filter. You need to be truly passionate 
about plants and the environment to justify working in bush regen. This 
has coloured a lot of my conversations with coworkers. We want to turn 
our shitty casual jobs into careers. We want to stop bleeding away 
knowledge and experience through high turnover. We want to be paid what 
we're worth.

Our conditions have a lot to do with how new the industry is. The oldest 
private bush regen companies date back to the late 80s or early 90s, and 
the techniques we use from the late 70s. Bush regen has never seen any 
serious attempt at getting organised. When I started, it was difficult 
to even find out which union we were supposed to be covered by. For the 
first few years I found myself paying dues to the wrong one!

Getting organised
Members of the Anarchist Communist Federation began organising in the 
industry last year. It was a slow start, but signups here and there were 
incredibly encouraging. It wasn't until 20 people showed up to our first 
meeting that we really saw the potential for how strong a union could be.

Fast forward to today and we've organised a huge chunk of the workforce 
at our company, with no sign of slowing. We also have delegates at 
several other large bush regen companies and it's looking increasingly 
likely that we'll be bargaining together for a multi-enterprise 
agreement. We have successfully implemented health and safety 
representation, and won increases in paid time off.

All of this, for me, comes after years of relatively unsuccessful 
organising efforts. I spent 3 years at one company trying to organise my 
coworkers and, in the end, had nothing to show for it. My strategy at 
the time was one still followed by many segments of the left: "be the 
loudest, most political person in your workplace."

In hindsight, the result of this strategy was entirely predictable - my 
coworkers couldn't stand me! I was just "the political guy". The most I 
achieved for all my work was convincing a couple of coworkers to vote 
Socialist at the next election.

This time, I tried a new approach. I picked it up from a couple of the 
ACF's "how to organise your workplace" workshops. I spent time 
developing my relationships at work and made myself into a reliable and 
approachable coworker. I didn't spend all my time debating my coworkers' 
politics, or trying to 'correct them' on every issue. Instead, I 
appealed to them on the basis of our shared economic interest - the 
reality of the workplace.

Rather than demand they embrace socialism in one fell swoop, the union 
allowed us to collectively develop our politics by taking action.

Something that worked really well was finding ways to involve people at 
different levels of personal capacity. We started up an "activists and 
delegates group", for those who were interested in putting in consistent 
work to grow the union.

It helped to chase smaller wins. It's not all about the Enterprise 
Agreement - you can change a lot about a workplace in the meantime. And 
every win will be one more thing you can point to to convince people to 
join up. Every issue, no matter how individual or small, is an 
opportunity to get more people involved, and to discover the hidden 
activists in your workplace. From there, you can share the workload of 
building collective power.

The school of class struggle
Since we got organised, my coworkers have developed a clearer political 
understanding of both our industry as a whole, and our place as workers 
within it. Every economic demand that the bosses resist demonstrates the 
real nature of the workplace under capitalism. It shows people that the 
power of the ruling class can only be met with the organised power of 
the workers.

Increasingly, I find that I'm having conversations about how we could 
change the industry as a whole: How, if workers controlled the industry, 
we could do things more effectively, equitably, and sustainably.

The process of developing our politics through struggle has raised other 
questions too. Weeds and biodiversity loss cost the Australian economy 
money, and the work we do as bush regenerators reduces these costs. But 
this financial benefit to the economy is minuscule. The benefits will 
never be enough for governments to justify properly investing in the 
industry. Government funding is, as much as anything, a way for the 
ruling class to cover for the environmental devastation they facilitate 
on a daily basis.

The environmental work that we care about will always be limited and 
exploited in a system run on profit and commodification. Only by getting 
organised can we build solidarity across workplaces and communities, 
demand that our industry get the resources it needs, and win the 
conditions that we deserve.

https://ancomfed.org/2026/10/building-power-in-the-bush/
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