Kate Whitaker shares the best ways of getting involved in the upcoming, global strike for climate
Students and young people around the world have been walking out of school every Friday to demand urgent action on climate change – now they’re asking adults to join them.
Just over a year ago, 16 year old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, started striking from school on a Friday. The idea has since snowballed, growing into the Fridays for Future movement.
In Scotland, Scottish Youth Climate Strike has organised two huge strikes which have seen tens of thousands of Scottish children and young people take to the streets to demand the government takes serious action to address the climate emergency.
This month, the Fridays For Future climate strike movement is organising its biggest actions yet. After two successful global climate strikes – involving over 1.8 million school children around the world – governments are starting to listen but still failing to take serious action on the climate crisis.
School strikers are organising a big week of climate action, starting with a global strike on Friday 20th September. It is time for adults to step up to the mark and join the children in taking action.
How to get involved
- Join a strike near you. Find a list of planned locations on the SYCS website here.
- Volunteer as a steward in either the Edinburgh or Glasgow marches. Glasgow stewards can sign up using this Google form. Edinburgh stewards can get in touch with Kate at Friends of the Earth Scotland for more information, by emailing [email protected]
- Encourage your workplace to support the strike. Many organisations have given staff paid leave to join the demonstrations and others have granted extended lunch breaks. Many individuals have taken annual leave to be part of the mobilisation.
- If you can’t leave work for the strike, you could take a solidarity photo and share it on social media and/or hang a supportive banner from your building.
- Ask your organisation to contribute to the costs of organising. Get in touch with Friends of the Earth Scotland who are temporarily holding the money for SYCS at [email protected]
- The strike is likely to happen just before the final stage the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Bill. Now is a great time to build pressure by getting in touch with your MSP to tell them to vote for tougher targets!
Kate Whitaker is activism organiser at Friends of the Earth Scotland
