Strike!
Written By:
- Date published:
9:12 am, April 5th, 2024 - 30 comments
Categories: climate change -
Tags: SS4C
School Strike for Climate is on today.
Twenty locations around New Zealand. Details on the SS4C website and Facebook page.
More information at the SS4C NZ main Facebook page and website.
Please choose life today and support the strike in any way you can: attend in person, share information on social media, talk to people you know today about why it matters.
Background on the Strike, from Re:
Sophie Handford founded Schools Strike 4 Climate (SSFC) NZ in 2018, and at the age of 17 rallied 170,000 young people in the September 2019 students’ strike.
She now acts as the “aunty/mentor” for a new generation of SSFC NZ leadership while also working as a councillor on the Kapiti Coast District Council.
With 20 SSFC protests organised across New Zealand for Friday April 5, Sophie spoke to us about the groups’ fears for climate action under the current government and how it is rallying a whole new generation to the cause.
Since the coalition government entered Parliament, Sophie says SSFC has seen whole new levels of “outrage, frustration, anger, and inspiration” from a new generation of students and young climate activists.
“There were a lot of young people who were complacent with the last government because they saw we had left-leaning parties in power that would take climate into consideration,” Sophie says.
“Now there is a real shift. This new generation of young people are not willing to be complacent because they’ve seen progress reversed and just how much negative action can happen in a short space of time.”
Policies a ‘step backward’ for the climate
While the 2019 strike saw record numbers, this Friday’s strike has more towns signed up, Sophie says.
Many young people are feeling inspired to action by what Sophie says is the coalition government’s “ignorance” and “lack of leadership” on climate issues.
The key policy SSFC is protesting on Friday is the government’s plan to explore removing the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.
“We have more oil in our reserves than we can afford to burn anyway,” Sophie says.
“So wanting to drill for more is very concerning when the world is already on fire and Pacific countries have the shore lapping at their heels.”
But Sophie says the government’s three-month plan had many policies that would be a step backwards for the climate, including removing agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme, taking climate out of the draft policy statement on land transport, and exploring reopening the Marsden Point Oil Refinery.
While the government has proposed climate actions such as fast-tracking renewable energy projects, Sophie believes any gains made would be counteracted by these other policies.
“I have concerns about whether they’ll deliver anything positive,” Sophie says.
https://www.renews.co.nz/anger-and-outrage-students-to-rally-against-government-climate-approach/
The New Zealand Association of Scientists:
Support SOS (Save Our Science) Messages at #SS4C
Friday April 5 will see what organisers intend to the be largest School Strike For Climate #SS4C since 2019.
This occurs at a time when government support for research including much of the climate and environmental research in the $97m per year National Science is falling off a fiscal cliff. Many additional research programmes will end within 18 months. No clear replacements mean an end to many careers in vital areas of climate science when we need more work. Read more in a group statement from climate scientists.
To signal support for science in signs, pins and banners at #SS4C:
https://scientists.org.nz/news/13338462
• Please use #SOS #SaveOurScience
• Also your areas of science relevant to climate change, and design simple messages.
• Encourage groups of scientists to attend together to support the rangitahi youth – we will get separate message out to media about science.
Ora Taiao NZ Climate and Health Council:
MEDIA RELEASE, 3 April 2024
OraTaiao calls on all of Aotearoa to get active and take a stand for health this Friday, by joining the School Strike for Climate Strike to be held in at least 20 locations around the country.
“As health workers, we know that our changing climate is the biggest threat to human health and planetary well-being,” says Dr Dermot Coffey, OraTaiao co-convenor, “as well as the biggest chance to build a fairer, healthier Tiriti-founded future together.”
“Last year was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, and the first two months of 2024 smashed temperature records again. Events marking the first anniversary of the deadly Cyclone Gabrielle were hardly finished when a state of emergency was declared in Ōtautahi Christchurch, due to wildfires tearing through the Port Hills.”
“Medication won’t be enough to treat this health problem. This is why we have written a prescription for everyone of every age and everywhere in Aotearoa, to join this Friday’s School Strike for Climate”, says Dr Coffey. “We also know that a one-off action is most effective as part of an ongoing campaign, so we’ve included a few repeats.”
…
Dr Coffey says “Students clearly understand climate science and maths, they demand real climate action now, and it’s time for us to join them. We must limit long term global warming within the humanly adaptable 1.5 degrees while we still can.”
OraTaiao calls on school trustees, teachers, parents, caregivers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbours everywhere and from every workplace to join Aotearoa’s students to make this Friday’s School Strike our country’s biggest ever call for climate action.
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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I am.
send some photos if you can!
I will be at the Christchurch event. Will send pics if I can. I went to one last year, which was well organized and wound up at the City Council offices.
excellent! Shall I email you and you can send them to me to put up? Or if you have an online photo account somewhere you can load them into comments.
the kids are alright! Who knows where this video is?
https://twitter.com/gingereejit/status/1776033934519976441
Looks like Wellington, end of Willis Street leading up to junction with Lambton Quay at what used to be called Stewart Dawson's Corner.
Pōneke Wellington.
Wellington: easily >2000 people, lots of Maori flags, also Green Party and PSA.
Ones at Parliament steps, Maori songs by younger people, great.
Good mixed crowd of all ages.
According to the younger speakers, it was not just about climate action but also about social justice (Palestine, trans rights.(hmm) …
No climate action with out social justice.
For me this watered down the message.
Me too. Try and hit too many targets, you're liable to miss most if not all of them. A relatively small but dedicated group of activists who are focused on a tiny number of objectives (or preferably just one) are always going to achieve more than a flabby and divided opposition. That's how the Brexit referendum was carried.
The Kids are Alright? Not sure about that, weka. I suspect some of them are just Dedicated Followers of Fashion.
Whatever helps get rid of Plastic Man.
Making climate action fashionable is exactly what we need.
about 45 seconds in you see David Seymour on the march, with the orange hair
Lol
apologies, I should get it right. Given the way David Seymour is spending government money left right and centre, as well as foisting costs onto local council rate payers I think his name should be David Spendmore – $3 billion tax breaks for landlords, up to $100,000 a time for a referendum on maori wards which rate payers will have to foot, $millions maybe tens of $millions on his new bureaucracy and red tape Ministry to reduce bureaucracy and red tape, tens of $millions on waste of time charter schools. Spendmore.
Waiharakeke- fifty girls, 40 adults, a welcoming mayor, Greens, 2 Labour candidates, and a sign that said "You will die of old age, but we from climate change." Other signs said to "take the coal out of the coalition" and "no new mines".
I really don't think it is a good idea to piss off everyone in a car…during the Friday afternoon rush…
I think the best hope for a good turnout..is high noon on Saturday..
That's how you get families/pushchairs turning up…
..and probably quite a few of those people the demonstration has put into gridlock..
Time to rethink tactics…
Pissing off huge numbers of people/possible supporters is not very smart…
it's a strike, not a family picnic.
In the early 2000's clark did something that really pissed off the activists..(ge..?..logging..?.. something like that.. that's moot..)
And an emergency meeting was held in the green party offices…in parnell..to nut out what to do in response.
I sat and listened to all these ideas being thrown about..
..from picketing supermarkets..petitions..the usual small stuff..
I then stood and presented the arguments for a mass demonstration..and lots of feet on the ground..saying that is the only way that clark would notice/be effective..
I won that argument..signalled by a round of applause from the packed room…
I then sat back down again…as the various entities argued for where/when..for a march..
The other greens present (locke/matthews/the aussie guy)..they all argued for what 'we always do'.. namely protest on a Friday nite..during rush hour..
I then stood again and argued against them…saying pretty much what I said about the demo yesterday..
Namely…why piss people off at the end of their working week..?..and a Friday nite demo would guarantee a low turnout..
I argued that we wanted families to turn up..(pushchairs and all)..we wanted the biggest turnout..and the only way to do this was on a saturday..
I won that argument..once again on applause from the room..
I sat down again..and listed to others argue for late afternoon etc..
I stood again..and argued that the best time..to guarantee that good turnout…was midday…I used the term 'high noon'..which seemed to bring the room around..
Once again this argument was won on applause from the assembled reps of pretty much every activist group..
And this was where one of the biggest demos in nz history was born..
It was a raging success..Queen St was heaving..
And clark backed down/u-turned..
The best possible result/outcome that group of activists could have hoped for..
I relate the above take as support for my contention that Friday nite rush-hour is a stoopid idea..on multiple levels..
And I would suggest the handful of people who turned out yesterday..just underlines my arguments..
Time to rethink tactics..eh..?
2. 1pm gave people time to get from their morning at school to the events
3. it's a strike. If there is no-one of disruption, there is no point. This isn't the 2000s, it's at the end of the closing of the window of opportunity to avoid catastrophe
4. XR have superbly developed disruption strategies and tactics. They were immensely effective in shifting the public's awareness of the crisis. Those strategies and tactics aren't suitable for all times and places, but it's just wrong to say they don't work.
Approximately 350 in Auckland – I doubt the rush hour traffic would even have noticed – if it weren’t for the strange closure of SH1 between Parnell and Grafton – for 30 minutes.
https://twitter.com/WakaKotahiAkNth/status/1776095461868237196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1776097963279852031%7Ctwgr%5E0fc967f49e30d1fe2023666b40896ae5499b7d8a%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fportal.24liveblog.com%2F
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/04/05/students-hit-the-streets-at-climate-strikes-across-the-country/
Messrs Dox and Stalk.
Vile pricks. /
Liam P. Hehir
@PronouncedHare
If you’re a SS4C leader this is your reminder to scrub your socials to remove all photos of all overseas holidays.
2:52 PM · Apr 5, 2024
https://twitter.com/PronouncedHare/status/1776065330772914231
Simon Anderson
@SimonRAnderson
Hello everyone, I'm out and about so will post my impression of School Strike for Climate later. The headline is there were hardly any school kids there, in fact I didn't see any. It seemed totally co-opted by adults pushing other agendas such as Palestine and co-governance.
7:44 PM · Apr 5, 2024
·https://twitter.com/SimonRAnderson/status/1776138767146836237
I managed to get to the Nelson march today (we're a way out). It was good to see a range of ages there. I wondered how many of we grey hairs would be there but there were plenty.
It was multi-focus as it covered climate change, solidarity with Gaza/Palestine, and resistance against the coalition's undermining of te tiriti.
Not sure if it would have been better to focus on the climate crisis.
I think the focus needs to be tighter.
the criticism I've seen today was from the right, and along the lines of 'they're too young to know, let them be kids, all the political stuff is being driven by adults'. Which is daft enough to look like a front for climate denial.
I marched against the Tour at 15, so SS4C seems normal to me.
The problem I have is that the movement isn't big enough to sustain a wider focus. It's good for that age group to be organising, getting inspired and affirmed, learning skills. It's not even close to being enough. We really are in a bad place with climate action in NZ atm.
On reflection I agree. It was a wee bit muddied.
Especially when you consider that there has been a weekly Palestine solidarity march on Saturdays in Nelson for some months now. (I've been on a handful of them but live quite a way from Nelson).
The three issues highlighted matter to me but if I had to choose one it's the climate crisis which is why I'm putting energy into helping establish local food networks in the area where I live to boost community resilience.
same.
We should be having climate strikes every week. If the kids are protesting Palestine regularly instead, that tells me about the actual priority climate action is getting.
No way of knowing what cross-over there was. There seemed to be more flags and placards about Palestine than the climate crisis on the march in Nelson yesterday but that could just be because they were supplied by Te Tau Ihu Palestine Solidarity.
I've just come across this:
Swarbrick wants to build a mass climate movement
Chloe is in Nelson Tasman next weekend. I plan to go to the GP provincial meeting to hear her.
She's also speaking with Nelson deputy mayor Rohan O'Neill-Stevens at "Pints and Politics" at a Nelson bar on Saturday evening. I would love to attend that but a 160km round trip on a Saturday evening for a meeting at a bar – what could possibly go wrong?
that's disappointing to hear.
haha, yeah but beer and politics is good!
I'm somewhat hopeful about her vision of movement building but I think there is a major stumbling block in the sorting people into good and bad politics. CW has a blindspot, which is why she couldn't see the problem with being in her position and taking a position on Palestine that seems to be risking the fueling of anti-semitism in NZ. She is right and Jews are wrong and need to look at their racism is what came across. That's a huge problem in multiple ways not least because she didn't bother to differentiate between Jewish people and the Israeli government that is engaged in a genocidal attack on Palestinians.