School strike! COVER STORY

What makes a student walk out of class to protest against climate change, and what do their parents think about it?

Why are students skipping lessons to protest against climate change, and what do their parents think?

What are the school strikes?

They were started by Greta Thunberg in August 2018 when she walked out of school and sat outside the Swedish Parliament. She had a sign that said: ‘Skolstrejk for klimatet’, which means ‘School strike for the climate’. Her message is simple: we know there is a problem, so why is nothing being done? If the grown-ups don’t learn their lessons, why should we bother going to ours?

Small people with small voices are often ignored but Greta has really made a difference. On my first strike day in February, there were around 1.5 million children all over the world joining in – after just six months, she has reached so many people. How else can we be heard? We can’t vote, so we must strike.

What do you hope to achieve?

I want all the people who are supposed to be running our country to start treating the climate seriously. I am sick that they talk about Brexit as if it’s the most important thing but don’t talk about the environment. Whichever side wins Brexit, we will basically be okay – but there will be no winners in the climate breakdown. So, we strike to try and make politicians talk about important stuff. And we strike because they will be dead while we are living in the chaos they left behind.

I want these strikes to make politicians look at their children and grandchildren and think about what their failure will do to them and their future.

What happened on your first strike?

The crowds on the street in Oxford were incredible and the weather was lovely, too. In the news, they said about a thousand students attended. It was so big that they had to move the meeting point.

I held a banner at my first strike that said ‘Why should I tidy my room when the world is in such a mess?’, which sums it all up for me. There were some speeches from students and adults, talking about the problems and the solutions. And then

“I want politicians to look at their children and grandchildren and think about what their failure will do to them and their future.”

we marched through the city chanting. There was no way people could miss the fact that something was happening. It was very exciting. I borrowed my dad’s camera and took photographs for my school and wrote an article for the school magazine, too. I was interviewed and had to act for [documentary film director] Franny Armstrong. She was making a trailer called What If, to tell people that her amazing film The Age of Stupid was being re-released after 10 years. It was set in a different world where climate change was solved and we had to stop doing school strikes. I had to say “Oh no, I guess we have to go back to school now” – it was great fun.

Were there any key turning points? What made you want to join in?

I have a photograph of me as a baby on a demonstration against the war in Iraq in 2003. I was only a few weeks old. My parents both campaign about things and I have joined them on marches in London. But this was my protest. My dad came along but he was only there to support the strike.

We have been taught about climate change in school. And I have heard my parents talking about it. But it was really hearing about Greta that got me thinking that maybe I could make a difference.

When the news mentions climate change there are experts who say that it is really important and I just don’t understand why – if they say it is so urgent – we are still doing nothing about it.

What about people who say: ‘these are just kids! What do they know?’

We know that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is causing the world to warm up and we know that this is causing damage to the environment. We know that we can make this less bad if we stop burning fossil fuels. We also know that people are wanting to build new runways for more airplanes and people are trying to get more fossil fuel out of the ground with things like fracking. So, it is clear that there is a problem and that there is a solution and that the people in charge aren’t doing enough about it.

I think Greta speaks very clearly about this issue and we share something – I am autistic, too – and if something is wrong, I say it is wrong. And often I get into trouble with my parents because I say things that they think are rude. But, if they’re true, I don’t see why I shouldn’t say them.

How about the argument that you are simply playing truant?

I feel that the adults are the ones who are playing truant. They’re running away and hiding from doing what they know needs to be done, and us children are the ones who are starting to clear up their mess. The headmistress at my school made us each write a letter to her, explaining why we were going on the school strike and what we had already learnt about climate change. I think that was a good idea. There are some schools that are threatening to put students in detention for going on the strike, and I think that is really mean. Again, it was Greta who pointed out that it is silly for us to concentrate on education when those that are educated are ignoring the most important thing. In an article I read, she said, ‘Why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future? And what is the point of learning facts when the most important facts clearly mean nothing to our society?’ I also heard her on the news, she said something that I thought was very important – she was talking to world leaders and said: “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.” She has done amazing things starting the school strike. I hope I can be more like her. I hope we all can be more like her.

As a parent, did you encourage Matilda to take part or try to dissuade her?

Mati is in her GCSE year, so I am not blasé about her education. This is an important time for her and she needs to concentrate on school work. But it is also important that she is able to express genuinely held views about the state of the world. So, I encouraged her – and lent her one of my good cameras to record the event for her school magazine. When I was her age, I began to get involved – a group of us took a trip from Marlborough College to Greenham Common to join the protest against nuclear weapons. Maybe this sort of thing runs in the blood!

How did you feel when she walked out of school?

It was with a feeling of deep pride and great excitement that I met Mati at the school gate for her first strike – a stream of her friends were also coming out with witty (and sometimes rather rude!) homemade banners and placards. Most children made their own way in but Mati wanted to be early to get good photographs, so I met her on our tandem and we raced off. I spoke to many of the parents whose children were involved, and the consistent reaction was pride. Certainly, in Oxford, it felt like the beginning of something special.

Have she and her fellow strikers actually achieved anything?

We are writing this now – and that would not have happened had the strikers not

“I feel that the adults are the ones playing truant. They’re running away from what they know needs to be done.”

taken a stand. We would not be having such an animated discussion about climate change if the small snowball of a girl, Greta Thunberg, had not started rolling. She has energised the debate through her clarity and honesty. She has spoken ‘truth to power’ as Mahatma Gandhi described it. A new generation of activists is being born in the wake of the school strikes – and with a very positive message. In the short term, it has the impact of creating a broader conversation. In the medium to long term, it is a cohort of adults who are deeply aware of the need to create a better world.

What about the XR movement – would you consider taking part yourself?

I think it is important that XR (Extinction Rebellion) and the school strike are separate things. One is organised by adults, the other by students. But I am sure that many school strikers will end up joining the rebellion! I have photographed XR protests in Oxford and took part in a magical evening led by folk singer Sam Lee, as he brought thousands of activists together in Berkeley Square in the heart of Mayfair. We were there to celebrate the music of the nightingale, and mourn for the loss of so much life.

My wife, the filmmaker Zoe Broughton, has been very active covering the protests in London. And we are prepared should she end up getting arrested. The inconvenience of the disruption caused by the protest – or the inconvenience of arrest – are really trivial in comparison to the ‘inconvenience’ of a degraded planet.

Why is direct action necessary, in your view?

There has been a long history of direct action creating change. Women would have not got a vote if they had stayed at home and asked politely. Workers would not have holidays if they had meekly asked the bosses for a break. Do you think samesex marriage would have been allowed had people not taken action? Though, asking politely is important, too – but just don’t stop when turned down. Ask again, more forcefully. And when every legal avenue has been exhausted, direct action is not just reasonable – it is absolutely necessary. I have sat in front of bulldozers at Twyford Down, trying to stop the extension of the M3 – and also during the Newbury bypass protest – both in the 1990s. I completely support nonviolent direct action as a tool to create political change. In fact, I have made a film for the Quakers with Zoe, called Nonviolence for a Change.

Are the politicians listening?

The sensible ones are! The ones that can see beyond their own short career in Parliament are – and a move towards a declaration of a climate emergency is happening. Around the world, you will see that there are people of power and influence who are, metaphorically, bending the knee to Greta Thunberg. Wise politicians, of whom we have too few, will also see that the school strike is a brilliant way to get a more systematic change to occur. The money that drives politics springs from selfinterest. At the moment that self-interest sees short-term financial reward as the measure of success. But if there is an entire generation moving through the consumerist system with very different ideals, then money will move.

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