Schoolchildren to stage climate protest in city
YOUNGSTERS TO TAKE PART IN ECO PROTESTS
HUNDREDS of children will take to the streets of Newcastle again on Friday to demand urgent action to tackle the climate emergency.
Youngsters will be skipping school to join another massive climate strike in the city, as they call for environmental issues to be pushed to the forefront of the general election campaign.
In September, more than 1,500 people joined in a protest march from Newcastle Civic Centre to Grey’s Monument, joining millions of campaigners worldwide. Protesters will now gather outside the civic centre, in Barras Bridge, from 11am on Friday morning to demand that a ‘Green New Deal’ is implemented by the next government.
Anna Taylor, co-founder of the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN), will be attending the Newcastle climate strike this week. She said: “This election is without doubt a climate election. It is arguably the most important election we have had so far this century, and as such this is the most important strike.
“It is imperative that the general public make clear our desire for climate justice to be treated with utmost priority by the elected government, and our refusal to stand aside and allow the current lack of action to continue.”
UKSCN said that the prospect of striking students being punished for missing schools is “a challenge, but we recognise that the threat of inaction on the climate crisis is infinitely greater”.
The group added that it has been “disappointed” by Newcastle City Council’s lack of drastic action since the authority declared a climate emergency in April.
School pupils will be joined by campaigners from environmental activist groups like Extinction Rebellion (XR), some of whom will be marching across the Tyne Bridge from Gateshead to join the strike.
An XR North East spokesperson said: “We are marching from Gateshead to join the youth strikers in Newcastle as we feel it’s important we show solidarity. Youth are striking internationally and for them it’s about their future. Climate change is going to affect these young people more significantly than us older generations.”
Trade unionists, including academics on strike from Newcastle University this week, are also expected to take part in the protest.
A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council, said: “We fully support those taking action to raise awareness about the need to tackle climate change.
“As a city council we have put climate change at the heart of our decisionmaking and are looking at how we can work together with businesses, organisations, communities and schools across the city. We have already established a cross-party climate change committee along with a net zero citywide task force and a citizens’ assembly to look at how the city can respond to this crisis.”