Youth

The Green New Deal calls for an economic revolution to put people and planet before profit. In contrast many unions are still supporting environmentally destructive industries. Now is the time for worker-youth solidarity to demand climate and social justice.

Young supporters of Labour for a Socialist Europe went to Young Labour’s Political School in Birmingham on 11 May and spoke to lots of attendees about Brexit. We also hosted an evening social with Spoons Workers Against Brexit.

There was no mention of Brexit on the agenda or in Jeremy Corbyn’s opening speech, but we had a good reception with Labour for a Socialist Europe material and the Young Labour Left against Brexit statement.

London Young Labour’s AGM on 31 March was billed by its organisers as “a packed day of elections and debates that will set the political direction of the organisation for the year”. But the only debate that took place was on the single motion to be heard: a statement in support of the Labour leadership’s Brexit strategy, out of date since the indicative votes took place in Parliament last week.

Eleanor Buffery is a year 8 school student in Gloucester who organised the local youth strike for climate. She spoke to Maisie Sanders.

I found out about the strikes in the local and national news and I thought it was really important. I read more about it, talked to my friends and we decided to take action! I got in touch with Youth Strike for Climate nationally, set up a social media page and got started organising our own strike.

In the run-up to the huge anti-Brexit protest on 23 March Young Labour member Alex Fernandes replied to NEC youth rep Lara McNeill’s article “I’m Labour’s NEC [National Executive] youth rep – and I won’t be at the People’s Vote march”.

The best guess is that one and half million students, in over 120 countries, struck on Friday 15 March to demand that their governments start emergency action on climate change.

In London, the central rally of school students in Parliament Square was 4,000 or more. Everyone we talked with said there was no ongoing organisation in their school for the walkout. They’d found out about it on social media and come with their friends.

There were also sizeable groups of university students at Parliament Square.

Occasionally, just occasionally, there are weeks full of silver linings. The one that saw Britain's first nationwide schools climate strikes was definitely one of them.

When Greta Thunberg began her lone climate protest outside the Swedish Parliament last August she was not to know that, within 6 months there would be 70,000 pupils a week, across 270 towns and cities worldwide, who would be joining her. Their message was simple: "Wake up! There's a climate emergency."

If you had followed the week's debates in Britain's Parliament you wouldn't have guessed.

Tens of thousands of young people joined the Youth Strike for Climate school walkouts on Friday 18 February in town centres and outside schools across the UK. It was organised as part of the Fridays for Future school walkouts started by Swedish school student Greta Thurnberg, which have now gone global.

Lilly Murphy, a year 9 student in Melbourne who was involved in the 30 November Australian school students’ strike for climate action, talked with Workers’ Liberty Australia.