How many of us have read the news this year about the terrible heat waves and wildfires that have ravaged the globe and questioned whether there was anything we could do to put an end to the widespread madness of burning fossil fuels even though we are aware that this is the source of both events? The word from End Fossil Occupy is enough.
We hear stories of our so-called leaders holding secret meetings in seclusion before departing for their respective nations with weakly worded communiqués that promise significant change in 20 or 30 years. “End Fossil Occupy” ends the protest.
Even then, some obstructionists, like Joe Manchin, stand up and say they won’t back any climate action unless it comes with big tax relief for themselves and their affluent buddies. The United States’ Supreme Court, which is adamant about ramming a state-sponsored religion down everyone’s throat while dismantling the few existing climate measures, is another factor that makes the future of humanity increasingly bleak.
Greta Thunberg stormed onto the scene a few years ago with her Climate Strike campaign for school children, but even she has been silenced by those who support the existing quo. However, a new group of youths going by the name of End Fossil Occupy has just released a manifesto urging students all over the world to organize demonstrations at their schools to demand an end to fossil fuels. They are hopeful that, like the frequently cited anonymous proverb, “Small creeks develop into huge rivers,” their call to action will bear fruit.
The event’s organizers have made it clear that they don’t want any old people with gray hair (like me) interfering with their fun. They’ve had enough of hollow talk and failed promises. Although they might not want many people over the age of 30 among them, they can’t ban me from covering their campaign. The full text of their manifesto, as released on July 26 by The Guardian , is provided below.
Why were you moving forward with strikes. The radical youth movement is prepared to occupy!
Schools and universities all over the world intend to go beyond traditional school strikes by occupying our campuses and calling for the demise of the fossil economy.
The youth of the climate justice movements will disrupt business as usual by learning from the experiences of student activists in the 1960s. Not because we dislike learning, but rather because what we now know makes it plain that we cannot guarantee a habitable world for our present and futures without making a radical departure from this system.
Why occupy? since we have marched. We started petitions. Our open letters have been sent. We’ve met with boards, commissions, and governments. We have struck. On every continent of the world, we have crowded squares, streets, and avenues with hundreds or, all together, millions of people. We have yelled at the top of our voices. Even some of us have taken part in sit-ins, blockades, and die-ins.
And then COVID-19 arrived, and our momentum sharply diminished, just as it appeared the seed for a profound and dramatic social transformation was sprouting amid the vast 2019 climate mobilizations. But the production of greenhouse gases, the exploitation of the global south, and the unfathomable profits made by the fossil fuel sector didn’t go down.
It’s no secret that the fossil fuel business, our enemy, controls the world. And it is not only not falling, but is actually stronger than before. The fossil fuel industry has 195 carbon bomb projects, which endanger our expectation for a global warming of no more than 1.5C, the safe threshold, according to a new study by The Guardian. That’s right, the biggest oil firms are on schedule to spend 103 million dollars on environmental devastation projects every day for the remainder of the decade, notwithstanding our institutions and politicians’ laughable performance at COP26 in 2021. (emphasis added).
Additionally, the climate crisis is an unfair one. The most recent IPCC assessments demonstrate that those who have contributed the least to the initial cause of climate change are frequently those who are most adversely affected by it. It is our historic duty to step forward to avert the largest catastrophe in human history as young people born on the cusp of it.
What then do we do? We must now organize massively because we will never be able to accept defeatism. A new mobilization peak that is comparable to and even greater than 2019 must be established. If there was a sign we were looking for, this is it. We are more confident than ever that mobilizing larger than ever is not only possible, but also essential given the rising temperatures.
We can’t make the same mistakes again. Our only chance for survival requires us to disrupt things as usual more than ever. The invention and creativity of today’s youth, along with their ferocious desire for upheaval and liberation, have the power to transform the world. As a generation of students from around the world, we must upend the status quo and begin at the places where we have the ability to mobilize and organize, such as our schools and colleges. As is the case with the several universities that invest in the fossil fuel sector, including Oxford, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, McGill, Northwestern, MIT, etc., they are occasionally intimately implicated in the destruction business.
Other times, they are connected to it inadvertently. They prepare us for a world of fossil capitalism that has no future. They want us to go to school and behave normally while we learn. The world we are learning for, however, is the one that brought us the climate disaster, and it has no future. The key issue facing our generation is how to prevent a global climate disaster. will not be resolved by attending class.
The basic line is that we cannot continue to act normal and continue to study as if the world is not on fire. We will stop living our normal lives to demonstrate to our governments and society that everything needs to change right away, just as other students have done before us, including the students of May 68 in France, the Arab Spring, the Chilean Penguin Revolution, the Primavera Secundarista in Brazil, and Occupy Wall Street. We urge on young people to band together and establish a global revolutionary generation that can overturn the system, from Lisbon to California, Per to Germany, and Madrid to the Ivory Coast.
Under the call to action End Fossil: Occupy!, we will occupy hundreds of schools and institutions around the world between September and December 2022 to put an end to the fossil economy on a global scale. As long as they adhere to our 3 guiding principles of youth-led occupation, a climate justice framework, and occupy until we win, we invite anyone and everyone to join us and organize occupations in their schools or institutions.
Through this inspiring global action moment, we will resurrect the young movement, forge new alliances, radicalize, mobilize the entire society to support and occupy, and imagine the kind of world we want, one where life, not profit, is put first. To destroy the fossil fuel industry, we shall rise up in a spirit of justice and liberty. There can be no question that youth are a revolutionary topic. We will change the course of history, upend the fossil economy, and turn the tide.
Here we are. We are irrational. We are prepared to move in.
THE CONCLUSION That is certainly some serious material, huh? There are things you can do even though they might not be too fond of older people (who, let’s just say, have done the most to bring the world to this situation and very little to get us out of it). You can first and foremost inform your own children and grandchildren about the movement and encourage them to get part if they so want.
Additionally, you can make it a point to vote in November to ensure that the Blue Team, who are themselves highly complicit in supporting the fossil fuel industry, maintains control of both houses of Congress and has a sizeable majority in the Senate to finally render coal baron Joe Manchin irrelevant. Finally, irrespective of who you are or your age, you can offer to help . The organization may perhaps think about using the following words from a song by Hibbing, Minnesota’s Robert Zimmerman as their motto:
Come senators and members of Congress, heed the call!
Don’t block the hallway or stand in the doorway.
Because the person who suffers will be the one who stalled.
The conflict raged outside.
Soon your walls and windows will tremble because the times are changing.
Parents everywhere, come and don’t criticize what you don’t comprehend.
You have no control on your sons or daughters.
Your former route is quickly returning.
If you can’t help out, kindly leave the new one because times are changing.
As manifestos go, this one is decent.
Finally, Juice Media would be a good choice for End Fossil Occupy to work with. After aiding in the removal of the vile Scott Morrison from government in Australia, they have now turned their attention to the US. Their first attempt was roasting the Supreme Court with humor. Juice Media occasionally employs language that some people may find controversial and insulting. Both Down Under and here, it was successful. Please don’t watch it if you fear being insulted. We have forewarned you!
Dan Allard is to blame if you find the Juice Media video objectionable. He informed us of it!
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