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Skipping school to save our future

Tags: citizens, event, student, weallyouth
Published on March 11, 2019

 

Blog by  Esther Snijder – WEAll Youth

 

 

All around the world, young people have come together to strike on behalf of the climate. They want the world leaders to start acting on their words and take a stand  for better climate policies. WEAll Youth joined them on the 7th of February in the Hague, the Netherlands and on the 10th of March in Amsterdam where more than 40.000  people joined the demonstration.

We started at Zwolle station, where there were already people  on the train carrying signs. It was so busy that we had to stand. The whole way there more people boarded the train and at the last stop, before the Hague, it was so busy that the train had to keep going because it could not fit any more people.   At the Malieveld, where the strike started, a speech was held by Youth For Climate. Youth For Climate is an organisation that initiates and supports   many of the climate strikes around Europe. Once we started walking through the street 10,000 students chanted: “What do we want? Climate Justice! When do we want it? NOW!”. We walked past the parliament building and afterwards we came back to the Malieveld again. It was very empowering to walk among so many people who were also standing up for their future.

The climate strikes started with Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old Swedish girl. She started in September, and has been striking every Friday since. Fridays For Future has since grown into an enormous movement of young people striking everyFriday and even on some  Thursday’s. Strikes have been held in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland & the US.

On the 15th of March is the global Friday for future strike.

What can you do? Join them!

Even if you are not a student.  Time to get out some paper and start making your sign!

Find out here if there is a strike near you: https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/events/list?fbclid=IwAR0dA0C-KSFqpJve0BKWunAhS1O1Bfk0kcYU4gkTpm8qKfrBEWEgONuZmNE

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