Fridays for Future is back.
The youth climate movement is returning to the streets and screens on Friday after months of pandemic-induced quiet to protest what it sees as lackluster efforts by governments to rein in global warming.
The challenge to mobilize during pandemic-related restrictions is “immense,” said Luisa Neubauer, one of the leading faces of the Fridays for Future movement and an emerging political star on Germany’s climate politics scene, in an interview.
But, she added: “The climate record is disastrous, emissions are rising … every day there are more reasons to strike: the necessity for protest is growing.â€
The student protests grew from a solitary strike by youth icon Greta Thunberg in 2018 into a global movement mobilizing millions. COVID lockdowns hobbled live protests and forced campaigners to shift their activities online.
But with the COP26 climate talks less than eight months away, the movement is determined to push climate change back to the top of the agenda instead of the pandemic.
“We’re going to drum up so much pressure for COP26, we’re planning huge strikes this year,” Mitzi Jonelle Tan, an activist from the Philippines, told reporters in a virtual press conference Thursday. “Tomorrow is only the beginning … We’re here, we never left and we will be stronger and more united than ever.”
Organizers say Friday will see a mix of physical and digital demonstrations in over 700 locations in 50 countries.
The strike is also meant to highlight climate concerns in Germany ahead of this September’s national election. Protests are expected around the country and will include bike demonstrations, small sit-ins and online art and photo stunts, Neubauer said.
“We’re very ready to give everything so that this super election year will become a super climate election year,” she said, adding that this year’s focus is to “massively mobilize first [time] voters.”
That focus on electoral calculations is a sign of the climate movement’s determination to become a long-term factor in national politics.
“We understand the protest as the central tool of our movement, but it’s not the only method that’s available to us,” Neubauer said. “We know movements have the greatest chance of success when they use a variety of methods. That means on the one hand, blockades … civil disobedience and on the other, also personal exchanges.”
Fridays for Future is also becoming more global, outgrowing its European origins.
“One thing that really changed in the movement is because we were forced into this online space we had that opportunity to interact with a lot of people from around the world, and because of that there was this privilege check,” said Jon Bonifacio of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines.
“For the longest time, Fridays for Future was dominated by a lot of white voices,” he said. “It was founded by Greta, who is an amazing person, but the narrative of the people in the Global South who are most affected was not put in the forefront of the movement until relatively recently and that is a necessary change … because of that Fridays for Future will [become] much more powerful.”
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