The Power of Activism
Extract from our new publication ‘Power.’
They will tell you the rules are that those we see in the news and the parliaments and boardrooms hold all the power and you must be nice to them and perhaps they will give you crumbs, or the time of day, or just a door slammed in your face. They will tell you that things can only change in tiny increments by predictable means. They’re wrong. Sometimes you don’t have to ask for permission or for anything because you hold the power and you yourselves decide which way the door swings. Nothing is possible without action; almost anything is when we rise up together, as you are doing today.
— Rebecca Solnit, to climate strikers
People under the age of 18 are largely seen as not having any power, let alone being mature enough to use it. “We are, after all, just children,” said Greta Thunberg, ironically alluding to this common preconception. But if 2019 has shown us anything, it’s that under-18s — just like anyone else who’s passionate about something, regardless of their age — can go against what’s expected of them, and not do as they’re told.
Refusing to go to school, brushing off orders to stay quiet and to stop wasting time, and telling world leaders that it’s them who’ve behaved childishly — these are some of the ways that under-18s have misbehaved this past year, shunning the type of sofa activism that most of us are comfortable doing. And for what? To save the planet? What a naive, exaggerated and far-fetched idea, many still say. But there’s a simple lesson to be learnt: if adults have shown us the power of humans to cause extinction, then under-18s have shown us the power of humans to try to prevent it. In the words of 13-year-old Autumn Peltier, a First Nations clean water activist, “Now is the time to warrior up and empower each other to take a stand for our planet.”
In the following, we chatted with two youth climate warriors to understand how their activism is challenging the power structures that allowed this mess to happen in the first place.
Jeronimo Zarco, 15, Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion Youth
How did you get involved in climate activism?
My climate-related activist days began with both Fridays For Future
(FFF) Mexico and FFF Mexico City in March 2019 along the first
global climate strike (which I helped organise in Mexico). I became a coordinator of the movement and the International/National Speaker
for the Mexican movement. I also organised the May 24th march. For personal reasons, I moved to New York City where I met with Greta Thunberg and participated in the September 20th strike. I received the UN Environment’s Champions of the Earth Award on behalf of Greta and the FFF movement alongside other environmental activists from all around the world. Later in the year, I joined Extinction Rebellion Youth USA and Extinction Rebellion Youth NYC. I am now organising alongside FFF NYC the December 6th strike.
How do you feel about criticism of what you’re doing?
I believe that there are two types of criticism: non-valid and constructive criticism. Non-valid criticism of the climate movement(s) is usually a defence mechanism of “boomers” (or in general older people) who want to keep
this suicidal economic and political system, or it’s climate crisis deniers
that are simply ignorant people. However, constructive criticism is a whole different thing. Constructive criticism allows us to grow and actually make our movement(s) stronger and more accessible. It allows us to be better. Ultimately, I believe that criticism is good because it makes our fight noticeable and a conversational and debatable topic in everyday lives.
What are the values underpinning the movement?
The movement started when the youth around the world realised that the climate crisis had to be the major focus on the political and economical landscape to protect and ensure a livable and sustainable future for
the young and upcoming generations. Our movement is based on the
values to protect life and to hear and act around the science. We demand governments to declare a state of Climate Emergency (and act on it) and to hold polluters accountable. Acting now is the only way may save humanity. [But] the actions taken by big enterprises and/or governments so far are not even close to what is needed.
How do you stay safe?
We keep us safe! My activist friends protect me and I protect my activist friends. It’s a beautiful alliance based on friendship and love.
Have you seen any direct results yet, even small actions that worked? (per- haps also add examples of things that didn’t work? on the premise that we can learn from the good and bad.)
Yes. In the lower scale, individual actions work such as boycotting fast fashion or going vegan. However, on a big scale, these actions have an extremely small impact on reducing climate change. The world needs big actions. Some countries have already declared a Climate Emergency such as the UK, Canada, Portugal, Spain among others. Recently, the Mexican Senate has exhorted the presidency to declare it. Unfortunately, many of these “Climate Emergency Declarations” are just that: declarations. The declaration should not be just a saying but also actions must happen after it. Besides this, some other actions work such as mass tree plantation and banning single use plastics.
Oscar Glancy, 16, Extinction Rebellion (XR) Youth
What does power mean to you?
Power means strength: the power of you, yourself as a person; the power of people and the environment around you. Power to me also means community. ‘People-power’ is a term used a lot by social action groups and movements like XR, and past XR actions like the April Rebellion in London really made the power of people who come together as a resilient community extremely clear.
What does power make you think of?
Power makes me think of change. Of current movements like XR and past social action movements like the Civil Rights movement. These groups have been on the frontline of bringing about people-led change to create
a fairer and healthier society, and it was only possible when thousands or millions of people banded together under a name and took to the streets to demand action.
How does power make you feel?
Power makes me feel empowered. The empowerment and adrenaline- rush that I have felt through taking part in XR actions and also the youth climate strikes is amazing and you really can’t describe it — the feeling of doing something (often) illegal yet so righteous and critically important, surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people from all walks of life yet with the same mindset of urgent climate action. You really can’t put it into words the emotions that this creates in you as it’s such a mixture of positive and negative, of hope and fear, but it really is something incredible to be a part of.
What don’t you like about power?
How easily it can be controlled and manipulated. From when the Holocaust was ‘legal’ and hiding Jews was criminalised by Hitler, to when slavery was legal in America and freeing them was often illegal. These huge injustices through time by an imbalance of power have been responsible for a huge amount of human suffering. It is this same imbalance of power that I am now fighting against by being part of XR — fighting against a toxic system that priorities the business interests and profits of multi-billion pound corporations, rather than the lives and futures of children who will come to inherit the world. Governments and corporations now have so much power that it is extremely hard to bring about change, even more so with the vast transformative changes that we need to see in our society to avoid a climate breakdown. This misplacement of power is what I am fighting to change.
This content originally featured in the magazine Power, which is free to download here.