Fridays For Future Global Climate School Strike

On 24 September, Fridays For Future commenced their global climate school strike to demand for intersectional climate justice.

Fridays For Future (FFF) requested all young activists to participate in the global climate school strike to protest for intersectional climate justice.

Greta Thunberg attends the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future

in Berlin, Germany. (Source: Christian Mang/REUTERS)

Held five weeks before the United Nations COP26 summit, the demand for more ambitious concrete climate action is prevalent.

The global event was held on Friday, 24 September — in solidarity to Greta Thunberg’s initial solo protest in August 2018.

The first global climate strike since the pandemic saw hundreds of thousands of activists over 99 counties advocating in a crowd of masks.

According to FFF’s website, the aristocracy of the Global North effectuated devastation to the land belonging to MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas) through ‘colonialism, imperialism, systemic injustices, and their wanton greed’.

In simple terms, the concept of the Global North and the Global South are rationalized by splitting the world geographically into relatively richer and poorer nations.

According to The Brandt Line, richer countries are almost all located in the Northern Hemisphere, whilst poorer countries are mostly tropical regions located in the Southern Hemisphere.

Although Malaysia is above the global average gross domestic product (GDP), nevertheless the country appears in the Global South.

Fridays For Future believes that the Global North’s exploitations have marginalized realms of society that systematically abandon MAPA.

Therefore, their movement’s objective is to guarantee indemnities to MAPA for the elite’s historic injustices.

FFF is commencing with the demand of drastic emission cuts for conglomerates in the Global North, vaccine equity, cancellation of debt, and financing for climate policies.

People take part in the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in

Berlin, Germany. (Source: Christian Mang/REUTERS)

However, issues arise when detractors and climate change sceptics begin questioning if it is wise for students to skip classes on Fridays to protest instead.

Are Malaysia’s youth ready to skip their Friday syllabus to protest for climate justice?

“There is a clear power asymmetry when individuals on the ground protest against companies that cause global warming, but Taylor’s University being a larger, stronger body levels this playing ground and requires the public to take the claims far more seriously,” said Taylor’s Debaters Club member Leen Ahmed.

Campaigns initiated by the university will have far more power than one organized by a student-based body.”

According to The Guardian, the first global climate school strike held on 15 March 2019 saw over one million activists protesting on the streets in 125 countries.

The following global climate strike on 20 September 2019 saw an outsize of four million protestors in 185 countries, according to 350.org.

As evident by previous global climate strikes, a collective global protest has proven the need for youth spearheading the protests against climate injustice for a brighter future.

Malaysia’s climate demonstrations are held in front of UTMKL in Kuala Lumpur from 12pm-1pm every Friday.