Bite-sized alternative political analysis
The facts:
A global student strike is happening this Friday. In New Zealand, thousands of students are expected to bunk school and attend climate change protests across the country. Politicians have generally expressed hostility or indifference to the protest. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been non-committal over whether she supports the protests actions or not. However, the Green Party is publicly supporting the protesting students, as are a handful of Labour MPs.
Analysis:
This strike action by students against climate change inaction is hugely significant. The politics of climate change tends to be an elite affair, with discussions on global warming usually taking place amongst establishment politicians, corporate representatives, and NGO leaders. But now the issue of climate change is being taken to the streets, with students forming a mass participatory movement to push against Government inaction.
But what impact will this student strike have? Certainly, the New Zealand Government will feel the need to defend its programme on tacking climate change in response to the protest. But the big question is what will happen the day after? Will striking students and their supporters keep the momentum up and build an ongoing movement? Or will tomorrow’s protests be a one off symbolic action? Symbolic actions can make an impact, but rarely lead to substantive change.
An ongoing movement - in the form of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), #BlackLivesMatter, or #MeToo – could act to place substantial pressure of Governments, who are dragging their feet on climate change. But what will be crucial to the success of a climate change movement is the type of demands that such a movement acts to popularize. Wishy-washy demands and general platitudes will allow Governments to ostensibly embrace the concerns of students, while in reality doing little to tackle the spectre of global warming. And a fatal blow to this new movement of climate change activism would occur if elite politicians, “progressive” corporate leaders, and established NGOs, are able to co-option the movement.
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This political roundup by John Moore is an extension on the five-minute breakfast political roundup that John gives on Radio One Dunedin, Monday to Thursday at 9am.
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