6 April 2019

Maxim Zhang, a student in Year 12 of high school, reflects on the Auckland School Strike 4 Climate, which was one of his first ever political actions.

Friday March 15 2019 will go down in the history of Aotearoa as the day on which a far-right terrorist murdered fifty innocent Muslims in two Christchurch mosques.  But less than two hours before that monstrous atrocity began, which brought thousands of New Zealanders together against fascism and racial hatred, another momentous event also took place.  This event, the School Strike for Climate Action, demonstrated to both the country and the world the amount of solidarity we have against inequality, injustice and barbaric savagery; not only towards the earth and its plants and animals, but also towards each other.

Not caring for our environment will lead to the interminable and excruciating suffering of those who are the least responsible for environmental problems.  Millions of workers and farmers around the globe are labouring in inhumane conditions, and not only carrying the burden of being oppressed and exploited, but also the burdens of both the physical and moral torment of climate change.  “You are responsible for global warming!” say the capitalists, while they sit in the highest offices of their skyscrapers, air conditioning blasting on full, telling their secretaries to transact another million to the politicians, so that another green deal can be declined.  “Use less plastic, you are killing our planet!” say the government and the media, while they ignore corporations filling rivers and lands with literal poison.

Are our rulers ignorant of the real causes of the problems in our society — of which climate change is only one?  Or are they intentionally deceiving us? If it’s the former, then why do we allow such incompetent people to determine our futures?  And if it’s the latter — why do we permit bloody liars to hold such power? Liars, who not only escape punishment for their crimes, but, on the contrary, are rewarded for being mendacious, while honest, hard-working people are paying the price for their criminality, and being constantly questioned by those who are most responsible, made everyday to feel themselves guilty?

However, the climate strike a few weeks ago brought hope to me.  Of course, there weren’t chants and banners condemning capitalism as the root cause of the climate crisis, at least not this time — for students and young people are also targets and victims of the continuous bombardment of propaganda and lies.  We cannot expect a sudden revolution and mass struggle — though we are working on it! But the unity and solidarity of all kinds of students and supporters, with different opinions, but a common empathy for the environment and for others, was incredible to be part of.  The outcome of our solidarity was mightily impressive; we were a loud voice, both literally and metaphorically.

The struggle for climate action, however, should not be a one day event.  The entire system we live under is by its very nature unsustainable; an afternoon of students not going to school is definitely not going to build enough pressure to create lasting, systemic change.  Through more, even bigger protests, we can make the elites realise that not taking concrete steps towards climate justice, and instead just saying “we’ve heard you”, will never satisfy us. The March 15 climate strike must only be the first and smallest action we take towards changing the system as a whole.

Another issue with the climate strike is that there weren’t congruent common goals or demands between the different individuals and groups involved.  On the one hand, there were those, including the organisers of the strike, whose demands were all reforms that the government should implement.  They are right that the government isn’t doing anything like enough about the ecological crisis, especially when it comes to agriculture and new fossil fuel exploration/extraction.  But the reformists are wrong to believe that the same ruling class which created this climate crisis will be able to solve it.

On the other hand, there were people calling for vegetarianism, and supporting the use of eco-friendly products such as metal straws and canvas shopping bags.  These individual-focussed demands are to some extent good for the environment, but unfortunately are also attempts to escape the reality of capitalism. No matter how hard we try as individuals to reduce our harm to the planet, it will never be enough to make up for the vast amount of pollution corporations cause.  And even if that were not the case, workers who are working long hours for low wages while paying sky-high rents, struggling to survive as it is, will simply not be able to afford to buy environmentally friendly products, for which capitalists charge, conveniently, a higher price.

I disagree with both the reformist and individualistic demands made by some sections of the climate strike, though I can see where they are coming from.  I was glad to meet the socialists present at the rally, who were putting forward the demand of System Change Not Climate Change, and chanting on the march “the oceans are rising — and so are we!” and “one solution: revolution!”  We need to win more students and workers over to that perspective.