Several students are reported to have shut down schools and universities across Europe as part of a renewed youth protest campaign against inaction on climate breakdown.
At least twenty-two schools and universities across the continent have been occupied as part of a proposed month-long campaign.
In Germany for instance, universities were occupied in Wolfenbüttel, Magdeburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Regensburg, Bremen and Berlin. In Spain, students in occupation at the Autonomous University of Barcelona organised teach-outs on the climate crisis. In Belgium, 40 students occupied the University of Ghent. In the Czech Republic, about 100 students camped outside the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In the UK occupations were underway at the universities of Leeds, Exeter and Falmouth.
According to reports, the most radical actions were taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, where youngsters occupied seven schools and two universities. On Thursday, occupying pupils forced one high school to remain closed for a third day, while students at the University of Lisbon’s faculty of humanities barricaded themselves in the dean’s office.
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Several reports also had it that young people also stopped traffic in the Portuguese capital with street blockades in solidarity with the occupations. This latest action comes despite harsh responses from teachers at one school who called the police to evict pupils who began occupations last week.
The blockades and occupations are said to be part of an extended campaign under the banner “End Fossil: Occupy!”, which aims to build on and escalate the youth climate strike movement that was previously at its strongest during 2019’s mass climate mobilisations.
A statement by the campaign read: “End Fossil: Occupy! is radicalising the youth climate movement in tactics and demands. Occupations instead of strikes. End the fossil economy instead of ‘listen to the science’. End Fossil: Occupy! is reigniting the fire of the youth climate movement last seen in 2019.”
This is the second time the campaign has called for a wave of occupations, with 50 schools and universities occupied between September and December last year, including three that were violently evicted by riot police. Organisers claim that the previous wave of protest spurred Barcelona’s university to make a module on the climate and ecological emergency mandatory for all students.
Organisers of the protests say that they hope the latest wave will recapture and recreate the radicalism of May 1968, when anti-imperialist protests by university students in Paris were joined by striking workers and precipitated a wave of revolt across the continent.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
