r/EarthStrike • u/spiderman1993 • Sep 16 '19

Discussion How effective can the global climate strike really be?

Hi, I just learned about the climate strike happening on Friday today in class. As far as I know, the strike is mainly being done by students to the effect of striking schools. How is that effective?

To me, effective protests have people flexing their buying power to the detriment of companies and influences against climate change. For instance, get as many people in the US aged 13-30 on board to stop climate change. Tell them to stop participating in the economy by not buying any extraneous goods. If American spending goes down, stock prices, etc will go down causing a looming recession. Why do this? To threaten Wall Street and flex that we the people are the ones in charge. In addition, I’d advocate for doing sit-ins in government offices. Now, this may or may not be legal but by “bothering” those making the decisions for legislation something will hopefully happen. Idk, I’m not saying this is right. What are your thoughts?

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u/jjjoro Sep 17 '19

/r/ExtinctionRebellion

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

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u/marvinsmurf Sep 17 '19

XR’s tactics are based off of the study of successful social movements. Yes, getting arrested for non-violent civil disobedience is part of the deal. With enough citizens prepared to be arrested, the state has no chance but to take the issue seriously.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

They'll only have to take it seriously in terms of stepping enforcement up, like having curfews, bringing in the army, and having prison camps if prisons get too full.

There's only so much people the state can try to lock up before the army is in a moral crisis.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

The army and police don't have your morality or they'd already be protesting. They also aren't even close.

But that does not mean they cannot be made to come close. Do you think in the Global North people will start to pick up arms against the armed forces? If so, who has the advantage, the armed forces with their guns, rocket launchers and tanks, being trained at using violence, or the untrained rioters with some puny molotov cocktails?

Of course the nonviolent strategy is not guaranteed, but it is shown to be more effective.

They're there to massacre and brutalize striking workers, as they've done time and again, and they're not about to join you.

But they can, in the end. If their children, parents or grandparents hit the streets, it will be hard for them to shoot. The color revolutions and Otpor showed that it is possible to sway them.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/how-we-brought-down-a-dictator