With an increase of interest in climate issues this year, we attended the University of Gloucestershire’s Freshers Fayre and the Cheltenham Climate Strike.
Managing the Freshers stall through Wednesday, we tried to cut through some of the overwhelm students might have been feeling with flyers and invitations to the climate strike. We had some great conversations with students fed up with politics as usual, and had a lovely time connecting with people on the issues we care about.
The worldwide climate strike on Friday 20th September drew supporters of over 4 million people in total, around 400 of whom were in Cheltenham. Numerous cars honked support along the route of the march, and we saw people leaning out of upstairs windows along the high street and waving down at us.
The crowd stopped for a protest in front of the borough council municipal offices. Three PPCs – Tabi Joy for the Greens, Max Wilkinson for the Liberal Democrats, and Alex Chalk for the Conservatives – gave speeches. Alex was booed and shouted down by protesters until he couldn’t go on speaking – the frustration at the lack of concrete action taken to address climate change was palpable.
The Cheltenham Ladies College turned up right in the middle of things with another hundred protestors, which really galvanised the energy of the crowd. Again we were reminded of the young people who will live to see the chaos that this climate emergency will unleash. We’re going to keep fighting for a better future for them.