More people would join Greta Thunberg to protest climate change if they could afford it

Last year, I wasn’t able to go down to London to join the International Rebellion or even the Northern Rebellion in Manchester, where I live. I contemplated pulling a sicky after failing to get my weekend shifts swapped but, as a student paying extortionately high rent, I couldn’t afford to take time off work or risk losing my job.

My point is if I had more money, I’d be down in Bristol today supporting 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as she joins a large number of people who have been inspired to take to the streets and take their futures into their own hands.

Greta’s impact, as well as that of Extinction Rebellion, has been massive in creating a culture of peaceful protests and striking around the globe. With a collective aim of pressuring the government through civil disobedience, we’re seeing people from all walks of life getting up and actually doing something for their own futures, the futures of their grandkids and the future of the world as we know it.

However, while striking and protesting are massively important in making any kind of change, it’s becoming clear that there is a significant amount of inaccessibility in terms of joining the fight.

XR came under fire during the International Rebellion of October 2019 when two activists climbed on top of a tube carriage in Canning Town, before being dragged off by angry commuters. This unfortunate blunder shone a light on the movement’s class problem, with the Telegraph stating, “After all, who suffers most when they stage these protests? It is not the government, or the capitalist giants… but those on low wages.”

Such tactics clearly work. Last year’s April Rebellion was successful in putting the climate emergency at the top of the UK’s agenda, and pushing the government to legislate for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In her upcoming book, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres, the former UN Climate Chief, urges the public towards civil disobedience writing, “It’s time to participate in non-violent political movements wherever possible.”

The operative phrase here being, “wherever possible”.

People are often told (usually by critics of climate activism, obviously) that if they cared about the planet so much, then they’d make sacrifices in order to save it. While that’s all well and good, the fact is that not everyone can afford to miss days of work, or risk being unfairly dismissed because they want to tackle an issue we should have tackled years ago. Make no mistake, the climate emergency is one of the most pressing issues in the world right now, and it will be for many years to come, but for some – especially those with families – looking past the immediate concerns of paying rent and putting food on the table just isn’t possible.

When you can’t attend a protest, it’s not uncommon to feel powerless and even hopeless in the face of the disastrous consequences of inaction. It seems easy enough to focus on your own action and make greener choices in your buying habits and daily life, but it’s harder in practice. Sustainable brands which sell necessities like clothing, toiletries and menstrual products certainly know how to sell climate justice, and maybe if they were even slightly affordable, they would entice more customers like me.

When only the middle and upper classes (half of whom couldn’t care less about the effects of climate change on those who won’t be able to afford to escape it) are able to really afford to make an impact, it leaves a hole in the movement.

We need to act now: there are a huge number of unutilised activists whose voices need to be heard. Climate activism must be made accessible to all – potentially through legislation around striking and unsustainable goods and materials – in order for us to feel its true benefits.

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