One Friday, I walked into Tower City in Cleveland with a friend from work, bought a not-too-terrible Philly cheesesteak and then outside to join a throng of people engaged in what they called a “Climate Strike”. Just like any other consumer choice, like my cheesesteak, I had stepped outside to do some politics. An awkward moment occurred when I entered the crowd during a speaker passionately, but politely, demanding everyone go vegan.
The big point everyone was talking around was that individual consumer choices at our level and purchasing power do not make much of a difference, much like the perceived effect of this “strike”. Boycott all you want. You cannot out-purchase Amazon or Monsanto, and many people with more meager incomes, or in food deserts, have even less of a choice. Perhaps we could, for once, stop shaming people for wanting a burger, which is delicious, and focus on, say, agricultural subsidies that make meat cheaper and more plentiful than fresh, local produce. Or capitalist accumulation that makes the mass burning of the Amazon for cattle farming such a lucrative affair.
A Cleveland protest staple dubbed the “Alt-Knight” was there as well, and I was happy to endure the 85* knowing that dipshit was there wearing a full suit of armor. Seriously, check him out, he’s like the dark side version of Vermin Supreme.
Over 7.6 million people took to the street during the week of September 20 – 27th. The phrase “Climate Strike” entered our lexicon. I’m not sure what this means exactly, it sounds like you want a work stoppage for hurricanes. They called it a “mobilization”, despite not very clear what it was mobilizing towards. The concept of climate change was on trial, not the people carrying out the annihilation of the climate. It was a strike only in name, with a large international participation, but you would think an event daring to call itself a “global strike” would have the numbers, strategy, and organized labor power to grind international commerce to a halt.
Both of these events were net positives. But only one was actually radical and could open possibilities for more direct action and results in the face of systemic climate denialism.
In a way, the Climate Strike was actually very uplifting to see at this scale. At least people appear to be seeing climate change as a serious issue worthy of such public rallies. The student walkouts were impressive in numbers; the teens are good, folks. It was truly international, a connection of people from different cultures and economies, all banding together to say “no”. If you remember, the organization hosting the Climate Strike’s main webpage is 350.org, who did a similar event in 2015 and one presidential administration later, their entire efforts were wiped clean. If anything, it is the success of the internet to connect and spread messages, for better or worse.
With this desire to do something, anything runs the risk of accepting the bare minimum.
We’re all saying “no” to climate change, ecological disaster BAD, but what should we be saying “yes” to? It’s unclear. The main website for the event’s organizers has no list of specific demands, simply “end the age of fossil fuels and solve the climate crisis”. That’s a result, not a plan. The really hard question never asked is “how”. Force the neoliberal order with the power of a big crowd to basically upend itself and be less profitable because it’s the right thing to do? What threat does a large but polite and obedient crowd have to ExxonMobil? Hey, at least it’s something. It’s some sort of mass outcry. It beats rotting around waiting for the oceans to boil. With this desire to do something, anything runs the risk of accepting the bare minimum.
The issue here is that events like the Climate Strike are marketing pushes for a cause, which is important in part, but this seems to be the extent of their goals. They wish to take the language and aesthetics of radical action (occupying public space, work stoppage, civil disobedience) but with none of the risk. These climate marches are permitted, allowed, shaped by police, and therefore passionate but ultimately benign. A protest, if it is to have any real effect, needs to have the implicit threat of becoming more.
A strike is a labor tactic, first and foremost. The strike is a last resort, a final ultimatum to capitalist owners stating the fact that withholding your labor is your true leverage in the workplace. A strike is where you achieve something tangible, not just raise awareness of issues. The Climate Strike was not a strike, and it’s disingenuous to call it one. It’s a protest rally. Even worse, it wanted you to get the approval of your employer. That’s literally the opposite of a strike.
A polite, civil protest with a permit and a loudspeaker and celebrity guests is less a protest and more of a marketing event. Getting a permit for a serious protest on climate change at this point is like asking permission to be outraged. The product being sold is the cause and the protest is a launch event. Its revenue is visibility. Genuine protest action moves outside of the boundaries of the sidewalk, and metaphorically, out of permissible space. It doesn’t wait for approval, it acts with moral courage and necessity.
A strike is where you achieve something tangible, not just raise awareness of issues. The Climate Strike was not a strike, and it’s disingenuous to call it one. It’s a protest rally.
More people are engaged and protesting right now more than any other time in my life. A brief exception was during the buildup to the Iraq War. More people protested that pointless murderous conflict than any other event in history, but it was civil, peaceful, and within the bounds of acceptable behavior. It also didn’t work. Gigantic climate marches have happened every few years since the mid 2000’s, climate change is no closer to being solved than when science discovered it. Protest is becoming backdrop, white noise when permitted protest operates in a frame of control. People have a lot to lose these days, protest feels like a bougie luxury, like you have the time, energy, and resources to go stand downtown and wave signs. I can see why people find climate change protests easy to dismiss.
Well, because they are easy to dismiss.
What’s not easy to dismiss is something like the 2018 teachers strikes, totalling 11 states in which resulted in nearly all of them receiving concessions and material changes from the state or city they were located in. West Virginia’s teachers strike was a straight-up wildcat strike, stemming from a state law forbidding government employees from striking. By the way, West Virginia went for Trump by 68.5% of the vote with a Republican governor, all Congressional representatives, and 1 officially Republican Senator (with Joe Mancin practically an honorary member).
From 1912-1921, West Virginian union miners waged an actual conflict with strikebreakers and hired mercenaries in what became known as the “West Virginia Coal Wars”. The devastating irony is that coal is the largest creation of CO2 emissions in the world, and we need to stop mining it as soon as humanly possible. The radical history of America hasn’t been forgotten, it’s been systematically destroyed by bipartisan consensus and co-opted by a professional non-profit protest industry. The McResistance has been making incredible fundraising and merch sales over Trump’s disastrous presidency without ever actually engaging with the system that made Trump possible.
Actual protests with teeth resemble Black Lives Matter blocking highways in Sacramento or Cleveland, or the Water Protectors defending their land against the Keystone XL pipeline, or the wildcat teachers strikes in 2018, or in terms of the climate crisis, the #ShutDownDC action that happened last Monday. The defeat of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies is the result of a militarized police and a hired merc army bulldozing them out of the way. The liberal deference to the police and compromise on fossil fuels helped make that tragedy happen.
The radical history of America hasn’t been forgotten, it’s been systematically destroyed by rightwing government and co-opted by a professional non-profit protest industry.
The road blockade used by #ShutDownDC is interesting, headline producing but strategically tricky. It has a shadow of the same rhetoric, but radically different tactics and tone. The Climate Strike was about making the issue visible, #ShutDownDC was about putting the issue in Washington’s face, in their streets, their workplace. Civil disobedience is the next step of peaceful protest when no concessions are made. But there’s a lot of ways to attack it in bad faith rhetorically that can stick with a lot of dumbass centrists who vote or create media.
- “You’re stopping emergency vehicles.” Which never happened.
- “What about working class people driving to work?” Vast majority of working class people don’t drive to work in DC. It’s too expensive. 38% of Metro area residents take transit to work. 35% don’t even own a car.
- “What about the fumes created by traffic stoppages?” Yes, what about those during non-protests?
- “Protesting is privilege.” Ah yes, this old chestnut. Either privilege doesn’t exist or it only exists for leftists. Which is it?
What separates #ShutDownDC from the Climate Strike is simply the fact #ShutDownDC didn’t ask for permission from the police to be morally outraged, and actively sought to disrupt the flow of commuters into Washington D.C. They legitimately stopped traffic in major parts of the city for most of the day, resulting in dozens of arrests and headlines around the world. They practically shut down a major city with only 2,000 people. It was refreshing to see that risk taken in the US. Typically, conservative media sneered at the “climate freaks”, like last week’s Stupid, Evil, Horny award winner, Greg Gutfeld, because it wasn’t a bunch of red-faced white dolts protecting a shitty fascist statue.
I spoke to a participant of #ShutDownDC, who wished to remain anonymous, about their experience during the action and the increasing importance of radical climate action. They found out about the protest through Fossil Free GW, a student group at George Washington University.
What surprised the participant most was the “diversity of groups who participated. There was about 60 people in our group. About 5 or 6 contingents across the city. There was Extinction Rebellion, the people with the big pink boat, who organized it. Black Lives Matter, the Sunrise Movement, DSA, students at American University.”
The protest started at about 5:00 in the morning when they met at a local park, then simply walked into a predetermined intersection, a major onramp for a nearby highway. The positions were chosen in advance to have the greatest impact. “There was a rumor that the police had been there since 3:45 am. Not everyone had to be at risk for arrest, which was “a voluntary choice. You didn’t have to if you didn’t want to.”
Energy at the action was high, buoyant, the people there felt full of purpose, jacked up from the adrenaline of stepping off the sidewalk.
Reportedly, police at their particular intersected acted “Their overall vibe was bored and tired, more bored than anything else. No serious overreactions. They arrested a police liaison for ‘blocking the street’”, meaning they reentered the road after being ordered to stay on the sidewalk. The group was mostly students from the local school, which police don’t like being videotaped beating up.
Energy at the action was high, buoyant, the people there felt full of purpose, jacked up from the adrenaline of stepping off the sidewalk. Typically, this type of civil disobedience carries a relatively light penalty, usually a $50 fine or a court date. It’s more the tension and defiance of staring down the cops and simply refusing to move. It’s tougher than it sounds, especially after a lifetime of copaganda about how they’re the universal heroes.
“There was this one hilarious moment where they tried to arrest a wheelchair user but they couldn’t because they didn’t have an ADA compliant van on site.” Honestly, if the cops can’t figure out how to arrest you, that’s just a free crime in my books. “The only people who got arrested were younger students and people of color. Not one white non-college student was arrested.” Those who were arrested were taken far away to a police training academy, where fellow activists were initially denied access or even information about the current status of the arrested.
To the people stuck in traffic, activists handed out informational flyers stating the purpose of the action, the stakes, and why the people in traffic had as much to lose at the activists. The participant talked about a slightly annoyed father who needed to pick up their kid from daycare, but after receiving a flyer, listening to the activists, was actually onboard with what they were trying to do. When you have kids yourself, it must put the crisis into a new perspective.
“The overall purpose of the action was to drum up more media coverage and push on the momentum of the Climate Strike the Friday before. Monday is Rush Hour, and to shut down the center of inaction in America was crucial. The point was to make them stop, even if just for a day. The biggest benefit of the action was interrupting people’s lives. The action on Monday got just as much attention with just 2,000 people.” A goal of the protest was to urge more radical actions, more civil disobedience, more disruption of a status quo.
StrikeDC.org states the following:
The transition off of fossil fuels is inevitable; justice is not. To achieve Climate Justice, we must not only decarbonize the atmosphere, but also decolonize and democratize our economies and our communities. Shutting down the nation’s capital could be our best shot at starting this justice-based transition; we need a broad-based coalition that emphasizes the overlap of our struggles. We look to the recent passage of the Climate & Communities Protection Act by New York Renews, a coalition led by Black, Brown, and labor organizations, for inspiration.
This is the mass uprising that everyone with climate anxiety has been waiting for. This is an uprising for life itself, fighting back against the forces of destruction. Now is the time to take action to save the people, plants, and animals we love. Let’s rise up for climate justice!
Notice how different this is? How prescriptive it is? How it uses its meager resources for maximum effect? Its tone is night and day from the capital-friendly prescriptions of “clean energy entrepreneurship” where you can get a permission slip from your boss. This action feels more energizing, more exciting because it’s outside the agreed upon terms of protest. There’s no merch. There’s no grean leaf to slap on your laundry detergent.
It’s talking about big structural problems, with clear material causes and solutions, the need to be lead by the organized labor of all people, and especially people of color, with a decidedly anti-capitalist message. What does tomorrow look like? And the day after that? And after that? At this point, with the crisis staring us in the face, do we really need another polite, civil tsk-tsking of climate criminals? If #ShutDownDC had the numbers of the Climate Strike, we might already be living in a different world.
What happens when enough people step off the sidewalk?
Carl Wilhoyte is the co-editor and co-founder of Zero Balance. His work has appeared in Street Fight Radio, District Sentinel, Abomination Magazine, Bourbon Penn, and Farmhouse Magazine.