This September, people across the world will join a global week of climate action in support of the school strikers. Clean Slate Editor Catriona Toms urges you to get involved.

Sometimes a single act can become a rallying point for a whole movement. When then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg sat down outside the Swedish Parliament just one year ago, few of us would have predicted that this simple act of rebellion would grow into a million-strong global movement for change.

If you have been as inspired and moved by the school climate strikers as we have here at CAT, then a global week of action this September is your chance to stand up and show your support.

From 20th to 27th September, coinciding with the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, millions of people in more than 150 countries across the world will walk out of their work, homes, colleges and universities and spend a day demanding action on the climate emergency, whilst those who can’t go on strike are encouraged to add their voices in other ways.

Greta and 46 other youth activists have issued this invitation to adults around the world:

Starting on Friday 20 September we will kickstart a week of climate action with a worldwide strike for the climate. We’re asking adults to step up alongside us…. Let’s all join together, with your neighbours, co-workers, friends, family and go out on to the streets to make your voices heard and make this a turning point in our history.

What can you do?

Many CAT members will already be helping organise events during the week, many more will be joining in with activities in their communities. Click here to find out what’s happening near you, or get ideas for your own event

If you’re a member of a trade union, check with your union to see what they have planned and to encourage them to support the strike. At their congress in early September, the Trades Union Congress will be discussing a motion to support the strike via a ’30 minute solidarity climate stoppage’. The Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group website has more information on this motion, as well as some useful advice on working within unions.

If you can’t join the strike, perhaps you could use your lunch break to join an event, or take some time to talk to friends and colleagues about the school strikers, what they’ve achieved and why you support their call for climate action.

Help spread their message!

Share events and news on social media, particularly stories from school strikers, using their hashtags #ClimateStrike and #FridaysforFuture – or write to your local papers about why you support the strikes. You’ll find useful resources for sharing information and promoting the week of action at https://globalclimatestrike.net/

This site also has useful guidelines on how to be supportive of the school strikers without taking over. It’s important to remember that young people are asking adults to join their action, but it’s still very much a youth-led protest.

CAT Conference

Immediately after the week of action, we’ll be joined at the CAT conference by some of our local school strikers, who will give us an overview of what they’ve been doing and how we can all get involved going forward.

Why strike?

Thirteen-year-old Anna Antoniades, who has been on strike from Penglais School in the nearby town of Aberystwyth, says:

I go on these strikes for my future. Once I understood the real danger our planet was in, I felt like we had to do something straight away. To help us youth, adults need to encourage us to go on these strikes instead of holding us back. Stop telling us just to go back to school. We’re striking for what we believe in – and that’s saving our world.

From Anna in Aberystwyth to Greta in Sweden to the school strikers in your neighbourhood – all over the world our young people are standing up to demand that those in power take action now to protect our world and their future. Will you join them?

The global week of action takes place 20^th-27^th September, with strikes planned for 20^th and 27^th September.