Season 2 episode 8 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we interview Nell, Martha and Naomi from Youth 4 Climate Leeds. We talk about shifting tactics from just strikes, working in solidarity with other groups, “de-diversification”, and navigating being a group during a pandemic!
“Both the cause and the effects of climate change is interlinked with racial justice”
- Nell
“There is sometimes an ethic within activist circles like, ‘I can change the world by myself.’ And then you end up just taking on so much work and it just becomes ridiculous. Like, I remember like, it must have been early 2020 and I was going to three meetings a week all in different places”
- Martha
Show notes, links
Youth 4 Climate Leeds Twitter (@yleedsuk), Instagram (@youth4climate_leeds) and Facebook. You can find links to school strike groups across the country on the UK Student Climate Network website.
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Transcript
ALI
This is Resist Renew,
KATHERINE
the UK based podcast about social movements,
SAMI
what we're fighting for, why and how it all happens.
ALI
The hosts of the show are
KATHERINE
Me, Kat.
SAMI
Me, Sami,
ALI
and me, Ali.
SAMI
I'm recording this now, baby!
ALI
Shit, it's a podcast!
SAMI
Welcome, everybody to the Resist + Renew podcast.
We are here today with a number of people from Youth 4 Climate Leeds. Youth 4 Climate Leeds was a group that was founded in early 2019 as part of the Global Youth Strike for Climate, and Fridays For the Future movement, and is run by young people.
And why don't you introduce yourselves? Martha, do you want to go first?
MARTHA
Hi, I'm Martha. I'm part of Youth 4 Climate Leeds. I've been part of this group since 2019. And obviously, we're all incredibly passionate about climate justice and social justice as part of the group.
SAMI
Great: Naomi?
NAOMI
Yeah, so. Hi, I'm Naomi. I'm part of Youth 4 Climate Leeds as well. So I've been kind of involved with the climate movement more formally with like different organisations and companies for a while. And then in like, early March 2021, I've become more involved with like the organising. So ever since then, I've been organising weekly.
SAMI
Amazing, good stuff. And Nell.
NELL
Yeah, I'm Nell. I've been involved in Youth 4 Climate Leeds since March 2019. So early days, and and it's been a big part of my life ever since.
SAMI
Great! Okay, so starting us off. What is the political context that you're organising in? Could you tell us a little bit about that?
MARTHA
So Youth 4 Climate Leeds is basically part of this global reaction to governments’ lack of lack of policymaking towards this incredible crisis that we face at the moment. And specifically, the strikes are obviously, they're inspired by the wider Fridays For Future movement that began with Greta Thunberg. So it's all inspirational from that.
And we, we strike about every few months, and we tried to put pressure on the government to make policy that deals with climate change, and to empower young people within Leeds within that context as well.
SAMI
Great, thank you. And so could you maybe say a little bit about - You said, I can't remember exactly the wording but something around like resistance to like government inaction, or whatever. Could you say a little bit about, like, that, and how you understand that? Like, what, what do you think, what do you think's going on? Like, why do you feel like this, the kind of stuff you're doing is a good, a good tactic?
MARTHA
So our kind of ways that we organise are through civil disobedience. And we encourage young people to strike from education in a kind of disturbance, but a self inflicted disturbance. So a lot of the criticisms that can come to nonviolent, like nonviolent direct action is that you're infli...
