Éirígí For a New Republic stands with today’s Climate Strike protesters in Ireland and across the globe. The mobilisation of ordinary people into an effective global movement will be essential to minimising the impact of the environmental catastrophe that is already engulfing the planet.
Speaking ahead of the Dublin protest, Cathaoirleach Éirígí Brian Leeson said,
“Today’s climate crisis was created by the rapid, capitalist-dominated, industrialisation of the last two centuries. Our modern consumer driven society has brought with it a massive increase in our carbon emissions over the past seventy years in particular.
Capitalism and it’s associated wars and conflicts have fuelled the over-heating of the world’s economy and a by-product of that has been the over-heating of the earth’s atmosphere. Ice caps are melting, coral reefs are dying, sea levels rising, species are becoming extinct, food insecurity, flooding, drought and other severe weather events are becoming the norm. Capitalism has failed both humanity and the planet.
Humanity needs to develop low carbon solutions for transport, buildings, energy production, food production and every other aspect of how we live our lives. We cannot wait until the private sector determines whether a low carbon venture be profitable or not. We need to move now to create a new sustainable democratic, economic model based on cooperation, mutual benefit and environmental protection.
A global mass movement on a scale not seen before will be necessary to force the climate issue to the top of the political agenda of individual countries and the world collectively. Powerful political and economic forces will have to be met and defeated if meaningful action is to occur within the next decade. Today’s simultaneous protests by young people across the world shows us what a transnational protest movement will look like. We in Éirígí are committed to playing our part in helping build that movement here in Ireland.”