The 2020 hunger strikes and climate vigil went for 103 consecutive days, ending at Labour’s landslide election. Soon after, the crew of regulars found themselves inside the building, watching from the gallery as Parliament declared a Climate Emergency.
At the same time, the government declared a range of measures to get it’s own emissions down, without presenting anything much to challenge the industries that drive our emissions. Greta Thunberg noted that this will address 1% of emissions.
It was nice, for a while, to have the crew together in a place out of the weather, with furniture.
These interviews are already old, and 2020 is nearly over. It’s probably churlish to be too negative, the two elections this year could have gone much worse, still, the machine is still going in the wrong direction, and the handles are still falling off it. We’re clearly in the middle of a K shaped recovery, where a growing economy is piping billions of dollars to the wealthy while the poor get locked into lives of high rents in substandard housing.
It also turns out anyone with enough financial stability can spend the rest of their lives working to pay debts on homes that will become un-sellable since the insurance companies will soon be cutting them off.
Watch the way Gun Control is discussed in the U.S. Everyone acknowledges the problem but very few imagine a solution. Ironically, every other country has found a way to do much better. It’s not that we can’t imagine solutions. We don’t even need to – they are already there.
We just can’t imagine using them.
Is there something bright to say at this point? At the beginning of this year, I didn’t know most of the people interviewed this year. From the gallery, I got to watch Kiri Allan’s speech on the emergency shake the walls. There are people inside the building who are hungry for change.
And there’s a fresh batch of people and stories we’re looking forward to exploring. We are finding each other. David Graeber died, this year, which is both how I found out about him and how he changed my views on everything. The parliament playground just has a slide, which
gives you a break from the swings and the roundabouts.
This episode combines talks with hunger strikers Sue Boyde and Rick Williment, recorded by Lorraine Tyler.
Imagine My Relief 