This Sunday will mark Emmeline Pankhurst’s birthday
Emmeline Pankhurst is one of our greatest inspirations at Climate Rush. There is one speech she gave that particularly captures our imagination and steels our determination. The speech is called Freedom or Death and was given in Hartford, Connecticut in 1913 – you can read the whole speech here. There is so much in the speech that strongly resounds with climate activism, especially these words -
“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under.” E. Pankhurst 1913
These words speak as much to climate change activists today as they did to a group of Suffragettes at a rally in 1913. As we race towards the last chances we will have to make the brave and radical changes needed to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we are faced with many choices. The choice to leave a legacy of freedom and not of death to all future generations, and to the poorest people on the planet who are already suffering as a result of natural disasters, oil disasters, desertification, failed crops and inadequate access to safe water, is perhaps hugest challenge our generation will ever face - the challenge of not only imagining a better world but of creating ways to live free from fossil fuel dependency.
The routes to many different kinds of futures lay ahead of us right now in the UK. Throughout the country hundreds of licences are being given to explore or extract extreme energy sources including fracking, underground coal gasification and coal bed methane – these are all short term energy solutions that threaten crucial investments in the renewable energy future we really need if we are serious about tackling climate change. These sources of extreme energy are short term solutions that might provide energy for a decade, at the cost of a toxic legacy reaching far into the future. If you want to find out more about extreme energy extraction in the UK check out the Frack-off website.
That’s why it is more important than ever to take heed to the words of Emmeline Pankhurst, to be a louder voice than we have ever been, to fill newspaper columns with the hope of a better future, and to organise ourselves as global activists so that our presence is felt in all parts of society, from schools to workplaces to government buildings all throughout the world.
We will be celebrating Emmeline Pankhurst’s life with London for Democracy on Sunday at 2pm in Victoria Tower Gardens.
The facebook invitation is here - https://www.facebook.com/events/190756937718573/
You can get more involved with our campaigns to stop climate change by signing up to our weekly SWAT bulletin, or by coming along to one of our friendly weekly meetings on Thursday evenings in Central London at 7pm – just email us at [email protected] for more details.
