The climate crisis has already begun. In Australia, massive infernos threaten the environment, species, homes and lives. Join Uni Students for Climate Justice to fight for climate action!
Uni Students for Climate Justice (USCJ) is a nation-wide activist group, with many clubs located across various University campuses. USCJ is an anti-capitalist climate group, cohered around a core set of values. We have organised protests in response to the bush fires ravaging the country, in the face of huge criticism from the state and police. Many politicians heavily condemned the protest, claiming the protest was taking away resources from the fires. However, an Age journalist later revealed that no resources were taken away from the fire ground. These protests were the largest political protests in response to the bushfires ever seen in Australia. USFCJ argued that these fires are not the result of natural disasters but a result of climate change. The protests saw 30,000 people attend in Melbourne and 60,000 people in Sydney. We have organised protests with thousands of attendees, been part of the campaign against the Adani coal mine in Queensland and part of the blockade IMARC coalition.
What we stand for
1. We are facing a climate emergency and we need action now. Heatwaves, droughts, extinctions, and extreme weather events have become the new normal. We need to fight back now! Uni students have always been on the front lines against social injustice, and we will continue this tradition today
2. The rich and powerful are responsible. Big business and governments have profited off climate disasters and escape its worst effects. due to their power and privilege. We reject arguments that blame everyday people for the systemic destruction of the environment
3. Politicians won’t save us. Both the Liberal and Labor parties are committed to fossil fuels. They both want to make money for Australian businesses, many of which are heavily invested in destroying the planet.
4. We need a mass movement. We need to bring as many people as possible into collective, and disruptive action to challenge the powerful on the streets. The rich will not be persuaded to give up power and money through being asked nicely in letters or boardrooms.
5. Radical problems demand radical solutions. Small scale reforms, lifestyle changes or market based solutions won’t meet the challenges of the climate crisis. Fossil fuels need to be abolished entirely, alongside enormous polluters like global militaries. We need a bottom up transformation of society, workplaces and politics across the globe to save the planet.
6. Climate change is caused by capitalism. Climate change is caused by capitalism, a system that puts profits before people and the planet. The profit motive stops sustainable methods of production, distribution and energy generation being taken up when they are obviously needed.
7. The climate criminals should pay for the crisis they have created. We oppose any attempt to make the general public foot the bill for the climate crisis. There should be large taxes imposed on fossil fuel companies to fund compensation to victims of climate catastrophes, expansion of firefighting and park management services, and regeneration of damaged ecosystems. They should also be made to fund the rapid transition to renewables, and to help support a just transition for workers who lose their jobs as polluting industries are shut down.
8. Climate justice means social justice. Millions of people could become refugees as sea levels rise and parts of the world become uninhabitable. We reject any attempt to blame refugees, and demand that anyone who needs to, should be allowed into Australia. The fight for the planet is also a fight against racism and oppression.
9. The climate crisis and Indigenous dispossession go hand in hand. Many of the companies responsible for the climate crisis were built on land theft. Aboriginal people managed the land for thousands of years without fires on the scale we see today. Fighting the climate crisis means fighting in solidarity with indigenous communities.
10. We say no to authoritarianism. Governments have responded to climate protests with more police and anti-protest laws and threaten tighter borders to block climate refugees. We stand for the right to protest.