The great protest movements are, in a sense, the symbol of the political activism of the latter
years: A global activism characterized by mass mobilization from one country to another and from the
reception of the simplified message by the Social who now reign supreme. The last example in order
chronological is that of the Gilet Gialli where a symbol and a slogan have brought protesters to the streets
every age and occupation.
School strike 4 climate action comes from the protest and the solitary initiative of a fourteen year old
Swedish, Greta Thunberg, who in September for three weeks has deserted the lessons not to skip a few
questioning or doing “wall” with friends, but to go and protest in front of the parliament asking
a more environmentalist and ecologic policy on the part of his country and affecting those who live, from parents to parents
institutions, has educated her to be sensitive to the environment and to the responsibility we have towards it, for
then disinterested. Not completely, to be honest: Sweden from the point of view of the ecologism is
among the standard-bearers of Europe, but not enough, enough to push a girl to strike
peacefully, to the utmost, to raise awareness in this regard.
In a few weeks this protest was no longer solitary, so much so that in the autumn tens of thousands of
Swedish students took to the streets with the same simple and unheard demand to save the world
until responsibility could become theirs.
Word of mouth on social media, especially for a movement of millennials, was quick: the hastag
# schoolstrike4climate has expanded in Belgium and Germany with tens, now hundreds of thousands of
students who took to the streets rather than go to class under the motto of “we are temporarily
sacrifying our educations to save our future “giving way to what we hope will be a mobilization
global that will really be heard, because the responsibility is clear.
The responsibility and malice become clear when our children have to scold us, protest against them
their own families, educators and institutions to remember how we have taught them values, principles and
ideals, including the responsibility towards our planet, as it is not derogable, and ourselves first
we are those who betray these teachings, out of laziness or economic interest.
The student “movement” as it is, is being activated and by inertia will continue to do so: the first,
significant protest is against the Adani and the opening of a new oil site in Australia intended,
according to many, to destroy the reef, the magnificent coral reef that is one of the symbols of the continent.
Global warming, pollution of the seas and water, the drive for research
of new renewable energies and a general sensitization to waste and responsibility towards
the environment in which we live are simple concepts that should be taken for granted, but today’s kids
they must strike to the bitter end to remind us.
Good Luck.

Francesco Lolli