Striking school pupils frustrated drivers by blocking the entrance to Westgate Centre car park in a climate change protest last Friday.
The Oxford Youth Strike for Climate protesters began in Bonn Square at 11am, where they first held a one-minute silence to stand in solidarity with people affected by Australia’s wildfires.
They then marched through Westgate to occupy the entrance to the car park on Oxpens Road. A group held a sign saying ‘Oxford Youth Strike for Climate’.
Some of the group were the ‘non-violence and de-escalation team’. Others sang chants and distributed flyers to blocked drivers.
Resulting queues of over 10 vehicles attracted the attention of Westgate security guards who asked the protesters to leave.
EJ, an 18-year old campaigner, told Cherwell: “The aim of the strike was to step up the level of disruption. So far we have done 12 strikes. Although we’d seen some change, a lot of people didn’t care because it didn’t have any sort of direct effect.
“Although a lot of the blame lies with governments and major corporations, it is also with consumers: what they are eating, how much they buy, whether they drive.
“If you live in a really rural area, and you absolutely have to drive, then okay. But if you live somewhere close like Abingdon, then driving to go shopping isn’t something you should be doing.”
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, supported the strikers as they gathered in Bonn Square. She spoke at the rally, saying: “There was not enough climate action in that Queen’s Speech. And this is 2020. If we don’t solve this now, if we don’t solve this in this decade, there is a chance that we will be too late. And I am not going to let that happen.”
Moran told Oxford Mail: “This isn’t being done so that children can skip school – they are doing this because they feel passionately about the activism and they feel there is an emergency they need to address.”
