Why you need to be in London for Time to Act on March 7th

730timetoactThis is important.

Last September Frack Free Greater organised a Manchester People’s Climate March. It wasn’t as large as the one in New York (400,000 people) or London (40,000) but Ed Miliband noticed. This week he appointed John Prescott as an advisor on Climate Change with the brief to “raise ambition on this crucial issue”. FFGM disagrees with a lot of Labour policy, especially their support for fracking, but we’re glad they’re talking about the subject.

What this means is that this general election campaign will be very different to previous ones. In the past Climate Change campaigners, and other environmentalists, would shut up shop whilst the politicians argued about immigration and the EU and the other issues that the press distracts the public with. This time though Climate Change will be part of the debate. Politicians will not be able to get away with ignoring the issue any more.

This year is also a crucial year for the international attempt to reach a deal on preventing Climate Change. We don’t expect much from the meeting in Paris in December, but once again we will not be letting the politicians get away with inaction. The big demonstration is planned for the day after the talks finish. We want this to be the start of a global insurgency that forces world leaders to act.

In the UK this starts in London in just under two weeks time.

But the demo is also about the right to protManchester Global Marchest. We saw at Barton Moss how far the authorities will go to stop us. However at least in Manchester they let us have our Solidarity Days and marches in the city centre. The London Metropolitan Police though have refused to allow the Time to Act march unless The Campaign Against Climate Change pays for private security with money it doesn’t have. Negotiations are continuing, and an army of volunteer stewards is being recruited, but we are all quite clear we are going anyway.

But whether we can make the politicans take Climate Change seriously, or withdraw their threat to make us ‘pay to protest’, depends on a good turnout on 7 March. As I write our bus to London is half empty. If we don’t fill those seats The Campaign Against Climate Change will not just lose a lot of money, Manchester will lose its change to be represented on this historic day. You marched at Barton Moss, you marched in March and again in September last year, so please come with us to march in London again this time.

This is important.

The coach leaves from Chorlton St Bus Station, Manchester at 7am on Saturday 7th March, returning from London at approx 5pm.

Tickets cost:
£25 waged (Solidarity ticket)
£20 low waged
£15 unwaged or students
£10 children under 16
To book tickets you can either:

Go to Eventbrite to pay by credit card: (Eventbrite charge a small fee, about 9%, which raises the price of the ticket if you book on line.)

or: send a cheque, payable to Greater Manchester Campaign against Climate Change, to Ewa Barker, 19 Chatfield Rd, Manchester M21 8UR
Please include full names of all passengers. There will be no paper ticket, so I need to know who is paid for. Your name is your ticket.

 

 

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