Brisbane: ‘Sack Scomo’ II

“Mass protest is the way you change the world” – Priya De, Uni Students for Climate Justice

About 1200 people attended a rally in King George Square on Friday 17th of January 2020 at 5pm calling for the sacking of Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the climate change crisis. This was the second Brisbane protest under the slogan: ‘Sack Scomo, Climate Action Now.’ And a third is planned for next Friday, 24th Jan.

Speakers at the rally included a Rural Fire Service volunteer, Greens MP Michael Berkman and Priya, a University Student for Climate Justice. There was no one from the union movement speaking as occurred last week. However there were union members present and at least one prominent union banner in the rally and march (shown).

Murray, a volunteer fire fighter in NSW had this to say:

“The fire behaviour is getting worse and worse … back to Scomo … I was born here under the wrath of Joh Bjelke-Petersen … they are taking our rights away … sacking Scomo won’t do a damned thing, it won’t do a damned thing … we need an ICAC, we need a Fitzgerald Inquiry … unless we stand up and push back we will become extinct … we need to be here every week … to build in numbers. We need to show this planet, our mother, we will protect her, if she dies, we die. Being an activist needs to be a way of life. With every heart beat we need to protect this planet we live on.” – Murray, volunteer fire fighter at KGSq 17 jan 2020.

Jamie, a school striker said that we do not need a royal commission. She said: “… the fossil fuel industry should pay. There will be millions of climate refugees. Both Labor and Liberal support the fossil industry, … they support Adani. … we are going to use our power, the power of the workers …”

Michael Berkman said that there were two important elections coming up this year, the first being the local government elections across the state. Michael called on people to vote for the Greens as they are the only party that recognise full extent of climate change and the need for emergency action.

Here is a video of Michael’s speech.