Crikey readers shared their thoughts on last week’s mass climate strike, which saw 300,000 Australians take to the streets around the country. Guy Rundle wrote that it’s crucial to commit to collective action, and readers were sure that more than a single strike will be necessary for change. More action must follow. Elsewhere, readers discussed News Corp’s silence on the Murdochs’ salaries.
On the climate strike
Richard Shortt writes: Strike and strike again, and again and again… because real change only comes when momentum is achieved and powerful folks can no longer scoff and ignore. All power to you folks.
Frank Dee writes: For the most part the crowd was under 20 or over 60 (like myself), either entering into the swing of life, or contemplating its exit. The middle aged were sadly lacking. And while it’s encouraging to see a lot of people continuing the protest, I fear it may not be enough. This is too easy for the right-wing media to ridicule, and for the right of politics to dismiss. Especially after the last federal election. I don’t know what to do next. Maybe we need to contact some of the folks in Hong Kong.
On Murdoch salaries
John Ryan writes: You know the only time Murdoch gets a mention in his propaganda papers is to praise him as the god-like figure guiding us all to the promised land. Of course the actual truth is another matter.
Chris Gulland writes: Could you imagine if just a percentage of that obscene remuneration had been reinvested, over a number of years into his newspapers: balanced content, delivery, and ethics I wonder just how much stronger the industry would be?
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Gregory Bailey writes: Thanks Guy for an elegantly poetic encomium for the kids and boomers who have stepped out to signal the crisis in which we have been ensconced for some years. Your emphasis on the individualised individuality is well taken as it is an integral part of the neoliberal mess that prevents serious mitigation efforts in response to global warming. At the Melbourne gathering it was pointed out repeatedly by the young speakers that any serious response to climate change requires a fundamental reconfiguration of our individualised society, but how this will occur, given the ubiquity of digital technology with its propensity to create artificial mirrors of reality any individual can tap into, I cannot say. To persuade the “quiet Australian” to undertake sustained political action to compel our political masters to begin the difficult task of climate change mitigation seems a monumental task. But it is not without possibilities and for those of us, like myself, who are severely jaded, it is incumbent upon us to continue to work towards sustainable change.