Running Time: 5:32
Over 100,000 – and possibly as many as 150,000 – marched through the pouring rain in Glasgow on the main day of action during the COP26 climate talks, an astonishing figure in the middle of a pandemic in a country with a population of 5.5 million.
It also showed how the movement has progressed. In previous years NGOs would have been at the front of the march – this year the march was led by indigenous groups, trade union blocs and other working class organisations, with support for refugees being particularly vocal.
Unfortunately, the police had to spoil it with a completely unnecessary and provocative kettle of the Young Communist League bloc – but ultimately it didn’t matter. This is a snapshot of a massive global movement that knows that the COP process is just a greenwashing cover for carrying on business as usual – and that the fundamental changes that have to happen in the next 10 years will be coming from mass grassroots organisation.
