Why you need to be in London on March 7th

This is important.

Last September as part of Frack Free Greater I helped organise 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 Labour Party leader Ed Miliband noticed us as he watched from his car. Last week he appointed John Prescott as an advisor on Climate Change with the brief to “raise ambition on this crucial issue”. I disagree with a lot of Labour policy, especially their support for fracking, but I'm glad they’re talking about the subject.

Instillation dubbed "Politicians debating Climate Change"

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 protest. In Manchester we saw at Barton Moss last winter 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 initially refused to unless The Campaign Against Climate Change pays for private security with money it doesn’t have.They backed down eventually, but the message was clear.
allow the Time to Act march

But whether we can make the politicians take Climate Change seriously, or withdraw their threat to make us ‘pay to protest’, depends on a good turnout on 7 March.

As I said, this is important.