November, 25th: This Friday in Portugal, students occupied the ministry of Infrastructure and demonstrated outside the Ministry of the Environment, disrupting these two institutions for hours. They were demanding an to end fossil fuels by 2030, and 100% renewable and accessible electricity until 2025, making this the last winter of gas. “End Fossil: Occupy!” also protested in Portugal by occupying schools and universities and blocking party headquarters.
“There were two ministries of Portugal stopped today because of us”, says Beatriz Xavier, “We stopped the status quo of the institutions that are driving us towards climate collapse. If we need disruption to end destruction, we are and will continue to be that disruption”
The 19 students who were peacefully occupying the Ministry of Infrastructure were detained for disobedience. The ones who were marching towards the Ministry of the environment were met by riot police, who charged towards them and injured a 16 year old kid. Another five people were detained in this march. In total 24 students were detained and 10 were forced to sleep in jail.
“The government continues to show they would rather detain who is ringing the fire alarm, than making plans to make sure we have a future. If the police represses us it’s because the government is continuing to choose to be an accomplice to the ones starting the fire.”, says Beatriz. “This system is failing us. We have no choice but to organise and disobey. We have no choice. They will criminalize everything we do, because they are afraid of the students’ power. But we will continue. We know we are on the right side of history.”
Students from the international campaign “End Fossil: Occupy!” also occupied more than 20 schools and universities in Portugal, Czech republic or Italy in the last two weeks.
A selection of photos can be found under this link: flickr.com/gp/198274557@N06/L40s6wN213
Contact End Fossil: Occupy! Portugal:
E-mail: imprensa@greveclimaticalisboa.org
Homepage: greveclimaticalisboa.org
Contact End Fossil: Occupy! International:
E-Mail: media@endfossil.com
Homepage: www.endfossil.com
Twitter: twitter.com/endfossil
End Fossil: Occupy! is an international youth action occupying schools, universities and political institutions to disrupt the fossil economy. The vast majority of our campaign activity is conducted by unpaid volunteer activists. Climate Emergency Fund supports End Fossil’s international communications work.
