From 11 -14 June, Glasgow was host to an energised and growing movement for climate action. Around the country, people are talking about how climate change affects us and how the system we live in is doing nothing to slow the tide of climate chaos.
Despite government rhetoric, little has been done to address the problem and the time has come to take matters into our own hands.
“Boiling Over – Scotland’s Gathering for Climate Action” provided a space for thought, analysis, learning, networking, training and creativity. It brought together community concerns and global issues, as well as providing a space to think more deeply about the aims of a loosely-connected movement for climate justice and developing a strategy for stopping climate change from within Scotland.
Boiling Over was about connecting the dots – recognising that dangerous climate change will not be stopped by single-issue campaigning, and that in order to truly take action against the root causes of climate change, we must create widespread positive social change.
From “organising horizontally and anti-capitalism” to discussions on class politics and the environment, from environmental refugees and No Borders to micro-renewable technology, from local community-based work in Glasgow to solidarity with indigenous struggles, from prisoner support to revolutionary song-writing, Boiling Over tried to cover it all.
Workshops and discussions focussed on developing our collective skill-base, working with communities and high-emissions industry workers, and finally drawing everything together to inform a direction for climate action in the coming months and years.
Around 100 people took part over the four days with differing levels of attendance throughout. We feel that Boiling Over has raised the profile of climate action throughout Scotland and consolidated our power as radical grassroots groups.
We hope that Boiling Over was a successful run-up to the Camp for Climate Action in Scotland during 3-10 August, and has built momentum and enthusiasm for it.
The August camp will take place somewhere around the Firth of Forth in central Scotland - surrounded by coal-fired power stations, gas and oil refineries, coal ports, open cast coal mines, corporate HQs, an airport, a nuclear power station, a cement factory and oil terminals.
This camp will cut carbon emissions and raise the profile of direct action in Scotland, showing that the nature of the climate crisis is such that we no longer have time to wait for our political and business “leaders” to act for us.
In addition, we aim to radicalise the political analysis of climate change and its solutions, placing it within a wider political context of social change.