Hundreds of students crossed the gates of their schools this morning, from where they only intend to leave on Friday, when the occupation of six high schools and faculties in Lisbon for the end of fossil fuels ends.
Around 09:00, about a dozen students entered the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH) of the University of Lisbon, carrying backpacks, sleeping bags, mattresses and, of course, placards with a common message: the end of fossil fuels.
For a week, they will exchange the comfort of their homes for the college, a place that they say is also theirs, and where they will sleep, make claims and raise awareness.
“Our occupation is not only a space of activism, disruption and struggle. It is also an educational space and a space to support the arts. We are going to have a series of lectures, classes with the support of some professors and ‘workshops’,” explained one of the spokespersons, Carolina Loureiro.
At the beginning of the morning, the protest had a little more than 10 activists, but Carolina Loureiro believes that throughout the week more will join. The college management also showed solidarity with the students and in the early afternoon the dean, LuÃs Baptista, will receive a group of occupants to understand what moves them.
“We want to mobilise as much support as possible, because this is everyone’s fight”, stressed the spokesperson.
The FCSH was one of the first to be occupied by student activists as of today, but not the only one. Colleagues from three other faculties and two high schools will do the same and the goal is the same, in an initiative organised by the student climate strike, part of the international “End Fossil Occupy!” movement.
“These spaces are supposed to be projecting us into a future but that future won’t exist unless we immediately cut greenhouse gas emissions and the only way to do that is to give up fossil fuels,” said one of the movement’s spokespersons, Alice Gato.
In one such school, the Camões High School, the courtyard filled up with around fifty students first thing in the morning, Gato said. In another, the artistic school António Arroio, the occupation started later, shortly after 11am, and gathered more than a hundred students.
They walked the corridors of the school and gathered near the gates to make themselves heard, chanting in unison to show how climate concerns unite them. They say they won’t leave unless they are taken out and, if they can, they will stay overnight at the school until the end of the week.
“We want to stay until the last second. If it involves forcibly removing us, then forcibly remove us. If it means sleeping, we sleep, and if it means staying a whole week, we stay, until our voices are heard,” William Hawkey, spokesman for the António Arroio students, told Lusa, admitting that the turnout of fellow students has exceeded expectations.
“Our house is on fire,” he said, referring to the planet, to justify the urgency of the demands. Therefore, the objective is to maintain the mobilization of the largest possible number of students: “It is obvious that there are students who cannot be here but I am so happy to see so many people here and I think we will maintain a strong unity”.
The students’ main demand is the end of fossil fuels by 2030 but they are also demonstrating against the minister for the economy and maritime affairs, António Costa Silva, who in May said he had no prejudices with gas exploration projects.
“It is neither acceptable nor legitimate. It makes no sense for our minister of the economy and maritime affairs to make that kind of statement publicly,” Carolina Loureiro said, considering that it is also a conflict of interest, since, until 2021, António Costa Silva was chairman of the board of directors of the Partex oil company.
The occupations coincide, on the other hand, with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which is being held from Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, until the 18th November.
“The fact that we are at the 27th COP means that everything is wrong. It means that we have known about climate change for over 27 years and that emissions (of greenhouse gases) continue to increase”, said Alice Gato.
Besides the FCSH and the two secondary schools, student occupations for the end of fossil fuels are also scheduled at the faculties of Science and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, and the Instituto Superior Técnico. On Saturday, students will also participate in the march for the climate, organised by the coalition “Unite Against Climate Failure”.
