My response to Fuel Poverty Action's 20 September Climate Strike Call-out — and my response

Fuel Poverty Action e-mailed me:

Hello FPA members and friends, 

Please can you comment on this draft FPA Call-out for 20 September climate strike?  We hope it isn't very controversial but perhaps you have improvements.  It could go on our website as well as being emailed to our friends and allies.  

The crucial section to look at is the section "what we are striking for".  There are big debates going on about "demands" among other groups which are preparing for this autumn's many mobilisations on climate change.   Identifying aims can be important -- in making sure that justice is not left to one side in the pressure to act on the climate emergency, in helping people to identify their own immediate interest in events like the Strike, and, of course, in helping to determine what the outcome is.  For us, that includes particular attention to fuel poverty.

Do you think the aims we have listed do this job?  Do you think there is something crucial missing?  Could it fit within the balance of the whole?  This is not an invitation to major edits, but do say if you think there is something wrong. We'll do our best to take account of your views.  

Our AGM on 10 September will also be a chance to discuss them.

Please look before 9.0 Friday morning (30 August) so the call can go out.   

Thank you!

Ruth and Gianluca

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Cold homes, fuel poverty, climate change, millions of homes in debt to their energy supplier, huge profits for the Big Six... the energy system isn't working.
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My publishable response

I agree with the call-out document, but would like to emphasise that traditionally landlords are more likely to have stocks of portable heating devices to loan out to tenants who foot the fuel bills.

My personal priority this week is for me to get a pair of THERMAL CURTAINS for my upstairs room to make it more habitable, particularly after noon and into the nights in my West-facing windowed one-person house. I reckon my landlord will agree to this, especially as the price is likely to be £40. (Sweat drips into my ears in the summer months.)

I believe that a challenge and opportunity for the Climate Emergency movement is to help bridge socio-economic class differences of participants. In my personal experience, the mainstream of Climate Emergency folk are largely ignorant of poverty, housing and benefits issues; they are more au fait with the impact of climate change on animal species. Hence my News Forwarded to You by Alan Wheatley blog with its subtitle-cum-Mission Statement:

Connecting self-acceptance, lifelong learning, and difference to mutual empowerment through sharing insights courageously and cordially

Saving the planet is not the sole preserve of a particular social class, and should involve everyone. And a statement I heard in my 25th year at a time when I had been under verbal attack and was very vulnerable was, "When people are lonely, perhaps it may be because they have invested more time and energy into building walls than bridges?" Given the role of smear stories involved in the promotion of right wing 'welfare reforms', while I believe we need to combat climate change, we also need to tackle 'hostile climate' issues regarding disadvantaged minorities -- of which I am one.

I can view 'shared intelligence' as a campaigning tool rather than a means of oppression. ('Think tank' and 'educational charity' Policy Exchange that has advocated sell off of social housing in affluent areas — aka 'privatisation of social housing' — calls Extinction Rebellion 'Extremism Rebellion' -- the same vested interests demonise Climate Emergency campaigners and supposed 'feral underclass' alike.)

'Who Funds You?: The UK Campaign for Think Tank Transparency'
awards Policy Exchange an 'E' rating for '0 transparency of funding'

That, plus the parochial nature of my local Hereford Times and its general 250 word limit for letters to the editor, helped lead to my launching my new personal blog earlier this month,

https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/

Connecting self-acceptance, lifelong learning, and difference to mutual empowerment through sharing insights courageously and cordially

I wish you all the best for the AGM and 20 September, while I shall be probably looking for a cool spot nearer home. I may well be visiting London some time later in the Autumn, making a week long visit that will be much less stressful than my getting to Hereford Railway Station, to London, and all the way back in one day.

Best Wishes

Alan