Building a powerful movement

For nearly half a century, Friends of the Earth Scotland has been striving to transform Scotland into a place of thriving and sustainable communities that recognises and takes action to address its contribution to global inequality and environmental destruction. Together, we have had a lot of success. From stopping fracking, to pushing the Scottish Government to abandon its policy of drilling every last drop of oil and gas, we’ve been forcing progress through. 

But today, as a movement we must confront a hard truth: we’re not winning. It doesn’t feel like we are currently on a path to a just and peaceful world. That doesn’t mean that the world we want is impossible, but we must confront our reality, and ground our feet in it, in order to gather new strength and new allies with whom we can build pathways to lasting change. 

Many of the achievements of progressives which seemed built to last – a commitment to climate action, outright opposition to genocide, rights for queer and trans people, respect for fair elections and the right to protest – are now being brought into question. People’s worries are being exploited by those who wish to deepen the divides within and between our communities. Billionaires and their allies, no-longer satisfied with squandering the earth’s wealth, want to run it too. Democracy itself is under threat and the political system is utterly incapable of confronting global crises. 

There’s no question that the need for change is urgent, and to achieve it, we need a lot of people, and to get organised! To put it another way, rising to this task will take a movement. 

So what kind of a movement can win systemic change, and how do we build it? History is brimming with examples where people have collectively faced down such odds and won lasting changes for justice and sustainability. We can learn so much from them. 

We’ll need new visions of the future we want and plans to get there, new spaces to organise in, new ways to mobilise our communities, new connections and coalitions, new tools to help people step-in and step-up, in short, a new structure and strategy for our movement. 

“System change has never felt more urgent …This means dismantling the corporate capitalist system and building sustainable societies based on peoples’ sovereignty and environmental, social, economic, class, racial and gender justice.”  
– Friends of the Earth International, 2023 

Friends of the Earth has long since given up on the notion that the environment can be cared for within our current capitalist system, which prioritises the creation and accumulation of profit over the wellbeing of people and ecosystems. Instead, we understand that only deep and lasting system change will bring about a healthy and sustainable future. 

The fight has become that much bigger. Too big, in fact, for us to expect to be able to make progress whilst keeping within our silos. We will not succeed whilst there is one movement for the planet and another for people. We must work with allies outside the environmental movement to win. 

“No one way works. It will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down.” 
– Diane di Prima, ‘Revolutionary Letter #8’, 1971 

There are deep, wide and long-term changes required to deliver justice but we shouldn’t bank on achieving such changes in one giant leap. As campaigners, we fundamentally believe that our best shot is to take stepping stones towards our vision, winning smaller changes that carry us towards the change we need. Working in this way gives our movement purpose and momentum. 

“We can act in the here and now to create changes that make that world more likely whilst also understanding the magnitude of the systemic transformations that are needed to bring our vision about.”  
– Gracie Bradley, 2023 

What might these stepping stones look like? An effective global movement acts locally and nationally. For us this is about working out what global climate justice means in our neighbourhoods and local communities in Scotland. 

From here we draw strength, because there are plenty of changes which local communities can fight for that will improve people in Scotland’s lives right now and carry us towards our vision of climate justice. The fight for warm homes, local bus services, and sustainable jobs is grounded in our neighbourhoods, but from there it can take the fight to Holyrood and swell into a global movement. Injustice is not foreign to Scottish communities: we must connect shared experiences and shared values of hope. 

There are over 2,000 of you who are members of Friends of the Earth Scotland. From some viewpoints we may seem a loose collection of folk, but if we got organised we could wield a lot of power! The staff team has been cooking up some ideas for how to do this including holding monthly members’ meetings, local meet-ups and socials, new online spaces, and bringing democracy back into the way we work. We know that there is so much more knowledge, experience and ideas within our membership and network, and we need your input. More than just a membership card, Friends of the Earth Scotland could be a place for everyone who cares about justice and the environment to feel at home and empowered.  

Nationally, we’re opening up our campaigns with our first ‘Campaign Forum’, a new space for interested members to direct and drive the campaign against the proposed fossil fuel burning power station at Peterhead. If you want to get involved let us know at activism@foe.scot 

We are also working on more meaningful ways for people to organise locally and nationally, to welcome new people into our movement, to spark action and empower community leadership. This is already well underway in the North East. 

With visionary campaigns to win, new organising approaches in our hands and members at the heart of the work, Friends of the Earth Scotland can become a furnace for a renewed movement for climate justice.  

But we can’t do everything, and we shouldn’t try to. Instead, we should work in solidarity with groups in Scotland and globally who share our vision.  

“Solidarity is not contagious; it does not simply infect those who encounter it. Instead, solidarity is built, taught, and consciously and laboriously spread.”  

– Paula Lacey, 2023 

A movement made up of diverse communities and organisations is enriched with a variety of perspectives and is able to deploy a range of tactics. Organising across difference makes us all stronger. We must deepen our ties with trade unions, education and arts groups, community organisations, direct action groups, the media, policy and legal organisations, allies in party politics.  

This will not be easy. We must give up on any notion that there are shortcuts to achieving our vision. It will take patience, care and hard work.  

Above all it will take a movement, and Friends of the Earth Scotland has the chance to commit to that movement. 

In June, members of Friends of the Earth Scotland voted to make this commitment and prioritise movement building as we fight for a better world. Now it’s time to get to work.

We have a world to win, and we can’t do it without you.