Five Days of Hunger Strike, Columbia University Deaf to Students Urgent Pleas for Response to Climate and Ecological Breakdown, Asking Everyone to Join in a Fast on Friday

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 22, 2019

Five Days of Hunger Strike, Columbia University Deaf to Students Urgent Pleas for Response to Climate and Ecological Breakdown, Asking Everyone to Join in a Fast on Friday

  • Four Columbia students are on the fifth and final day of a hunger strike that started at 9 AM, Monday, November 18. 

  • University representatives met with students on Wednesday without intention of responding to demands, leaving the students to starve

  • Extinction Rebellion Columbia University calls for solidarity fasting from all supporters on Friday

  • Students risk health impacts from hunger strike, but state that the impacts of climate and ecological emergency will be far worse.

  • The strike will continue until Friday evening or until the university declares a climate emergency and publicly agrees to an immediate, community-led divestment from fossil fuels.

  • Photos, videos and background information: http://bit.ly/XRCU-hunger 

New York, NY, 22 November 2019—Citing Columbia University’s claim to be a leader in climate and ecological emergency research, four students have called on the institution to sound the alarm in response to its own staff. The youth, aged 19-24 and part of Extinction Rebellion Columbia University, have undertaken a risky five day hunger strike to highlight the danger many already face in regards to food scarcity as a result of ecological breakdown. 

“We are both showing solidarity with those already suffering, and highlighting the risk we all face if we don’t respond to the emergency,” said a student who asked to remain anonymous. “The University could be a leader amongst universities by declaring a climate and ecological emergency and meeting our demands.”

This hunger strike is part of a global action by rebels from the international nonviolent direct- action movement Extinction Rebellion. More than 400 rebels in 27 countries joined the hunger strike Monday, demanding that their systems of power respond appropriately to the climate and ecological emergency. Nine rebels were arrested on Thursday on their fourth day of hunger striking in Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, D.C. and one rebel was arrested in London on Tuesday.

The strikers will end their strike on Friday evening. They had hoped that the university would take their demands seriously, instead the school left them to carry out all five days of a hunger strike. Today the students will elevate their risk by moving their strike outside to exposure to the weather on their already weakened bodies. The four hunger strikers are asking all of their supporters to join in a fast on Friday in support and to share their fasts on social media. Other students and youth in New York City undertook shorter strikes in solidarity. In addition the Extinction Rebellion Columbia University youth received support from many who visited and professors from both within and without the university. 

Extinction Rebellion Columbia University was (and remains) open to ending the strike when their demands were met. The four demands of Extinction Rebellion Columbia University are:

1. TELL THE TRUTH

The university must declare a climate and ecological emergency, acknowledging that its current plan is a lie of omission, erasing the hundreds of thousands already dead and the weight of the crises to come.

2. ACT NOW

The university must plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions—including complete divestment from fossil fuels—by 2025.

3. FORM A COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY

The university must create an assembly of community members, modeled on Citizens’ Assemblies, in order to deliver a binding resolution on the university’s path towards divestment and net-zero emissions.

4. ENACT A JUST TRANSITION

This assembly must include leaders from the surrounding communities, and foreground the voices of frontline populations, in addition to representative numbers from all stakeholders within the University (staff, students, faculty, and administrators alike).

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presseve mosher