I want a future

I met Mira and Maxine on a cold Friday outside city hall in Malmö. They told me about a new climate activist group from Great Britain called Ectinction Rebellion, and how they wanted to help establish the movement in Sweden. I also met 11-year-old Frans, who during an interview with a leading Swedish tabloid was asked why he had become a Fridays For Future activist. He told me “I want a future”.

The movement is multifaceted and borderless. Activists move between in different rooms. Back and forth. Sometimes they stand together. Sometimes they walk together. Their methods differ and can vary from so-called ide-ins, gluing and chaining themselves to objects and surfaces, street demonstrations and sit-in strikes. They share a common foundation however. Non-violence is a force that unites them in the common goal of reaching a future that is yet to be written.

This is a story about the new climate movement from the fall of 2018 to the beginning of 2020. It was a period when the climate movement grew in Sweden – before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.