A generation is learning to strike

Inspired by Greta Thunberg, the Swedish sixteen-year-old activist, young people worldwide have been going on strike from school each Friday to call attention to the climate crisis and demand that their governments take action. In the United States, the movement was slower to grow, but this spring it has attracted widespread participation. Isra Hirsi is a co-founder of US Youth Climate Strike — and, incidentally, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter. She spoke with Jacobin’s Liza Featherstone about the strikes, her famous mom, and the obstacles to organizing young people in a country as punitive as the US.