Amid Black Friday deals, a group of climate enthusiasts marched on strike against overconsumption and Friday buying pressure. No Norwegians were to be seen among the students.
– I hope this initiative spreads to Norwegians soon, says Anna Perktold.
Perktold is an exchange student from Austria and a member of ‘Fridays for Future Bergen’, a newly launched initiative for a more sustainable future. The group’s name and purpose are heavily inspired by climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The group was started and run by exchange students only, and it’s not just Perktold who is reacting to this.
Maria Rabbe is one of the passers-by who stopped in Torgallmenningen to hear the message of climate activists. Besides the fact that there are only exchange students, she also reacts to how few there are.
“It’s hair-raising to see that there are only eleven people here,” says Rabbe.
Several thousand in Austria, eleven in Bergen
Perktold says the Austrian equivalent of Fridays for Future Bergen usually brings together up to several thousand protesters at its largest events.
In Bergen, the number has remained at a dozen people, during the weekly strikes they have organized since the end of September this year.
– I missed a real climate movement organized in Bergen. There appear to have been similar groups in the past, but they’ve all died out, Perktold says, referring to the groups he found on Facebook.
The hope of Perktold and others in Fridays for Future Bergen is to create a climate movement that lasts and spreads to Norwegians, by staging regular strikes in central Bergen.
– It is my desire to show people that it is possible, and important, to stand up and speak up, says Perktold.
Sustainable measures
Although the climate movement in Bergen has not yet reached the level of Austria, concrete steps are being taken here too for a more sustainable future.
Bergen Storsenter is one of those who want to balance the black week offer party with sustainable measures.
– We kicked off Black Week on Sunday with a day dedicated to second-hand trade, says Odd Rune Bjørge, manager of the Bergen Storsenter centre.
On Sunday, it was the second-hand market in Landåspikene that took over Storsenteret, attracting thousands to more sustainable trade. Sunday’s thrift market was followed by a full week of regular Black Week deals.
According to Bjørge, this is a more sustainable approach than the traditional Black Friday, where all offers are concentrated on one day.
– In this way, we reduce the risk of panic trading on Fridays and encourage more balanced trading evenly distributed throughout the week, says Bjørge.
Adventurous sale
Despite the fact that the deals have been spread out over a longer period of time and several people object to the concept, Black Week is believed to have begun.
– Sales in the first hour of the most important online shopping day of the year were 989% higher than on an average day, says Klarna Norway Marketing Director Thomas Elvestad. in a press release.
They provide shopping and payment solutions to more than 13,000 Norwegian online shops.
It is exactly against this explosive trade that the exchange students of Fridays for Future Bergen want to demonstrate against in their strike. Because even though they strike every Friday, Black Friday is especially important to them.
– I have a difficult relationship with Black Friday. For me, it will be just another sign of where we are going. It scares me, says Perktold.
