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Sunrise Movement

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The Sunrise Movement is an American youth grassroots organization that advocates political action on climate change from the United States Congress. The Green New Deal, a plan to switch the energy infrastructure of the United States from fossil fuel to renewable energy, creating millions of jobs in the process, is its core demand.[1] The group came to prominence after the 2018 midterm elections when 250 young people, 51 of whom were arrested, occupied the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to demand action on climate change. The Sunrise Movement is closely allied with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Justice Democrats. After the November sit-in, the organization has been focused on gaining a consensus within the Democratic Party in support of a Green New Deal. One major goal was to create a select committee on the Green New Deal, a plan opposed by the Democratic House leadership.[2] Instead, the leadership recreated the Committee on the Climate Crisis, a move seen by the Sunrise Movement as insufficient.

The Sunrise Movement is a multi-faceted political vehicle designed as a means for young people to get involved in fighting climate change in the political sphere.[3] Their primary strategy is to build a base of young volunteers to work in a number of ways to influence congress.

Agenda

The Sunrise Movement's main goal is the enactment of a Green New Deal. The group endorses nonviolent, community-based political action. A January 2019 article in The Atlantic described the group's shifting positions on carbon capture and storage.[4]

History

The Sunrise Movement was co-founded in 2018 by Evan Weber, Dyanna Jaye, Sara Blazevic, and Varshini Prakash. During the 2018 midterms, they worked to oust candidates funded by the fossil fuel industry and elect proponents of renewable energy.

November Sit-in

After taking control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats failed to put climate change on their list of priorities.[5] Sunrise partnered with the Justice Democrats and Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to plan a sit-in in Pelosi's office.[6] Their demands were that all members of the Democratic leadership in the House would refuse donations from the fossil fuel industry, and that Pelosi work to build consensus in the House over Green New Deal legislation to be passed when Democrats regain control of government.[7] The latter would be accomplished by a "Committee on a Green New Deal". The sit-in took place on November 13. Over two hundred and fifty protesters showed up to occupy Pelosi's office, with fifty-one being arrested by Capitol Police.[7][1] Representatives Rashida Tlaib and ------- voiced support for the protest over social media.[8]. Representative Pelosi responded by welcoming the protest over Twitter, offering to reinstate the Committee on the Climate Crisis and claiming that the already-promised infrastructure bill could address many of the Sunrise Movement's concerns.[1]

Green New Deal Committee

The Sunrise Movement continued to campaign for House members to sign onto the plan to create a select committee for the green new deal, as opposed to simply resurrecting the old committee. On December 10, they staged a second sit-in at the offices of Nancy Pelosi and Jim McGovern. Over 1000 protesters showed up, with around 138 being arrested.[9][10] By December 19th, 40 members of Congress had signed on to support the creation of the committee, including Representatives Jim McGovern and John Lewis and Senators Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders.[6] However, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer decided to recreate the Committee on the Climate Crisis, appointing Representative Kathy Castor as chair.[6] The committee was not granted subpoena powers, unlike its predecessor.

See Also

References

  1. ^ a b c Grandoni, Dino. "The Energy 202: Green protests at Pelosi's office signal rift over Democratic climate strategy". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  2. ^ Cama, Timothy (2018-11-30). "Dems rally for Green New Deal". TheHill. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  3. ^ "Sunrise Movement". Sunrise Movement. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  4. ^ Meyer, Robinson (2019-01-18). "The Green New Deal Hits Its First Major Snag". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-01-19. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ Cama, Timothy; Lillis, Mike. "Dems damp down hopes for climate change agenda". The Hill.
  6. ^ a b c Roberts, David. "The Green New Deal, explained". Vox. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b Matthews, Mark. "51 arrested for protesting Pelosi. Here's what they want". E&E News. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference arrested was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Action Galleries". Sunrise Movement. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  10. ^ Blumberg, Antonia. "Protesters Arrested Outside Nancy Pelosi's Office In Climate Demonstration". Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
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