'A Real Movement Boost': Sam Waterston and Jane Fonda Among Those Arrested Demanding Green New Deal in DC

Actors and activists Sam Waterston and Jane Fonda were among those arrested outside the U.S. Capitol Friday as part of the #FireDrillFriday campaign demanding a Green New Deal and end to fossil fuel extraction.

For Fonda, it marked the second week in a row she has been arrested as part of the campaign she launched last week, while Waterston—Fonda's co-star in Grace and Frankie and The Newsroom—had his first-ever arrest. The climate crisis, he said, is "worth it."

As Fonda laid out in a letter posted on the Fire Drill Fridays website, the campaign draws its inspiration from the youth climate strikers including Greta Thunberg "as well as Reverend Barber's Moral Mondays and Randall Robinson's often daily anti-apartheid protests."

Fonda—who's taken part in decades of activism—said she plans on living in the nation's capitol for the next four months "to be closer to the epicenter of the fight for our climate." She plans on leading demonstrations every Friday and, she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour, getting arrested every week.

Author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben called the campaign "a real movement boost."

In addition to its demands for a GND and 100 percent renewable energy, the campaign calls for respect of Indigenous land and sovereignty, environmental justice, protection and restoration of biodiversity, and the implementation of sustainable agriculture.

Also part of the campaign are weekly teach-ins led by experts on Thursdays. This week's teach-in featured Green New Deal co-author Rhiana Gunn-Wright talking with Waterston and Fonda about why the legislation is critical to address the climate crisis, while next week's will feature oceans advocate and actor Ted Danson and Greenpeace USA's Oceans Director John Hocevar.