September, 20 2019, 12:00am EDT
Millions Strike for Green New Deal in Largest Youth-Led Demonstration in History
Sunrise’s Varshini Prakash: "We're putting the establishment on notice."
WASHINGTON
Moments ago, Varshini Prakash of the Sunrise Movement rallied millions of young people striking for climate action in one the largest youth-led demonstrations in American history. Following her remarks, the crowd began marching to Battery Park, where Greta Thunberg will give her remarks later this afternoon.
"Friday is about putting the entire political establishment on notice that our generation is energized and mobilized, and we're watching you," said Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of Sunrise Movement. "Our message is clear: our movement is growing, and young people in the U.S. are coming together by the hundreds of thousands -- millions -- to make clear that if politicians want our generation's support, they need to treat this crisis like the emergency that it is and fight for a Green New Deal."
The strikes were organized by a coalition of youth-led climate organizations known as the Youth Climate Strike Coalition. The coalitions' demands are anchored in a vision of a Green New Deal era, where the governing agenda becomes transforming America's energy, food, and transportation systems to 100% renewable energy and creating millions of good jobs in this process. Sunrise Movement, the youth climate group that popularized the Green New Deal, announced recently that it will continue to strike until that happens.
"I'm on strike from school today because half of my family lost their homes in Hurricane Michael last year but are still living in trailers," said Lilly Walsingham, 21, who grew up in Orlando, Florida and is an organizer with the Sunrise Movement. "The political establishment is asleep at the wheel, and we won't rest until it wakes up."
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued Tuesday that passing the PRESS Act is "more important now than ever before when we've heard some in the previous administration talk about going after the press in one way or another," a reference to Republican President-elect Donald Trump's threats to jail journalists who refuse to reveal the sources of leaks. Trump, who has referred to the press as the "enemy of the people," repeatedly urged Senate Republicans to "kill this bill."
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The advocacy group Defending Rights and Dissent lamented that "Congress has abdicated their responsibility to take substantive steps to protect the constitutional right to a free press."
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Trump has picked Harmeet Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She has stated that it must be "made unsafe" for hospitals to provide trans care, and frequently shares Libs of TikTok posts. She intends to target trans people in blue states. Subscribe to support my journalism.
[image or embed]
— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) December 10, 2024 at 8:14 AM
Reed continued:
Dhillon's most prominent work includes founding the Center for American Liberty, a legal organization that focuses heavily on anti-transgender cases in blue states. The organization's "featured cases" section highlights several lawsuits, such as Chloe Cole's case against Kaiser Permanente; a lawsuit challenging a Colorado school's use of a transgender student's preferred name; a case against a California school district seeking to implement policies that would forcibly out transgender students; and a lawsuit against Vermont for denying a foster care license to a family unwilling to comply with nondiscrimination policies regarding transgender youth.
Reed also highlighted Dhillon's attacks on state laws protecting transgender people, as well as her expression of "extreme anti-trans views" on social media—including calling gender-affirming healthcare for trans children "child abuse."
Last year, The Guardian's Jason Wilson reported that the Center for American Liberty made a six-figure payment to a public relations firm that represented Dhillion in both "her capacity as head of her own for-profit law firm and Republican activist."
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