November, 19 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Photo & Video: Climate Justice Activists Conclude 24-Hour Occupation at Dnc, Demand President-Elect Biden Be Brave
A coalition of grassroots groups, Black, Indigenous, and Brown leaders from across the nation occupied the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington for 24 hours to demand that President-Elect Biden and his administration follow through on a bold agenda to address the climate crisis. They were joined at an afternoon rally by members of Congress who are leading the effort in the House and Senate to hold the incoming administration to its promises.
WASHINGTON
A coalition of grassroots groups, Black, Indigenous, and Brown leaders from across the nation occupied the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington for 24 hours to demand that President-Elect Biden and his administration follow through on a bold agenda to address the climate crisis. They were joined at an afternoon rally by members of Congress who are leading the effort in the House and Senate to hold the incoming administration to its promises.
The occupation was led by youth, movement leaders, frontline activists, and artists collectively representing a range of identities and communities confronting the interlocking crises in front of us. For 24 hours, the group marched, created art, and called on Biden to live up to his mandate to invest in Black, Indigenous, Brown, and working-class communities.
Photos and videos from the event, including speeches from frontline leaders and progressive allies in Congress, are available at: https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MDHUS546A
As Jennifer K. Falcon of the Indigenous Environmental Network put it: "We are beyond the tipping point with climate chaos. We must act quickly to mitigate the climate chaos we are experiencing for the sky, land and water. The people demand President-elect Biden move to a just transition centered in Indigenous knowledge so that Mother Earth can heal. We can't afford to continue to fight climate change with false solutions and carbon mechanisms that allow big polluters to pollute. It's time to divest from fossil fuels and invest in a regenerative economy that allows us to thrive."
Janet Redman, Climate Campaign Director with Greenpeace USA, added: "Against great obstacles during this pandemic, people across the country turned out in record numbers to pick new leaders who will care and govern for all of us. Because of our work to put him in office, Joe Biden now has a massive opportunity in front of him to help millions of people build better lives for themselves and their families. To get it right, he must embrace action at the scale science and justice demand. It's time for Biden to say 'yes' to a Green New Deal and 'no' to fossil fuels."
Keya Chatterjee, Executive Director of the US Climate Action Network, co-emcee of the event, said, "We are going to stay here overnight, we're going to stay here and bring in stories from all over the country of people who have lost their lives and people who are dealing with the pain of these overlapping crises, of the climate crisis, the pandemic of the racial injustice and we're going to stay here until we tell our stories and we're going to invite folks to join us in the share commitment to a future where we can all thrive."
On Thursday afternoon, the group was joined by members of Congress, including newly-elected Representatives who won on the power of a bold climate agenda.
"Thanks to the hard work of young people, working-class people, and communities of color, our movement elected President-Elect Joe Biden and candidates like myself by historic margins," said Representative-Elect Mondaire Jones. "Now, with just years left before irreparable damage is done to our planet, we have the opportunity to honor the promises we made on the campaign trail and get to work to end environmental racism and invest in a green jobs program that will help all Americans."
Representative-Elect Jones was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep-Elects Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, and Senator Ed Markey.
The message coming from this diverse array of speakers, from across the country and from the grassroots to the halls of Congress, was summed up by Ta'Sina Sapa Win, of the Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective: "We are running out of time to save our children's future and our planet, we must act NOW in order to provide a clean and just world for all."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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A campaign finance watchdog on Wednesday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, affiliated political groups, and an accounting firm of violating U.S. law in a scheme "seemingly designed to obscure the true recipients of a noteworthy portion of Trump's legal bills."
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Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee—faces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
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The coalition supporting the amendment, Arizona for Abortion Access, highlighted on social media that the House-approved bill "did not include the emergency clause required to stop the 1864 ban from taking effect on June 8," meaning H.B. 2677 wouldn't apply until 90 days after the end of the legislative session.
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While continuing to give Israel billions of dollars in support to wage war on the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration this week has declined to join the growing global demands for an international probe into mass graves discovered at hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Two journalists on Tuesday questioned Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, about the administration's response to the hundreds of bodies found at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as well as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk's call for an independent investigation.
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"Somehow I don't think the U.S. State Department would defer to Russia as a credible source to investigate itself if a mass grave were discovered in Ukrainian territory it had occupied," Finucane said on social media in response to Stanage's questioning.
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