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For Immediate Release
April, 11 2024, 08:44am EDT
Contact:
Stevie O’Hanlon, Sunrise Movement, press@sunrisemovement.org
Megan Barnhart, Fridays For Future USA, media@fridaysforfutureusa.org
Eva Kappas, Campus Climate Network / Reclaim Earth Day, eva_kappas@brown.edu
Ahead of Earth Day, Youth Climate Groups Plan Hundreds of Demonstrations to Demand President Biden Declare A Climate Emergency, End The Era Of Fossil Fuels
Thousands of Youth Activists Expected in New York, Washington, Nationwide
NATIONWIDE
Thousands of youth activists, led by groups including the Sunrise Movement, Fridays For Future USA, and the Campus Climate Network, will hold protests in hundreds of cities nationwide around Earth Day to demand President Biden and other decision-makers take action to end fossil fuels and respond to the climate emergency.
The groups are demanding President Biden declare a climate emergency and use his executive powers to create green union jobs, phase out fossil fuels, and prepare for climate disasters. This can and must include: reinstating the 2015 crude oil export ban, stopping approvals of new fossil fuel projects, and building resilient and distributed renewable energy systems in climate-vulnerable communities.
Thousands of young people will participate in the actions, which include:
● Friday, April 19: Fridays For Future USA leads a Day of Climate Action, in solidarity with actions being organized in hundreds of cities around the world, to demand action from President Biden to end the era of fossil fuels. In New York City alone, thousands of students will walk out of their classes and march from Foley Square in Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Borough Hall.
● Monday, April 22nd: The Sunrise Movement is leading dozens of Earth Day Teach-Ins at congressional offices and other locations to urge Members of Congress to publicly call on President Biden to declare a national climate emergency.
● Monday, April 22: Student organizers with the Campus Climate Network will lead Reclaim Earth Day actions on more than 100 college campuses, demanding that universities become true environmental justice leaders and cut ties with the fossil fuel industry.
Background:
President Biden promised to be a climate president. Ahead of the 2024 election, young people are mobilizing to hold him accountable to that promise. Despite critically pausing the authorizations for some new LNG export infrastructure in the Gulf, under the Biden administration, U.S. oil and gas production has surged to record highs.
Hundreds of thousands of young people took action to demand the administration reject fossil fuel projects like the Willow drilling project in Alaska, and tens of thousands joined the March to End Fossil Fuels last September calling on Biden to phase out fossil fuels and declare a climate emergency. In February, over 21 young people were arrested at Biden’s campaign offices calling for a climate emergency.
As the election approaches, young people are mobilizing to demand President Biden take bold action to protect young peoples’ futures. That begins with declaring a climate emergency that meaningfully addresses fossil fuels, creates millions of good-paying union jobs, and helps us prepare for incessant climate disasters.
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
LATEST NEWS
Critics Blast 'Clueless' New York Times for Dismissive Coverage of Historic No Kings Protests
"The NY Times saves its harshest skepticism for progressives," said one critic.
Mar 29, 2026
The New York Times is drawing criticism for publishing articles that downplayed the significance of Saturday's No Kings protests, which initial estimates suggest was the largest protest event in US history.
In a Times article that drew particular ire, reporter Jeremy Peters questioned whether nationwide events that drew an estimated 8 million people to the streets "would be enough to influence the course of the nation’s politics."
"Can the protests harness that energy and turn it into victories in the November midterm elections?" Peters asked rhetorically. "How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
Journalist and author Mark Harris called Peters' take on the protests "predictable" and said it was framed so that the protests would appear insignificant no matter how many people turned out.
"There's a long, bad journalistic tradition," noted Harris. "All conservative grass-roots political movements are fascinating heartland phenomena, all progressive grass-roots political movements are ineffectual bleating. This one is written off as powered by white female college grads—the wine-moms slur, basically."
Media critic Dan Froomkin was event blunter in his criticism of the Peters piece.
"Putting anti-woke hack Jeremy Peters on this story is an act of war by the NYT against No Kings," he wrote.
Mark Jacob, former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune, also took a hatchet to Peters' analysis.
"The NY Times saves its harshest skepticism for progressives," he wrote. "Instead of being impressed by 3,000-plus coordinated protests, NYT dismisses the value of 'hitting a number' and asks if No Kings will be 'a primal scream that fades into a whimper.' F off, NY Times. We'll defeat fascism without you."
The Media and Democracy Project slammed the Times for putting Peters' analysis of the protests on its front page while burying straight news coverage of the events on page A18.
"NYT editors CHOSE that Jeremy Peters's opinions would frame the No Kings demonstrations and pro-democracy movement to millions of NYT readers," the group commented.
Joe Adalian, west coast editor for New York Mag's Vulture, criticized a Times report on the No Kings demonstrations that quoted a "skeptic" of the protests without noting that said skeptic was the chairman of the Ole Miss College Republicans.
"Of course, the Times doesn’t ID him as such," remarked Adalian. "He's just a Concerned Youth."
Jeff Jarvis, professor emeritus at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, took issue with a Times piece that offered five "takeaways" from the No Kings events that somehow managed to miss their broader significance.
"I despise the five-takeaways journalistic trope the Broken Times loves so," Jarvis wrote. "It is reductionist, hubristic in its claim to summarize any complex event. This one leaves out much, like the defense of democracy against fascism."
Journalist Miranda Spencer took stock of the Times' entire coverage of the No Kings demonstrations and declared it "clueless," while noting that USA Today did a far better job of communicating their significance to readers.
Harper's Magazine contributing editor Scott Horton similarly argued that international news organizations were giving the No Kings events more substantive coverage than the Times.
"In Le Monde and dozens of serious newspapers around the world, prominent coverage of No Kings 3, which brought millions of Americans on to the streets to protest Trump," Horton observed. "In NYT, an illiterate rant from Jeremy W Peters and no meaningful coverage of the protests. Something very strange going on here."
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'No Kings!' 8 Million Rally Against Trump in Largest Single-Day Protest in US History
In San Francisco, thousands of anti-Trump activists gathered on a local beach to form a human sign that read, "Trump must go now! No ICE, no wars, no lies, no kings."
Mar 28, 2026
Millions of American across all 50 states on Saturday rallied against President Donald Trump and his authoritarian agenda during nationwide No Kings protests.
The flagship No Kings rally in Minneapolis, which organizers Indivisible estimated drew over 200,000 demonstrators, featured speeches from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and actress Jane Fonda, as well as a special performance from rock icon Bruce Springsteen, who performed "Streets of Minneapolis," a song he wrote in tribute of slain protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Organizers called it "the largest single-day nationwide demonstrations in US history," with an estimate 8 million people coming out for events in communities and cities nationwide.
From major cities to rural towns that have never seen mobilizations like this before, protesters made clear that in America, we don’t do kings," the No Kings coalition said in a statement.
"This is what it looks like when a movement grows—not just in size, but in reach, in courage, and in more people who see themselves as part of this movement," the organizers said. "The American people are fed up with this administration’s power grabs, an illegal war that Congress and the public haven’t approved, and the continued attempts to stifle our freedoms. We’re not waiting for change; we’re making it."
The rally in Minneapolis was one of more than 3,300 No Kings events across the US and internationally, and aerial video footage showed massive crowds gathered for demonstrations in cities including Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Diego.
Congratulations to all Americans who dared to take to the streets today and publicly expressed their stance and disagreement with the actions and policies of their president. #WeSayNoKings 👍👍👍 pic.twitter.com/f3UDpmsj3m
— Dominik Hasek (@hasek_dominik) March 28, 2026
In San Francisco, thousands of anti-Trump activists gathered on a local beach to form a human sign that read, "Trump must go now! No ICE, no wars, no lies, no kings."
WOW! Protesters in San Francisco, CA formed a MASSIVE human sign on Ocean Beach reading “Trump Must Go Now!” for No Kings Day (Video: Ryan Curry / S.F. Chronicle) pic.twitter.com/ItF7c7gvke
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) March 28, 2026
However, No Kings rallies weren't just held in major US cities. In a series of social media posts, Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg collected photos and videos of No Kings events in communities including Arvada, Colorado, Madison, New Jersey, and St. Augustine, Florida, as well as international No Kings events held in London and Madrid.
Attendance estimates for Saturday's No Kings protests were not available as of this writing. Polling analyst G. Elliott Morris estimated that the previous No Kings event, held in October, drew at least 5 million people nationwide, making it likely “the largest single-day political protest ever.”
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Nationwide General Strike Planned for May 1: No Kings Organizer
"No work, no school, no shopping. We're going to show up and say we're putting workers over billionaires and kings."
Mar 28, 2026
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said on Saturday that a nationwide general strike is being planned for May 1 that will be modeled on the day of action residents of Minnesota organized in January against the brutality carried out by federal immigration enforcement officials.
Appearing at the flagship No Kings rally in Minneapolis, Levin praised the strength shown by the Minnesota protesters in the face of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) siege of their city this year, and said his organization wanted to replicate it across the country.
"The next major national action of this movement is not just going to be another protest," Levin said. "It is a tactical escalation... It is an economic show of force, inspired by Minnesota's own day of truth and action."
Levin then outlined what the event would entail.
"On May 1, on May Day, we are saying, 'No business as usual,'" he said. "No work, no school, no shopping. We're going to show up and say we're putting workers over billionaires and kings."
Levin: This is the largest protest in Minnesota history… The next major national action of this movement is not just gonna be another protest. On May 1st, across the country, we are saying no business as usual. No work, no school, no shopping. We're gonna show up and say we're… pic.twitter.com/bRPR7K5DuP
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 28, 2026
Levin added that "we are going to build on that courage, that sacrifice" that Minnesota residents showed during their day of action in January, and vowed "to demonstrate that regular people are the greatest threat to fascism in this country."
In an interview with Payday Report published Saturday, Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg said that the goal of the nationwide strike action would be to send "a clear message: we demand a government that invests in our communities, not one that enriches billionaires, fuels endless war, or deploys masked agents to intimidate our neighbors.”
The No Kings protests against President Donald Trump's authoritarian government, which Indivisible has been central in organizing, have brought millions of Americans into the streets.
Polling analyst G. Elliott Morris estimated that the previous No Kings event, held in October, drew at least 5 million people nationwide, making it likely "the largest single-day political protest ever."
Keep ReadingShow Less
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