'End the Oligarchy': Sunrise Launches Campaign to Confront Trump, Fossil Fuel Barons
The youth-led group is seeking to mobilize its millions of members to elect climate champions and partner with unions for an eventual general strike.
In response to a wave of increasingly authoritarian actions by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the Sunrise Movement is launching a sweeping new campaign to challenge him.
On Wednesday, the youth-led climate group announced the "End the Oligarchy, Save Our Futures" initiative, which aims to mobilize millions of people against the Trump administration and its backers in the fossil fuel industry. The campaign will begin with a virtual event Wednesday at 8:30 pm ET.
In an op-ed forCommon Dreams, Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, described the urgency of the campaign.
" Donald Trump and his cronies are waging war on the American people," she said. "Trump deployed the National Guard to aid his mass abduction of undocumented immigrants. A U.S. senator was handcuffed and thrown to the ground for asking the Trump regime a basic question. Meanwhile, as the Atlantic hurricane season kicked off, Trump gutted climate rules and announced his intention to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
Sunrise's campaign comes on the heels of a weekend of nationwide "No Kings" protests, which mobilized millions of Americans against Trump's military parade and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s lawless behavior in Los Angeles. With more than 4 million active members, Sunrise will hope to build on that momentum to "villainize Big Oil for knowingly fueling the climate crisis while raking in billions in profit."
They will campaign for states to pass "Polluters Pay" laws, which require fossil fuel companies that have fueled the climate crisis to contribute to superfunds that pay for disaster recovery and clean energy infrastructure. New York and Vermont have passed these superfund laws and at least 10 other states have had them introduced. However, an executive order signed by Trump at the urging of the fossil fuel industry in April ordered the Justice Department to halt their enforcement.
Sunrise is also looking to longer-term goals of building the political power of the U.S. environmental and labor movements.
Another goal is to campaign for a new generation of legislators who recognize the severity of the climate crisis to take office in 2026. Sunrise has not yet released its endorsements for the coming election cycle, but past names have included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Greg Casar (D-Texas).
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a proponent of ending taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil, will be among the speakers to kick off the virtual campaign on Wednesday.
"Climate disasters are devastating working people around the country—destroying homes and pushing people into crushing debt. It’s far past time that Big Oil be held accountable," Khanna said.
Sunrise's campaign will also include "climate strikes" in response to key events throughout the next four years. They hope to align their campaign with the timeline laid out by Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, who has urged other unions around the country to align their contracts with UAW's in preparation for a national general strike on May 1, 2028.
"We intend to make sure millions of students are ready to join workers in demanding an overhaul of our political and economic system so that it finally works for everyday people," Shiney-Ajay said. "It’s a bold plan, but if we pull it off, it will change the course of history. It’s going to require all of us stepping up."
