Sunrise Movement

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Sunrise Movement
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Founded April 2017 in Washington, D.C.[1]
Legal status 501(c)(4)
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Area served
 United States
Method Coordinated protests and activism
Website www.sunrisemovement.org

Sunrise Movement is an American-based left-wing political movement run by Sunrise, a 501(c)(4) political action organization that organizes young activists to demand political action on climate change. When first incorporated in 2017, the group's goal was to elect progressive proponents of renewable energy in the 2018 midterm elections,[2] first in the Democratic primaries and then in the general election. After the election, the organization has focused on pressuring the Democratic Party to support a massive regulatory program known as the Green New Deal.

Together with Justice Democrats and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the group organized a sit-in in the office of Nancy Pelosi, which brought Sunrise significant press coverage.[3] Sunrise organized a similar event in February 2019, bringing a group of socialist-leaning youths to confront Senator Dianne Feinstein in her office.

History

In the summer of 2013, Evan Weber, Matthew Lichtash, and environmentalist Michael K. Dorsey used a $30,000 grant plus free office space provided by the Sierra Club and the Wesleyan University Green Fund to draft a world-spanning regulatory program for climate action, which was the basis for the incorporation of the US Climate Plan 501(c)(3) nonprofit (aka Sunrise Movement Education Fund) incorporated in January 2014.[1]

Sara Blazevic and Varshini Prakash started the Sunrise Movement on the East Coast in 2015. Blazevic, Prakash, and other early leaders trained at Momentum, an organization that teaches left-wing activism methods.[4]

The Sunrise Movement launched as a 501(c)(4) in 2017.[2] During the 2018 midterms, they worked to oust candidates who would not refuse funding from the fossil fuel industry and to elect proponents of renewable energy regulation.[1] Half of the group's first 20 endorsements won their elections. Deb Haaland, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar won election to the House of Representatives and six other endorsed candidates won election to state house or senate seats in Florida, New York and Pennsylvania.[5]

After the 2018 elections, the Sunrise Movement focused on the economic control program known as the Green New Deal, described as "decarbonization, jobs, and justice."[3] Its proposals include a mandatory transition to renewable energy and expanded public transportation, and an economic plan to fund new industries. Reportedly the Green New Deal opposes nuclear power and carbon capture as well as some other technologies.[6][7][8][9]

In March 2019, UK activists demanded the Labour party commit to radical steps to decarbonise the UK economy within a decade. Calling their movement "Labour for a Green New Deal, a group spokesperson said they got their inspiration from the Sunrise Movement and Ocasio-Cortez. Group members met with Zack Exley, co-founder of the left-wing Justice Democrats.[10]

Activities

November 2018 sit-in

After taking control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats disagreed about the best way to pass climate change legislation.[11] Sunrise planned a sit-in in Pelosi's office and asked Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to help them publicize the event, which instead she decided to join herself.[3][12] The sit-in demands were that all members of the Democratic leadership in the House would refuse donations from the fossil fuel industry, and that Pelosi work to build consensus in the House over Green New Deal legislation to be passed when Democrats regain control of government.[13] The latter would be accomplished by a "Committee on a Green New Deal". The sit-in took place on November 13. Over two hundred and fifty protesters showed up to occupy Pelosi's office, with fifty-one being arrested by Capitol Police.[13][14] Representative Rashida Tlaib voiced support for the protest over social media.[13] Representative Pelosi responded by welcoming the protest over Twitter, offering to reinstate the Committee on the Climate Crisis and noting that the already-promised infrastructure bill could address many of the Sunrise Movement's concerns.[14]

Green New Deal Committee

One major goal has been to create a select committee on the Green New Deal, a plan opposed by some in the Democratic House leadership.[15]

The Sunrise Movement continued to campaign for House members to sign onto the plan to create a select committee for the green new deal, as opposed to simply resurrecting the old committee. On December 10, they staged a second sit-in at the offices of Nancy Pelosi and Jim McGovern. Over 1000 protesters showed up.[16][17] By December 19, 40 members of Congress had signed on to support the creation of the committee.[3]

Instead, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer decided to recreate the Committee on the Climate Crisis, appointing Representative Kathy Castor as chair.[3]

Meeting with Senator Feinstein

In February 2019, several San Francisco Bay Area children along with their adult sponsors met with Senator Feinstein to urge her to vote to support Green New Deal legislation. Feinstein told the children that she is working on an alternative bill, and that she could not support the proposed legislation which she believes is "unworkable" and has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. However, she allowed that she might vote for it as a symbolic gesture. The Sunrise Movement shared a video of the interaction, shortened so that it "focused on clips of the most tense moments" via social media and on its website. The shortened version has been viewed more than three million times.[18][19] Sunrise also later posted the longer, unedited video on Facebook, resulting in controversy over whether the short version emphasized scenes intended to make Feinstein appear less sympathetic to the viewer.[20] Senator Feinstein characterized the discussion as "spirited", while the executive director of the Sunrise movement said that Feinstein's treatment of the students was evidence that the Democratic Party required "fundamental change".[21]

Climate Change debate campaign

File:Sunrise Movement Banner.png
Banner dropped by the Sunrise Movement on August 23rd across from the DNC meeting.

In early 2019, the Sunrise Movement defined one of its major goals as pressuring the DNC to hold a single-issue presidential debate on climate change.[22] The DNC currently bars candidates from participating in outside debates (defined as multiple candidates on stage interacting with each other) but has no policy regarding participating in outside forums and town halls.[23]

On June 26, 2019, Sunrise Movement activists slept on the steps of the DNC office in Washington, D.C. to protest the lack of focus of the Democratic primary debates on the climate crisis, and to call a focused debate on Climate Change.[24] On July 25, CNN and MSNBC announced they would be hosting a climate change Town Hall and Forum respectively.[25] On August 22, the DNC Resolutions Committee voted 8-17 against hosting a DNC presidential climate change debate.[26] During the session a resolution was passed to allow multiple candidates to appear on a stage together at a climate change town hall or forum. However, in the breakout session on August 24 that resolution was voted down 222-137, with the DNC chair voting no.[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ January 10, 2019 proposal to legislators signed by the Sunrise Movement and 625 other groups
  8. ↑ Senator Ed Markey, the co-sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution in the United States senate, claimed that the resolution's language is technology-agnostic and does not exclude nuclear power or carbon capture.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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