The Sunrise Movement, the national grassroots organization that helped secure support for a Green New Deal from more than 100 lawmakers and laid the groundwork for cities and states to pass bold climate legislation, announced Tuesday the launch of a new strategy to build long-term power across government and push the Biden administration to take far-reaching climate action.
Executive director Varshini Prakash highlighted the organization’s success at “raising the urgency on climate and forcing the federal government to deliver bold action,” including in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It’s time for us to get serious about building long-term power and organizing a movement across race and class that can take over every level of government and transform society.”
But “with eight years left to stop the worst of the climate crisis, two years remaining of [President Joe] Biden’s term, and the threat of right-wing authoritarianism on the rise,” said Prakash, “it’s clear Sunrise must take its organizing up a notch.”
The group, which has more than 400 hubs across the U.S., plans to organize at the local level, building the grassroots power needed to elect more climate champions to state and local governments “and win Green New Deal policy in cities and towns across the country.”
“Sunrise will recruit thousands of young organizers and tens of thousands of supporters across race and class to harness people power and train the next generation of Green New Deal leaders—especially in the key swing states politicians need to win,” said the organization.
Sunrise noted that Republicans have long organized on the ground to take control of local school boards and governments as well as state legislatures, and pledged to “harness people power” to ensure the passage of the broadly popular Green New Deal, which would create millions of new jobs to help build a sustainable energy economy in the United States.
“Local investment is something the GOP knows well. They spent the past few decades organizing and polarizing communities on the ground to build power,” said Prakash. “And they’re not stopping now. If they win, it will mean a death sentence for our generation.”
“That’s why we must be as ambitious as our opponents,” she continued. “We can’t resort to the same tactics we’ve used in the past. It’s time for us to get serious about building long-term power and organizing a movement across race and class that can take over every level of government and transform society.”
By recruiting thousands of young organizers and training “the next generation of Green New Deal leaders—especially in the key swing states politicians need to win,” the Sunrise Movement will “create the conditions to shape the 2024 election and force the government to pass even more Green New Deal policies on a national scale come 2025,” said Prakash. “Mark my words, our generation is taking over.”
The organization will also focus on building power in schools by pushing for the use of green energy in school districts, pressuring school officials to ensure students learn about the climate emergency, and creating “pathways to green jobs.”
Republicans are set to take over the U.S. House in the new year, but Sunrise vowed to double its efforts to push Biden to “use the full scale of his executive power to stop the climate crisis,” by declaring a climate emergency and blocking approval for new fossil fuel projects.
