“We’re gonna rise up/Rise up till we’re one
They try to stop us/But we keep coming back”
Our voices echoed through the halls of the Rayburn Building, a government building home to the offices of many House of Representatives members, as 170 youth activists from the Sunrise Movement stood in front of Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s office, singing protest songs. When the Capitol Police gave the group their first warning, all but 18 of the activists filed down the stairs and out of the building.
The last 18 of us stood in the hallway, blocking the path to McCarthy’s office, while holding signs and singing for another 45 minutes before the Capitol Police began to lead members of our group away one by one. As members of the group were zip-tied and led down the hall, I thought about why I had decided to do this in the first place.
According to sunrisemovement.org, the Sunrise Movement is a youth environmental group with a focus on stopping climate change and passing the Green New Deal, a transformative policy with the aim of reshaping American society to create a greener future. They center on amplifying the voices of young people in the fight against climate change, with both policy and protest initiatives.
Traveling to DC from Bryn Mawr
On September 27, I and four other Bryn Mawr students took a Greyhound down to Washington DC to participate in the Green New Deal for Public Schools Launch with the Sunrise Movement. We were hosted by a local congregation, the Washington Ethical Society, and arrived in the evening to find a bustling hub of Sunrise Movement activities surrounding the event. After COVID-testing, we were given sleeping bags and dinner by the organizers, who ranged in age from 17 to 28, and led an orientation about the plan for the launch.
Launching & Lobbying
The launch of the Green New Deal for Public Schools came right before the bill was introduced in Congress on September 29. According to the Green New Deal for Public Schools website, the bill, if passed, will invest $1.6 trillion in the American public school system over the next ten years, focusing on initiatives like climate education, better school infrastructure and free lunches.
For part one of the Green New Deal for Public Schools Launch, members of the Sunrise Movement split into small groups for lobbying meetings with various members of the House of Representatives in the morning, with the goal of convincing them to co-sign the Green New Deals for Public Schools Bill.
“We were just talking to Democrats, especially the Democrats who had previously supported Green New Deal bills. My group spoke to one of the aides of (Connecticut Representative) Jahana Hayes, and that was super great. He was super helpful,” Bryn Mawr freshman Maia Frost, who attended the launch, said. “I’d done a lot of research on the bill in the days before, so it easy to explain, and the aide was super receptive so it was lovely. And the next day, the representative had co-signed the bill, which was super exciting.”
In the days after the Sunrise Movement’s lobbying, more than 70 co-signers added their support to the bill, many of them representatives whose offices were visited by Sunrise members during the lobbying day.
Following the morning of lobbying, Sunrise Movement members took place in an organized direct action aimed at McCarthy.
Direct Action — Arrests
Direct action, according to the Activist Handbook, is a specific form of activism that has often been used by the environmentalist movement in the past. Direct action seeks to disrupt the system and force those in charge to listen, rather than play within the system that is causing the issues. Direct action can include civil disobedience, sit-ins, blocking streets, strikes and much more.
Our nonviolent direct action protested the looming potential government shutdown, which was averted on September 30, two days after our protest. We urged “Climate Action, Not Shutdowns,” with a focus on Generation Z’s demand to have a voice in politics.
18 members of the Sunrise Movement, all legal adults, volunteered to be arrested as a political statement. Several minors spoke while we stood in McCarthy’s office, but left before being arrested. The Capitol Police took the 18 protesters to be processed and released on a post and forfeit.
The protest was covered in news sources including the Guardian, Teen Vogue, Washington Post and USA Today, exposing Sunrise and the climate movement to integral time in the national spotlight.
This is not Sunrise’s first experience with nonviolent direct action. According to a story by the New Yorker, Sunrise’s 2018 sit-in in Nancy Pelosi’s office skyrocketed the movement to new heights, pushing their annual budget from $50,000 to over $10 million and setting up the Green New Deal as a prominent topic of discussion.
After the direct action, the Sunrise Movement members attended a press conference with Representative Jamaal Bowman and Senator Ed Markey, the original sponsors of the bill, for the official launch of the Green New Deal for Public Schools. It was attended by various co-sponsors of the bill, including Representatives Ilhan Omar and Maxwell Frost.
Finally, they closed out the day with a rally of Sunrise Movement members for the Green New Deal for Public School. For Frost, the overall experience of the trip was impactful.
“It was really community-oriented, we learned a lot of songs, and it was really lovely. There were a lot of really inspirational people there, and it was so cool to be a part of it,” Frost said. “[One big takeaway was] how easy it is to participate when you have the means to, and how much the people in power who already support you want to be on your side. There’s so much happening all the time, so speaking up for what you need is really important. Just a little bit goes a long way.”
