Sunrise Movement, which led calls for a Green New Deal, will organize against Trump’s attacks on universities
As the Trump administration cracks down on both environmental policies and progressive activism, the Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate justice organization that popularized calls for a Green New Deal, is widening its mission to fight authoritarianism.
“Every day, Donald Trump is seizing power and shredding the Constitution,” Sunrise’s executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, wrote in an open letter to Sunrise members, funders and allies. “What ordinary people do in the coming months will determine whether he and his billionaire cronies can cement their grip on power and turn this country into a playground for the rich and powerful.”
Unlike the majority of Sunrise’s past work, its newer efforts will not necessarily center the climate crisis. But Stevie O’Hanlon, a co-founder and spokesperson for Sunrise, said the projects will aim to build a world where climate action is possible.
To supplement and/or hijack your point, this does not mean abandoning everything else (which neoliberals like to use as an excuse to shift further right); tackling fascism must explicitly be a prelude to tackling everything else. There’s out there the point of view that moderate conservatives will flock to the anti-fascist banner and help defeat fascism if liberals (or leftists, in which case it’s liberals) would just stop pushing for this or that progressive thing, not understanding that resistance to fascism comes from those who oppose them for what they stand for, not because they “go too far.” This is, as I hope is obvious, pure folly.
Neoliberals don’t need an excuse. They’re bad faith actors, you can use them when it’s politically convenient, but their problem with this situation is that they’re being cut out from the decision making
They themselves don’t care much for excuses, yes, but they need them to keep the rank and file in line. They know that they don’t have the numbers to win by saying what they really believe, so they have to make excuse after excuse or they’ll lose their hold over progressives and politically ignorant vaguely left-leaning folks. The excuses are necessary to maintain the grift.