Hey John,
This weekend, authoritarians around the world showed us what they fear most: people.
In Los Angeles, ICE agents arrested SEIU CA Union President David Huerta. He was just one of many targets as part of an escalating campaign of terror against immigrant communities.
In response, everyday Americans have flooded the streets in defense of their neighbors, kicking off a weekend of absolutely iconic protests.
Trump’s response has been to deploy the National Guard, while his Secretary of Defense speculates about deploying MARINES against civilians who are exercising their constitutional right to protest.
Meanwhile, around the globe in the Mediterranean, the Israeli military intercepted Greta Thunberg and 11 others sailing aboard an aid ship carrying supplies to starving children in Gaza.
The Netanyahu regime is desperate to repress the world’s ability to ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, lest they witness and report on the war crimes the IDF are enacting daily.
These are two stories but they share one pattern: Right-wing authoritarians in democratic countries are turning to violence, repression, and lies because they know that they can no longer govern by consent, justice, or truth.
These regimes are concerned that their power is fracturing. Their policies are unpopular and their legitimacy is under threat. They know that public solidarity and mass protest could bust their rule wide open.
That is why they crack down with such brutal force: not because they are confident, but because like all bullies, they are cowards.
Regimes that turn weapons of war against civilians have lost their legitimacy to govern.
In the climate movement, we know these forces all too well. From Standing Rock to Line 3, wherever protests get too powerful, Big Oil calls in police or hired guns.
The billionaires backing today’s authoritarians fear democracy, and with good cause.
We must meet their fear with courage. When authoritarians send soldiers to silence aid workers, or ICE agents to terrorize workers, or troops to crush protests like those at Standing Rock, our answer must be solidarity, resistance, and mass mobilization.
That’s the power and promise of movements. But the magic only happens when millions of people step up. If there was ever a time to take that step, it’s now.
Next Wednesday we’re launching our new campaign, “End the Oligarchy, Save our Futures.” It’s a four year plan to use our generations’ power to disrupt business as usual and force an overhaul of our political system so that working people call the shots, not oil billionaires or private prison CEOs.
In solidarity,
Team Sunrise
Email us: [email protected]
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