The youth climate organization The Sunrise Movement burst on the scene in 2018 with an occupation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, which was joined by newly-elected New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Last year, the group expanded their focus to oppose Trump and fascism, so that the urgent issue of climate justice could have a fighting chance.
The Sunrise Movement’s Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay lives in Minneapolis, and Sunrise was one of many civil society organizations that mobilized against ICE mass deportation raids and violence in January, called Operation Metro Surge. In June, Trump’s Justice Department filed charges against 15 individuals in Minneapolis for conspiracy to impede or injure federal immigration officers.
The Justice Department claims that the Sunrise Movement supports “Antifa-associated anarchist terrorists,” and the group is now under investigation along with the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, Democratic Socialists of America, and Direct Action Minnesota. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Shiney-Ajay about her group’s active campaigns and the pushback against Trump’s criminalization of free speech she’d like to see when Democrats take control of both the House and Senate in January.
For more information, visit the Sunrise Movement’s website at sunrisemovement.org.
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