Climate Defiance is a youth-led organization that burst on the political scene last April when they organized a protest to block the entrances to the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C. The dinner went on as planned, but the action introduced a climate group that was willing to take aggressive, loud, nonviolent direct action, focusing mostly on those in power in the federal and state government.
On Jan. 12, about 50 young people and elders converged on two sites in New Hampshire where Sen. Joe Manchin, the conservative Democratic representing West Virginia, was speaking about the need for Americans to come together in spite of party affiliation. Manchin, who is retiring from the Senate this year, has flirted with the idea of a third-party run for president with the secretive, corporate-funded group No Labels.
Outside one venue and inside the other, the climate activists called out Manchin for his strong support of fossil fuels, even as he himself profits from owning a coal operation. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus, who was at the action, spoke with Maxwell Downing, a recent college graduate, who is one of the full-time organizers with Climate Defiance. Here he talks about why the group targeted Manchin as a “climate super villain” and their strategy of disruption during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
MAXWELL DOWNING: Joe Manchin is really your poster child of a climate supervillain, right? He’s the king of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. He has basically slaughtered, mutilated any piece of vital green legislation that was supposed to go into the 2022 spending bill. He has consistently used his office and his power to enrich himself. People may not know this, but Joe Manchin owns a family run scrap coal business in West Virginia, where he rakes in about $500,000 a year in profits. He’s made millions from this business throughout his Senate career. When you look at West Virginia itself, he’s not helping West Virginian by pushing back on all of this green legislation. Doesn’t help that he is the chair of the Senate Energy Committee in our 50-50 split Senate. We have a situation specifically with climate legislation where all roads lead to Joe. He can basically veto any piece of legislation he wants because of his voting power and his position on the Energy Committee.
MELINDA TUHUS: Do you think he can remain influential after he leaves office? And does Climate Defiance care if he runs for president as an independent, which he’s being coy about whether he would make a run. It sounds not that likely, but it could happen. What does Climate Defiance think about that?
MAXWELL DOWNING: I think at the end of the day, Joe Manchin is a climate super villain, right? We don’t want that man anywhere near public office, right? We’ve been pushing really hard on the Biden administration, but at the end of the day, one Joe is clearly much worse than the other Joe. That being said, Climate Defiance is gonna consistently push back on anybody who is furthering fossil fuels into the 21st century because we have to listen to the science. Scientists are ringing the alarm bell saying that we have to cut down our emissions drastically. So when you have somebody like Joe Manchin trying to proclaim himself as a centrist and a moderate, we’re gonna call BS and say that selling our futures for your comfort and to maintain the status quo is not a moderate position. It’s an extremist position and it’s a very dangerous position. So we will continue to push back on him.
MELINDA TUHUS: So you were saying one Joe was worse than the other. I’m curious, it’s looking more and more like we’re gonna have a rematch from 2020, which is just so horrifying between Trump and Biden. And I know that Climate Defiance has been targeting, not solely, but I would say probably largely Democrats in office who are either appointed or elected. Does Climate Defiance as an organization or just individual people have an opinion about if it’s Trump versus Biden, what you all would do?
MAXWELL DOWNING: It’s a really sticky question. I don’t necessarily see us endorsing Biden in the 2024 election if it’s against Trump. I also don’t necessarily see us encouraging people not to vote for Biden in the 2024 election. That being said, that’s not a promise, that’s not a guarantee. It’s an internal discussion that I haven’t been quietly in the fold yet with. And to be honest, I don’t think it’s internal discussion that we have really had yet. We’ve been mostly focused with just keeping the pressure on the Biden administration and, come 2024, if there is a shift in parties and we do see a Trump presidency or a presidency with Nikki Haley, we are gonna have to shift focus. You are gonna start seeing a lot more actions with Republicans, with members of the Republican Cabinet. Even this week we did a trip up to New Hampshire, a second one where we were trying to get Nikki Haley and confront her on herd campaign tour.
Unfortunately it did not work out because of the snowstorm added about six hours to our journey. So we did not make the event in time. And, you know, not all of these events are wins, but that being said, just because they’re Republicans and we are mostly focused on Democrats right now, doesn’t make them safe from a disruption.
I wasn’t an activist before I joined Climate Defiance, and now I kind of do it for a living . But I think one of the best things about it is that it really pops this pink bubble that these politicians live in, right? This pink bubble where there is no accountability. They can say one thing and do another.
You know, when Climate Defiance shows up to an event that’s being hosted or is hosting a Biden official or a Democratic congressman who has voted against green legislation, we go up and we make our voices heard, and we say, “Hey, you have to listen to us. The majority of Americans want stronger legislation surrounding climate change than what you guys are doing. The vast majority of scientists are saying, We need it to survive as a species, and you have to listen to us. We’re not gonna sit here passively as you sell our futures.”
And I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about direct action, it’s inherently democratic in that it makes our voices heard, even when the system is set up and designed to mute that.
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