Strike With Us is a movement made up of over 100 environmentalist groups that plans to start a week of strikes beginning on Friday 20, 2019. The movement aims to carry out more strikes leading up to the 2020 presidential election. 1 Strike With Us has put forward a list of political demands that include the Green New Deal, halting all fossil fuel extraction and planned infrastructure projects, and for lawmakers to introduce legislation protecting the so-called “Rights of Nature” which would include a ban on resource extraction. 23
Strike With Us is sponsored by Earth’s Call and Climate Emergency Fund. 4
Strike With Us is a campaign conducted by nearly 300 environmentalist groups to carry out strikes leading up to the 2020 presidential election5 to advance a list of left-of-center political demands that include the Green New Deal, halting all conventional fuel extraction and infrastructure projects, and for lawmakers to introduce legislation protecting the so-called “Rights of Nature” which would include a ban on resource extraction. 6
Strike With Us is sponsored by newly created non-profit groups Earth’s Call and Climate Emergency Fund. 7
Background
Just more than a year old, the climate strike movement is largely inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 15 year-old Swedish student-activist, who protested alone at the Swedish parliament every Friday to call attention to climate change instead of going to school. Her social media posts went viral and inspired the hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #Climatestrike, encouraging students worldwide to skip school in order to protest. 8 Fridays for Future is a supporting organization of the Strike With Us movement, and has distinguished itself with the hashtag #WeekForFuture. 9
Strike With Us is part of the larger Global Climate Strike movement, taking place in over 150 countries. 10 The organized nationwide protests in the United States on September 20, 2019 to coincide with the first ever United Nations (UN) Youth Climate Summit on September 21, and the UN Climate Action Summit held on September 23, both happening in New York. 11 Strike With Us proposed that a “week of action” will be launched after the September 20 protest, with similar organizers protesting worldwide. 12
Strike With Us has put forward a list of political demands that include the socialist Green New Deal, halting all fossil fuel extraction and planned infrastructure projects, and for lawmakers to introduce legislation protecting the so-called “Rights of Nature” which would include a ban on resource extraction. 13 These demands have been adopted by the Shut Down DC movement,14 which blocked infrastructure and created gridlock in Washington, D.C., in an effort to coerce the adoption of radical environmentalist policy. 15
Donor Organizations
Climate Emergency Fund is a newly created non-profit organization, with a goal of raising $600 million to support more aggressive and disruptive climate change strategies. 16 The fund was launched by Trevor Neilson, former director of public affairs at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Aileen Getty, heir to the Getty Oil dynasty; and Rory Kennedy, daughter of former U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY).
Earth’s Call is another newly created 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, intending to fund groups who support “innovative solutions” to climate change. It partners with Lever for Change, a non-profit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to launch a $20 million proposal competition in 2020, as part of a $50 million commitment to “solutions.” 17
Earth’s Call is also partners with Future Coalition, a prominent supporter of Strike With Us. Future Coalition is national network of youth-led organizations focused on climate change, and it supported the March 15 Youth Climate Strike earlier in 2019. 18
Supporting Organizations
- 350.org
- Alliance for Climate Education (non-profit)
- Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)
- Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)
- Climate Hawks Vote
- Earth Guardians
- Earth Uprising (other group)
- Extinction Rebellion (XR)
- Fridays for Future (movement)
- Future Coalition (other group)
- GreenFaith
- Greenpeace
- Hip Hop Caucus
- Interfaith Power and Light (other group)
- International Indigenous Youth Council (other group)
- Labor Network for Sustainability
- League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
- March On
- Mothers Out Front
- MoveOn.org Political Action
- National Wildlife Federation
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
- NextGen America
- Our Children’s Trust
- Oxfam America
- Rock the Vote Action
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- Sierra Club Foundation
- Sunrise Movement
- Youth Climate Strike (Movement)
- Zero Hour (movement)
Supported Movements
- Future Coalition (movement)
- Global Climate Strike (movement)
- Green New Deal (GND) (movement)
- Shut Down DC (movement)
- Youth Climate Strike (movement)
References
- “US Climate Strikes.” Strike With Us, n.d. https://strikewithus.org/#about.
- “Demands.” Shut Down DC. Accessed September 18, 2019. https://www.strikedc.org/index.php/demands/.
- “US Climate Strikes.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 18, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/#demands.
- “US Climate Strikes.” Strike With Us, n.d. https://strikewithus.org/#about.
- “US Climate Strikes.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/#about
- “Demands.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/#demands
- “Strike Sponsors.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/#about
- “About #FridaysForFuture.” fridaysforfuture.org. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://fridaysforfuture.org/about
- “Fridays For Future.” fridaysforfuture.org. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://fridaysforfuture.org/
- “The Global Climate Strike is Happening Now.” Global Climate Strike. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://globalclimatestrike.net/#news
- “Climate Action Summit 2019.” The United Nations. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/
- “Week of Action.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/week-of-action/
- “Demands.” Strike With Us. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://strikewithus.org/#demands
- “Demands.” Strike DC. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://www.strikedc.org/index.php/demands/
- Recker, Jane. “Meet the Folks Planning to Ruin Your Commute on September 23.”Washingtonian. September 13, 2019. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/09/13/meet-the-folks-planning-to-ruin-your-commute-on-september-23/
- Levine, Martin. “No Time for Gradualism: New Climate Emergency Fund to Support Disruption.” Nonprofit Quarterly. July 16, 2019. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/no-time-for-gradualism-new-climate-emergency-fund-to-support-disruption/
- “Earth’s Call.” Earth’s Call. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://www.earthscall.org/
- “March 15 Climate Strike.” Future Coalition. 2019. Accessed September 22, 2019. https://futurecoalition.org/initiatives/youth-climate-strike/