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The Sunrise Movement’s June 28 protest was a rare moment of dissent from progressive groups.
How Joe Biden Defanged the Left The White House has used access to quiet would-be progressive critics.
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BY A L E X A N D E R S A M M O N ON JUNE 28, over 500 members of the Sunrise Movement, D.C.’s most vocal youth climate group, blockaded the entrance to the White House for hours. Their demands included a fully funded Civilian Climate Corps, a New Deal–style jobs program, as part of the administration’s infrastructure package. A modest $10 billion CCC, less than one-tenth of Sunrise’s initial vision, was part of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan proposal when it was first unveiled months earlier; in the emaciated bipartisan infrastructure framework Biden agreed to in June, not one dollar remained. In
fact, nearly all of the major climate commitments, save some money (a fraction of what was proposed) for electric vehicles and public transit, were similarly absent from the $579 billion revision. The protesters were joined by progressive House Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and the tone was something new for progressive groups in the Biden era: openly combative. Over a dozen protesters were arrested. Sunrise members hoisted signs reading, “#NoClimateNoDeal, No
Compromises, No Excuses,” and “Biden, You Coward, Fight for Us.” Rep. Bowman, on the inadequacy of the new infrastructure proposal, was even more direct: “Fuck that!” Just a few days prior, not outside the White House steps but on a private Zoom call, D.C. climate groups, along with a wide swath of senior staffers from major progressive organizations, huddled with White House officials for the unveiling of that very same bipartisan infrastructure deal. Progressive groups meet with the White House every other Thursday; this was a special Friday session. Among the groups in attendance was Real Recovery Now!, a progressive coalition spearheaded by veteran progressive strategist Sasha Bruce and former MoveOn executive director Ilya Sheyman, highlighted in Politico in March as the primary entity that
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