Green Peace Activists Have a Message For the Country: RESIST Trump!

On Wednesday morning, Green Peace activists from all over the country, unfurled a 70-foot long banner near the White House, reading simply, “Resist.” For those who do not support Trump's plan to either roll back Civil Rights (as evidenced by his administration removing the Civil Rights page from the White House official website), divide through fear mongering, or silence the Environmental Protection Agency, the powerful one-word message, "Resist," spoke loudly and clearly. 

Trump's fascist tendencies will constantly be met with resistance from human rights and environmental groups like Green Peace. In addition to climate justice, the mission for Green Peace is to protect people from human rights violations. 

Green Peace released the following statement in support of the demonstration on the crane: 

“People in this country are ready to resist and rise up in ways they have never done before,” said activist and Greenpeace Inc. Board Chair Karen Topakian. “While Trump’s disdain and disrespect for our democratic institutions scare me, I am so inspired by the multigenerational movement of progress that is growing in every state. Greenpeace has used nonviolence to resist tyrannical bullies since 1971, and we’re not going to stop now.”

The Greenpeace USA activists say they are prepared to stay in position throughout the morning to reach as many people as possible through live broadcasts on Greenpeace USA’s Facebook page, tweets from the activists’ twitter accounts, and media interviews.

“The sun has risen this morning on a new America, but it isn’t Donald Trump’s,” said Pearl Robinson, one of the activists who unfurled the banner. ”I fear not only the policies of the incoming administration, but also the people emboldened by this election to commit acts of violence and hate. Now is the time to resist. We won’t stand rollbacks on all the progress the people have made on women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, the heightened awareness of state-sanctioned violence on black and brown folks, and the progress we have made on access to clean and renewable energy, an issue I have personally worked on my entire adult life.”

The action this morning comes after days of sustained protests against Trump, including the four activists who disrupted Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing with “Reject Rex” signs earlier this month, the veterans arrested in Senator John McCain’s office last week, and the hundreds of thousands of participants in Women’s Marches across the country over the weekend.

Since Trump has taken office, his administration has removed all mentions of climate change and LGBTQ rights from the White House website, taken steps to bring back the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and issued a press gag order on all employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture.

*Stay tuned for updates on Dakota Access and Keystone XL. These two pipeline controversies will surely bring more and more news/protests as Trump prepares for yet another executive order.