November 30, 2019

Climate Activists Protest Black Friday Around the World

27 people were arrested in New York City while calling for action to fight climate change.

Sam Mellish/Getty

On Black Friday, climate change activists in cities all over the planet took to the streets to decry the biggest shopping day of the year. 

According to the New York Post, 300 protesters marched down a busy street in New York City then blocked traffic near Herald Square by sitting in an intersection. Police arrested 27 people after they refused to clear the road. Law enforcement said the individuals would be charged with disorderly conduct. 

Protests were widespread across Europe. In France, protesters targeted Amazon’s French headquarters. Other climate demonstrators protested at a shopping center in Paris. At a Lyon protest, video captured riot police dragging protesters. In the United Kingdom, protesters chanted outside of shopping centers. 

Though Thanksgiving is a US holiday, the Black Friday phenomenon has spread to all corners of the globe—much to the chagrin of activists around the world. “The planet burns, oceans die, and we still want to consume, consume, and therefore produce, produce-until we eradicate all living things?” read a manifesto from protesters in Paris. “We will not betray our children for a 30 percent discount!”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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