NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Thousands of activists marched down Park Avenue and turned down Billionaires\u2019 Row toward Trump Tower in New York Saturday to \u201cMake Billionaires Pay,\u201d calling for climate justice, democracy, free speech, gender equality, a stop to the Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown and a ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Their signs and reasons for taking to the streets were diverse, but many said the march highlighted a common theme behind the issues they stood for: that a small, elite class of the wealthy and powerful consistently prioritized profits over people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see them as movements. I don\u2019t see them as organizations. I just see humanity. We are all on this Earth. This is our mother,\u201d said Mahaishuwea, whose name means Eagle Woman in the language of the Hidatsa tribe, which is based in North Dakota.<\/p>\n
As marchers gathered, she spoke about her personal experiences growing up on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation, where she survived cancer. Standing in front of investment management company Blackstone\u2019s headquarters, she connected the violent history of colonization and resource extraction on Indigenous lands to the present-day greed of the powerful. \u201cThey have a sickness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Demonstrations have been planned around the world this week ahead of the United Nations General Assembly and New York Climate Week. Despite years of international conferences, negotiations and treaties, countries have continued to increase their emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, fueling more frequent and intense extreme weather events. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the Trump administration has been working to roll back foundational environmental rules. This has freed the way for oil and coal industries to pollute more while presenting more roadblocks to wind and solar energy development.<\/p>\n
Tamika Middleton, managing director of the Women\u2019s March, said that although it sometimes can be challenging to bring together people who are passionate about different causes, this year the intersections between them felt clearer. \u201cThe climate crisis, economic fights and immigrant fights are all really one big fight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The crowd stretched for over four city blocks and passed by luxury stores like Louis Vuitton, Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany & Co. Some carried enormous papier-mache puppets of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Several grabbed the edges of a 160-foot \u201cclimate polluters bill\u201d calling out the economic damages wrought by extreme weather events made worse by the carbon emissions of major polluting companies.<\/p>\n
Others dressed as the Statue of Liberty, rang cowbells and waved flags with the Star Wars character Princess Leia or homemade signs inked in sharpie and paint. One simply read: \u201cFree Kimmel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatiana Cruz was one of the people holding up the puppet of Elon Musk. \u201cEat the rich, that\u2019s the main message,\u201d she said, smiling. But she also explained that this was her first year actively protesting more after two of her friends were deported after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since then, she has gotten more involved in movements for migrant rights, Palestinian liberation and fighting climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe monster up top is similar in a lot of different scenarios,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Julia Donahue-Wait had come out from the South Bronx with a group of families who had started organizing together and also described the many causes present at the march as interconnected. Her young daughter Eurydice has grown up on picket lines and helped with the poster painting. Behind her, another protester held a sign: \u201cOur work is love,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all people without power taking it back,\u201d Donahue-Wait said. \u201cWhat we say to the kids is, we have safety and we need to stand up for people who don\u2019t have safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahaishuwea said although many people are scared, she thought it was important to show up.<\/p>\n
Her 12-year-old daughter is back at home. But she wants to teach future generations how to speak up, and \u201cto show people we\u2019re not afraid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At the end of the march, protesters held a five-minute moment of silence during which they sat in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Thousands of activists marched down Park Avenue and turned down Billionaires\u2019 Row toward Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,10109,10106,285,69,66,57,4061,129374,7798,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,402,129376,129375,61,1206,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-242527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-climate","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elon-musk","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-jeff-bezos","16":"tag-julia-donahue-wait","17":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkcity","22":"tag-ny","23":"tag-nyc","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","26":"tag-tamika-middleton","27":"tag-tatiana-cruz","28":"tag-u-s-news","29":"tag-united-nations","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-united-states-of-america","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-usa","36":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115239137114422339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}