TODAY: Thousands March Across the Country to Make Billionaires Pay
For immediate release
25,000 rallied in New York City alone
New York City—To kick off this year’s New York City Climate Week, 25,000 are marching past “Billionaire’s Row” to demonstrate their opposition to the billionaire agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, handouts to Big Oil, and rampant inequality and injustice. The action includes a press conference, large puppets, and a march past the Trump Hotel, BlackRock, and Park Avenue penthouses — all tied to bold demands around climate justice, immigration, and taxing the ultra-wealthy.
The march includes contingents of young people and families, people of faith, and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and represents a historic convening of movements united for climate action, migrant justice, and gender and economic equality.
The New York City march is just one of over 160 Make Billionaires Pay distributed actions happening across the country today and is the U.S. arm of the “Draw the Line” global week of action for climate justice, which includes 550+ rallies and marches across 97 countries.
The Make Billionaires Pay marches’ key demands include:
- Tax extreme wealth, end fossil fuel subsidies, make big oil pay for the damages they’ve caused.
- Reunite Families: Return abducted migrants, end collaboration with ICE, stop deportations.
- Fund our People and Our Future: A just transition to 100% renewable energy, and justice for frontline communities.
Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Women’s March, Climate Defenders, and 350.org organized the march in New York City, which has been endorsed by over 200 other labor, climate, health, and migrant justice organizations.
Speakers at the press conference include:
- Tamika Middleton, Managing Director, Women’s March
- Consuelo Ramirez: Founder/director of Domestic Workers Without Borders
- Jonathan Juarez, Zephyr Jaramillo, and Yazh Pending, Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA)
- Kandi White, Programs Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
- Hasan Bachu, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM)
Quotes:
Tamika Middleton, Managing Director, Women’s March:
“When billionaires burn our planet for profit, they’re setting fire to the futures of women in low-income and marginalized communities and putting their livelihood directly at risk. They threaten reproductive health, increase violence, and deepen inequality across the world for women. Today, we’re taking to the streets to demand justice for our environment, stop vicious attacks on migrants, and call out the fascists calling the shots. We’re here to truly make the billionaires pay, and build a future where everyone survives and thrives, no matter their class or background.”
Nico Udu-gama, Senior Partnerships Coordinator, 350.org:
“For far too long, billionaires have gotten away with prioritizing their own profit at catastrophic cost to the rest of us. Today made it crystal clear: the people are DONE being pawns in the billionaires’ game. With the U.S.and world reeling from the impacts of climate disasters and skyrocketing energy bills at the hands of Big Oil billionaires, the Trump administration has been defunding our communities to give even MORE handouts to billionaires. They’re dismantling our democracy, attacking immigrants, feeding the war profiteers, and now the billionaire-backed state is trying to police our speech. We demand that billionaires pay for the future the people need and deserve. Today we Draw the Line for people and the planet.”
Kazi Fouzia, Organizing Director, DRUM-Desis Rising Up and Moving: “As displaced working class migrants, we are hit hard in the frontlines of our home countries and here in the US. For Black, Brown, Indigenous and migrant people, our life, labor and care are the backbone of New York City but we are kidnapped, disappeared, terrorized and hunted down by ICE and the police. Who is responsible? Billionaires profit off climate chaos, damage our land, pollute our air and contaminate our water. Billionaires cause displacement and migration. They profit off detention centers, militarizing our communities and separating our families. They take over our governments and make us believe that we are each other’s enemies. But we are not. We are many and billionaires are few. We demand respect and dignity. We demand to be treated like human beings. We will fight alongside masses of people to shut down fascist billionaires.”
Collin Rees, United States Campaigns Manager, Oil Change International:
“While hurricanes ravage our communities and wildfires destroy our homes, billionaires drive the climate crisis and get richer by the day. Our new research shows that the U.S. federal government showers the fossil fuel industry with $35 billion in giveaways every year – nearly all of which goes to boost profits for the fossil fuel industry. It’s no wonder thousands of young people, families, and community leaders are taking to the streets to demand an end to a rigged system where the people causing the crisis profit from it and the rest of us pay the price. The leaders gathered in New York for the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week must listen to these calls and act now to end fossil fuel subsidies, tax the rich, and fund a liveable future.”
Renata Pumarol, Organizer, Climate Defenders: “Billionaires caused the climate chaos, spearheaded the rise of authoritarianism and they continue to profit from our suffering. But they forgot one thing: there are more of us than there are of them. Today we sent a strong message to the billionaire class – thousands of people agree that it’s time for billionaires to pay.”
Sulma Arias, Executive Director, People’s Action: “If we want the arc of history to bend towards justice, then we must make it. Americans across the country are taking action on September 20th because we’re sick and tired of being stuck with bills that billionaires should pay. Corporate utility companies make our air dirtier, kids sicker, and weather more extreme. But clean energy is more reliable and cheaper than fossil fuels. The MAGA Congress took medicine from the sick and food from the hungry to give oligarchs a tax cut. But public dollars belong to all of us. Big Tech wants water-stealing, power-hoarding, and job-killing AI data centers in our backyards. But we get to decide what’s best for our communities, not corporations. Everyone deserves a safe, democratic, and prosperous future. There is more than enough for everyone if billionaires and corporations don’t steal it. We’re organizing to make billionaires pay their fair share so we can all thrive.”
Notes to the editor:
- High-resolution images and b-roll available here.
- Spokespeople available for interview in English and Spanish
###