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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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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