Wikipedia

Guido Girgenti

Guido Girgenti (born 1991 or 1992)[1] is an American activist best known for co-founding the Sunrise Movement, an organization that advocates political action on climate change. He has also worked on communications for Justice Democrats on campaigns to elect candidates who support a Green New Deal such as Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, and others.

Guido Girgenti
Girgenti in 2015
Born1991 or 1992 (age 34)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
EducationOccidental College (transfer)
Swarthmore College
MovementProgressive, Environmental justice

Early life

edit

Guido Girgenti grew up in Brooklyn.[2] Girgenti told the New York Times that a formative moment for his political beliefs was when he went on a volunteer trip to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to "view it through the lens of racial and economic injustice." In 2010 he began attending Occidental College to study Urban and Environmental Policy.[1] After two years he left to become east coast coordinator of community organizing group 99 Rise, a position he stayed in for a year.[3] He then began attending Swarthmore College in 2015 and to pursue a degree in political science.[4][5]

While at Swarthmore, Girgenti was a regular contributor to the Global Nonviolent Action Database.[6][7][8]

Career

edit

Occupy Los Angeles

edit

While at Occidental College, Girgenti was among a group of 45 students and 30 adults who started the Occupy Los Angeles protests as part of the larger Occupy Wall Street mass protests against economic inequality and corporate greed. Girgenti received a $747 grant from the college's political science department to stay in Los Angeles over winter break to volunteer for Occupy Los Angeles and write a paper on the Occupy Wall Street movement. This enabled him to develop training on nonviolent protest and direct-action for attendees.[1][3][9]

On November 11, 2011, Girgenti was named Activist of the Month by Occidental College.[2][3]

Girgenti was arrested on November 29, 2011 for failure to disperse, but no charges were filed.[1][3]

In 2016, Girgenti credited the Occupy Movement with jumpstarting the climate movement.[10]

Swarthmore Mountain Justice

edit

Much like other activists who would later go on to found Sunrise Movement, Girgenti was involved in efforts at Swarthmore College to divest the college's endowment from fossil fuels as part of a group called Mountain Justice. Girgenti participated in a sit-in to pressure the college administrators that lasted 32 days.[4][11][12][13] He was an organizer of the sit-in.[14]

"In the face of such an unprecedented crisis such as the climate crisis, we have to ask ourselves what is the greatest source of power we have. Our endowment is one of the greatest sources of power that we have, and it is perhaps the most powerful thing we can do to take that endowment and say we are no longer going to invest in an industry that is incompatible with a just and sustainable future that perpetuates social and economic injustice across the world."

— Guido Girgenti, 2014[15]

1,100 faculty and alumni and 970 students (61 percent of the student body) signed a petition in favor of divestment. It even received support from Christiana Figueres, the United Nations climate chief, who graduated from Swarthmore in 1979.[5] Despite the support, the college's board rejected the proposal. Had the college divested, it would have become the largest college endowment to do so, with over $1.9 billion.[16] It was not the first time that the board had rejected the proposal, again citing a desire to maximize investment returns.[17]

Sunrise Movement

edit

The idea to found the group came after a 2015 march to the White House organized by various climate groups. In the summer of 2016, Girgenti and about a dozen others trained at Momentum, an organization that teaches community organizing.[18][19]

In 2015, Girgenti co-founded Sunrise Movement with William Lawrence, Sara Blazevic, Victoria Fernandez, Varshini Prakash, and two others. The organization officially launched in 2017 with the goal to be a more confrontational environmental movement and utilize civil disobedience and non-violent protest to effect political change. They were inspired by past movements like Act Up, the anti-apartheid movement, and the anti-nuclear movement.[18] The group also organized to elect politicians who would be strong supporters of renewable energy in the 2018 midterm elections, both in the Democratic primaries and the general election. Their goals on climate policy developed into the environmental program known as the Green New Deal.[20][21][18] Girgenti acted as the organization's communications advisor.[22]

In 2018, together with Justice Democrats and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Blazevic and a group of other Sunrise members organized a sit-in in the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.[23] She was also responsible for ensuring that no one under 18 got arrested.[24] Sunrise organized a similar event in February 2019, bringing a group of young people to confront Senator Dianne Feinstein in her office.

Members of the Sunrise Movement hold a banner that says "We have 12 years, what is your plan?" (2019)

By November 2019, Inside Philanthropy reported that the group had grown to 1,140 monthly donors, and had 90 volunteer hubs pop up in six weeks, across 33 states.[23]

In 2020, Girgenti and Prakash edited a series of essays on climate change written by activists, policymakers, and journalists including Naomi Klein, William Barber II, Mariana Mazzucato, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Joseph Stiglitz, Bill McKibben, Mary Kay Henry, David Wallace-Wells, and Kate Aronoff. They released the collection as a book titled Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can.[25][26] In their review, Publishers Weekly said "By selecting contributors wisely, Prakash and Girgenti offer both a comprehensive representation of the climate movement and a practical road map for change. Young progressives will be especially affected by this impassioned and eloquent plea for progress." Socialist Alternative was more critical, stating "Unfortunately their strategy to win involves staying within the lanes of capitalism, a system that created and is unable to deal with this existential crisis."

Justice Democrats

edit

By 2021, Girgenti was the media director of the Justice Democrats and was involved in the group's successful congressional election upsets by Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, as well as some candidates that were not successful like Jess King.[27][28] He also created the group's podcast, Bloc Party, which ran from November 16, 2020 until June 29, 2023.[29][30]

"For as long as I've been old enough to be conscious of politics, all I've known is a Democratic Party that has defined itself as ‘We’re less bad than Republicans.' With [Justice Democrats] and Sunrise, the starting point is more like, 'If we as a society didn’t accept the busted logic of anti-government austerity, what would that allow us to do?'"

— Guido Girgenti, in 2021[29]

Personal life

edit

As of 2021, Girgenti lived in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn with his girlfriend Sara Blazevic.[29]

Bibliography

edit
  • Prakash, Varshini; Girgenti, Guido (August 25, 2020). Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 198214243X.

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. 1 2 3 4 Mala, Elisa (January 22, 2012). "Voices From the Front". New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Activist of the Month: Guido Girgenti". Occidental College. November 11, 2011. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Peterson, Rachelle (November 2015). THE ILLIBERAL MOVEMENT TO TURN A GENERATION AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS (PDF). Inside Divestment (Report). National Association of Scholars. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Goldenberg, Suzanne (March 19, 2015). "Students occupy Swarthmore College in fossil fuel divestment protest". The Guardian. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Students Occupy Swarthmore College Demanding Fossil Fuel Divestment". EcoWatch. March 19, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  6. ↑ Girgenti, Guido (February 2, 2014). "Wesleyan student-labor coalition wins living wages and unionization for campus janitors, 1999-2000". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  7. ↑ Girgenti, Guido (February 9, 2014). "Grassroots opposition and Rainforest Action Network prompt Goldman Sachs withdrawal from coal terminal project in Bellingham, WA, 2011-2014". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  8. ↑ Girgenti, Guido (February 16, 2014). "Rio de Janeiro Teacher's Union wins increased wages, security, and professional autonomy, 2013". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  9. ↑ Armario, Christine (November 19, 2011). "Occupy protests spread to US college campuses". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  10. ↑ Associated Press (August 22, 2019). "Measuring Occupy Wall Street's impact, 5 years later". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  11. ↑ Girgenti, Guido; O'Hanlon, Stephen (February 9, 2015). "As Students on a Warming Planet, We Demand to Know: Which Side Are You On?". Common Dreams. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  12. ↑ Beeler, Carolyn (April 3, 2015). "Swarthmore students in third week of sit-in for fossil-fuel divestment". WHYY-FM. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  13. ↑ Gelb, Matt (May 2, 2015). "Swarthmore chooses not to divest fossil-fuel endowment". The Inquirer. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Swarthmore College fossil fuel divestment sit-in enters 3rd week". Delco Times. April 6, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  15. ↑ Martinex, Marina (November 19, 2014). "Cambridge Associates, college's main advisement firm, will help schools divest". Swarthmore Phoenix. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  16. ↑ Zipp, Bobby (May 4, 2015). "Board decides not to divest, MJ's campaign to continue". Swarthmore Phoenix. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  17. ↑ Ruyter, Elèna (October 1, 2013). "Mountain Justice, Shut Out of Board Meeting, Demonstrates Regardless (Multimedia Spread)". Swarthmore Phoenix. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  18. 1 2 3 Marantz, Andrew (February 28, 2022). "The Youth Movement Trying to Revolutionize Climate Politics". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 2, 2026.
  19. ↑ Adler-Bell, Sam (February 6, 2019). "The Story Behind the Green New Deal's Meteoric Rise". The New Republic. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  20. ↑ Engler, Mark; Engler, Paul (April 2, 2021). "Can You Plan a Realignment?". Dissent. Retrieved May 2, 2026.
  21. ↑ Allison-Natale, Sam (June 20, 2022). "Keeping the Faith: Socialism in the Waiting Place". Current Affairs. Retrieved May 2, 2026.
  22. ↑ Henry, Tom (October 16, 2019). "Climate change reaching turning point as issue in 2020 election". Toledo Blade. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  23. 1 2 Williams, Tate (July 19, 2019). "Sunrise Movement is Shaking Up the Climate Debate. Will More Funders Pay Attention?". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved May 2, 2026.
  24. ↑ Malle, Chloe (September 20, 2019). "Inside the Sunrise Movement: Six Weeks With the Young Activists Defining the Climate Debate". Vogue. Retrieved May 3, 2026.
  25. ↑ Gunn-Wright, Rhiana (November 3, 2022). "How the Green New Deal Changed the Conversation". New Republic. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  26. ↑ Smucker, Jonathan (September 17, 2021). "Happy Birthday, Occupy Wall Street". The Intercept. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  27. ↑ Grim, Ryan; Fang, Lee (January 23, 2018). "The Dead Enders". The Intercept. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  28. ↑ Hullinger, Logan (November 1, 2018). "Racist flyers distributed at Smucker-King debate". York Dispatch. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  29. 1 2 3 Marantz, Andrew (May 24, 2021). "Are We Entering a New Political Era?". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  30. ↑ "Bloc Party". Justice Democrats. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guido_Girgenti&oldid=1353285028"