Jane Fonda to Young People: “Do Not Sit This Election Out”

Hollywood actress and activist Jane Fonda has warned that young people’s understandable dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s record on oil and gas drilling and the Gaza war should not deter them from voting to block Donald Trump’s reelection as US president.

“I understand that young people are really angry and really hurt,” Fonda said. “And I would say to them: No matter how angry you are, do not sit out this election. No matter how angry you are, do not vote for a third party, because if you do, you’re electing someone who is going to deny you a voice in the future of America. If you really care about Gaza, vote to make your voice heard, do something, and get out in the streets by the millions, and be ready to fight.”

Fonda’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview organized by the Global Media Collective. Communicating climate issues now and GuardianCBS News, and Rolling Stone magazine.

Fonda argued that large-scale, nonviolent street protests and skillful electoral organizing were necessary to bring about major social change. Based on her work over 50 years, from the anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear protests of the 1970s to economic democracy and women’s rights, and on to the present day, Climate change measures“History has shown us that we need millions of people in the streets, [also] We need people in power who have the ears and hearts to hear the protests and listen to the demands.”

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt agreed to help many unemployed people, she said. But Roosevelt said the public had to “make him do it” or he wouldn’t be able to overcome resistance from the status quo. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have a chance to make them do it.” [in the White House]”If Trump and Vance win this election, they don’t have a chance,” she said.

Scientists have found that greenhouse gas emissions It needs to be cut in half within the next decadeFonda noted that Harris “must be pressured to stop drilling, fracking and mining. No new fossil fuel development,” while Trump “promises, ‘Drill, dig, dig.’ Let’s believe him this time. The choice is very clear: Do you vote for the future or do you vote to burn the planet?”

Fonda is Jane Fonda Climate Political Action Committee Three years ago, the PAC launched to select “climate champions” from all levels of government: national, state and local. “The PAC focuses on lower-level offices: mayors, state legislators, county council members,” she says. “It’s amazing how much of an impact people in those positions can have on the climate issue.”

In 2022, 42 of the 60 candidates the PAC supported won the election. In 2024, the PAC will provide funding, voter outreach and advertising to more than 100 candidates in key battleground states and Fonda’s home state of California. “California is the fifth-largest economy in the world and an oil-producing state,” Fonda explained, saying, “What happens here has implications much broader than the state of California.”

Fonda is also “deeply involved” in this year’s presidential campaign for the first time in her life, “because of the climate emergency.” She plans to visit every battleground state. “When I’m there, we’ll give the Harris campaign a schedule, and they’ll pull the Harris campaign out,” she said. [get-out-the-vote]”The things I do for the Harris campaign, including recruiting volunteers, and also for our PAC candidates.”

Her PAC has strict rules: It will only support candidates who don’t receive money from the fossil fuel industry, and Fonda says the industry’s “hold on government” explains a crucial disconnect. Most Americans want climate actionBut elected officials often don’t do that: In California, she said, “you have a lot of moderate Democrats who are funded by the fossil fuel industry who will block necessary climate action…. It’s very hard to go against the people who are supporting your candidacy.”

Fonda also criticized the mainstream media for not better informing the public about the case. Climate emergency And solutions abound. Watching the Harris-Trump debate, she thought “Kamala did a great job,” but added, “I was very disturbed that it took an hour and a half for the biggest crisis facing humanity right now to be covered and not actually addressed. People don’t understand what we’re facing! News organizations need to pay more attention to connecting extreme weather to climate change. It’s starting to happen, but it’s not enough.”

From his long history of anti-nuclear activism, including producing and starring in hit Hollywood movies, China SyndromeReleased a few days ago Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident It is perhaps not surprising that in 1979 Fonda rejected the increasingly fashionable idea that nuclear power was the solution to climate change.

“Every time I speak [in public]Someone asks me. Small modular reactor “We haven’t found a solution,” she says. “We’ve spent a lot of time researching it, but there’s one problem that’s unavoidable: any type of nuclear reactor is going to have to go through a conventional process. Or small or modularNone of these nuclear plants were built in the last 10 to 20 years. We don’t have that kind of time. We have to deal with the climate crisis by the 2030s. So just from a timeline standpoint, nuclear power is not the solution.” In contrast, “solar It will take about four years to develop and soon it will provide 30 percent of the world’s electricity.”