We Took Our Fight for Climate Justice to NYC – Read Our Report Back

Last month, YUCCA traveled across the country for NYC Climate Week to take our fight for climate justice all the way to the skyscrapers and streets of New York City, where Wall Street billionaires and corporations are deciding the fate of our communities and our future.

We didn’t come to New York to pose for photo-ops or ask for a seat at the table — we came to confront the billionaires and corporations driving this crisis. From the streets outside Trump Tower to the glass doors of Blackstone, we showed that young people from New Mexico are not waiting for change — we’re building it, together with our communities.

YUCCA ORGANIZERS LEAD THE CALL TO MAKE BILLIONAIRES PAY

We kicked off NYC Climate Week on September 20th, where Indigenous youth leaders with YUCCA spoke at the national Make Billionaires Pay conference before joining over 30 community members from New Mexico to take to the streets with tens of thousands of marchers in Manhattan for the Make Billionaires Pay march – traveling past Blackstone, Billionaires Row, and Trump Tower during one of the largest U.S. climate mobilizations of 2025.

As we spoke alongside frontline organizers from across the country, YUCCA Campaign Organizers Jonathan Juarez and Zephyr Jaramillo and Steering Committee Member Yazh Pending lifted up the stories of our communities back home as we called out Blackstone's proposed $11.5 billion takeover of PNM and demanded a future where the wealth extracted from our lands and stolen from our communities is returned to the people.

"For Pueblo communities, Blackstone’s takeover is the newest chapter in a long history of colonial theft,” said YUCCA Campaign Organizer Jonathan Juarez during the speech. “They poisoned our sacred water blasting uranium mines that built this nation’s nuclear stockpiles, they let oil and gas companies poison our air with impunity, and now they want to control the very power in our homes. But we refuse to let Wall Street decide whether our children deserve to breathe clean air.”

"They tell us we can't afford a just transition, but they're hoarding the very wealth that could fund it all," said YUCCA Steering Committee Member Yazh Pending.

"New Mexico is not your resource colony. Our rivers are not a balance sheet. The wealth to build a livable future already exists, but it's sitting in the vaults and penthouses of the same billionaires watching us fight over scraps. And guess what? We're coming to take that wealth back. Billionaires created this crisis by manufacturing division to protect the status quo. And now, billionaires will pay for the solution," YUCCA Campaign Organizer Zephyr Jaramillo concluded.

Together we made it clear: the wealth stolen from our lands must be returned to fund the just transition our communities have been fighting for. 

BACK OFF BLACKSTONE BILLIONAIRES: NEW MEXICO IS NOT FOR SALE!

View more photos from the action here.

Later in the week, YUCCA and our fellow members of the No False Solutions Coalition linked arms with our New York allies at Planet Over Profit and frontline community members from across the country to confront the world's largest private equity firm in their own backyard – staging a powerful rally and act of nonviolent civil disobedience to sound the alarm on Blackstone's current attempt to take over PNM, New Mexico's largest utility.

As the work day began, we gathered outside Blackstone's headquarters to expose the truth: Blackstone puts profits over people every single time. If this deal goes through, it will lock us into an extractive energy system designed to line the pockets of billionaires like Stephen Schwarzman instead of serving the people.

Video: Planet Over Profit

During the action, eight organizers from YUCCA and Planet Over Profit were arrested after linking arms outside of Blackstone's Manhattan headquarters in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. As the rally continued, speakers from the No False Solutions Coalition, YUCCA, Planet Over Profit, and frontline organizers across the country took the mic to uplift the stories of their communities, outline the harm they’ve faced at the hands of Blackstone and billionaire-backed corporations, and call for real, community-led climate solutions.

All arrested organizers were released safely soon after, returning home with the full support of their organizations and community.

This action represented a strategic escalation – a clear signal that frontline and youth organizers are willing to take bold action to demand accountability from billionaires who profit off our suffering. We're not waiting for the same corporations and systems driving this crisis to act. Together, we're advancing the real solutions our communities have already put forward – not the greenwashed lies industry is trying to sell us.

Billionaires in New York skyscrapers shouldn't be making decisions for communities they've never set foot in, and we won't stand by while corporations, politicians, and billionaires sacrifice our futures for profit.

OUR STRUGGLES ARE INTERCONNECTED – WE HAVE TO FIGHT TOGETHER

During Climate Week, we also stood shoulder to shoulder with organizers from communities across the country to connect our struggles, build lasting partnerships, and confront corporate power at its source.

Early in the week, we joined a protest on the morning of Donald Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly to remind the world that the President does not speak for the majority of people in this country – he speaks for the rich and ultra-wealthy, a minority that is quickly losing its power.

On the morning of Netanyahu's speech to the United Nations General Assembly, we took to the streets again – joining thousands to demand his arrest, an end to the genocide, and sanctions on Israel, because we know that our fight for climate justice is inseparable from the fight for Palestinian liberation.

The same systems of colonialism, militarism, and extraction carrying out genocide abroad are sacrificing our communities for profit at home.

The same corporations profiting from war are fueling the climate crisis in New Mexico. The same tax dollars our communities need for housing, education, and climate solutions are funding genocide in Gaza – there is no climate justice without a free Palestine.

When we weren't in the streets, we were coming together with our No False Solutions coalition family and movement allies from across the country to share food, strategy, and solidarity – from a powerful coalition press conference to dinners in Chinatown, trips to Times Square, and a sunset ferry ride.

In every space we entered, we carried the same message: from New Mexico to New York, we're up against the same billionaires, polluters, and corporations fueling this crisis, and we have to fight together.

THE FIGHT CONTINUES: HERE'S WHAT COMES NEXT

The movement we're building is bigger than any one action or trip. We're returning home from NYC ready to escalate, hold decision-makers accountable, demand bold climate action that puts people before profit, and create a world rooted in collective care for the planet and one another – because we're not the leaders of tomorrow; we're leading right now.  

If you've been watching from the sidelines, now’s the time to plug in. Join us and keep an eye on our work as we fight to keep New Mexico's future in the hands of the people, not industry polluters, corporate profiteers, and Wall Street billionaires.

Together, we'll build the livable future we deserve. ✊