Activists hold 25+ hour People's Filibuster at Mitch McConnell's house

Video-start of the People's Filibuster 2 min 4 sec

On the 14th of November, activists began an over 25 hour "People's Filibuster" outside Sen Mitch McConnell's DC home on Capitol Hill. Speakers, music, and videos were scheduled for 15 min slots, and a lecturn was set up in the streets complete with a time clock

The People's Filibuster continued for a reported 25 hours, 4 min and 28 seconds, though the lecturn clock lacked a button to instantly shut it off. It successfully broke the record set by Strom Thurmond's racist filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

At some point after 10PM on the first day, MPD invoked DC's "domestic tranquility ordinance" banning home demos between 10PM and 7AM, thus temporarily forcing protesters to withdraw to Stanton Park. They returned in the morning to Mitch's house. This law was originally passed to interfere with home demos against HLS (Huntingdon Life Sciences) but was almost completely ineffective against highly motivated and resolute anti-vivisection protesters. In addition, all of the targets of peaceful protests against HLS understood that the peaceful protesters outside their homes were by no means the limit to how far that movement was prepared to go. Many threw in the towel by the third home visit. Such things as legal limits on home demos only encouraged more underground action when visisection was the matter under debate.

Unlike the fake "filibusters" in the Senate today where nobody has to speak, and unlike the days of reading the phone book on the floor of Congress, the People's filibuster features speeches containing actual content, in the true tradition of "extended debate." In this case, an extended debate against Mitch McConnell's choices to use the filibuster to block voting rights legislation and climate change related legislation. If Trump steals the 2024 election due to GOP voter suppression laws not being overriden by Congress, violence and even civil war could be one of Mitch McConnell's legacies. That war being fought on a continent wracked with heat waves, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events could be the legacy of his choice to block climate legislation. Climate was the subject of the first few speeches given in front of Mitch's house. These were followed by a performance by the Too Much Talent brass band.

The length of the People's Filibuster was chosen to exceed the length of Strom Thurmond's infamous 24 hour and 18 minute filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. That bill passed two hours after Thurmond gave up the floor. Filibusters today no longer require Senators to actually hold the floor and speak (extended debate this was called), instead a bill is simply not considered if a cloture motion (60 votes to cut off debate) fails. The old style "extended debate" filibuster could be broken by cloture or by the person responsible for the filibuster having to say, yield the floor to shit other than on the legislation in question. Thurmond gave up his filibuster after doctors warned he could damage his kidneys if his bladder backed up. He decided his health was more important than enforcing racism and white supremacy, and the Civil Rights Act of 1957 went through over his objection. The cowardly "filibusters" of today require no such efforts and can be launched at the drop of a hat. Activists are thus demanding that filibusters be ended entirely in the Senate.