Marg Helgenberger, Robert Kennedy Jr. Arrested In Latest Jane Fonda-Led Climate Protest

Ted Johnson

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As much of the media attention on Capitol Hill was focused on the latest impeachment hearing, Jane Fonda was continuing a weekly climate protest.

She was not arrested, but other activists were after they staged a sit-in at the Russell Senate Office Building. Those arrested included actress Marg Helgenberger and activist Robert Kennedy Jr., as well as June Diane Raphael, who portrays Fonda’s daughter on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie. Demonstrators have typically been charged with obstructing and incommoding, and cited and released.

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Fonda has said that she plans to participate in the protests – called Fire Drill Fridays – through January, when her series resumes production. She was arrested each of the first four weeks of protests, and spent a night in jail after her most recent detainment. But a spokesman for the event said that they are concerned that if she is arrested before her Nov. 27 court date, she will face an even longer punishment, perhaps 30 days, and defeat the purpose of using her celebrity to call attention to the climate crisis.

Also protesting was Abigail Disney, the documentary filmmaker.

On Friday, Fonda again helped lead a rally on Capitol Hill and march to the Senate office building, but watched from the second floor of the Russell building atrium as others were arrested.

The protest was focused on environmental justice, and how the impacts on climate change have a disproportionate impact on low-income and communities of color.

Fonda said that historically those communities are “never at the table when decisions affecting them are made. That is why the rallying cry has become, ‘Nothing about us without us.'”

Last week, Fonda and other demonstrators, including Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream rallied on Capitol Hill and then marched to the White House, but there were no arrests even though the protesters sat down in front of the northwest gate.

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