In New York City, dozens of members of the environmental group Extinction Rebellion were arrested on Black Friday after hundreds of activists peacefully blocked an intersection in Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan protesting Black Friday’s consumerism. The action was part of multiple protests taking place around the globe against the climate crisis and capitalism. In France, dozens of activists protested outside Amazon’s headquarters in Paris, while others formed a blockade at a shopping mall in Paris’s business district. Another protest against Amazon also erupted in Germany. The protests came as Pope Francis condemned the “virus” of consumerism.

Pope Francis: “Dear brothers and sisters, consumerism is a virus that affects the faith at its root, because it makes you believe that life depends only on what you have. When you live for things, things are never enough, greed grows and other people become obstacles in a race and so one ends up feeling threatened and always dissatisfied and angry. The level of hatred rises.”