The revolution will not be patronized

http://news.salon.com/2012/03/05/the_revolution_will_not_be_patronized/


Ben & Jerry founders Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen (top) and an Occupy Wall Street protester. (Credit: AP/Toby Talbot/John Minchillo)

When it comes to political process, Occupy has never taken the easy route. In eschewing representative politics, the movement is partly characterized by its commitment to consensus-based horizontal decision-making models. It’s arduous — meetings last for hours, tempers are frayed — you learn to extend the limits of your patience.

So why, then, when it comes to funding, would Occupy opt for the easy way?

In the past week, the offer of easy money came knocking. Ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s, along with former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg, want to be Occupy benefactors — with an aim to raise $1.8 million for Occupy-related projects through a 501(c)(3) called the Movement Resource Group (MRG). As Jeff Smith, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press team, described the project in a post on the Daily Beast, “the 501(c)(3) is the latest incarnation of a group of wealthy donors who have been trying to plug into OWS for months.”

$300,000 has already been raised, largely by Cohen’s foundation. $150,000 would go to a “national office” in New York for Occupy operations. The other funds would go to national grants of up to $25,000 (proposals for these must go through a board “made up of five rich people and five occupiers selected by those rich people,” as Smith put it). Other grants and stipends would support projects and “core activists,” as determined by MRG.