Occupy Wall Street’s Bank Account Is Swelling
Money might not make the world go round for the protesters in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, but it’s certainly starting to help. The movement, which has been described as “organized anarchy” with no presiding leader, has its very own finance team to handle the influx of donations — which totaled more than $50,000 Tuesday — the group has received. The money is now being kept in a credit union account at the Amalgamated Bank.
“[It's a sign] we’re growing very fast,” said Bre Lembitz, a senior economics major at Clark University who is spending this semester working with Occupy Wall Street after her internship fell through.
Lembitz said the move to a bank has made it easier for the group to accept larger donations.
The money was previously kept in pots, which were used to collect money from passersby sympathetic to the cause.
Currently, any expenditure of $100 or more is voted on at the General Assembly, a daily meeting for everyone in the park to learn the latest Occupy Wall Street news. Anyone who shows up has a vote.
But there are plans to streamline things this week.
“We’re actually launching a website on Thursday for members of our working groups so we can better coordinate how to spend all of the money that’s coming in,” Lembitz said. That includes the media team, the medical unit, the sanitation team and even an archivist, to name a few.
So with big names visiting the protesters in Zuccotti Park, is any of that dough coming from Russell Simmons, Kanye West or Susan Sarandon?
“We’ve received a few anonymous donations, but we honestly don’t know,” Lembitz said. “Most of our donations come in small amounts from people who want to help in any way that they can.”