Occupy Wall Street’s Bank Account Is Swelling
EmailMoney 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.”
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So, George Soros and others of his ilk, who push for revolution in this country, are financing this circus! A bank account seems strange since this isn’t to even be organized but a spontaneous expression of the people! Pelosi would be pumping money into this as well if she wasn’t so cheap with her own money! If she could figure a way to get taxpayer money into this thing, she’d jump at the chance!
Posted by: maryandbobFL | October 11, 2011, 8:46 pm 8:46 pm
What do these people want to acomlish except disrupt the economy.
Posted by: THOMAS | October 11, 2011, 9:35 pm 9:35 pm
I can’t believe they’re putting their money in the hands of a financial institution? Those evil, money-grubbing capitalists. Well, I guess it’s OK when it’s “your” money.
Posted by: s | October 11, 2011, 9:39 pm 9:39 pm
Come on, the people already BAIL OUT the Banks with TRILLION of DOLLARS, what so bad about Bailing out these 99%er with just 50K? huh
Posted by: Benjamin | October 11, 2011, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
You guys are being extremely dense about this. Soros has nothing to do with this. This is not about ‘disrupting the economy’ and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with using banks. The point of this movement is to enact legislation toward the removal of corporate capital from the political process, particularly in regards to public policy and campaign financing.
Why can’t conservative critics actually do a little research? It’s not hard to find…
Posted by: Charles | October 11, 2011, 10:27 pm 10:27 pm
A society which is efficient for a few but grossly inequitable for many is not sustainable. It is not anti-business or Un-American to be humanist. A fair society is one which does not penalize success but it is also one that does not impede the progress of a majority of its citizens to fortify the extreme gluttony of a few. Civility, equity and compassion for your fellow citizen are not Un-American ideals.
Posted by: scallywag | October 11, 2011, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm
CHARLES, That is good news but I hope they are going for a constitutional amendment and not just legislation. The Supreme Court will strike that legislation down as unconstitutional. So while corporate, and all capital for that matter, is indeed the essence of the problem, the OWS donation money needs to be used for organizing a national movement to amend the constitution.
It’s interesting to note that the media is very slow in coming up with any similar analyses of the problem or solution. I think it’s because they depend on the campaign corruption money for their semiannual cash fest when candidates spend their ill gotten gains on local and national campaign commercials. Not that there’s anything wrong with buying and selling commercials. It’s the sources for that money that massively corrupts DC.
Posted by: sameagain | October 11, 2011, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
99% of “Occupy Wall Street” participants think they are at a Phish concert
Posted by: Joe | October 12, 2011, 5:23 am 5:23 am
For the record I never supported Bush’s/Paulson’s TARP or Obama’s political payback bailouts, stimulus (QE1, QE2, or what ever they call it these days) It was simply a rip off of the taxpayer. And to anyone who says “it saved us from the brink”, or “it could have been worse”, I say B.S. About the only thing it did was fill Wall Street’s coffers and saved executive bonuses.
Posted by: newcountryman | October 12, 2011, 7:54 am 7:54 am
It’s being financed?! I thought it was grassroot? Well I guess some people think they’re part of a grassroots movement and not being used.
Posted by: newcountryman | October 12, 2011, 7:56 am 7:56 am
I would just like to know where you got this coherent statement of what they want. After reading their list of demands, I did not come away with this supposedly thoughtful purpose. What a crock! These people want it all and they want it all for free and they want it now. If there are any actual America loving people in that bunch, I will eat someone’s hat. They are all a bunch of America-hating, self-loathing whiners who think it’s cool to get attention any way they can. Democrats think they can morph this group of losers into a the left’s version of the Tea Party by saying it is so. The Tea Party stands for American values, small government limited by the constitution, and financial and personal responsibility. They try to work within the system to improve it – not tear it down like Obama and his ilk do regularly. And please stop calling these people 99% – I’m thinking more like 20% or the percentage of people in this country that call themselves liberals – though true liberals would be appalled at them using that term. Just because the media is giving them extremely favorable coverage and trying to put them in the “1000′s of countries” around the world, I really don’t think that speak for most of the people of this nation that are too busy making a living to go out and ask for someone to give it to them.
Posted by: Amy | October 12, 2011, 8:34 am 8:34 am
the more money these people get , the less for obama,HAHAHAHA
Posted by: true democrat | October 12, 2011, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
Dear OWS Movement: Please note that your movement, likenesses, symbols and messages will eventually become nothing more than historical artifacts once co-opted by money and business interests. You will almost all sell-out your current “principles” for economic security like the 60′s hippies before you. Those that do not will go on to become radical professors of Marxism at publicly funded colleges and universities filling a future generation with your stories of the “good old days”. Thank you for an interesting few months of seeking to arrest creativity, culture and human progress by demanding that everyone be forced to live according the whims of a centralized governmental structure. Now, please move on with life as responsible free individuals
Posted by: Sixties Hippie Sellout | October 15, 2011, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm