The yesterday’s-news Occupy Wall Street movement is calling for a national labor strike on May Day, the International Communist Party holiday. But how will it pay to advertise its day of inertia without the $500,000 in donations that seem to have been stolen by OCW leaders opposed to greed?
That’s right, much of OWS’s money is missing and unaccounted for. Where did it go? Could someone have taken it?
Here’s a report from Metro this morning:
At its peak in November 2011, OWS had pockets so deep, it set up a nonprofit to control the estimated more than $500,000 it had accumulated, mostly through donations from supporters.
Today, though, protesters admit funding has become increasingly complex and difficult to track, especially troubling for a movement that boasts transparency. Part of that, they say, is because of the unorganized structure that has been the common theme of the movement since the beginning. While working groups are assigned to focus on specific tasks, there are often no appointed leaders or written records — and accounting is no exception.
There are rumblings within the movement that sloppy accounting has led to the opening of bank accounts that are vulnerable to theft. One protester who wished to remain anonymous told Metro that a few people who are in control of funds are suspected of stealing about $25,000 a month from the movement.
These pages speculated last October that money might turn out to be the fly in Occupy’s ointment, but who would have thought that outright theft would have been part of it. But hey, such is life in the big city.
As for the May Day strike; I’d love to make it but I have to work that day.
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