OWS: Fighting Over Money

We all saw this coming.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/they_want_lice_of_the_occu_pie_9xKCxcI4aectFYkafMb8UJ

They want $lice of the occu-pie
500G fight at Zuccotti

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Last Updated: 12:53 PM, October 23, 2011

Even in Zuccotti Park, greed is good.

Occupy Wall Street’s Finance Committee has nearly $500,000 in the bank, and donations continue to pour in -- but its reluctance to share the wealth with other protesters is fraying tempers.

Some drummers -- incensed they got no money to replace or safeguard their drums after a midnight vandal destroyed their instruments Wednesday -- are threatening to splinter off.

“F--k Finance. I hope Mayor Bloomberg gets an injunction and demands to see the movement’s books. We need to know how much money we really have and where it’s going,” said a frustrated Bryan Smith, 45, who joined OWS in Lower Manhattan nearly three weeks ago from Los Angeles, where he works in TV production.
NEST IN PEACE: Protester Dylan Spoelstra smirks yesterday from his high perch amid the workings of the sculpture “Joie de Vivre” in Zuccotti Park.

Smith is a member of the Comfort Working Group -- one of about 30 small collectives that have sprung up within OWS. The Comfort group is charged with finding out what basic necessities campers need, like thermal underwear, and then raising money by soliciting donations on the street.

“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash.

The Finance Committee dives on whatever dollars are raised by all the OWS working groups, said Smith, and doesn’t give it back.

The Comfort group has an allowance of $150 a day, while larger working groups, like the Kitchen group, get up to $2,000.

“What can I do with $150?” said Smith. “We have three tons of wet laundry here from the rainstorm -- how do I get that done? We need winter gear, shoes, socks. I could spend $10,000 alone for backpacks people need. We raise all this money. Where is it?”

Pete Dutro, 36, a Brooklyn tattoo artist who is getting a master’s in finance and sits on the Finance Committee, said big purchases like Smith’s can’t get immediate approval.

“We don’t have the power for that. They have to go to the General Assembly. If it’s approved, we pay out that amount and make sure everything is accounted for,” he said.

Within the next few days, the Financial Committee will release a detailed report, he said.

Yesterday, a huge flat-screen TV went up in Zuccotti Park for a movie night and pajama party with popcorn. Organizers hoped it would attract new recruits -- even as some long-timers complained that the movement was getting too diffuse after yesterday’s lackluster showing at a police-brutality event in Union Square that barely attracted 50 participants.

“I think it’s getting too spread out,” said John Glowa, 57. “My sense from where I live is that it’s losing steam. We gotta plug the holes.”

Some activists, like those in Pulse, the committee that represents Zuccotti Park drummers, are a bit worn out by all the collective activity.

Last week, on a rainy night, someone stabbed holes in many of the protesters’ drums with a knife, said Elijah Moses, 19, of Queens, a founder of the Pulse Working Group. Moses asked the General Assembly -- the nightly meeting where protesters collectively vote on OWS decisions -- for $8,000 to replace the drums, and build a small shed to lock them up.

“They said no -- they turned us down. I’m really frustrated,” said Moses.

gotis@nypost.com

 

Poor occutards... their little drums were slashed and Flea party "Finance" won't replace them... and now some want "the establishment" to help

 

Mav you live in Chicagoland. You know the weather. None of these people are Valley Forge types. This movement will be over by 1/1/2012.

 

Sooner.

 

$500,000!!?? They should just split it between the 50 or so people that are still there in a week and consider their little venture a success.

I have no pitty for the stupid slobs who donated that money.

 

Youre prolly right, I am having them out of there by the first major snow. They will prolly be gone by the first hard frost.

 

RCG, you do know that half of these groups are in warm weather states right? Right?

 

Yes, and it is worry, hence my seemingly contradictory post about it being over vs. the French Revolution. I know that in Occupy Atlanta, they are in Olympic park, my parents say, but they do not pose a threat to business at this time. The only thing they could disrupt is the NBA and NFL, but the NBA is on strike and they are not letting anyone near the Georgia Dome.

Of course here in the Heartland, there is no Occupy anything, the combines are running, and the produce is going out on trucks by the dozens. Harvest is really a beautiful thing to see.

The epicenter is at the NYSE the NYMEX, the CME, and the CBOT. I am just saying that they will not be there by January. If they do make it thru the winter, it might be time to some unpleasant scenarios. So I am hoping the winter chases them off.

 

Not so nice is it when all the money you worked so hard for is taken from you, is it OWSers?" Here is an idea for everyone that has wet clothes. Go home, throw your clothes in the dryer for 40 minutes, then come back.


The way this guy talks is like everyone there has no job and expects OWS to pay for everything for them. I thought they were there to protest, not for handouts.

 

Yeah, that damp, leaky basement at mom and dad's place they crawled out of is probably going to look down right tempting real soon. NYC locals are getting fed up with them as well, so I expect some sort of confrontation on the near horizon. And that's when it gets ugly (not that the crew at Zucotti Park would win a beauty contest any time soon.