XPost: alt.society.sustainable, or.politics, alt.feminism   
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   From: hanging.niggers@heavy.com   
      
   There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson   
   protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer   
   Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his   
   ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.   
      
   Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a   
   business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while   
   forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations   
   that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he   
   did with MoveOn.org.   
      
   Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of   
   funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to   
   interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by   
   The Washington Times.   
      
   In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to   
   support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-   
   roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the   
   most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society   
   Foundations.   
      
   The financial tether from Mr. Soros to the activist groups gave   
   rise to a combustible protest movement that transformed a one-   
   day criminal event in Missouri into a 24-hour-a-day national   
   cause celebre.   
      
   “Our DNA includes a belief that having people participate in   
   government is indispensable to living in a more just, inclusive,   
   democratic society,” said Kenneth Zimmerman, director of Mr.   
   Soros‘ Open Society Foundations’ U.S. programs, in an interview   
   with The Washington Times. “Helping groups combine policy,   
   research [and] data collection with community organizing feels   
   very much the way our society becomes more accountable.”   
      
   No strings attached   
      
   Mr. Zimmerman said OSF has been giving to these types of groups   
   since its inception in the early ‘90s, and that, although groups   
   involved in the protests have been recipients of Mr. Soros‘   
   grants, they were in no way directed to protest at the behest of   
   Open Society.   
      
   “The incidents, whether in Staten Island, Cleveland or Ferguson,   
   were spontaneous protests — we don’t have the ability to control   
   or dictate what others say or choose to say,” Mr. Zimmerman   
   said. “But these circumstances focused people’s attention — and   
   it became increasingly evident to the social justice groups   
   involved that what a particular incident like Ferguson   
   represents is a lack of accountability and a lack of democratic   
   participation.”   
      
   Soros-sponsored organizations helped mobilize protests in   
   Ferguson, building grass-roots coalitions on the ground backed   
   by a nationwide online and social media campaign.   
      
   Other Soros-funded groups made it their job to remotely monitor   
   and exploit anything related to the incident that they could   
   portray as a conservative misstep, and to develop academic   
   research and editorials to disseminate to the news media to keep   
   the story alive.   
      
   The plethora of organizations involved not only shared Mr.   
   Soros‘ funding, but they also fed off each other, using content   
   and buzzwords developed by one organization on another’s   
   website, referencing each other’s news columns and by creating a   
   social media echo chamber of Facebook “likes” and Twitter   
   hashtags that dominated the mainstream media and personal online   
   newsfeeds.   
      
   Buses of activists from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference in   
   Chicago; from the Drug Policy Alliance, Make the Road New York   
   and Equal Justice USA from New York; from Sojourners, the   
   Advancement Project and Center for Community Change in   
   Washington; and networks from the Gamaliel Foundation — all   
   funded in part by Mr. Soros — descended on Ferguson starting in   
   August and later organized protests and gatherings in the city   
   until late last month.   
      
   Broaden issue focus   
      
   All were aimed at keeping the media’s attention on the city and   
   to widen the scope of the incident to focus on interrelated   
   causes — not just the overpolicing and racial discrimination   
   narratives that were highlighted by the news media in August.   
      
   “I went to Ferguson in a quest to be in solidarity and stand   
   with the young organizers and affirm their leadership,” said   
   Kassandra Frederique, policy manager at the Drug Policy   
   Alliance, which was founded by Mr. Soros, and which receives $4   
   million annually from his foundation. She traveled to Ferguson   
   in October.   
      
   “We recognized this movement is similar to the work we’re doing   
   at DPA,” said Ms. Frederique. “The war on drugs has always been   
   to operationalize, institutionalize and criminalize people of   
   color. Protecting personal sovereignty is a cornerstone of the   
   work we do and what this movement is all about.”   
      
   Ms. Frederique works with Opal Tometi, co-creator of   
   #BlackLivesMatter — a hashtag that was developed after the   
   killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida — and helped promote it on   
   DPA’s news feeds. Ms. Tometi runs the Black Alliance for Just   
   Immigration, a group to which Mr. Soros gave $100,000 in 2011,   
   according to the most recent of his foundation’s tax filings.   
      
   “I think #BlackLivesMatter’s success is because of organizing.   
   This was created after Trayvon Martin, and there has been   
   sustained organizing and conversations about police violence   
   since then,” said Ms. Frederique. “Its explosion into the   
   mainstream recently is because it connects all the dots at a   
   time when everyone was lost for words. ‘Black Lives Matter’ is   
   liberating, unapologetic and leaves no room for confusion.”   
      
   #BlackLivesMatter   
      
   With the backing of national civil rights organizations and Mr.   
   Soros‘ funding, “Black Lives Matter” grew from a hashtag into a   
   social media phenomenon, including a #BlackLivesMatter bus tour   
   and march in September.   
      
   “More than 500 of us have traveled from Boston, Chicago,   
   Columbus, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, Portland,   
   Tucson, Washington, D.C., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and   
   other cities to support the people of Ferguson and help turn a   
   local moment into a national movement,” wrote Akiba Solomon, a   
   journalist at Colorlines, describing the event.   
      
   Colorlines is an online news site that focuses on race issues   
   and is published by Race Forward, a group that received $200,000   
   from Mr. Soros’s foundation in 2011. Colorlines has published   
   tirelessly on the activities in Ferguson and heavily promoted   
   the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and activities.   
      
   At the end of the #BlackLivesMatter march, organizers met with   
   civil rights groups like the Organization for Black Struggle and   
   Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment to strategize   
   their operations moving forward, Ms. Solomon wrote. OBS and MORE   
   are also funded by Mr. Soros.   
      
   Mr. Soros gave $5.4 million to Ferguson and Staten Island grass-   
   roots efforts last year to help “further police reform,   
   accountability and public transparency,” the Open Society   
   Foundations said in a blog post in December. About half of those   
   funds were earmarked to Ferguson, with the money primarily going   
   to OBS and MORE, the foundation said.   
      
      
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