Politics
Occupy DC Activist Accuses Van Jones, MoveOn Of Smear Campaign
Kevin Zeese says he's been targeted for trying to defend the movement against being co-opted. Occupy DC embroiled by possibly-imagined crisis.
Kevin Zeese, executive director and co-founder of VotersForPeace, annouces to Occupy DC demonstrators in Freedom Plaza that the U.S. Park Service Police is offering to extend their permit to occupy the park for another four months, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. (AP / Cliff Owen)
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The Occupy DC movement has descended into a swirl of bitter charges and counter-charges, with an organizer answering allegations of theft with the claim that operatives connected with Van Jones and with MoveOn.org are conducting a smear campaign against him.
Kevin Zeese, a longtime activist on the left and former executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, has been accused by other occupiers of stealing money from the Occupy movement.
"What we've seen is that there's no transparency with where the money is going, so we're leaning towards a worst-case scenario," said DC occupier Tony Zilka, who told BuzzFeed that Zeese and his girlfriend Margaret Flowers are "ghosts" around the encampment at Freedom Plaza and have taken their names off the camping permit.
An account called Defend Wall St on Twitter alleged that Zeese "takes camp's money and runs away with his girlfriend."
Zeese says that the movement actually owes him around $4,000 and that he's already donated $25,000 to Occupy through a donor, and that "if we are thieves, we are certainly unusual thieves."
But Zeese doesn't believe that the accusations are just coming from other occupiers. He told BuzzFeed that "a lot of these attacks on us came after we started to call out Democratic operatives that tried to take control of the movement."
To back this up, Zeese sent us a number of links accusing Van Jones -- a green jobs activists pushed out of the Obama Administration amid a controversy over his past radical statements -- his and MoveOn.org of trying to co-opt Occupy, e.g. Van Jones can't occupy us and Occupy Movement tells MoveOn: Back Off!
"We are up against very powerful foes who know how to destroy movements," Zeese said. "Divide people from those who have shown leadership is a key tactic."
Neither Van Jones nor representatives from MoveOn.org were immediately available for comment.
Jones has been a supporter of the Occupy movement, saying in the fall that "We are going to build a progressive balance of power to the Tea Party."
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3 Responses So Far
- SAND HILL thinks Occupy DC Activist Accuses Van Jones,... is LOL
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Zeese is delusional if actually believes his own disinformation. His problems began when he met perfectly reasonable request for financial transparency from the Plaza's GA with stonewalling and ingenuous protestations of personal persecution like this one.
His fall back position when called upon to be accountable for his top down Hierarchical acts (which are antithetic to Occupy principles) is to launch personal attacks at anyone questioning his authority.
This is why he and Flowers were drummed out of the occupy movement in DC even though we knew he would in all likelyhood take the money and run.
- michaelsavage.wnd.com readers just made Occupy DC Activist Accuses Van Jones,... more viral
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Wow these OWS scum arte the biggest losers on the planet. Complete morons on display.
- hotair.com readers just made Occupy DC Activist Accuses Van Jones,... more viral
- Occupy DC Activist Accuses Van Jones,... is starting to go viral on Twitter Tweet It
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I am sorry the reporter did not quite get it right, here is what I actually wrote — that the attacks were coincident with calling out the Dems but there was no way to prove it. Further, that this is a traditional way of dividing movements. Here is what I wrote the reporter (links to each article are on OccupyWashingtonDC.org by searching Van Jones or MoveOn). As I said a lot of thee attacks really got going when we called out Democratic operatives and front groups in late November. This may just be a coincidence, but as David Ross says in his FB post (below) this type of division is what the powers-that-be do to destroy movements and those that fall for it are doing the government's work. See Van Jones and Democratic Party Operatives: You Do Not Represent the Occupy Movement, Van Jones can’t occupy us, Occupy Movement tells MoveOn: Back Off!, NO to Co-Option and Misdirection By Democratic Party Operatives, A Little Education on MoveOn. Again, I can't prove it comes from party operatives but the attacks began shortly after we exposed their efforts to prevent their co-option of the movement. Close allies keep Margaret and me strong by reminding us that this is a sign of our success and their fear. We keep this in mind to ensure that this makes us stronger. Our focus now is building the movement, see http://www.NOWDC.org.
