I tried to reach Our Revolution today and failed. [This is the organization formed by Bernie supporters to carry on the movement. By the way, I gave them $1000 yesterday -- no word back.] First I went on line and clicked on the "contact us" button at the bottom of the front page of the website. No response when I did. Then I called telephone information [it still exists!] and got the phone number of their DC office. The phone rang for a very long time, but no one answered and there was no answering machine. Finally, I called Bernie's office in Vermont. A nice young lady answered [I think everyone is young] but she said they were forbidden by law from giving me any information at all even if they had it, which they did not.
Does anyone know what on earth is going on? Does this organization exist or not?
What you say is scandalous. A quick look at Google (which you've probably already done yourself) shows that their twitter and Facebook accounts are active.
ReplyDeleteThe left has always been inefficient and they seem to be proud of it, as if efficiency (and clean bathrooms in their headquarters) were bourgeois vices.
Still, if a person donates a considerable sum of money in good faith as you have, they deserve some kind of answer. The left also suffers from the idea that if you have enough money to be able to donate some, you're probably a closet Wall Street hedge fund operator or worse, so given that the left is generally populated by upper middle class kids who probably will inherit more money than you and I will ever see, they all pretend to be poor. It's sad and depressing, especially two days after Trump's triumph. My solidarity with you, Professor Wolff.
I get e-mails from them everyday.... so they must still exist?
ReplyDeleteTry emailing info@ourrevolution.com - that's the email address associated with the "Contact Us" link on their website.
ReplyDeleteS. Wallerstein,
ReplyDeleteThat's really unfair to those of us who are probably the majority of the left in the US now. Most of us are young and non-white and really angry about the material conditions that have been handed down to us.
Obviously, the trust fund babies we will always have with us, but they're a tiny group compared to those of us who want an increase in the minimum wage and full employment because we need to pay the rent and repay our student loans. I don't know whether people like me are a majority of the staff at Our Revolution or other organizations, but there are a whole lot of us out there.
Personally, I can't imagine having $1000 to give away to an organization (I once gave that amount to a family member in a desperate situation), but I am glad that Professor Wolff is at least using that money for a good cause.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI identify wholly with the left (and have so for over 50 years), and otherwise, I would not comment frequently on this blog. I don't live in the U.S. myself, but I'm in favor of a decent minimum wage in the U.S. and I think that most student debt should simply be condoned, if only because I believe that university education should be free.
However, in my experience with the left (not as a set of ideas and aspirations, but as a movement), both in the U.S. and elsewhere, they are inefficient and often seem proud of that. They also often seem to have hang-ups about money which keep them or many of them with being honest about their personal financial situations and about how best to use whatever money they have or don't have to further a good cause in which we all believe.
My best to you, fuck Trump....
Thank you, S. Wallerstein. I see what you're saying there. I apologize for being a bit touchy about assumptions people seem to make about who is on the left in the US, which I think has changed even just in the time since Bernie Sanders started his primary campaign. Best to you also.
ReplyDeleteWe may need a different organization to coordinate everything that needs doing.
ReplyDeletehttps://medium.com/@twineapprised/what-do-we-do-now-94215298ae93#.xx3u4ppbx