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ISO and Phillip Morris
The ISO, operates as a recipient of grants from the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. The latter's assets comprised largely of Wall Steet stock...until they sold it to pay themselves.
The ISO, operates as a recipient of grants from the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. The latter's assets comprised largely of Wall Steet stock...until they sold it to pay themselves.
We've seen the ISO at community meetings, on campus, and in rare exceptions, in the workplace. With their authoritarian tendencies, attacks on anarchism and anarchists, historical revisionism on radical labor politics, cult-like recruiting tactics, and bizarre social manipulations of groups, many anarchists have asked the $60,000 question: are these folks paid, and who pays them?
The Center for Economic Research and Social Change is the paper organization for the ISO and their activities. They are a 501c3 organization (also in Chicago) that files 990s with the IRS every year. It is a common practice amongst activists to have a non-profit act as a steward for managing funds of other groups. Activist organizations often umbrella under non-profits, in order to save the administrative and bureaucratic hassle of getting a tax exemption-even anarchists.
In the last few years, the ISO has gotten pretty consistent with their presence in various places; the International Socialist Review is a slick, professional looking left magazine, and the ISO conventions run in the tens of thousands to organize. You can set your watch to when they will show up at various spots to sell the SW. If you think it is hard to believe that the ISO can pay for all of this with dues money and Socialist Worker sales, especially when publications with no advertising do not turn a profit, then you're on to something.
According to the 990 IRS forms filed in 2001, the Center received a large donation--perhaps a good chunk of the startup funds, from a man named Kevin Neel, who donated over 1.2 million in stock. The stock acquired by the Center is in Oracle and Phillip Morris. The Center has been selling off portions of this stock every year in excess of several hundred thousand a year, to fund a huge payroll, including $45,000 a year plus benefits to the Center's president Ahmed Sehrawy. For the year 2000-01, the total payroll in wages and benefits was $185,000 (presumably disbursed to several party organizers and staff-only $27,000 went to pay two officers of the Center.); in 2001-02, over $400,000, and in 2002-03: nearly $500,000. In 2002-03, Sehrawy made nearly $60,000 in wages and benefits.
For the past three years, the Center has also derived its funding from a handful of activists, much of it in cash. What this tells us is that the workers do not support the Center and the ISO-a few men with disposable income do. And given that fact that the Center's bottom line continues to chow a net loss, these funds will soon dwindle, and magazine and paper sales will be as crucial as ever. This is in spite of a net increase of literature sales and monies raised at their yearly socialist conference in Chicago.
In the left, all one has to do is follow the money, to see who controls the politics. More research will reveal specifics on the relationship between the ISO and the Center's stock "trust fund". These "trustifarians" simply wear a blue collar. Thing is, who's on the rest of their payroll is not a matter of public record. And it would be too much to expect an organization for the workers to actually tell the workers who on the payroll.
We've seen the ISO at community meetings, on campus, and in rare exceptions, in the workplace. With their authoritarian tendencies, attacks on anarchism and anarchists, historical revisionism on radical labor politics, cult-like recruiting tactics, and bizarre social manipulations of groups, many anarchists have asked the $60,000 question: are these folks paid, and who pays them?
The Center for Economic Research and Social Change is the paper organization for the ISO and their activities. They are a 501c3 organization (also in Chicago) that files 990s with the IRS every year. It is a common practice amongst activists to have a non-profit act as a steward for managing funds of other groups. Activist organizations often umbrella under non-profits, in order to save the administrative and bureaucratic hassle of getting a tax exemption-even anarchists.
In the last few years, the ISO has gotten pretty consistent with their presence in various places; the International Socialist Review is a slick, professional looking left magazine, and the ISO conventions run in the tens of thousands to organize. You can set your watch to when they will show up at various spots to sell the SW. If you think it is hard to believe that the ISO can pay for all of this with dues money and Socialist Worker sales, especially when publications with no advertising do not turn a profit, then you're on to something.
According to the 990 IRS forms filed in 2001, the Center received a large donation--perhaps a good chunk of the startup funds, from a man named Kevin Neel, who donated over 1.2 million in stock. The stock acquired by the Center is in Oracle and Phillip Morris. The Center has been selling off portions of this stock every year in excess of several hundred thousand a year, to fund a huge payroll, including $45,000 a year plus benefits to the Center's president Ahmed Sehrawy. For the year 2000-01, the total payroll in wages and benefits was $185,000 (presumably disbursed to several party organizers and staff-only $27,000 went to pay two officers of the Center.); in 2001-02, over $400,000, and in 2002-03: nearly $500,000. In 2002-03, Sehrawy made nearly $60,000 in wages and benefits.
For the past three years, the Center has also derived its funding from a handful of activists, much of it in cash. What this tells us is that the workers do not support the Center and the ISO-a few men with disposable income do. And given that fact that the Center's bottom line continues to chow a net loss, these funds will soon dwindle, and magazine and paper sales will be as crucial as ever. This is in spite of a net increase of literature sales and monies raised at their yearly socialist conference in Chicago.
In the left, all one has to do is follow the money, to see who controls the politics. More research will reveal specifics on the relationship between the ISO and the Center's stock "trust fund". These "trustifarians" simply wear a blue collar. Thing is, who's on the rest of their payroll is not a matter of public record. And it would be too much to expect an organization for the workers to actually tell the workers who on the payroll.
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objections to ads here have been met with protests that it's okay to generate money from a capitalist system to pay for revolution-- i am specifically referencing ak press here.
people in glass houses... tsk tsk...
IAC also stands for the Israel Action Committee which organizes proIsrael events on the Berkeley campus.
California death penalty
on http://www.socialistworker.org/2001/366/366_18_NewsReports.shtml
Looking up that name on Usenet shows a bunch of posts related to a software developer who works at a large investment firm. Since the donation was in 2001 it could have just been a college kid who joiend the ISO and made a huge amount during the dot com boom?
As a comment on infoshop states:
Did Ann Coulter write this?
No one should give this article any credibility.
Sadly, this is like an anarchist version of right-wing Frontpage Magazine (http://www.frontpagemag.org) who recently accused the ISO of being the "parent organization" of ANSWER (http://www.internationalanswer.org).
This article deserves to be in the class of "journalism" that Fox News belongs in.
How is paying dues a version of tithing? Tithing is a biblical mandate. Members are not required to pay 10%, they choose to pay whatever they can. Some members pay as little as $5 a month. The ISO is not awash in money contrary to what this article claims.
( http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/12/18/3006900 )
As far as "cult-like recruiting tactics, and bizarre social manipulations of groups" give some examples, cause i think it's bullshit. If you're referring to the fact that some members become close friends or lovers, so what? Its always true when people work in important ways closely together for long periods of time. We also have members who personally despise one another but are united politically. Apparently, you have political disagreements ("authoritarian tendencies, attacks on anarchism and anarchists, historical revisionism on radical labor politics"). Fine. make a political argument. I hope you're successfull in your work organizing a revolutionary left. I have every confidence in what working people decide to do when they start feeling their class' inherent power. You're article is wrong about the ISO. What's your motivation for such flimsy innuendo? Is it political? Then address it politically. Otherwise lets both just get back to smashing the capitalist class once and for all.