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Ben And Jerry's Lend Delicious Support To Occupy Wall Street
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 9, 2011
Modified Oct 9, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 9, 2011
Modified Oct 9, 2011
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Occupy Wall Street has been lent support from the likes of Cornel West, Michael Moore and Talib Kweli, but organizers and protesters still haven't figured out how to woo the Donald Trump Jr.'s of the world. Maybe they can offer them some delicious treats now: Ben And Jerry's gave over the front page of their website to the OWS movement yesterday, writing, "To those who Occupy: We stand with you."
You can read the whole message of solidarity below—they clearly lay out the "fundamental" issues that the protest has brought up, while also transparently identifying where Ben And Jerry's spends money on lobbying. No word on whether protesters might be treated to some real life Schweddy Balls, but we wouldn't be surprised if it happened sooner than later. Maybe someone at OWS can convince them to finally create "Dude Food" as a tie-in with the protest?
We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:
- The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
- We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
- Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
- Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
- Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.
We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.
We know that words are relatively easy but we wanted to act quickly to demonstrate our support. As a board and as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to do. We have provided support to citizens’ efforts to rein in corporate money in politics, we pay a livable wage to our employees, we directly support family farms and we are working to source fairly traded ingredients for all our products. But we realize that Occupy Wall Street is calling for systemic change. We support this call to action and are honored to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy.
— Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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