Ben And Jerry's Lend Delicious Support To Occupy Wall Street

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

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in Food on October 9, 2011 10:00 AM

Comments [rss]

DawnRaging

This is such a joke. Ben and Jerry's has made their billions because of U.S. capitalism, now they support a group that is extolling the virtues of socialism/communism. It's hilarious when companies like Ben and Jerry's, Michael Moore, airhead Hollywood types, et al. pretend to care about the "little guy," all the while enjoying the successes that their hard work and U.S. capitalism has brought them.

BottomlessChips

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.
1. Who knows the correct income distribution?

2. How about we remove the minimum wage laws and federal influence on education?

3. So what? Not every American is going to work a 40 hr/workweek job with full benefits. Believe it or not, those kids in HS who got Fs and Ds may not be suited for a desk, FT job.

4. How about we remove the federal subsidies?

5. How about we have a smaller government so it really doesn't matter who is in office?

6. How about we remove the dairy subsidies and see how well your business does?

Oh, wait...there's no #6.

All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes.

I'm sure the board of directors doesn't scrutinize their accountants' reports and wonder if there's ways to save money in taxes. Nah. I bet they don't do that.

JacksBack72

When I want Ice Cream. . . I want Ice Cream- and I don't want Politics!
(When will these stupid people learn that they're just ruining the enjoyment of their product for a substantial portion of the American population?!)

delicats

When you learn that your formatting doesn't make anything you say relevent

JacksBack72

Well- it got noticed by you. . . pretty good right! (Is it 2012 yet?)

uberzete

Now I'll know not to buy Fascocorporatist Edy's or Breyer's anymore! #OccupyTheFrozenFoodAisle

5w30

Jeez, Wally, how big of a company is Ben & Jerry's parent Unilever? #121 in the Fortune 500. What crap.Wonder if they have any openings for the protestors?

soothsayer

ben and jerry is way ahead of you.

their first sentence was "We're guessing most of you know by now that Ben & Jerry's is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever, but we're betting you've never met our independent Board of Directors..."

jobs on the otherhand is unilever's decision.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

That's great news, this movement is growing. The media can't ignore it now.

Roger_the_Shrubber

I see a lot of protestors are moaning about the student loans they have to pay back. First of all, why aren't they protesting the colleges who charge so much for an education instead of the people who gave them the loan to attend college? Secondly, What did they think would happen after they took the loan, that they wouldn't have to pay it back in accordance with the terms they agreed on? Also, why didn't they get a degree that gave them a more marketable skill? It seems they're blaming someone else for their poor decisions.

The_Green_Devil

Most of these young protesters are not bemoaning the cost of their education, but rather the fact that after working so hard and accruing so much debt, they have graduated into an economy that is completely fucked due to corporate greed- companies with billions in cash reserves offering $13/hour salaries with no benefits. I just got a gig working for a company with multibillion dollar profits and I'll be getting $8.50/hour and no bennies while the CEO gets millions every year in bonuses. But my unemployment has run out, no other jobs are available, and I have bills to pay. This is the reality of the world today and this is why people are pissed. Business created this crisis through their sheer greed but the top 1% are doing better than ever while the remaining 99% of us who got stuck with the tax bill for bailing them out get royally fucked.

workingtogetbyinNYC

$8.50 an hour... Does this mean you are bagging groceries at Wholefoods or something? Do you think that because the "evil corporation" that you work for is making billions, that you should be paid more on that basis alone? You are not a partner at your company, whereby you may be privy to some sort of profit sharing compensation are you?

Im sure you work hard and deserve a healthy six figure salary and bonus simply because the corporation does well. Makes sense. I used to make more than $8.50 an hour delivering pizzas in high school.. i have faith that you can find a better job if you work hard and apply yourself. Your complaints make you sounds like another entitled dbag that is sitting around waiting for thier free lunch to be handed to them.

The_Green_Devil

The job itself isn't important. And no, I'm not looking for a six figure salary, but rather a liveable salary, especially due to the lack of benefits. I'll be working very hard for the little money I will be making. You see, this is where the social contract has failed and we see the results of union-busting. Businesses now feel free to pay bare-sustenance wages because their obligations are no longer to the workers who make their businesses run, but rather to the CEOs and to the stockholders and making them rich at the expense of the workers. To them, having a fatter bottom line is more important than treating their workers decently. And then, the final cruel irony- when these companies fuck up, they go to Uncle Sam looking for a bail-out, a bail-out that will ultimately be paid for by we poor bastards on the lower rung of the socio-economic ladder, and then turn around and award themselves "performance bonuses".

And you neocon fucktards wonder why people are angry. If you're not angry, you're either part of the 1% who's benefiting from this scam or you're too stupid to understand how everyone else- yourself included- is getting fucked in all of this.

nicemarmot

There aren't many degrees with marketable skills when the job market is this bad. Half my friends from high school went to school in engineering, which is generally considered extremely safe and marketable. Engineers always find work. Nevertheless, half of them are unemployed, and the ones who did find work had to pack up and move to various new places to get their jobs. Which is mostly okay with them, of course - they'd rather have to make new friends than be unemployed - but their "marketable skills" didn't make them much more marketable in this economy.

Roger_the_Shrubber

Blame the bad economy on the administration. They've appointed a "jobs czar" whose company (GE) immediately shifted their x-ray division to China. They're also targeting American companies like Gibson Guitars and Boeing for extinction. These are companies that hire engineers.

While I feel for your engineering friends, let's face it, how many people are out there with English lit, sociology, womens' studies degrees and other intriguing but not very practical disciplines?

Learn a trade, make good money and you can read all the Shakespeare and Simone de Beauvoir you want in your spare time.

ixvnyc

"Bad economy" is not an "act of God". Wall Street made it bad. The politicians in power helped them.

ixvnyc

"Blame the bad economy on the administration". We do, it's one single cabal and we decided to call it "Wall Street" for the simplicity.

randomtransplant

...I thought maybe I would crack into that half eaten pint of Late Night Snack for brunch, anyway. This extra reason to nosh is just icing on the half-gone pint of Red Velvet i'll polish it off with in solidarity.

Guest

Know what would work better than battling over which billionaire or government wants to control us? Distributism - spread the means of production over the greatest amount of people practicable and you also diffuse power so it's not centered on one person or entity. The problem isn't capitalism, it's that there's not enough capitalists.

Roger_the_Shrubber

Capitalism already redistributes wealth; it's just that the people who earn it spend (redistribute) it how they see fit, instead of the government.