BAIL FUND CONTROVERSY
One post-gathering incident developed around
that evil mediation, money, shortly after the conclusion of the events.
It appears from a reading of separate and only somewhat conflicting accounts
that one individual took it upon himself to disburse a rather large sum
of money left over from the contributions to the bail fund collected after
the Friday afternoon arrests.
An exchange of charges took place between some of the Haymarket '86
organizers and the individual, but eventually all of the almost $2,000
was disbursed. After expenses, a large contribution was made to the Big
Mountain Support Committee (which was opposed by the Haymarket group since
it was not to an anarchist recipient) plus $65 (each) was given to a number
of anti-authoritarian projects and publications including this newspaper.
Money, as it always does, created hard feelings which do not seem to
have been resolved.
---excerpt from Fifth Estate
Our problems with the surplus bail money go back as far as the Sunday
May 4 meeting called to discuss these extra monies. This meeting, unlike
most of the other H'86 meetings, was neither announced nor posted. Most
of the Haymarket organizers left before its 10 p.m. start, exhausted and
unaware of its existence. With them, left significant information necessary
to make decisions on the matter including the loan of $800 to the bail
fund by Haymarket '86. This loan was never mentioned by people aware of
it at the May 4 meeting. Assuming that Dennis would include other Chicago
organizers in the decision-making process, he was entrusted with the surplus
bail funds.
Immediately following the conference, Jon and Steve contacted Dennis
about the surplus funds. Dennis indicated his intention 14 weeks ago to
send out a survey to determine the will of Haymarket '86 participants regarding
this money. Several people repeatedly attempted to contact Dennis by phone,
but he was generally uncooperative in returning these calls. The undersigned
all made significant contributions toward Haymarket '86 and resent Dennis'
decision to exclude and ignore us in the process of distributing excess
money.
The Chicago organizers of Haymarket '86 scheduled a meeting for Wednesday,
May 13 with an understanding that Dennis would attend. Although he did
not attend, 11 others did. Assuming that the $800 loan would be returned,
14 groups were allocated $65 each. We also established seed money for the
next major anarchist conference.
Only after pressure from Lysander Spooner, Resurgence, Minneapolis
Back Room Anarchists, Friends of Liberty, et al, did Dennis return the
$800 loan, three weeks after the May 13 meeting. The $65 checks were mailed
June 11 after finally recovering the loan to the bail fund. Since early
June, the following Chicago anarchists have been excluded from any further
decision-making concerning excess fail funds:
---Rich, Kenneth, Fred, Sheryl, Beth, Jon (plus three others whose
signatures are indecipherable)
On Sunday night, May 4, I realized we might have more money in the
bail fund than needed. As CAU had not planned a final closing meeting,
there was no formal gathering to address this problem. I did not feel that
I should return this money, if there was any, over to CAU. People had associated
me with the legal work and had entrusted me with the money, and not them.
At 9 p.m. Sunday, there were about 80 people at the church. I asked
them to tell me what to do with the left-over money. The discussion lasted
about an hour and was conducted in a fashion consistent with the spirit
of the conference. The floor was open to all to speak and, although it
didn't include every person who may have potentially been interested, it
did include a large representative sampling. At the end, four uses were
decided upon:
-
Reimburse CAU for any debts they accrued in staging the conference.
-
Provide money to anyone who needed it to get home.
-
Legal defense.
-
Purchase supplies to be taken to Big Mountain.
Finally, I asked the participants if they wanted to entrust that money
to me or some other person or group for safe-keeping and deciding how much
money would go to each use. The group decided to leave the fund with me
and left it for me to decide how much money would be allocated for each
purpose. Someone reminded us that there was a July 6 deadline for relocation
at Big Mountain, and the group instructed me to use the money for that
purpose prior to the deadline.
Of the remaining $l,965, $155 was given back to people who had put
up money they needed to get home. The person who had given the $400 check
asked that $200 be returned to him if not needed. This was done and left
us with $l,600.
CAU told me that they had no outstanding debts. They insisted on having
the $800 it contributed returned, as it was not needed for defense. The
$800 was given back to them, leaving us with $800. CAU divided the $800
among 14 groups who contributed to conference organizing.
It's hard for me to view the decision-making process of the May 4 meeting
as non-anarchist. It was definitely in the spirit of the Haymarket '86--Anarchy
in Action theme. Its decisions are as valid as those of any "authorized"
body and more representative than those of any group, even the convention
organizers. I feel I am obligated to stand by those decisions. As an anarchist,
I don't have the right to overrule them or allow any other small faction
to do so.
All sorts of rumors have been circulating as to what I've done with
the funds, and I'm not sure how they got started or why. Anyway, here's
what I've done:
-
Returned $75 to someone needing money back.
-
Reserved $200 to help three people return to Chicago at the end of their
court supervision in September.
-
Used $250 to purchase food and medical supplies that were taken by us to
Big Mountain on July 3, along with supplies we had collected.
-
Used $200 to copy and pay for postage to mail out the first version of
the net-working address list that was put together by some people at the
conference and contains more than 200 names. Since such a large number
of people wanted this list and since it is so directly related to the conference,
it was felt that this was a worthwhile project.
-
Sent the remaining money--$75--to the people inSeattle who are editing
a book on the conference. They are in need of money and their work is a
positive offshoot of the conference.
I know this won't satisfy everyone, but that's impossible. I do, however,
think it's justified. I've weighed the feelings of those at the May 4 meeting,
and the conversations I've had and letters I've received since. I'm sure
there's going to be hard feelings. I'm sorry, but I think it's unavoidable.
I hope discussion doesn't degenerate into name-calling. The most disturbing
tendencies in anarchist circles recently have been paranoia, power and
ego games, and real cruelty toward one another. This behavior is frightening
for people calling themselves anarchists and demonstrates a lack of understanding
of anarchism. Anarchism is not simply correct politics. We need to develop
a total lifestyle and way of relating to each other and the world which
is not oppressive, abusive or dictatorial. Politics is a very small part
of this.
---Dennis
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Updated: Nov 98