Left-wing protesters target hedge funds
On Saturday, a cadre of liberal activists from New York City will travel to Greenwich, Conn., to protest outside the home of billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. It is the first time since the bailouts following the economic crisis of 2008 that city activists have traveled to Connecticut's hedge-fund havens to demonstrate at the homes of the financial elite.
The protesters plan to wield signs and chant slogans that are aggressive, bordering on violent. One image features a photo of Mr. Jones with his head between a set of pruning shears, including the message, "Time to clip some hedges."
Mr. Jones is being targeted for his financial support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the charter-school movement. In addition to founding the Robin Hood Foundation charity in 1988, Mr. Jones also helped create the Excellence Charter School, the country's first all-boys charter, located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He also donated $500,000 to New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, a pro-charter super-PAC that funded attack ads against Mayor Bill de Blasio last year.
"This is one of the first time activists are targeting these guys in their home," said Jonathan Westin, director of New York Communities for Change, a reform group previously known as Acorn.
Liberal activists are sending around information about Mr. Jones' wealth in advance of Saturday's protest. "Robin Hood or Robber Baron?" it reads before listing Mr. Jones's $4.6 billion net worth, $200 million income last year and $1.6 million in political donations in New York. It also notes his oceanfront properties in Connecticut and Florida, as well as his private game reserve in Tanzania.
The protest is meant to draw attention to political ties between billionaires like Mr. Jones and politicians including Mr. Cuomo and Senate Republicans, whom activists blame for tax breaks given to financial firms and real estate developers, as well as for bills enabling the spread of charter schools.
The group, a coalition of New York Communities for Change, Strong Economy for All and the Alliance for Quality Education, calls itself the Hedge Clippers. It also demonstrated outside a charter-school symposium at the Harvard Club Tuesday.
"We really are living in the new Gilded Age," said Michael Kink, executive director of Strong Economy for All.
As for the violently suggestive image of Mr. Jones's head about to be "clipped," Mr. Kink said the group was "committed to nonviolent protest." Mr. Westin said the image was an allusion to hedge-hemmed mansions of Greenwich.
"These billionaires probably spend more on landscaping each year than many New Yorkers pay in rent," he added.
A spokesman for Mr. Jones declined to comment.
The protest is reminiscent of similar demonstrations held outside the Connecticut homes of AIG executives in 2009 by activists angered by bonuses for the bailed-out insurance giant. Those drew only about 40 people. Mr. Westin said he expects "hundreds" to attend the demonstration this Saturday.Left-wing protesters target hedge funds - The Insider Blog | Crain's New York Business:
