The Fuck Does This Make Money: “LOL we didn’t work for Bloomberg”
OrganizerMemes is an anonymously run meme account. Here’s how the fuck they make money.
The Fuck Does This Make Money? is about Money + Feelings.
This Q+A is with @OrganizerMemes — an anonymously run Twitter account.
@OrganizerMemes posts a lot about money and power.
Not just building power through organizing, but about power in campaigns, from who gets paid to who makes decisions about where campaign money goes.
The day we talked, someone in a state Democratic Party had attacked them for tweeting about how unsupported volunteers, former campaign workers, interns, and organizers were in this state.
They tweeted “we’re here for the lowest level workers in a campaign.”
Here’s how they think about money:
Who are you? What do you do?
We work as organizers on campaigns — the majority of our income. In the last few months we’ve done a little bit of work as a side hustle in this platform: sponsored content and social media strategy.
How do your values guide how you make money?
I mean, we didn’t work for Bloomberg lol. (We understand that many good people worked for him and respect that choice, just couldn’t be us).
Tell me about a decision you’ve made about how you make money you’re NOT proud of.
We made a merch store through red bubble, which isn’t a union shop, and quickly received backlash. We realized we weren’t living up to our morals, so we changed to a union printer.
What’s something you were surprised by when you first started making money this way?
No one knows how much is a reasonable amount to pay us for sponsorships.
What’s something about money you don’t think gets talked about enough?
Unpaid internships are a scourge on our party.
Especially this cycle — there were candidates who had more money than they knew how to spend and yet had young people working for free 😡
Tell me a story about money that makes you feel hopeful.
We’ve gotten to highlight what fair pay and work conditions for campaigns and are already seeing the effects. We have become a bit of a hub for campaign workers. Because of this we’ve been able to help put pressure on campaigns and help staff know their worth.
Especially since organizers tend to be young and have less knowledge about what fair pay looks like.
Anything I didn’t ask that you want to share?
Join a union.