There were more protests around the state this week on "May Day" which is held annually on May 1. May Day is an international day for protest for the left celebrating workers rights.
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Protests in the past usually consisted of union groups marching and waving signs, but some years the marches devolved once the anarchists, socialists, and other far left ideological groups showed up and began smashing up businesses and destroying private property.
The NC affiliate of the Poor People's Campaign posted some photos to X, but not very many. As I wrote in advance of these protests, the protests took on an Occupy Wall Street vibe.
This year's protest was less about unions and more about opposing the Trump administration. How little things have changed since June 2019, a year after PPC launched, when Joe Biden showed up to a Poor People's Campaign protest event. There's a video of Biden's appearance and in Barber's follow-up video, he talks about his "poverty summit" with the Biden-Harris transition team and the Poor People's Campaign demands.
Raleigh seemed like the largest, based on photos and video on social media, the crowd looks like it was around 300 at its peak. Attendees were mainly older folks.
ABC 11 says "thousands” came out in Durham and Raleigh.
Next was Asheville, with maybe 50-60 and featuring mainly elderly people.
And then Hendersonville, which had a dozen and, again, they were mainly elderly folks.
Nationally, protests were anemic. Protest fatigue has begun; Reuters claimed just "thousands" came out.
While things were tame in the U.S., it got a little spicy in other countries.
More To The Story
On Mondays around 2:05 p.m., I typically join WBT's Pete Kaliner for a quick hit on news in Raleigh and other topics.
In one of the sessions with Pete I mentioned I was looking into the financing behind The Poor People's campaign (PPC), which is one of the groups that's become involved in the anti-Trump/Musk rallies in North Carolina and elsewhere.
For those who don't know what the PPC is, it was started in 2018 by a figure known well in North Carolina: Moral Monday leader Reverend William Barber. PPC holds a 501(c)3 status, despite the clear political partisan nature of PPC's activities.
For a full explanation of this PPC, check out Capital Research Center's Influence Watch profile. Make sure to scroll down that profile to the "partners" and "people" section.
PPC was a "project" being funded by Union Theological Seminary, which is a finance juggernaut that raked in over $46.6 million in 2023.
Subgrants from Union Theological Seminary (UTS) for PPC, Repairers of the Breach and Kairos Center have been nearly annual; 2021 $69,000; 2020 $330K ; 2019 $215,000; 2018 $550,000.
Well, according to PPC's website, that funding is no more as of January 1 of this year.
The PPC website now directs donations to "Breach Repairers" in Goldsboro, North Carolina, the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice and George Soros' Tides Center.
Breach Repairers is also known as Repairers Of The Breach (ROB), yet another Barber enterprise. It is also a 501(c)3 that has raked in millions around $30 million between 2019 and 2023. There are dozens of ROB chapters around the country.
The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice is already "fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization."
When clicking donate on the Kairos website, there is text that flashes up and then disappears to the bottom of the page as you scroll down, describing donations are used in "fighting the interlocking injustices of systemic poverty, racism, ecological devastation, militarism and the false moral narrative of Christian nationalism–as well as uniting the poor across all lines of division."
So why are UTS, PPC and Kairos parting ways now? Likely because the Trump administration is connecting the dots on where their money is coming from and what it's being used for.
I was unable to find Kairos Center on of the Tides Center 990 forms between 2019 and 2023. I did find $200k spanning 2021 and 2022 that appeared to go through New Venture, a sub-fund of the dark money passthrough group Arabella Advisors.
Of note about Arabella Advisors, money was funneled through Arabella to groups coordinating anti-Israel protests, including Samidoun, which has been designated as a terrorist organization.
A Chinese Communist government linked millionaire Neville Singham funneled millions into groups and agitators involved in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, as reported by the NY Post in August 2024. Two of the groups were the Kairos Center and UTS.
"Documents The Post obtained show multiple apparatchiks from these organizations work at the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, operating under the auspices of Union Theological Seminary, the affiliated divinity school of Columbia."
NY Post lists individuals with direct ties to Singham, and the first one is Dr. Liz Theoharis, the executive director of Kairos. She's been Barber's right hand woman, so to speak, throughout Moral Monday and PPC. She also teaches at UTS.
Theoharis' bio on the Kairos website includes the quote, "You only get what you're organized to take."
The history of Kairos as described on its website is also illuminating when taken in the context of the NY Post article.
More About Union Theological Seminary's funding
USAspending.gov shows millions in funds to UTS and includes two contracts ($12,232 and $11,782) with the Department of Defense for "educational services" at Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools.
There are three grants listed for UTS in the USASpending profile of the group.
$440,584 - US Dept. of Education, 84.425: EDUCATION STABILIZATION FUND, "To prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus COVID-19 disease pandemic." (Sept. 2020- Sept. 2021)
$156,507 - US Dept. of Education, 84.425: EDUCATION STABILIZATION FUND, "To prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus COVID-19 disease pandemic."(May 2020 - Feb. 2022)
$134,359 - US Dept. of Education, 84.425: EDUCATION STABILIZATION FUND, "To prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus COVID-19 disease pandemic."(May 2020 - Jan. 2022)
Additionally, UTS has 17 direct payments, most with a description of "DIRECT PAYMENT FOR SPECIFIED USE, AS A SUBSIDY OR OTHER NON-REIMBURSABLE DIRECT FINANCIAL AID (C)."
The direct payments overlap time periods, and correspond to the U.S. Dept. of Education's student aid and specifically the federal work study program, "To provide part-time employment to eligible postsecondary students to help meet educational expenses and encourage students receiving program assistance to participate in community service activities." The payments range from a high of $99,917 to a low of $1,181.
A COVID relief federal Paycheck Protection Program loan in the amount of $1,889,245 is also logged for UTS.
All of this funding at found at USASpending is just for the main UTS entity. There were additional funding items found for UTS educational and school offshoots.