Occupy Money Cooperative’s Debit Card Sees Some Resistance from the Resistance

Occupy Wall Street has been making the headlines again with what may be its most baffling incarnation yet: the Occupy Prepaid Debit Card. The idea seems almost like an oxymoron; how is a group whose beginnings stemmed from the desire to stand up against shady bank dealings and Wall Street trading going to put its name on a bank card?

The simplest answer, it seems, is by not calling it a bank card.

The card is being offered by the Occupy Money Cooperative: a financial institution with all the bells and whistles of your neighborhood bank but better. - so they claim.

The first line of their about us page reads, “The Occupy Money Cooperative is like a bank, but better.”

The Coop states that its mission is “to provide fairly-priced, member-managed, and non-predatory financial products to the 99%” and to offer “alternative products and services based on the principles of democracy, inclusion, and fairness.” Because it’s a coop, the company is run by its members, so it won’t have to “answer to Wall Street or to profit-hungry directors.”

However, the degree in which The Occupy Money Cooperative actually distances itself from these institutions seems questionable when they tell you that they work through a bank and are backed by Visa.

As it turns out, in order to ensure the money people put on the card, the Occupy Money Cooperative has to work with a bank. And in order to get anyone to accept the thing, they need to work with a credit company like VISA. Under normal circumstances, these would be rather mundane details. But this is Occupy Wall Street we’re talking about here, isn’t it? Where’s the resistance from two years ago? Where’s the passion? The Coop markets the card with the slogan “a protest with ever purchase.” But at best, this seems like begrudging compliance. At worst: just plain compliance. Is this what the movement has come to?

Not everyone seems to think so.

Seeing the use of “Occupy” as merely a marketing ploy by the Coop, Suzahn Ebrahimian, writer for the social movement publication Tidal, accuses The Occupy Money Cooperative of using the “neo-liberal language” that’s readily available when talking about Occupy Wall Street to pull people away from normal card issuers, and its lack of exclusivity to “get the upper hand on their credit union competitors.” And she’s not alone in her cynicism.

But how much malicious intent can a not-for-profit have?

While there’s certainly an abundance of the “neo-liberal language” Ebrahimian talks about on their website, it seems unlikely that that they’re planning to corner the market on prepaid debit cards. They’re merely offering an alternative to big banks and other financial institutions. And, by many accounts, it’s a good one. It has the lowest fees out there and could very well be useful to someone who can’t afford bank fees or who can’t open a checking account.

So then why all these mixed feelings?

It seems it’s all about principle. In many ways, the Occupy Card can be a huge step forward for the movement. OMC is doing the best that they can to provide people with a solid alternative to big banks. But after all the fighting, after all the demands for large-scale, radical change, to market a card that still has such strong ties to these giant financial institutions as a solution just feels like a copout. It’s like sitting through all of Rocky IV just to watch the Italian Stallion give Drago a stern talking to. It’s like cooking a pound of turkey bacon. The payout just doesn’t seem worthy of the effort.